Heart-Centered Creation: A Conscious Approach to Manifesting Your Reality

In the realm of personal development and goal setting, most approaches emphasize the power of focus, visualization, and strong will. While these traditional models have their place, there’s an alternative that delves deeper into the essence of creation—one that aligns more consciously with the heart, rather than the will.

Creating from the Heart True creativity, and by extension true manifestation, isn’t born from sheer determination or mental focus. It emerges from an open and receptive heart. Being truly open—allowing space for the unknown and unplanned—is vital for authentic creation. This heart-centered approach requires us to embrace the ability to do nothing, at least for a moment. Not in a passive sense, but in a way that encourages awareness and presence, rather than action for action’s sake.

Contrary to popular belief in many personal growth teachings, which advocate for “creating your reality” through forceful intention and constant visualization, this conscious approach suggests that the most profound changes are born not from active effort, but from an alert stillness. Your consciousness is always creating, even when you aren’t aware of it. But when it comes to consciously creating, the key lies not in willpower but in deep self-awareness.

The Inner Reflection of Change External changes—whether they’re in your career, relationships, or environment—are always reflections of inner transformations. When inner processes are fully realized, only then does the outer world shift to mirror this change. If we push too hard from the outside—focusing obsessively on goals or outcomes—we risk overlooking the internal shifts necessary to sustain these changes. This disconnect can lead to frustration and unmet expectations, as we are not creating from the true depth of our soul.

The soul speaks in moments of stillness and surrender. It is often when we stop trying, and even when we feel like giving up, that the clearest guidance from our inner self emerges. It is not the act of giving up that brings clarity, but the release of expectations. When we let go of the need to control outcomes, we become receptive to what is, and in that space, we create more authentically.

Releasing Expectations and Limiting Beliefs Holding onto rigid ideas of what we “should” want or achieve often narrows the creative possibilities available to us. When we are fixed on a specific outcome, such as a job title or relationship, we confine our potential to the borders of what we already know. True creation requires stepping beyond those psychological boundaries and welcoming the unknown.

Instead of focusing so intensely on the specifics of what you desire, consider approaching your goals with openness and curiosity. This doesn’t mean abandoning all desires; rather, it’s about recognizing that what you seek may contain aspects you haven’t yet imagined. It’s about creating space for something new to emerge.

The Power of Self-Acceptance At the core of heart-centered creation is self-acceptance. No amount of goal-setting, visualization, or positive thinking can manifest a reality that doesn’t align with your true feelings and beliefs. When there’s a disconnect between your inner world and the reality you’re trying to create, confusion and doubt set in. You might think, “I’m working so hard, but nothing is changing.”

Self-acceptance is a form of love, and love is the greatest magnet for positive change. When you fully accept and love yourself for who you are—right now, in all your struggles and imperfections—you naturally attract circumstances that reflect that self-love. It’s as simple as that.

Instead of striving for perfection, embrace your humanity with all its quirks. Humor helps, too. Perfection, after all, is an illusion. The real power comes from recognizing your own inner light, just as you are.

Embracing the Heart-Centered Approach Creating from the heart means recognizing the beauty and sincerity in your current self, imperfections and all. It’s about sowing the seeds of your future reality by acknowledging the light within you here and now. Rather than focusing on controlling outcomes, this conscious approach encourages you to trust the process, stay open, and allow the most aligned and authentic version of your reality to unfold.

This shift doesn’t reject traditional models of goal setting but offers a deeper, more connected way to create—a way that honors both your inner transformation and the unfolding of your external world.

Discover Your Blind Spots: Harness the Power of the Johari Window for Personal and Professional Growth

What is a Johari window?

The Johari Window is a psychological tool used for understanding and improving self-awareness, interpersonal relationships, and communication. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955, and its name is a combination of their first names.

The Johari Window is represented as a four-quadrant grid:

  1. Open Area (Arena):
    This quadrant contains information that is known both to you and others. It includes things like your behavior, skills, and attitudes that you openly share and others recognize.
  2. Blind Spot:
    This quadrant consists of things about you that others know, but you are unaware of. For example, habits or traits you might not notice about yourself, but others see.
  3. Hidden Area (Façade):
    This area includes things you know about yourself but choose to keep hidden from others, such as personal secrets, insecurities, or private information.
  4. Unknown Area:
    This quadrant contains information that neither you nor others are aware of. It represents untapped potential, hidden talents, or unconscious aspects of your personality.

