You have reached the Landing page for Reinventing Life Enterprises: a diverse group of activities all of which are aimed at helping people, students or organizations build their dreams and take the steps to make them come true.

 

From this page you can:

 

1. You can find out about Alana's work as a consultant and speaker and hire her for your next professional development activity or to provide motivational support.

2. Investigate our work in support of leading edge technologies for human development (CieAura page) and purchase those that interest you.

3. Read articles on the successful implementation of action research for business, non-profits and public administration, education and for personal development

4. Rent Our apartment in Kinsale, Co Cork Ireland as a tourists or visitor.

5. Investigate past writings from the early years of the company or link to an over view of the work we used to do to aid the future of education.

6. Link to information about the three principle forces in our work: Dr. E. Alana James, Margaret Milenkiewicz and Tracesea Slater.

Discovery

In these last two weeks winter has set in in Ireland. This year it is accompanied by consistently cold weather, freezing streets, lots of time in front of a fire, and of course very short days. After a bout of low spirits, no internal drive, and loss of belief in self, I needed to rediscover ways to combat winter sluggishness. Several things have helped a lot -- some old, some new. On the list of things I have done before are: Kelly Howells brain sync meditations (I'm going to sleep at night after listening to the Secret Meditation), jumping on the rebounder, standing on it in the kitchen when my hips hurt, taking fish oil, etc. nutrients and vitamins, and rediscovering the importance of regular workouts.

I have also discovered some new wrinkles in vibrational medicine. While this will be a longer story, one that I tell in the journey to optimal health series, for now it is just important to know that there are patches with holograms on them that have proven to me to be successful in raising my energetic levels back to a pre-winter norm. What I like about these new ideas in medicine are that they are in alignment with the concept of the body as energy, and therefore much more malleable to small directional changes within the current Western medical model would allow for. I envision a future where our current medical system seems brutal because we have developed effective and efficient but subtle solution to ill health.

On the business front, I've recently had some great conversations with my friend Patrick, and he is introduced me to a potential new business model. He suggests that over the course of the next period of time I begin to fold my multiple websites into one and use the URL www.AlanaJames.com. He introduced me to www.David McWilliams.ie, the site for an economist in Ireland. It's a good model and one I will consider as I move forward.

Measurable Action
I finished the first iteration of the consulting brochure, with measurements coming in from one of my students and Patrick to help me hone the words. It gets its first test in the real world this coming Thursday as I go into Dublin for a networking meeting. It's Patrick's supposition that I don't want to continue with the Small Firms Association. Therefore, I will be testing out when I think about the Association, and how well it fit with its members, as well.

I did some good printing yesterday, as I not only put together the brochure ware, and the business card for action research consultants but also published two nice-looking brochure packages and sent out the Bahraini proposal in hard copy. It's a nice model, and one I would not hesitate to use again.

I bought the domain www.actionresearchconsultants.com. I put a hold on www.AlanaJames.com. I don't know how the whole hold system works, so unfortunately that adds to my workload. However how are I move forward with websites will not be decided until January when Tracesea, Margie and I do a little retreat and discuss plans for 2011. The 'who will do the work to help' question will be one to sort out, as Tracesea will be a mom by February.

I finally got the first products up on the different websites. I also have made my first €20 through Amazon. Monetizing the sites is a slow process. The funny thing is I can't quite figure out how to I actually got paid at Amazon, so the money have it transferred yet. I will buy myself some lovely something for my Kindle when I do -- a celebration.

Finally, I have started to pull together a new mind movie.  During a Skype conversation I found a new web toy which may allow me to take a picture of myself with money floating down. It's a great visual, and a future measurement is to see how fast I can get this mind movie together. My goal is to have it working prior to the time I leave on the 17th.

The book is also progressing. Chapter 7 was rough drafted and will be sent on to Tracesea for edits today. Chapter 8 has been fleshed out and I will finish drafting it this weekend. The hundred and one articles in the hundred days is also progressing. With Tracesea putting them up after I write them the task became doable. It just goes to show that if the speaker dreams are going to continue I must always make sure that I have the help I need running in the background.

Reflections
It's good to lay out what has been going on by doing this reflective protocol. It helps me see the forest instead of just the trees. It's nice to live up to my own standards, and as I write more and more about action research and the need for reflective practice I must also commit to doing it myself. Along with reflective practice I want to commit to continuing as a writer for an entire year. That would mean 365 articles or solid pieces of writing to be done during 2011. With the house fill-in for Christmas, and the dark evenings and mornings, I settled into a nice routine on getting lots of writing done. The challenge be out of work ahead so that travel doesn't put me behind. And 2011 has quite a bit of travel in it.

