Video: Stories From the Heart of the Cosmos
August 30, 2010
This is a wonderful video short of my body of work called, “Stories from the Heart of the Cosmos” done for me by friend, filmmaker Tim Kelly. It gives you a sense of the characters and stories that make up my world. I am publishing this again because I’m going to use some of the stories for my forthcoming book. Hope you enjoy a trip through the cosmos!
From Pitiful to Powerful, Every Day
August 2, 2010
a mighty mouse
Yes I know I’m supposed to be super-woman but actually it’s a constant struggle not to feel pitiful. I don’t know about you but I fight this battle every single day.
Now mind you I want to feel powerful, but it seems like my brain, as efficient as it is in other ways, sure likes to default to it’s most pitiful setting at least once a day and sometimes more.
Being powerful is no easy thing because in my mind you can’t fake it. I can’t just put on an actor’s suit and walk around like Goliath going “Argh, I’m powerful.”
No I really have to feel it and be it in order to make it work for me. Otherwise it’s just a temporary trick that doesn’t last.
Powerful to me is not the same as might, that’s where we get mighty confused in our culture! Part of being powerful is being in tune with yourself and on those days where I truly feel pitiful, meaning low to the ground, then I try to commune with myself and get back into power.
goliath
It’s not pulling myself up by the boot straps kind of power, it’s the true power of being connected to yourself no matter what.
If it’s sunny you feel in tune, if it’s raining you do as well, but you allow yourself to change with the times and the seasons. It’s not letting your mood control you and yet not manhandling those moods either.
It’s a very fine balance between powerful and pitiful but I like to ride it like a see-saw and do my best to stay in the middle rather than on either side. No easy thing. Balance is one of the hardest things of all. It’s much easier to manhandle ourselves into a temporary strength.
I saw a woman on her way to the gym near my house the other day. She laughingly said, “Oh yes I’m going to torture myself.”
I thought, Why would you do that? Do you think you’ll get true strength? Or are you only kidding yourself because mostly you just want to sit on the couch all the time?
balance
Going to the gym and having some trainer shout out 100 push ups, pull ups or ab crunches is fine but not my idea of true strength. True strength and power is much harder to attain than that. You can’t just do a few ab crunches and have it.
You have to push yourself in the direction of your greatest growth every single day.
So here’s a few ways that I walk the bridge from powerful to pitiful just about every day of my life:
- Use a sense of humor about it all. This is definitely #1. I did a speech years ago called, “Proud to be Pitiful” and I try to see both the humor and the glory in being pitiful, rather than berating myself. That doesn’t help!
- Remember times and ways that you were powerful or went from pitiful to powerful. It helps to remind your brain that you’ve done it before and can do it again.
- Enlist the help of friends and allies. This is always an important strategy for me to get out of the pitiful zone. I surround myself with people who remember my true strength, even when I’m down for the count.
- Enjoy it! Yep, rather than digging out, sometimes you need to dig in. Write a poem, make up a song, laugh and have a good time with your pitifulness. You just might have fun.
And of course last but not least be proud to be pitiful. Think of all the lowly creatures of the earth and how you can be proud to be keeping company with them. Very cool!
Video: I Change People’s Lives
July 27, 2010
I Change People’s Lives
July 26, 2010
life changing
I decided to create a tongue-in-cheek video this week about changing people’s lives. As I’ve been working with my branding manager on creating my new website, he insists that my tag line be:
Annie Hart – Life Changing
I love it but at the same time I realize that it’s nearly impossible to say that you change people’s lives. In my field, everyone says that they change people’s lives so who is going to believe you if you say you do?
Years ago I used to have this dilemma in a different way. Back before the field of coaching existed, I would try to tell people what I did for a living and I would always run up against a wall. I had no idea what to say.
So I would mumble a bit and then finally mutter under my breath, “Um I change people’s lives.” That would stop the person dead in their tracks and they would say, “Really?? How do you do that?” Then the conversation would be quite animated as they found out about my work.
no small task
Changing people’s lives is no small task. It requires humility, perseverance against all odds, knowing when to listen, knowing when to back off and most important of it, it requires knowing who you can help and who you can’t.
