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This is a free monthly newsletter for results-oriented
professionals who want to achieve their greatest goals.
If you enjoy "Living the Dream", then share the good
energy! Please pass it on to your family and friends.
Inspire others as you're inspired and we will all grow
together.
| Welcome and News |
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Hi! There's a lot going on so let me get to it. I'm happy
to announce the arrival of my new coaching
programs--two 12-week courses you can receive via
e-mail for just $79 a month. I designed them for those of
you who want the benefit of coaching, but either aren't
ready or can't afford one-on-one sessions with me. The
first course is Grow & Go, a personal development
program that will help you have stronger relationships,
make better career decisions and gain more confidence.
The Do It Now! course is for those who are stalled in
their attempts to achieve a major goal. You'll get newly
excited by your goal and create an unstoppable plan to
reach it. Interested? Click on the link below and learn
more.
Next, for those of you who want a little more interaction
with their newsletter, I'm introducing a new feature,
READER QUESTIONS. You can e-mail me with anything
you'd like to ask about career, relationships or life in
general and I'll answer them in each issue of "Living the
Dream".
Finally, of course I'm excited about my novel, "All I Need
to Get By" coming out next month. In honor of that fair
event, I've launched my author website,
www.sophfronia.com. Check it out and you'll find
information on the book as well as great new photos
such as this one of me and Hugh Jackman. I got
to meet him recently backstage at his Broadway show,
"The Boy From Oz." He's a very nice guy, by the way!
You'll also find a special offer I'm extending to book
clubs: If your group reads my novel, I'll visit your book
club and join the discussion. In April I'm already
scheduled to visit the Adalia Book Club in Pasadena, the
South Houston Adult Reading Club in Texas and the In
the Company of My Sisters reading group in Maryland. So
contact me and I'll be there!
Until then, take care and be well. Sophfronia
Learn more about Sophfronia's Coaching e-courses »
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| Quote of Note |
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"You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or
when. You can only decide how you're going to live."
--Joan Baez
The Grow & Go Course »
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| The Power of Not Doing |
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I've often been asked how I came up with the name of
this newsletter. Two or three people thought it might be
a Martin Luther King Jr. reference and another person
thought maybe Sigmund Freud was involved. Believe me,
it's nothing so intellectual. The title comes from the Tom
Cruise film "Vanilla Sky". Cruise plays a wealthy young
man named David who, by his own admission, is
"snowboarding through life." Someone asks him how it's
going and he says, "Living the dream, man, living the
dream."
I found the phrase striking, even more so when the
character realizes that while living the dream, he's made
a thoughtless decision that in a brief moment, has ruined
his life and his chance for true love. "It's the little
things," he's told. David agrees. "There's nothing bigger,
is there?"
I've been thinking about how we focus so much on what
we want to do. We've started the new year with
resolutions, goals and lists of what we want to do. I
even devoted a whole program, the Do It Now! e-course,
to helping you accomplish a big goal. But what if, in our
laserlike focus on doing things, we're not examining
something no less important--what we should STOP
doing. I read a column last month in USA TODAY
where a man was writing about an exercise a mentor
once gave him to challenge him. It's so powerful that
I've presented it to clients and friends and it never fails
to ignite some deep thinking.
Here's the exercise: pretend that your phone rings and
you pick it up and learn two things. 1.) You've just won
$20 million in the lottery and 2.) you have an incurable
and terminable disease. Knowing these two facts, what
would you change about your life? More specifically,
what would you STOP doing? Would you stop putting
yourself down? Would you stop being out of touch with
the people you love? Would you stop working at a career
that doesn't suit you? Would you stop living in a place
you don't absolutely love? Would you stop having too
little love, fun and joy in your life? Would you stop
bringing work home? Would you stop blaming others for
not being able to get what you want?
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| What Would You Stop? |
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Instead of focusing on DOING this month, come up with
three or four things that you want to STOP doing this
year. The action (or non-action, as the case may be)
can be large or small. Remember, little things can be
bigger than you think! I also want for you to notice that
when you stop doing something-- and I point this out in
the Do It Now course-- you often create the space you
need to do something you really want to do. That's the
beautiful secret of this exercise.
If you doubt it, remember this: no decision you make, no
matter how small, is insignificant. As the character
Sophia tells David in "Vanilla Sky", "every passing minute
is another chance to turn it all around." Don't miss out on
any of those chances.
Copyright 2004 Sophfronia Scott. All rights
reserved.
Ask a question and get it answered in the next issue! Contact Sophfronia »
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| Sophfronia's Novel in Stores Next Month! |
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"...a polished and promising debut."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Scott will most assuredly be recognized for her superb
storytelling."
--Booklist Magazine
"Lorain, Ohio, is familiar territory to readers of Toni
Morrison, but Sophfronia Scott makes it her own. "All I
Need to Get By" is a stunning debut, a story of family
and memory, and the stories we tell about both in order
to "get by." The novel is equal parts profundity, humor,
and grace, and its author promises to take a place
among the best writers of her generation." --Professor
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University
"Sophfronia Scott's words bubble over with love, anger,
weakness, strength and the grace note of patience.
Each chapter is a road map; each character is a tree, a
landmark on a road that winds towards home, in all its
shuttered complexity." --Veronica Chambers, author of
"Mama's Girl" and "Having It All?"
Pre-order "All I Need to Get By"
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