The goal of the Johari Window is to expand the Open Area by improving self-disclosure and seeking feedback, which can enhance trust and communication in relationships

What is used for ?

The Johari Window is used primarily for self-awareness, personal growth, and improving communication within groups or relationships. Its applications include:

  1. Self-awareness and Personal Development:
    It helps individuals understand themselves better by revealing their blind spots through feedback from others. This can lead to improved emotional intelligence, self-reflection, and greater confidence.
  2. Improving Communication:
    By encouraging open communication, it fosters a better understanding between individuals or team members, reducing misunderstandings and enhancing collaboration.
  3. Building Trust:
    It encourages sharing personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences (from the Hidden Area to the Open Area), which promotes vulnerability and trust within relationships or teams.
  4. Team Building:
    In group settings, the Johari Window is used to improve team dynamics. It helps members learn more about each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and communication styles, leading to stronger cooperation and effectiveness.
  5. Conflict Resolution:
    By making hidden or misunderstood aspects more transparent, it helps resolve conflicts caused by miscommunication or lack of awareness.

Overall, the Johari Window is used to promote healthier, more effective interactions between people, improving both individual and group performance.

It will come, when the time is right

“As you open yourself to living at your edge, your deepest purpose will slowly begin to make itself known. In the meantime, you will experience layer after layer of purposes, each one getting closer and closer to the fullness of your deepest purpose. It is as if your deepest purpose is at the centre of your being, and it is surrounded by layers of concentric circles, each circle being of lesser purpose. Your life consists of penetrating each circle, from the outside toward the centre.

Whatever it is you decide to do, consciously keep yourself open and available to receiving a vision of what is next. It will come.”

Deida

Tips for improving your performance

Many business owners, small and large, provide performance incentives for their staff, eg annual bonuses, gift vouchers, time in lieu, equity schemes and the like.

But what exactly are you rewarding?

Incentive programs don’t typically reward performance, rather they reward results. Business success demands results. Fair enough, too. But, let’s go back a step.

“Most incentive programs don’t reward performance, they reward results.”

Results are outcomes, eg sales targets, profit, market share, growth, customer satisfaction. They are all business outcomes. In a cause and effect relationship, they are the effect. What then drives results? Performance drives results and is the cause in the relationship. So, what then constitutes performance and how do you measure it?

End Goals v Performance Goals

There are two types of goals. End Goals and Performance Goals.

End Goals are the outcomes or results you achieve from having done something, eg sales, turnover, profit, customer satisfaction. They are measured ex post facto (after the fact) or what are commonly referred to by management consultants as lag indicators.

Performance Goals are the drivers that get you the results, eg sales calls, customer visits, prospects, outbound calls, customer response times. These can be measured in real time and are referred to as lead indicators.

There can be considerable and costly time delays between when a lag indicator is first brought to the attention of a business owner for corrective action. Time means money. Do your performance measures include lead indicators?

Lead indicators are predictive measures of future success. And success is the cumulative effect of doing the little things day-by-day.

“Lead indicators are predictive measures of future success.”

Lead and Lag indicators form an integral part of what Harvard academics, Kaplan and Norton, call a Balanced Scorecard. Many large corporations use Balanced Scorecard measures and increasingly franchisers are too. They are equally applicable to small firms and truly are essential to driving performance to higher levels.

What drives Performance?

If performance drives results then what drives performance? Well, there are two things that drive performance:

1. skills

2. behaviour

What is the difference? A skill is learned knowledge of how to do a task whereas behaviour is a conscious/subconscious response or choice.

Ask yourself; does this person know how to complete the task? Have they ever completed the task beforehand? Have they received skills training? Have they demonstrated competency in the skill? If not, then you may have a skill deficiency that needs addressing through skills training.

On the other hand, if your employee is competent or has the necessary skills but for some reason doesn’t apply them, then you may have a behavioural issue. In which case as the manager/employer it is incumbent upon you to call them on it. Behaviours tend to run in patterns so it is likely that the employee will repeat the behaviour (at work and at home). So, you are really doing them an enormous favour long term.

In essence you bring to their conscious awareness the subconscious (or conscious) choice they have made. It now becomes their conscious choice whether to amend the behaviour or not. Either way hold them responsible for their choice and the resulting consequences.