So I do change people’s lives and I’m damned proud to be able to say so. After all these years it finally rolls off my tongue without too much of a glitch.
But I don’t take it lightly either. I’ve come by my skills both due to having had amazing mentors and do to the hard knocks of real life. I’ve learned from my own foibles and failures and from worked and didn’t work with my clients.
But the irony is that although I use the tag line, “Life Changing,” it’s really my life that is changed by doing the work that I do. I am the lucky one, to be privy to the tender, raw and real insides of people’s lives and to have the trust that they place so delicately in my hands.
changing lives
I take care to never tromp on their trust or to act in anything less than integrity.
Changing people’s lives is the most beautiful and the hardest task of all, because you have to be real and true to yourself. You have to live by your principles you can’t just talk about and take the easy way out.
It ain’t easy but it’s life changing to change people’s lives. So here I am after all these years telling the truth for the first time. I am Annie Hart and I change people’s lives.
Look for my new website coming in the next few months!
The Beauty of Creating Out of the Mess
July 22, 2010
If you can weather the feeling that you’re going to be a failure, then the journey of creating something new is totally worth it.
This year I’ve had two amazing opportunities thus far to reap the pearls out of seemingly hopeless mess!
The first was in creating Retreat 42, a retreat in daily life. When I set out on my own personal retreat I asked the question, “How can I get bigger projects off the ground?” I was really stuck and I wanted to find out how to break through that.
I didn’t set out to create a program, write or book or do any of the other amazing things that came out of it. I just set out to answer one HUGE question but much to my surprise, out of that mess came a whole host of beautiful creations.
Voila’ out of the mess comes amazing new life. That is if you can weather the discomfort of it all.
So what are the challenges and discomforts of creating out of the mess?
- we hate to feel like a failure and when you’re in a mess it feels like anything but success.
- you feel confused, so you might consider yourself off-track but you’re really not.
- messy times are so darned uncomfortable that we tend to avoid them, therefore very few people know how to support you through the messy times.
- it feels just awful sometimes, kind of like being covered in mud or sludge.
So think of it this way – mess is part of nature and the natural cycle of life. Your garden is a good example.
At the end of the season everything is dying and worn down. It all rots (smells awful) and goes back into the ground where it reemerges as fertile nutrients.
Think lotus rising out of the muddy pond and you will get the feeling of the potential of the messy bogs of your life.
Don’t be afraid of them, don’t back off, don’t believe what anyone 
else tells you.
The messy, boggy, sloggy and muddy side of life is fertile ground. Today enjoy the beauty of the mess. You just might be onto something.
So just remember:
P.S I’m not talking mess in the sense of leaving your dishes undone or your clothes all over the floor!
Video: My Video Tips
July 20, 2010
Will My REAL Life Please Show Up
July 19, 2010
the good life
There I was living in Europe with my gorgeous European (Italian or Spanish) husband, my beautiful children and living the good life. I was always eating delicious food, being totally loved and adored and it was always sunny.
That is in my dreams and fantasies about my life!
But that life has not happened, nor anything even close to it. Yes I have traveled and lived in Europe. Yes I have dated European men, but I am not married, do not have children, do not live in a Tuscan village and do not receive foot rubs every day as in my dreams.
So the question is – when is my REAL life going to show up??
That answer is – it’s not. The life I’m living now is my real life. It’s the life that I never thought I’d be living but it’s exactly the life I’m meant to have. God forbid I should even be grateful for it and not wishing for that fantasy life that I envisioned for so long.
Now I am the first one to believe in dreaming and envisioning things, but in my Peter Pan-ish youth, I didn’t understand the reality factor of these things. We don’t, in my humble opinion, come into this life to ‘manifest our perfect dream life.‘
the perfect dream life
Much to the contrary, we come to grow, be humbled, to be challenged into changing ourselves and ultimately become a better person. This doesn’t necessarily happen by receiving the picture-perfect dream life.