Patrick's vision is that at the end of the day it's all about me, and I'm branding myself across the web. I mind that less and less as I get used to the idea and I see others doing it. It's interesting because it takes me back to a place I left behind before the Zappa quilt adventure.  What comes with that brand would be a greater participation in speaking events, which of course I would love. It's just the steps from here to there that are still vague. The interaction in all of these decisions is between business and marketing. Of course websites are one strong marketing tool, if when you can get traffic to them. Handing out brochures is another marketing tool, but then you have to get brochures in the hands of people who need the information. I am also considering direct marketing in some way, but then I have to know who I am marketing to and how to get to them. Each idea brings questions with it.

What do I want to do with my life? What are the legacy I want to me? The greatest woman is that people should follow their dreams. I built up a lot of wisdom about dream following and I want to pass it on and be an inspiration for those who need it at the time they need it most. This is what I want to do with my life. The fact that I have some expertise in action research may get me in the door to talk to people and businesses who in essence just want to follow their dreams. I would love to speak to large audiences, so how do I become a Martha Wielder? Hers is a model we should look at -- whether others?
Yes
I remember networking events as being people without jobs meeting other people without jobs -- or at least those who are not where they want to be meeting those were also not where you want to be. Not that some interesting new contacts Happen, or that they aren't a good place to test out a new idea, I am also looking to pass the word about action research consultants to an audience that may actually have work. I just have to trust that action research consultants is clearly a good solid path and let that path open in front of me. It's time for some synchronicity to set in.

The websites continue to be one of the burdens on my life that crunch my time. Having help has been beneficial. Perhaps I don't use them enough, or perhaps I'm just slow in making certain kinds of progressions, I need to put certain new tasks up on my list of things to do before the end of January. These include e-mail responses to people who sign up for the site -- auto responders. I see now that my actions take me to a vision that has some challenges. These include: my sites will always be relatively small on traffic because mine ideas and directions are not part of the norm. Therefore to make a quick students to business products profitable, do I need to have multiple sites that lead people to the same buying outcomes? This would be a strategy much like having multiple stores but only selling a few things.

The nice thing about websites is that they can come and go relatively easily. One of the questions that I bring to my yearly retreat is how to first and fastest make money on the web? I think, that doctoral net.com can be a moneymaker. But, I need a model in another sector to see how to do it. I don't think reinventing my or futures probably will ever make much money. If Tracesea agrees with me we may bring those down in order to launch something different. These feel like courageous ideas, because it's ditching something I have years in. Perhaps though I have enough courage to cut out the things that are not currently serving my vision.

The new mind movie then becomes a potentially critical component. We'll see how it goes.

Weekly Report: November 21, 2010

When reinventing life, a solid reflective protocol or reflective practice is necessary - this is the first in a series where Alana makes her business growth transparent using solid action research strategies.

Discovery

What happened this week? - I wrote another article (embarrassing to say one of many) that extolled the virtues of regular reflective protocol. Feeling guilty in that I don't always walk my talk, I decided to put an end to that and to start this weekly reflection on the evolution of my business and ideas. That requires a little catching up so that my readers may understand all the things I have been doing and how I got to this place.

1. In October I unexpected was given the opportunity to suggest a COPAR like program in Bahrain – one aimed at helping the ministry for education to help their principals and teachers improve curricula aimed at creating independent and critical thinkers, capable of being entrepreneurs.

2. My second book is progressing in fits and starts. It's title will be: Action Research for Business, Nonprofits and Public Administration: A Tool for Complex Times

3. I have taken on the challenge to write 101 articles in 100 days – now about day 55.

4. I have started to work Tracesea on a part time basis – she will catch up the publication of my articles to the web, to ezine and to be spun and article marketed.

5. I am actively reading “GetAbstracts” on consulting and small business – I have learned/remembered ways of doing business such as contracts (will need a solicitor) and requiring 1/3^rd up front, half way through and at the end. So for a large contract as with Bahrain the freedom to rearrange other work comes with the contract.

