(recently posted at www.lifebeforebusiness.com) 

The big buzz film this year isn’t “Babel” isn’t “The Departed” and not even “The Queen”, the big buzz film isn’t even in the movie theaters, in fact it was introduced to the world on the internet. The film I’m talking about is, of course, “The Secret” which you can find at www.thesecret.tv.  I’ve certainly had a process digesting the suggestions from The Secret and as a result another Coach and I will be offering a retreat the weekend of April 27-29 called, “Beyond the Secret” to share what we’ve learned.   What we have realized is although there were many messages in the film that were excellent and reinforced our understanding of how the world works they only skimmed the top of the pot and did not delve into the ingredients of the recipe to creating the life we really want.  I further understood that although it is wonderful to dream big and dance around with lofty ideas, at some point I have to get after the business of making my life happen. In other words, I need to figure out and delineate the steps to creating the stairs so that I can reach the stars of my dreams.
During early February, I attended a two-day “Turning Point” seminar taught by Brian Bufini (www.brianbufini.com) who has created an excellent coaching program for Realtors, Lenders, Mortgage Brokers and anyone else in the business of real estate.  After the seminar, I felt inspired to get after the business of coaching and to creating a program with helpful systems in place so that I can offer this value to my clients. 
It was fascinating to experience the Bufini Seminar and to see how he sold his business and services throughout the weekend with confidence and aplomb, leaving me with the genuine feeling of being helped and wanting to find ways that I could afford their services.  Now that’s great sales any way you cut it! 
In my own Coaching business, the hardest thing for me to do is to have a conversation with someone to discover if they have considered using a Coach and then to ask them to please consider using me when and if they do.  The more I allowed the fear of these kinds of discussions to grow the more I created great excuses as to why I didn’t need to have them and the more business I continued to not attract.  After watching The Secret multiple times I became more distressed because I was missing the steps concerning how to manifest the life I really wanted.  One of the ideas that Brian shared during the seminar that really hit home for me is that it isn’t the winning where we find the happiness, but it is in the “pursuit of happiness” that we find our greatest joy.  That was the missing link for me, to understand what the pursuit of happiness was for me and how to go about crafting that for my business.
The “A-ha” was I could sit in my comfy chair and think about what I wanted to attract into my life but in order for me to feel happy about what I’d attracted into my life, I had to feel happy in the process of their pursuit first.
This is a fresh way for me to look at my business: instead of thinking of the end goal, to consider the pursuit and ponder how to be happy in this pursuit.  What does your pursuit of happiness look like today?