So how do I reconcile those dreams, visions, fantasies and wishes? I don’t. I always live with this idea of an ideal life inside of me but on a regular basis I try to be cognizant of what I actually have.
I am not saying this is easy. I still want my fantasy life. But I would hate to be at the end of my life and realize that I wasted huge chunks of it, waiting for something that was never meant to happen.
What a waste that would be.
Neither do I want to stop dreaming and wishing for a life beyond what I have now. That’s not good either. Our spirit always needs to grow, expand and fly.
I think of it this way – life is made of sugar and salt. Salt is the tougher element, the one that breaks down other elements of nature. Salt is the part of my life that challenges me to grow beyond what I think I need.
Then there is the sweet side of life, the ‘dolce’ in my vita. That is the part of life that is naturally easy and pleasurable. It’s easy to love this side of life, but hard not to hate the other. But all sugar and no salt would be a sickeningly sweet life.
Try to convince me of that when a gorgeous Italian male comes to rub my feet and you’ll see that I’m a liar, but since that’s not going to happen today, I’m going to accept the sugar and the salt and love them both.
salty and sweet life
I do love salty potato chips and I do love chocolate, so if you eat chips and chocolate every day your life will be just peachy. Oops that’s another sweet!
You get the idea. The life we wish for is never going to show up like we see it in our inner movie. Does it mean we should stop dreaming? Absolutely not, but at the same time when we accept the salty, life naturally gets sweeter.
Viva la dolce vita!
Video: Dare to Be Yourself
July 13, 2010
Video: Searching for More
July 6, 2010
Think Small – advice from a mouse
July 6, 2010
think small
In the personal growth field, everyone is always touting us to ‘Think Big.’ But thinking big is overrated. Every now and then it’s a good idea to get low to the ground and think small for a bit. Let’s take the example of a little mouse.
A little mouse, what do I mean?
This week my niece sent me a picture of an adorable little mouse and it made me think about the beauty and benefits of the small side of life. In a world that is all about the gigantic proportions of big cars, mountainous buffet dinners and extra-large coffee drinks, thinking from the small side of life can be very beneficial.
Years ago I had a friend visit me from Italy. He had never been to America before and we took him to dinner. Afterwards he ordered coffee which was served in a a mug. As you know coffee in coffee (which is called caffe) is served in a tiny cup.
He took one look at the mug and shouted, “Madonna e’ una piscina,” which translates to, “My God, it’s a swimming pool.” He was absolutely astounded at the size of everything and he spent his entire vacation eating ‘big sandwiches’ and watching big cars drive by. He had a ball with the large side of American life.
While that was a fun experience for him, most of us need just the opposite. We can benefit from un-giganticizing our thinking. I just made up that word by the way!
So let’s take a look at how mouse-like behaviors might truly benefit us:
open up and trust
Mouse Tip #1 – as a small creature you can easily rest in the palm of someone’s hand. In human parlance this means that it’s good to let down your guard, be soft and open your belly to the world. Let all the burdens slip off your shoulders, open up and trust.
It’s good to rest in the palm of the world sometimes.
slow down and rest
Mouse Tip #2 – as a little mouse you can yawn a lot. In human terms this means that when you allow yourself to live like a little creature you can be in tune with your own natural rhythms. You may find you need a rest, a nap or just a short break. Take time to be like this little mouse and tune in.
It’s good to rest and slow down.
creative challenges
Mouse tip #3 – mice are creative above all else. Just watch how they store seeds, nuts and cheese in their little holes. They show us that you can have fun with life and creatively prepare for anything that life may bring you. You don’t need to be on guard about it, instead look forward to the obstacles and challenges that might come your way. It’s good to be prepared to roll creatively with life.
Be creative with life’s challenges and look forward to whatever life has to bring you.
So what do you think? Might it not be time to slow down, take some time to rest in the palm of the world and be prepared for the life to come?
Thanks to my niece Meredith and I hope you’ve enjoyed my little mouse story. I encourage you to think small and enjoy the benefits.
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