I am so blessed to have friends in my life like Kat, who is one of three special friends with whom I’ve been “meeting” with on the phone for an hour every week for about ten years now. Recently, Kat re-discovered personal evolution strategies that Thomas Leonard (father of coaching) had crafted with the help of people like Kat who had come together to brainstorm such ideas. The point of the 21 Personal Evolution Strategies is “to evolve more quickly and easily”. Some of the strategies include:

#1 Surround yourself with new ideas instead of recycling your beliefs: Beliefs can limit your ability to experience life as it unfolds and;

#3 Let your environments do most of your evolutionary work for you: Evolution occurs as you adapt to such environments.

or how about this

#7 Become host of a thriving network: Let your network evolve you as you serve them.

I love ideas and statements like these that get your brain going, you probably aren’t just going to hum on by when you read through each of these statements, you’re more than likely going to have an opinion–good or bad–about them. And that is good! Get your juices flowing! Have some passionate discussions with friends and family. Learn more about yourself and how you really think and believe.

I have to say that each of the statements that I listed above has a history of understanding behind them. For one thing there is the overriding assumption that someone tackling the personal evolution strategies has an understanding of concepts such as letting go and letting your higher power be in the driver’s seat and trusting the process and really “getting” it that we are not in control of anything really except what it is that we are able to do (and even that is questionable most of the time!).

I’m experiencing #7 these days by the people in my network who are inviting me into their lives and their journeys. For instance, this summer I’ve been working on a television Talk Show with a friend of mine that we are going to film for distribution the last week in October. It has been fun to get all of our ideas down on paper and work through the ideas to making them become a reality. Sometimes I’ve wanted to give up because I just couldn’t believe that this dream that we’ve had could really be possible and then I’d meet with our team again and before you knew it we were moving ahead to the next thing that we needed to do. I’m actually walking through a vision to making it happen because this person in my network is evolving and so am I in the process.

My environment is evolving me now in many ways including going back to school as a truly non-traditional student! I constantly have to check my inner negative thoughts at the door because entertaining them is too costly for the energy it takes me to learn and to accomplish what I need to do. I can tell you this for sure; I’m sure learning how to carry numerous items simultaneously across campus like a Sherpa on a great mountain expedition.

I love to surround myself with new ideas and so I have wonderful opportunities to do this when interviewing all the interesting people that I come across for my blog talk radio show (www.blogtalkradio.com/Hope42day). Every week I get to talk to someone new about something they have discovered in their lives which inspires hope and that they are passionate to share with others. That’s just plain fun. Next week I’ll be interviewing author Judy Winkler about her book, “Get Unstuck: Live With Ease”.

I’ll leave you with this thought from Thomas Leonard about Personal Evolution. “As anything evolves it can create a higher organization–a higher life form. So, as one evolves they become more sophisticated, more complex. Life can become richer because there is more to notice and more things to port to/connect with. Just look at how the human body has evolved into being–from cells to tissues to organs to an integrated system. Perhaps this is possible on a spiritual, emotional or mental level for humans as well.”

Indeed! I certainly believe so. How are you evolving yourself today? What are some of your personal evolution strategies?