Try these exercises:

1. Create a Performance based incentive program. Offer staff gift vouchers or lifestyle rewards based on their performance not results. Reward behaviours such as proactivity, attention to detail, customer focus, team work.

2. Ask your staff to benchmark themselves. Empower them to take responsibility for

their own performance. Nurture the talent you have within your reach. If you are self-employed benchmark your sub-contractors/ suppliers.

3. Include a lead indicator in each functional area – Sales & Marketing (customer visits, qualified prospects, customer complaints); Finance (reminder notices, daily cash position); Operations (capacity, occupancy rates); Service Delivery (response times, compliance with packing slips); People (absenteeism, timeliness, overtime).

4. Call an employee/ sub-contractor on a behavioural issue, eg coming late to work, failure to meet a deadline, failure to keep a promise. Give regular and informal praise for good behaviours.

5. Practice asking open questions. What? When? How? Engage your employee’s creative genius. Encourage them to come with solutions and not problems. You’ve got enough on your plate.

What is the most lucrative niche to be a coach?

The most lucrative coaching niches typically cater to high-demand areas where clients are willing to invest significantly in their personal or professional development. Here are a few of the most profitable niches in coaching:

  1. Executive/Leadership Coaching
    • Target Audience: Senior executives, business leaders, and entrepreneurs.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: Organizations and individuals are willing to pay high fees for leadership development and improving business outcomes. It helps leaders enhance their decision-making, communication, and management skills, directly impacting company performance.
  2. Business Coaching
    • Target Audience: Small business owners, startups, and entrepreneurs.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: Business owners seek coaches to help scale, optimize operations, improve marketing, or increase profitability. Business growth is directly tied to financial success, making clients eager to invest.
  3. Career Coaching
    • Target Audience: Mid-level professionals, career changers, and job seekers.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: Professionals aiming for a promotion, career shift, or improved job satisfaction are willing to pay for tailored advice and strategies. Career transitions can mean significant pay increases, making coaching services highly valuable.
  4. Health and Wellness Coaching
    • Target Audience: Individuals seeking to improve physical or mental health.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: With growing awareness around physical and mental well-being, individuals are increasingly investing in health coaches for weight loss, fitness, stress management, and overall wellness.
  5. Life Coaching for High Net-Worth Individuals
    • Target Audience: Wealthy individuals seeking personal fulfillment, balance, or life transformation.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: High-income clients value personalized coaching to help them achieve greater balance, purpose, or personal growth, often paying premium rates for tailored support.
  6. Sales Coaching
    • Target Audience: Sales professionals, teams, and business owners.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: Companies and individuals are willing to pay for sales training that boosts revenue and performance. This niche often involves ongoing contracts with companies.
  7. Relationship/Marriage Coaching
    • Target Audience: Couples and individuals seeking to improve relationships.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: Clients often view relationship success as critical to life satisfaction. The deeply personal nature of this niche can lead to long-term coaching relationships with high fees.
  8. Financial Coaching
    • Target Audience: Individuals wanting to improve their financial health.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: Clients are willing to invest in coaches who can help them manage debt, build wealth, or plan for financial freedom, especially as financial success often leads to improved quality of life.
  9. Mindset and Performance Coaching
    • Target Audience: High achievers such as athletes, executives, and creatives.
    • Why It’s Lucrative: High performers are eager to pay for coaching that helps them overcome mental blocks and reach peak performance. These clients often come from industries where performance equates to financial gain.

Each of these niches appeals to clients with a high willingness to invest in coaching services, providing an opportunity for coaches to charge premium fees based on the value they provide.

About the author

Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities.

Visit www.dennisroberts.com.au

What are the primary benefits of a 360 diagnostic questionnaire?

A 360-degree diagnostic questionnaire, commonly used in leadership development and performance management, offers several benefits for individuals and organizations:

Comprehensive Feedback: It gathers input from multiple perspectives, including supervisors, peers, subordinates, and sometimes external stakeholders, providing a well-rounded view of an individual’s strengths and areas for improvement.

Increased Self-Awareness: By comparing self-assessment with others’ feedback, individuals can identify blind spots and better understand how their behavior and skills are perceived.

Personal Development: The results highlight specific areas where individuals can improve, making it easier to tailor development plans to their actual needs.

