Have you ever gone through a time when it felt like everything was wrong?

Like things just weren’t going your way?

When you felt like you were trapped under water in the darkness, just yearning for a way to get to the surface?

Me too!

In truth, I’ve been going through a bit of a rough spell. And my Inner Mean Girl and Inner Critic has been making this mean all sorts of things. You see, I just love to have fun. To play. To be feel like it’s a great time to be alive. That’s my message in the world, right? But what about when I don’t feel so sunny? When I’m not feeling any play or fun?

I made a little video for you to share how I’ve been coming back to the light. I’m calling it Three Tips for What to Do When It Feels Like Everything Just Sucks!

It always means so much to me and to this community when you post a comment below…so go ahead and let me know your thoughts.

And if you enjoyed this video, please feel free to share it!

With love,

P.S. Here’s that link to my new friend, Gabrielle Bernstein’s website and book trailer. You’re just going to love her and her book (if you already don’t!). http://gabbyb.tv/

I admit it. I’m a bit of a reality TV junkie. My latest obsession? Why Not? with Shania Twain on the Oprah Winfrey Network.  It is fascinating to watch this Grammy award winning singer struggle with her Inner Mean Girl’s Big Fat Lies, especially when she has so much evidence of what a bad ass she is. Just goes to show how our external circumstances can have very little to do with our internal dialogue. I am loving witnessing her win her voice back. I find myself rooting for her at every turn, hoping that she will wake up her Inner Superstar so she shines bright once again.

I can see how she is beating herself up with Big Fat Lies like “I’m a fraud” “I’m a failure” and “I’m not enough.” If I were her coach, boy would we have a blast busting through all of the lies and locking in on the truth of her magnificence. So I thought I’d give you a peek at one of  Lies featured in my forthcoming book, Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves: Ditch Your Inner Critic and Wake Up Your Inner Superstar that I see Shania is tell herself and believing.

Check out the excerpt below from my book to break free from the “I’m a failure” Big Fat Lie.

Big Fat Lie #22: I’m a failure.

The Truth: Human beings fail. In fact, we fail all the time. Winston Churchill put it brilliantly when he said, “Success is leaping from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

The problem is that when we fail, we tend to believe that we’ve become failures. In reality, we just experienced failure — that’s it. Failures are opportunities for reflection, growth, maturity, and wisdom. After all, failure is a part of life — no matter how successful you are. Check out these stats:

• Babe Ruth had 1,330 career strikeouts.
• At one point, Donald Trump had $900 million in personal debt and four years of repeated failure and financial ruin.
• Oprah Winfrey’s movie Beloved was a box office bust, losing approximately $30 million.

The truth is that the road to success is paved with failures. It isn’t in avoiding failures that we achieve success, but in processing our failures effectively.

Challenge: Write down a list of all your failures over the past year. Next to each failure, write down how it helped you grow. In other words, what did you learn about yourself and about life? Make sure to phrase your learning in a positive way. In other words, instead of saying, “I learned that I suck at accounting” try phrasing it “I learned that delegation is key to my success.”

Take a look. Did failing the bar exam lead you to a better understanding of how to study? Did failing in your marriage allow you to learn how to stand up and love yourself above all else? Did failing to meet your budget on a project teach you how to negotiate better? Transform your failures into learning and opportunities for growth, and your Big Fat Lies will fade into the background.

Affirmation: Like all successful people, I leap from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm, and I learn more and more each time.

“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

~Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress and cofounder of United Artists Film Studio

Let me know how it goes by posting a comment or two and make sure to click “Like” if you like it! And feel free to share this tool with your friends, followers, fans and more!

P.S. Oh, and mark your calendar for June 16th at 5pm PT/8pm ET because I’m going to gift you with a FREE Inspiration Mid-Year Goals Check In Call that will inspire you to make 2011 your biggest, brightest year yet!

I was at a charity event last month and thoroughly enjoyed a wide array of performances (including Elvis!). The highlight was a group of dancers that were doing a cowboy/cowgirl style square dance…complete with plenty of “hee haws!”  . It was a kick. The thing I enjoyed most  was that the average age was probably 55 or 65 years old. This is a group of adults that are really loving life and putting themselves out there as dancers, dreamers, and creative beings.

I was incredibly inspired by this group. They were embracing their creativity and performing no holds bar. YES! I was struck by how often we see young people (think American Idol) and kids (think dance shows and painting stations) owning their creativity and artistry and how often we can dismiss our creative impulses as adults. And yet, here before me was this group of adults shouting at the top of their lungs, “I am creative…watch me dance!”

It can feel audacious to claim that creativity. I know it has been for me to fully accept that I’m an artist on a core level. Whether I’m blogging, speaking, paying the bills, running a tele-class, playing with my daughter, on a hike with Dozer the dog, or working on my book, I am using my creative life force. And so are YOU!

You are a creative life force.

You have an inner artist waiting to come out.

How are you owning your audacious creativity?

Let me know below!

Sending you love,

Amy

The New Year is here and NOW is a great time to begin thinking about how you’d like your year to be. Here are nine powerful questions to ensure that you begin 2011 with enthusiasm and joy:

1. What MUST OCCUR for you to feel like 2011 has been a success? This question is a vital to ask yourself. Be brutally honest with the expectations you are carrying about this year. I want you to set yourself up for success by getting clear on what you want, at a minimum, so that you will look back on New Year’s Day 2012, feeling gratitude for the year.

