Your EXPANSION Awaits You
What do you think stops you first and most when you contemplate the possibility of being bigger and doing something to actually make a difference in the world?
I was asked this question a few years ago as I sat in San Juan Capistrano at a facilitator training for the World Academy For the Future of Women. I went there out of curiosity; and quite simply because I had been invited to go. Someone had told me that they saw great potential in me and what I could do in the world and I was curious about what they saw. Did they really see it or was it a slick sales line to get me to show up? I figured a weekend in a meeting room overlooking the ocean was a good place to find out.
By the end of the weekend I was still wasn’t sure. They seemed sincere and the excitement of the amazing effort they were putting into the world to make it possible for women to rise out of both poverty of living and poverty in thinking was enough to get me to sheepishly say “this might be possible for me to get involved with.”
Embracing that possibility is all that is needed to get started.
Four months later I was on a plane headed for China for a five week adventure in facilitating women’s leadership to 125 Chinese women college students who were sacrificing sleep, time, social activities and family to expand themselves and improve the lives of others.
My sacrifice seemed small in many ways. I raised the money to pay my way over and back. My food and housing was provided to me at no extra cost. I lived in the foreign faculty dorm and had three meals a day, a bed to sleep in and a private shower in my room. I planned my classes, facilitated the material and still had time to wander in the city, get to know my way around campus, make friends with other faculty and meet with the students one on one. My life was simple but the impact of my presence was profound. I was focused, attentive and there to support the expansion of these young women and their dreams. I changed lives.
My life changed too. I lived without the distractions that I am used to; Television, Radio, Driving, Shopping for things I don’t really need, Internet surfing. I lived without the comforts I enjoy so much; Family, Pets, cooking, my circle of friends to hang out with, knowing the language being spoken around me, being able to read signs and menus, understanding how much money I still have, breathing clean air, having clean water, feeling secure that the hot water will work next time I shower, and more. I planned, I taught, I slowed down. There was time to ponder. There was time to be homesick. There was time hear myself thinking and feel myself feeling…and as I returned to my homeland, I discovered something about myself that had changed during this adventure.
I had expanded beyond what I thought was possible that weekend in San Juan Capistrano. I was clear. I was aware. I was MORE.
For all of the “reasons” I originally thought going to China for 5 weeks was not possible for me, I had overcome them all and realized how small they were in the bigger picture of life. They were based in fear, not love. My expansion was born of love.
So, what “reasons” are you telling yourself right now about why you “can’t” do something that has great potential to expand you? For me it was mostly money and time and not wanting to be far from home…and what I found is this kind of personal expansion and potential put purposefully into the world is worth more than time or money and my relationships were stronger upon my return.
The expansion has changed my language from “I can’t do that” to “how can I do that” to “I can do that”…and I can. We can. You can.
The next facilitator training is set for March 8, 9, 10th in Phoenix. Email me for more info or to join in! lkbishop@cox.net
Women Change The World When They Embrace Who and What They Are and REFUSE to Be Anything LESS.
I Give Up!
Three words that most people have never heard me say. I GIVE UP! But right now, right here, I am ready to concede.
The leader of my own life and the leader of inspiration to others, I have decided to quit.
I am stopping. I am dropping the ball. I am resigning.
I invite you to join me in this defeat.
So, what exactly are we doing in this new movement calling me to cease?
I give up my need to think that I can control or change others.
I resign any belief that I have the right answer.
I concede any temptation to blame someone else, or some circumstance for where I am today, or where I am not.
I quit focusing on why something won’t work, and find a way that it can.
I am dropping the ball on holding other people’s opinions of my and how I “should” be as more important than my own opinion and love for myself.
I now stop any idea of “perfection” if it means that I am somehow not good enough to be what I want to be – because I most certainly am. Not tomorrow, not after my next accomplishment, my next pound lost, my next haircut, my next degree earned, my next promotion. I am good enough right now. AND SO ARE YOU.
The defeated voice of fear is now defeated.
It feels amazing to be a quitter!
Women change the world when they accept who and what they are and refuse to be anything less!
Forever In My Heart
The words they sang were translated from Mandarin to English on a scrap piece of paper delivered to me as I left campus to come back to the United States:
“I fear I won’t have the opportunity to say goodbye to you because maybe we can not meet each other again. Tomorrow you will leave this place and me. When I think of this, the tears come down again.
I will keep your face in my heart firmly forever. I will value the gifts of you that you gave me forever. These days we had together will never be forgotten in my heart.
You can not promise whether you will come back, maybe I will just keep walking forward.”
This was the meaning behind the beautiful sound of 75 Chinese college student women singing to me by candlelight on the spiral staircase as I finished my time of leadership facilitation in China. They sang and cried and I wondered how I could go back to my room, pack my suitcase and go home without them. They sang of the gifts I gave them, but I truly believe they gave me even more.
We spent six weeks together on their campus; shivering in the cold winter air in unheated classrooms as they eagerly devoured anything I could share with them about what it is like to be a free woman; a woman from the United States; a business owner; a decision maker; a dreamer. Their hearts were open and their own sense of possibility was waking up and taking form.
