SHIFT-IT Coach Blog

Int’l Forum of Visual Practitioners Conference in Chicago, August 6-8

July 4th, 2008

Hi all. See note below from Becky of The International Forum of Visual Practitioners about their upcoming annual conference. This year its in Chicago on August 6-8.

I did a presentation on SHIFT-IT and my graphic coaching niche / specialty at last year’s Santa Fe conference, but other commitments will not enable me to participate this year. I’ll be there in spirit though, as SHIFT-IT Coach, Inc is one of the corporate sponsors.

If you are into or interested in graphic recording and graphic facilitation (two graphic ways of working with groups) … its a great event to attend. I mention it in all my graphic trainings … as its rare to have us graphic types all brought into one locale where we can network, share and learn from one another.

If you go … tell ‘em Christina sent you!

The IFVP Conference is quickly approaching… only 6 weeks away! We hope you are planning to join us in Chicago, August 6-8, 2008 at the Summit Executive Conference Centre. We have one of the best conferences ever planned; visit the IFVP website to see the conference agenda.

Now in its 13th year, the IFVP Conference has become THE event for professionals interested in employing visual techniques in the service of collaboration, organization and community change.

For more information about the conference and for the registration form, please visit our website at www.ifvp.org and follow the link to our conference pages. Should you have any questions, contact Becky Ramsey at becky@ifvp.org or 724-225-8664.

Hope to see you in Chicago!!

Technorati Tags: Christina Merkley, SHIFT-IT Coach, SHIFT-IT, graphic recording, graphic facilitation, IFVP, International Forum of Visual Practitioners, graphic work, visual practitioner, visual practitioners

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Good Times at Last Week’s SHIFT-IT Intensive

June 26th, 2008

Whew, I hit the ground running right after the SHIFT-IT Intensive wrapped up on Saturday … so haven’t had a chance to blog about it until now.

What a great time we had.

Small, intimate group — just six folks, including me. Had a great room with a view overlooking the straits of Juan de Fuca here in gorgeous Victoria, BC, Canada.

We worked step-by-step thru The SHIFT-IT Graphic Coaching Process … each person having their own special “Map Pack” of the 17 custom templates. Which we completed by the end of the 2.5 days.

Just two days afterward, I received a report from a participant that she not only landed her job interview, but while sharing her Magnetism Map with her interviewers (her personal vision created during The Intensive) … they all realized she was the perfect candidate for taking on a corporate liaison side of the position that they have been wanting to expand.

All parties are thrilled, especially Linda as her manifestation happened so quickly!

Upon reading her email, i had to run over to my windowsill and whack the ‘easy buttons’ i have lined up there!

Congrats Linda!!!

Here are a few photos so you get the flavour of what the event was like:

Agenda Chart:

Our View:

Working Away on the Map Packs (visual thinking tools):

Some Large Size Charts From Demos:

One of our vision boards (actually this one is mine!):

Some Law of Attraction work … doing a Focus Wheel to help a participant ‘find a better feeling place’ around her vision and the resistance that emerged to it.

A S.E.L.F. Intentory map … focusing on strengths, foundational support and gathering up the ‘evolutionary inklings’ around who we are in the process of becoming next.

Group Photos:

SHIFT-IT Intensives are held virtually twice a year and this in-person format is held annually in June. For more information, see my coaching info page.

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Sheri’s Latest Book Launch - Great Bonuses!

June 25th, 2008

Check out the announcement below regarding Sheri McConnell’s new book on building membership based businesses. She’s pulled together a HUGE volume of free bonuses for the book launch — yours truly is included in the long list, with a free ‘Magnetism Map’ booklet.

I wanted to let you know about a special book promotion that is happening today only. The book is by my friend, Sheri McConnell and is called Smart Women Create Membership-Based Businesses. Sheri McConnell is the Founder and President of two national organizations, National Association of Women Writers and the International Association of Web Entrepreneurs.

One of the reasons I wanted to you to check out Sheri’s book and take a look at http://www.smartwomenbook.com was because of all the bonuses her team has put together for you. These bonuses are in line with Sheri’s overall mission to help women!

When you purchase Sheri’s book today, June 25th, 2008 at http://www.smartwomenbook.com, you will receive thousands of dollars worth of bonuses for women and by women.

And if that weren’t enough, the book itself is “pure gold” for anyone wanting to create their own membership-based business!

Here is what just a few industry leaders have had to say about the book already:

“A simple, easy to understand guide that anyone can use to get started with a membership-based business!”
—Alexandria Brown, Online Entrepreneur and Millionaire Marketing and Success Coach

“The road to a truly successful, lasting membership site can be a tricky one, and it pays (really pays) to get it right from the beginning. Sheri McConnell teaches you how to leverage and lead by using one of the most powerful formulas that exist: the membership-based business model.”
—Andrea J. Lee, Award-Winning Author of Multiple Streams of Coaching Income

“Smart Women Create Membership-Based Businesses is essential reading for any woman who wants to discover the power of leverage in their business model. With just one tip from this book full of golden nuggets, you’ll be able to catapult your revenue and results forward light years. I personally have experienced an extra $100k in my bottom line from membership based businesses – I hope you will too!”
—Melanie Benson Strick, Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach & Virtual Team Building Expert

“As an owner of a membership site myself, I can tell you that Smart Women Create Membership-Based Businesses exposes the truth of why a membership-based business model is so powerful—especially for female entrepreneurs. Beyond a great business model, my membership site has brought me so much closer to my community of entrepreneurs and we all work together to help each other succeed – and that is the best reward.”
—Stefanie Hartman, CEO SHE Inc. and Founder of Millionaires In Training (MIT) Program and the PrivateJVClub.com