Enhanced Communication: Engaging in a 360-degree review process fosters open dialogue and trust between team members, improving overall workplace communication.

Improved Leadership and Team Dynamics: Leaders can become more effective when they understand how their actions impact others. Team dynamics improve when individuals work on feedback that promotes collaboration.

Objective Performance Review: Since feedback is sourced from various levels, it provides a more objective and balanced assessment compared to traditional top-down reviews.

Motivation and Engagement: Constructive feedback helps employees feel valued and understood, often leading to higher motivation and engagement when they know their input is considered.

Overall, a 360-degree diagnostic questionnaire can promote a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging personal growth and enhancing organizational performance.

About the author
Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities.

Visit www.coachpro.com.au

Is it time for a digital detox?

A digital detox involves taking a break from digital devices and technology to reduce stress, improve focus, and reconnect with the offline world. Here’s a guide to help you effectively manage a digital detox:

1. Set Clear Goals

  • Define your purpose: Are you looking to reduce screen time, improve mental health, or focus on relationships? Knowing your “why” makes the detox more intentional.
  • Decide on duration: Choose a specific time frame, such as a weekend, week, or month.

2. Plan Your Detox

  • Identify problem areas: Note which devices or apps consume the most time (e.g., social media, news sites, games).
  • Set boundaries: Decide when and where you’ll use digital devices. For example, no phones at meals or after 8 p.m.
  • Schedule tech-free activities: Replace screen time with hobbies, exercise, or nature walks.

3. Gradual Disconnect

  • Start small: Begin with short periods of disconnection, like 1 hour per day or a screen-free evening, and gradually extend the duration.
  • Turn off non-essential notifications: Disable alerts for social media, news apps, or anything that’s not urgent.

4. Create Tech-Free Zones

  • Physical spaces: Make areas of your home, such as the bedroom or dining room, tech-free zones.
  • Work boundaries: Limit after-hours work emails or set an auto-response during off-hours.

5. Find Alternatives

  • Replace scrolling: Carry a book, notebook, or activity to engage in when you would typically reach for your phone.
  • Engage offline: Prioritize face-to-face conversations or outdoor activities.

6. Use Technology to Help

  • Time-tracking apps: Use apps like “Screen Time” (iOS) or “Digital Wellbeing” (Android) to monitor your device use and set limits.
  • Block distracting apps: Apps like “Freedom” or “Offtime” can block access to websites and apps during your detox.

7. Involve Others

  • Social support: Share your detox goals with friends or family to make it a joint effort. This helps with accountability.
  • Communicate boundaries: Let people know you’ll be less available, so they understand why you might not respond immediately.

8. Reflect and Adjust

  • Track benefits: After the detox period, reflect on how you feel mentally and physically.
  • Reintegrate mindfully: When reintroducing digital devices, establish healthier long-term habits like scheduled screen breaks or intentional use of apps.

By balancing mindful use of technology with time away from screens, a digital detox can help you recharge and reconnect with what matters most offline.

About the author

Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities.
Visit www.coachpro.com.au

The five secrets to active listening

The five secrets to active listening are often regarded as essential skills to truly engage with and understand others during communication. Here’s a breakdown:

  1. Pay Full Attention: Give the speaker your undivided focus. This means eliminating distractions (e.g., phones, multitasking) and maintaining eye contact to show you’re fully present. It helps convey that you value what the speaker is saying.
  2. Reflect Back What You’ve Heard: Paraphrasing or summarizing what the speaker has said shows that you understand their message. You can use phrases like, “So what you’re saying is…” or “It sounds like you’re feeling…” This confirms understanding and clarifies any potential confusion.
  3. Avoid Interrupting: Let the speaker express themselves fully without cutting them off. Interruptions can signal that you’re more focused on your response than their message. Practice patience, and allow the speaker to complete their thought.
  4. Show Empathy: Respond not just to the words, but to the emotions behind them. Acknowledge the speaker’s feelings, and validate their perspective, even if you don’t agree with it. Phrases like “I can understand why you feel that way” can help create connection and trust.
  5. Ask Open-Ended Questions: Encourage deeper conversation by asking questions that invite elaboration. Instead of yes/no questions, ask “How did that make you feel?” or “What do you think about…?” This shows curiosity and engagement in what the speaker is saying.

These practices enhance connection, build trust, and foster better communication in personal and professional settings.