3 year old Annabella in awe of the Holiday Lights

2. What is your dream for 2011? This question will allow you to dream about what you’d LOVE to create before the end of the year. I want you to feel giddy and gleeful.  I want you to feel as filled with awe and wonder about your year as my daughter, Annabella, did when we brought her to the Winter Wonderland Merry-Go-Round (pictured right).

Also, take notice of the difference in your answers to questions 1 and 2. Most of us have a spectrum for success. On one end we have the minimum that MUST OCCUR and on the other end there is your DREAM for the year. Make sure you are going for the gold and working towards your dream. And remember that the ENTIRE spectrum and all its outcomes are to be declared a ’success!’

3. What are you WILLING to do? Notice the word WILLING in this question. Be honest with yourself about what you want to do and are willing to do to manifest your dream.

4. Who do you need to BECOME to reach your 2011 dream? This question is powerful to examine. When you think of a person who is LIVING a dream like yours, what are the qualities, mindsets and strengths they exude? How do they differ from who you are today? The answers to these questions will help you envision who you will become in the next 365 days.

5. What are you committed to STARTING? What are the actions, beliefs, habits and thoughts you are ready to start living today? Make an action plan for success.

6. What are you committed to STOPPING? We all know there are things you must begin, but what about the actions, beliefs, habits or thoughts you need to release to make this year a success? What about your Inner Mean Girl/Inner Critic’s actions that keep you on the hamster wheel running as fast as you can, but getting nowhere. Your Inner Wisdom knows what isn’t working. List what you will release and commit right here and now to stop.

I have a vision for women taking a stand to stop the beating themselves up  cycle and instead focus all that energy on what they want. I know it is possible to change the way we think and feel by changing our minds about what we will tolerate in our lives.

What would it look like for you to no longer tolerate the negative self talk?

What would it take for you to commit to interrupting your Inner Mean Girl channel and tuning into your Inner Wisdom channel instead?

It is a challenge that I know you’re up for.

But don’t just take my word for it…check out all of the incredible self-love ambassadors that blogged about their Inner Mean Girl Cleanse experience and read all about the good, the bad and the ugly.

1. Amanda ReCupido at The Undomestic Goddess    http://www.undomesticgoddess.com
2. Andrea Ledbetter at Heathen Homeschoolers    http://heathenhomeschoolers.com
3. Beki Berrey at Wild Child Gone Good    http://www.wildchildgonegood.com
4. Bing Yuan at Icefairy’s Treasure Chest    http://icefairystreasurechest.blogspot.com
5. Christina Gleason at Cutest Kid Ever    http://www.cutestkidever.org
6. Christine Leiser Schroeder at ColorMePink!    http://colormepink.com
7. Cindy Jones Lantier at Mixed Grill Favorites    http://lantier.org
8. Connie Roberts at Brain Foggles    http://brainfoggles.com
9. Daenel Vaughn-Tucker at Living Outside the Stacks    http://livingoutsidethestacks.com
10. Dawna Kreis at A Return To Simplicity    http://return-to-simplicity.blogspot.com
11. Dina Tibbs at Family Sanity Reviews    http://www.familysanityreviews.com
12. Elena Sonnino at C.Mom    http://www.lacaramamma.com
13. Gretchen Casey at Gretchen’s Blog    www.gretchencasey.blogspot.com
14. Jackie Harper at Free Is My Life    http://www.freeismylife.com
15. Janice Smith at Fitness Cheerleader    http://fitnesscheerleader.com
16. Jennifer Gaffney at Gaffney’s Gabs    http://www.gaffneysgabs.com
17. Julie Hedlund at Write Up My Life    http://www.writeupmylife.com
18. Julie Parker at Beautiful You    http://www.beautifulyoubyjulie.com
19. Kelli Smith at Fight The Cellulite!    http://fightthecellulite.com
20. Kim Knight at The Art of Health    http://kimknight101.wordpress.com
21. Kim Shipley at The Girl Is A Mom    http://www.thegirlisamom.com
22. Marissa Vicario at Where I Need To Be    http://whereineedtobe-marissarose.blogspot.com
23. Mary Davis at Everyday Baby Steps    http://www.everydaybabysteps.com
24. Nicky Smolter at Being Forever Incomplete    http://beingforeverincomplete.blogspot.com
25. Nicole Greene at When did I become my Mom?    http://whendidibecomemymom.com
26. pamela dayton at The Dayton Time    http://daytontime.blogspot.com
27. Rachel Hull at Momma Money    http://www.mommamoney.info
28. Shakti Martin at Integrated Energy Balancing    http://apps.integratedenergybalancing.com/blog/
29. Teri Williams at The Bliss Network    http://theblissnetwork.blogspot.com
30. Thien-Kim Lam at  I’m Not the Nanny    http://www.imnotthenanny.com
31. Vicki Garcia at My Kick Ass Coach    http://mykickasscoach.com
32. Wendee Holtcamp at Bohemian Adventures    http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com
33. Amanda Kay at  I Am….Panda    http://lawlover1.blogspot.com

It’s women like this that are the lighting the way for us ALL to be authentic and tell the truth. I am SO grateful to each of them for sharing their stories.

Enjoy!