Company Girl Coffee 3/5

Come on in! I have gluten free/vegan blueberry muffins and quinoa breakfast brownies for snacks and some lovely tea for drink...yum...I hope you enjoy!

Life has been so hectic these past weeks, I don't have much time to stop and write, but just to catch you up...here's an updated:

Living Life with Strings Attached launched on Monday and is now available for SALE! YAY!

You can order a copy by clicking on the "buy my book" link at the top of the page OR if you would like a more socially conscious way to get your copy (and would like to have my "John Hancock"), send a check for $15 to Strings Attached Ministries, PO Box 187, Lowell, AR 72745 (leave a comment and let me know that you are doing this so I can be sure to have enough books in stock). For every book purchased this way $5 will benefit The Inspired Girls International Life and Leadership Camp in Brazil. I am so excited to share this message and ministry with you!

My first Book Signing Party is March 28, in Bentonville, AR for those of you who are local, message me and I will send details, and I make my big radio debut on Tuesday at 1235 EST on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cwa-radio. I am a bit nervous about it, but I know that God will meet me at the mic.

My ministry partner and I just returned from a great conference in The Woodlands, TX last weekend called Share Fair 2010. It is a ministry of Reflective Life Ministries and was an absolutely awesome experience. There were fantastic speakers, break out sessions, sweet times of connection with new friends, and over 85 ministries represented. We had a blast!

The kids are out of school today, and well, the sun is shining! It is a glorious day here and we are going to get outside and enjoy it! I have my sister's bachelorette party tonight and her wedding shower tomorrow (pray for energy for me...eek...that's a lot of parties to pull off in one weekend!)

I think that's everything...I have a couple of other things in the works, but they aren't quite ready for unveiling yet! I can't wait to tell you all about them!

Got a big weekend ahead, but I hope to make it around to all the Company Girls...might not be til Sunday night, though! Link up with us!

Company Girl Coffee 8.28.09

Well, the first full week of school is almost finished, and it has been a great time for me to get back into the swing of a full work week. My book is flying along (3 chapters complete and one in the works). I have finished putting the final touches on a the Women's Retreats I am leading in October and November and am gathering up the supplies I need for my booth at the Northwest Arkansas Business Women's Conference which is just around the corner. Woo! No wonder I am dragging a bit today!

I want to take a minute to tell you guys about my latest brain child, though, because I am soooooo excited about it! It's called "Strings Attached." And much like the story behind the meaning of Company Girl, it is all about developing deep, lasting relationships with one another. One thing that I have noticed in the churches and groups that I have spoken to over the last year is that their is a great disconnect. People spend a lot of time connecting online and through FB and Twitter, but have stopped taking the time to form deep, meaningful connections face to face. We are relational beings and are, whether we realize it or not, seeking ways to connect to one another. I believe this is the driving force behind our need to be involved in activities. We are trying to connect, but because we don't get deep with our connections, we continue to feel incomplete and say yes to more activities. I believe that developing trusting and intimate relationships with the women in the pew next to us can help to break the "I'm to busy to breathe" cycle. I know it seems counterintuitive. I promise it works. I have seen it turn churches around!

Ask me about "Strings Attached: An Adventure in Connecting, Communicating and Conquering." I would be happy to share it with you. For more information about it, comment here or send me an email at cari@gps4life.net.

Ask Who Not How....

"Woman in Mirror"- Picasso

So I was in a coaching session yesterday (my own, not a client’s…yes, I too have a coach!) and my coach said something to me that really shook up my thinking. He said, “when we ask how we get totally in our heads. It becomes completely mechanical thinking. But it’s not our head that moves us to action. It’s our heart.”

Dang! Preach it, Brotha!

Then I started to analyze my thinking this last few weeks. In my journey to create this women’s retreat ministry, what has my main focus been? It’s been HOW!

How do I get it started? How do I market it? How much do I charge? How much is it worth? How do I set it up? How, How, How….But too much HOW sucks the like out of life. It’s too mechanical. It’s all in our heads. It’s too much about the plan, the schedule, the process and not enough about the experience, the joy, the passion in the journey. It also leads to overwhelm, stress, procrastination, and in my case, mental and physical exhaustion.

See if you’re brain is like a computer (and it is), spending all your time in the HOW sucks up RAM (random access memory….aka desktop space) at an unbelievable rate, and the end result is paralysis, the inability to do ANYTHING! Believe me, sitting on a dream, especially one that is God-given, is a very uncomfortable place to be. Not doing anything is NOT an option!

So what’s a highly motivated, process-oriented girl who’s plagued by procrastination to do? She has to stop asking HOW so much and start asking WHO. Ok…I say to Brook, uh, “what exactly does that mean?” “You have to start asking who do I need to be today?” Who needs to show up to achieve this goal? WHO brings us back to the heart, and the heart produces action, motivation, and passion. Wow….so how does this tie into my 30 day mission? Well…follow me on this one….

If we become what we focus on and we are ALWAYS focused on How to do stuff, we become mechanical, obsessive and overwhelmed. That’s not to say a little bit of how isn’t a good thing…a little bit is necessary to get things done. But if we continually focus on how we do two things:

1) We take our focus off of God to provide direction. This is bad, people…This leads to wondering around in the wilderness. We have to stay open to where God wants us to go and take our hands off the wheel and let him drive. Only by shifting our focus from how to who can we accomplish this.

2) We get totally stuck in the details and begin to worry about success/failure. This is the trap that most people will fall into. It is when we only focus on How that we begin to worry about failure. Laser vision on WHO we need to be will allow us to be unattached to the outcome and embrace success…because WE control who we are going to be….it is the only thing we control.

So thanks to my coach for reminding me about all this wisdom that I possess. Ask me about him, I would be happy to share his info with you. But more than that, thanks to God for putting people and thoughts in my path to confirm and guide me in the direction that I need to go! Stay tuned….more to come about GPS4Life Ministries!