About the author

Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities. Visit www.coachpro.com.au

The keys to improving your performance

When your financial rewards are performance based, you are confronted with a major challenge – How do you lift and sustain your performance levels?

As a real estate professional, you have to contend with  variables such as increasing competition for listings, margin squeeze, unrealistic reserve prices and mounting pressure to work around the clock and more. Yet, whilst they are valid concerns these issues are business issues and not true performance issues.

End Goals v Performance Goals

When setting goals many miss the fundamental distinction between End Goals and Performance Goals.

End Goals are the outcomes or results you achieve from doing something, for example sales turnover, commission fees, clearance rates, profit margin are all End Goals. They are measured ex post facto (after the fact). They are also known as lag indicators. End Goals are the rewards or the carrots that motivate you to achieve them.

Performance Goals, on the other hand, are the drivers that get you the results. For example,  property listings, outbound calls, open days, number of prospects, word or mouth referrals. This is where the hard yards are done. Your performance incentive schemes must incorporate these measures to encourage the right behaviour. Measurement of these lead indicators will give you predictive measures of future success. Success is the cumulative effect of doing the little things day-by-day.

“Performance Goals are the cause,
End Goals are the effect.”

Lead and Lag indicators form an integral part of what Harvard academics, Kaplan and Norton, call a Balanced Scorecard. Many of the larger real estate franchise groups use Balanced Scorecard measures, as do large corporations. They are equally applicable to small firms and are essential to driving performance to higher levels.

What drives Performance?

So, if performance drives results, what drives performance?

Two things drive performance:
– Skill (the learned knowledge of how to do a task), and
– Behaviour (the making of a conscious/subconscious choice)

To determine which you are dealing with ask yourself the question – Does this person know how or what to do? If the answer is yes, then as they have the skill and it’s likely to be a behavioural issue. If they answer no, then a training solution may be appropriate. With a well-trained sales professional I’d be betting on behaviours most of the time.

Behaviour is about choice. Given the circumstances, what choice did you make? Ok, so sometimes you make a good choice and sometimes you don’t. I’ll leave it for you to judge what is good and bad. In the process consider:

  1. Did I make a conscious choice? and
  2. Do I accept the consequences of my choices?

The one unescapable fact of life is that you will make mistakes and that’s ok. Just learn your lessons and don’t make them twice! Having said that, there does come a time where if you have a performer that just doesn’t cut it, then this is a great model to manage a poor performer.

I’ll assume you know what it takes to be successful. So, we have the skills. Let’s explore your behaviour. Aha, let me get this clear, you know what you need to do but you didn’t do it? Houston, we have a problem! What we may have here is a self-defeating behaviour. Short of surgical removing your frontal lobes what I’d suggest is that we explore what choice you made. By merely raising it to your conscious awareness we now empower you to, you guessed it, make a choice.

The Secrets to my Success

We enact our behaviour. Often we do so subconsciously. That’s why I emphasise making conscious choices to start. Most of us can relate to making the same mistakes. You know the one – the negative patterns we fall for over and over again. We repeat these behaviours because we have relegated them into our subconscious – the realm of our autopilot.

Yes, behaviours do run in patterns because you have essentially programmed them into your subconscious.

Now, for the good news!

These behavioural patterns apply to your positive behaviours too! You have your own unique DNA formula for your successes in life. Just as you repeat the same negative behaviours that cause you dysfunctional, the opposite is also true. You repeat your successful choices, as subconscious patterns,  too.

Isn’t it about time you balanced the ledger and paid attention to the good decisions you are making? If you can unlock and understand what works for you, imagine what you may begin to achieve in your life. You can have anything.

I encourage you to read up on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) for it is the study of how to unlock your patterns of success. It is the basis of Anthony Robbins works a well as most personal development gurus. It is a must read topic.

Most business coaches rely upon a key principal of performance measurement. And to let you in on there secret, here it is:

“The very act of measuring something focuses
your energy and attention on it. You cannot help
but improve your performance.”

When you have clearly set goals, objective performance measures, regular performance reviews and take consistent actions to towards your goals you have an empowered model for sustainable performance improvement.

I’ll leave with these words of wisdom – if you accept that the universal Law of Abundance does prevail and you can have anything you want, there is really only one question to ask yourself – what do you want?

About the author

Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities. Visit www.coachpro.com.au