I have found that I have both the motivation and the time to write – but not to publish. Therefore it is a good use of my resources to have that part done by others. This will allow me to put my energies toward marketing RL Enterprises as a set of websites and services that help individuals, businesses and government offices through using action research to develop locally designed solutions and create internally driven professional development. These solutions and designs for training will be more efficient, effective and at lower cost than if they outsourced or paid consultants.

Measurable Action

My baseline is that until I took on the 100 day challenge and then went to Bahrain I had not considered merging what I had started (the websites) with my expertise in action research. Now it seems like a no-brainer, a natural evolution and I am almost embarrassed not to thought of it earlier. Part of my baseline is the previous 5 year project in the United States, part of it is my teaching of action research at CTU and another part are my books. Merge all these with regular articles, which Tracesea is not spinning and web publishing and it seems a lot of capacity has been brought to bear on this idea quickly. My steps to date are:

1. I have written a total of 18 articles on some aspect of using action research to improve life, business, or education.

2. I submitted a proposal to the Kingdom of Bahrain for a Train-th-Trainer hub and spoke PAR design.

I do not have any measurements of success as of yet. As I wrote, the articles are slow in getting published, but Tracesea is attacking that so it should change soon. Then we can track how they are noticed and the relative improvement of visits to my site.

I have also heard that things move slowly in Bahrain – we will see.

Nevertheless I am psyched and ready to take on other opportunities to test other opportunities to consult and facilitate action research groups. Perhaps €500 for a consult and then €100 a month for access to an online classroom set up for your group? There is a Small Firms Association networking night coming up in December and I will prepare a brochure and business card for the event.

I can see progress. And as with all progress, there is more work to bring the other things (professorship, writing, and websites) into line with these new ideas and actions. Progress seems slow when I look at how little it seems I can get done in a week – but speedy when I look at how much I have done this year.

Reflection

I am excited by these changes. It seems as though a long lost part of my personal capacity has been reawakened. This feels as though it may be the end of the five year cycle of change that started with the relocation to Ireland. When I start to lead action research groups again I will have finished re-opening all the boxes of my life that I had to pack up in order to make the move to Europe.

My next steps are to work on marketing myself and this firm as consultants. I like the elevator pitch that RL Enterprises is a set of websites and services that help individuals, businesses and government offices through using action research to develop locally designed solutions and create internally driven professional development. These locally driven solutions and designs for training will be more efficient, effective and at lower cost than if the company or government outsourced or paid consultants to design and implement them.

Next Steps:

I should start carving out time to network – I 'll see how it goes in Dublin and then redesign a campaign for the new year. I'll ask Tracesea to look into social marketing opportunities and carve out time to work with Alan and Tracesea on the Facebook site. Done properly the marketing should be positive for both my consulting, the articles and website and the book.

I have friends I think that can help.  Since John is involved in a business growth group in Kinsale I will ask him about it. Also since Patrick was so helpful on the sites I will ask him to take a look at brochures.

Trying to start a new way of living? Wanting to reinvent part of your life but feeling tired? Four simple steps give you a reality check to help your feelings of whether and to what extent you are making progress towards your goals.  Picture a big uphill learning curve. The first parts are the hardest, inertia works against you and much of what makes this hard is lack of momentum. The important thing to remember is that you may have taken on a long process, if so, any ONE period of time will not be significant. What will count is how you put them all together.   Let me tell a story about myself that illustrates this point. 

The longest journey starts with a single step: Proverb

Many people may be faced with reinventing their lives. Some will come to it by choice and others by necessity but it has been my belief that the human ability to start over, take what we have learned and apply it in new settings or problems is one of the greatest gifts of our humanity. Living in troubling and complex times, this skill is needed by many.

An examination of where we want to go, the obstacles we face, and the support systems we can count on encourages us to "shoot for the moon" while grounding us in the "here and now" realities of our lives. It is our ability to maneuver through the tensions between our dreams (moving our hearts and bodies forward) and our current connections (conservative, holding us in place) that will determine the sustainability of our success. My mother used to use the phrase, "Don't run off half cocked" or "You are like a chicken without its head." She was trying to tell me that my current zest and enthusiasm were not grounded in anything.

On the other hand, people who want

Good morning world!