I didn’t leave them empty handed. I helped integrate the next team of amazing women facilitators who followed me to continue our work and lend assistance to these amazing young women who were ready to change their world. A bittersweet goodbye and new heartfelt hello.
That was over two years ago and their voices continue to sing in my heart. Their emails continue to grace my inbox and light up my world. The scrap piece of paper with their words remains in a special place on my desk where I see it every day.
As I prepare for a weekend of bringing in new facilitators to be trained for the World Academy For the Future of Women, I am reminded that while our journey has not been perfect (understatement of the year), the impact we continue to have on both our students and our facilitators is worth more than words can express. I know that I am changed and continue to be.
There are young women all over the world who long for connection, for guidance, for attention, for permission to dream and be their best. They are changing their world, with the help of a few big dreamers and dedicated facilitators who step past their own self-doubts and give a gift of time, talent and love that gets returned 100 times over.
Thank you, my Chinese daughters, for profoundly changing my life for the better (and I already thought it was good before). You taught me much about myself and about the beauty and resiliency of the human spirit…and the lessons for all of us have just begun.
You are always in my heart.
Women Change the World when they embrace who and what they are and refuse to be anything less.
A Chance to Change the World
Do you dream of making a difference in the world?
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be born somewhere else where the opportunities we enjoy simply do not yet exist?
Do you believe that people are valuable no matter which country they were born in, no matter what language they speak, no matter what governmental system rules the land they were born to?
I do.
If you are like me in your passion about being a positive force in the world and helping women from every corner of our planet to have opportunities, safety, health, and respect equally to men, then I invite you to come with me and be part of this chance to change the world.
I am a proud and passionate facilitator with Global Interactions and the World Academy for the Future of Women (www.globalinteractions.org) . We are getting geared up to take our work to the next level and expand it around the globe. We have been working in China for the last few years at the university level with amazing college aged women who are ready to change their world. We are now preparing to expand to another univeristy in Cambodia and to a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. We work with both young men and young women on identifying their strengths and passions, listening to them as they develop ideas and dreams about projects that would positively impact their villages, and then help them develop those projects in a sustainable way and change their world.
We currently do this work with volunteers from across the United States. Brave, passionate men and women who want to be part of this global initiative to help others by supporting them in growing their belief in themselves, teaching project development, management and team building skills that will be handed down through future generations.
I strongly believe that if you want a better world, then the change has to start with us…from the inside out. We can’t lift someone else into possibility: but we can help them lift themselves and stand beside them to cheer them on as they learn and grow and create a better reality.
February 8, 9, and 10th I will be assisting with training more amazing people in Phoenix, Arizona who are considering being an international leader of change. If you would like to know more or would like to jump in to the training to see if this is for you, email me today: lkbishop@cox.net
You can learn more here as well: https://globalbusinessprotocol.com/the-world-academy-for-the-future-of-women/
Women Change the World by Helping Other Women Change the World!
Bursting with Change!
It has been far too long since my last post. Life has been so full and so much is happening that once I got behind, it was a challenge just to decide what to talk about. Regardless of my excuse (because it really isn’t relevant now), I apologize for the delay. I have thought of sharing with you each day, even if my fingers didn’t make it to the keyboard.
I am sure you have noticed by now, but the world didn’t officially end on 12/21/12. Well, not officially anyway. I didn’t end, but it did change…and the change continues. Truth be told, it has been changing all along and well before the end of the Mayan calendar.
Do you notice it? Do you feel it? I wasn’t sure during 2012 that I could really see it – the year was full of changes, but many of them were more akin to challenges to overcome and endings to accept. Many more were exercises in letting go and opening up to new ideas. Then as the end of the year approached, I felt a something stirring; a shift occurring. Most life changes are gradual and this one was that way for me, but now that it has begun, it seems to be picking up speed.
There are big plans emerging from the big dreams of 2012 and the ideas are not just taking shape, they are entering the realm of doing; the space of creating REALITY.
How do you feel about change?
Personally, change is the fuel for my fire. I want a better world. I want a world where men and women are equal in opportunity, in legal protection, in social stature, in honor and respect. I want a world where people are empowered and can make decisions based on love, instead of fear. I want a world where everyone is able to live their lives fully expressed – with passion, purpose and peace.
We aren’t going to get there without change and change always starts from within.
What are you willing to change within yourself to create the world you most want to live in?
2013 is firmly here and the shift is underway. It isn’t out there in the future somewhere, it is right here, right now and I am standing in the flow of it and am helping it expand.
You are invited to jump in with me! Email me if you would like to explore how to be involved more! There are plans being made right now for women’s leadership expansion in China, Cambodia, Thailand and more. You don’t have to just read about courageous women changing the world, you can come with us and be a part of the experience.
Sending you love and welcome to the new world!
Women Change the World by Understanding That They Already Are and Then Making It a Conscious Choice to Decide HOW and WHAT the Changes Will Be!