I hope you can take a moment today to check out Sheri’s book and the many “women only” bonuses at http://www.smartwomenbook.com

Technorati Tags: Sheri McConnell, Smart Women Create Membership-Based Businesses, Smart Women Book, membership, memberships, membership-based business, Alexandria Brown, Melanie Benson-Strick, Stefanie Hartman, Andrea J. Lee, Magnetism Map, Christina Merkley, SHIFT-IT Coach

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Really Big Picture View of Life

June 12th, 2008

The last few days I’ve been watching a remarkable documentary series that has interesting considerations when one looks at it from a SHIFT-IT and Law of Attraction perspective. The series is called “Up”… 7 Up, 14 Up, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, 42 Up and 48 Up. Have you seen it?

In it, British documentary filmmaker, Michael Apted, chronicles the lives of 14 British kids from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future.

Starting in 1964 when the children were 7, it returns every seven years to talk to them and examine the progression of their lives (the most recent film brings them to the age of 48 … and Apted’s intention is to keep it going, perhaps even beyond his own life time thru others if necessary … and if the participants are willing to continue).

Motivated by the Jesuit maxim ‘Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man” … this series is an astonishing look at the structure of life in the 20th century thru the time-lapse effect of these 14 individuals. Watching all of them back-to-back (instead of having to wait the 7 years for each one to come out like other fans of the series have had to) is like a reality show on speed. It’s amazing and fascinating – and I am deeply touched by the participants’ huge gift of allowing us to eavesdrop on their unfolding lives. What an opportunity to see LIFE, at the really big picture level, evolve through these people and their families (and society overall).

So, what does this series show us in terms of SHIFT-IT and Law of Attraction work? Here are a few of my thoughts:

Deliberate Creation and Early Influences

The beginning film of the series (which incidentally didn’t start off with the intention of being a series) purposely chose children from diverse backgrounds (some from what North Americans call ‘private’ schools, some from ‘public’ schools and some as wards of the state … from city, suburbs and rural … and from wealthy, middle class and poor situations).

Each child had a world-view comprised of what they had been exposed to from their early environments – what their norm was. Certain parameters on boundaries and possibilities were established early via their educational opportunities, geographical and cultural exposures etc. Like attracts like.

As a coach who works with adults from varying backgrounds, I see the effects of these same kinds of stratifications in my clients. What they are trying to SHIFT (and create) in their life regularly comes up against the beliefs, attitudes and opportunities that were considered ‘normal’ in their backgrounds. In many cases they want to create things that are different of enhanced from what they grew up with and are encountering internal resistance of varying degrees as a result. As we shift the resistance, the manifestations flow.

An Individual Tone or Essence

Watching these young children progress from children, to adolescents, to young and then more seasoned adults … I was struck by the ‘essence’ that seemed with them right from the start. That each person had a certain, unmistakable ‘tone’ about them. In LOA speak, this would be their vibrational essence. And certain meta-physical sources mention a personal frequency or harmonic that is unique to each person. As we see and sense that tone in others … it makes us sense and wonder about our own tone – what is that special tone that we have each possessed from childhood on?

New Generations Benefit from the Rockets of Desires Launched by Previous Generations:

The Abraham Teachings on Law of Attraction talk about something showcased in this series. How new generations benefit from the ‘rockets of desire’ that were launched by the generations before them (who due to the times they lived in, could not personally benefit from what they yearned for, but their children or children’s child eventually could). In the series we hear tales of mother’s and father’s lives and how conditions have changed, morphed and shifted for the next generation – in improved ways. It might have taken years or generations, but issues like class barriers, availability of divorce, increased options for women and minorities, stigmas of illegitimacy, mixed race unions, etc have dramatically shifted over the generations resulting in a more accepting and freer society.

Typical Life Stages and Crossroads

When we are on our own SHIFT-IT journey we can often think we are alone and separate in what we are experiencing, when we are experiencing it. However, these films show us the typical life stages that all human beings go through. The natural decision points that one comes up against as we age and progress through our lives. Crossroads about education, careers, partners, children, mid-life course corrections, aging, etc. As much as we are individuals having our own unique experience, we are also part of larger rhythms and patterns that human beings naturally go through, influenced by the mass beliefs of the time frame and culture that makes up our context.

We Are All Being Courageous on Our Journeys

The UP Series is a wonderful co-creation … between the film maker, the generous participants, the society that it was formed in, and us as viewers drawing our own conclusions and relating the film to our own life and experiences. It’s not perfect (the filmmaker exhibits some real biases and assumptions at times) and how much can a film shared by 14 individuals really do every life justice.

However, for me, this series helps me see and ponder the strength and courageousness of the individual life. These so-called ordinary people show us the ‘mystery of life’ from its panoramic perspective. How life is unfolding through all of us. Each of us makes a contribution to the whole, just by being and by going through our unique expression of life. At that high level, there is no right and wrong. Only experience. And an unfolding of one moment to the next, one year to the next, one decade, one century … generations after generation.

Made me appreciate the larger flow that is going on all around us.

For more information on the UP Series, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Up!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:

Christina Merkley, “The SHIFT-IT Coach” and creator of the SHIFT-IT Method® is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Graphic Facilitation and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and groups in defining and getting what they really, really want. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com.

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Int’l Forum of Visual Practitioners Conference in Chicago, August 6-8

Good Times at Last Week’s SHIFT-IT Intensive

Sheri’s Latest Book Launch - Great Bonuses!

Really Big Picture View of Life