In this business of creating the life we want, of creating happiness or of reinventing ourselves there are twists and turns in the road we have to be aware of.  About a week ago I got in infection, and subsequently the doctor gave me 10 days worth of full range antibiotics. The result has been very interesting,

The latest update on my own "creating the life you want" journey is how much fun I am having writing my bike. We then added a couple of months now, starting slow, moving on to a relatively short trek to Sandycove, and eventually, this last Saturday, a 12 mile ride from here to Ballinspittle. Bike riding in Ireland is not about distance, it's about hills. But bike riding for me is about my journey to optimal health. When a person is interested in reinventing her life, it can only go so far as her health and energy allows it.  I have to say it took a lot of mind power, a lot of personal belief, the help of a great plan for Fitness in the PHMiracle, and a fabulous support group routing for me - but altogether it WORKED!

As I've written elsewhere, by last December I was pretty well de-conditioned, a term used by the health profession for people in old age, when there is nothing physically wrong, but a mixture of attitude and lack of exercise, combined with poor diet leaves a person habitually lethargic. It's hard to be in a great reload or to feel like you a lot done when it hurts to walk. From this short synopsis, you can see how important it is to me, to be able to say, "oh I spent my Saturday morning writing from here to Ballinspittle via the Old Head."At one point in the ride I had a wild vision of taking this even further, going out to Old Head, and then writing on a small walk singletrack road by the sea. It was magnificent.

The fantastic thing about good health and an interest in some kind of activity is that you keep coming back to it because you enjoy it so much. Given that I couldn't have contemplated doing it a year ago, maybe I enjoy it that much more. It feels like constant daily confirmation that even seemingly impossible hurdles can be gotten over, and that life can go on being everything we want it to be.

I'll stop now, but I'd love to hear some of your stories about how you felt when you work hard and got something you really

One of the fantastic things about reinventing our lives is when we unexpected bump into "birds of a feather" - others who seem to hit it off with our ideas easily.  When you reinvent your life you need to keep singing, keep focusing on the happy and the potential of life!   Ruth Howard, a virtual friend is one person who seems to agree - and she adds to the silly song that is growing here with a great new verse.

I'm allowing myself the full hearted feeling
the full hearted feeling
the full hearted feeling (heartfelt?)
I'm allowing myself the full hearted feeling
of living what I want!

Please feel free to add other verses as we go and thanks to all who are now humming or singing along!

9 July, 2010

My nephew told me that it is not how well we exercise that matters, but how well we go back to exercise when we have stopped. I think this is the truth about every aspect of reinventing our lives, or creating success. As an example, my current dreams include: 100% health, three active Web businesses creating solid cash flow, and reaching a growing population of readers and viewers for the three things that matter most to me, building great personal lives, solid businesses, and new designs for education. Most weeks I chip away at small aspects of each of these dreams and over the course of the month I can see real progress.

And then we have weeks like this week. I did a lot, but little of it advanced my dreams. To turn to my nephews wisdom then, what matters most is not how well I did this week but how well I would go to building my dreams after this week. I feel a little discouraged when I look back, but I feel hopeful and excited when I look forward. As Abraham/Hicks reminds us -- the only thing that matters is that we feel good. So I sit here this morning working on feeling good and advancing some small part of my dreams. Since blogging both advances my dreams and helps me feel good that is what I am doing.

What are the tricks of I learned that helped me get back on building my dreams when I stop? Well there is the time management tool that Tracesea and I designed this spring, and while it premature to roll it out and tell you all about it, one of the best things is that you give yourself more point for doing tasks that advance your dreams than for doing the mundane things that may distract you and catch your attention like e-mail.

So that is where I will leave this blog today, asking you what are you going to do today? What points will you give the mundane versus the dream building? And what is the one action you can take that will bring you the most joy? Of course you will give that the most points.

Thanks for reading! - Alana

 

 

6 July, 2010

Tracesea and I are re doing this website, reinventing its life, you might say (smile). As I do web work,  I celebrate the fact that I am so much better at it than I was just a short year plus a few months ago when I started.  Still, there are some things, even small things, that drag on.  Today however I am delighted by the end result of one.  The words that show up in a tab at the top of the browser window have been haunting me.  We installed the new template, quantive, and the name of the template continue to stay in the Tab.  Dutifully, I went to the forums, and asked how to change it.  And, as usual, I was reminded of where this little thing hangs out.  That is when inspiration hit!

If you are using a browser that has tabs you will see it.  Our new tab says "Change Your World!" And that is what Tracesea and I know we are building here, a site where we share those tools and ideas to help us change our world, transform life, and get to travel along with people like you, who are also building exactly the life you want.  Please keep your comments, ratings, and ideas coming.  We all learn from them, and that is what we are here to do -- keep on learning!