Have you ever wanted something so much you were afraid to go after it? Yeah, that’s me right now.  I’m in the process of redesigning my coaching website & blog and I really want it to reflect my true heart’s desire.  But, I feel so vulnerable with it all. You see, I want to explore the topics of:

• Connecting with your Soul
• Receiving your Calling
• Creating your Success

But, I’m afraid I’ll fail. Oh my gosh.  It just hit me that I’m making myself a failure before my site has even been published.  Ouch.  Why am I torturing myself?  I guess the torture feels safer than actually opening my internet doors {read: heart} to the world.  It reminds me of this quote:

“Known hells are safer than unknown heavens.” ~ unknown

I wonder…what am I really afraid of? That people won’t like it?  That people won’t hire me?  But, those are all external factors.  If I were working with a client on this challenge I would ask her to focus on the internal factors: her desires, her message, and her heart.  I would ask her to trust her Soul, her Calling, and herself.

Another aspect to my stuck-ness is that I feel like I have to choose between business or spiritual coaching.  Over the last year I’ve worked mainly with women business owners.  In fact, people refer to me as a business coach.  I do have one foot in the business realm and one foot in the spiritual realm.  The business realm feels so easy in that I know the language and where to go to meet people.  It feels so tangible.

The spiritual realm feels so out of reach. I don’t know exactly how it will work or where to go to meet people.  Wait a minute.  That’s so not true!  I mean, it is how a part of me feels.  But, it isn’t true.  The truth is…I’m a part of a national spirtual community that has totally transformed my life.  I’m taking classes in preparation to enter the Licensed Practitioner program.  In fact…

I am an aspiring spiritual leader!

Whoa.  I “said” it out loud.  Yowza.  It wasn’t even that hard or scary.  You know what?  This is one of those times when thinking about it is worse than actually doing it.  I just need to go claim my Calling, write my web copy, and put it out there.  Wahoo!  I’m outta here…

{fyi ~ my blog is moving to SimplyFearless.com ~ more news to follow when I launch}

Simply Fearless FEMpreneurs

Oh my goodness…I inadvertently called myself one of the most successful FEMpreneurs on the planet! And guess what? I’m not taking it back.

Just this week I decided to dedicate my life coaching practice to  FEMpreneurs {women business owners & founders} and so I rewrote my bio blurb.  Check it out:

If you were to look at Coach Cassandra Rae’s life on paper you would think that she’d be living in the projects and on welfare. In fact, there were many a peeps who told her just that. You see, her life has taken her through domestic violence, homelessness, the welfare system, teenage pregnancy, miscarriage, divorce, drugs, and abortion. And yet, she has risen above it all. As a single mother, she put herself through Hartnell College and the University of California, Berkeley. She has learned how to turn all of her life’s challenges into stepping stones. Today she thrives with her husband and daughter in Sunnyvale, California where she runs her own Life Coaching Practice. She is one of the most unexpected and successful FEMpreneurs on the planet. If she can do it, so can you!

I really only intended for “the most” part to apply to the unexpectedness and not the successful piece, but now that it’s published I am going to leave it as-is.  Oy! The voice of fear is totally piping up, but I am not going to let it stop me.

Do I see myself as one of the most successful FEMpreneurs on the planet? Well, yes and no. Do I qualify in terms of dollars? No. But, do I qualify in terms of talent, passion, and dedication? OH HECK YES!

So I am putting down my editing pen and letting it stand as a declaration to the world {and myself!} that I am one of the most successful FEMpreneurs on the planet.  Here I come, Oprah!

I have 28 winning photos this week. Woohoo!  Which reminds me…when I was about to speak at the Social Media Bootcamp I realized that I’m not a Woo-Woo Coach…I’m a Woohoo Coach!  Seriously folks, every time I’m in a group setting I get everyone pumped up with a good ‘ol woohoo!  It feels so good.  In fact, why don’t you give yourself a little woohoo right now? Go ahead…you’ll feel better, I promise!

Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way I have continued with the 100 Things I Fear challenge and this past week I totally faced a classic fear: they’re going to think I’m stupid.  Go ahead and click through to read that one because who hasn’t been afraid of looking stupid?  You know what the really ironic thing about this fear is? You usually do something “stupid” when you’re not expecting it at all.  So if the fear of looking stupid is holding you back, then go ahead and do whatever it is you’re thinking about doing because just the fact that you’re wondering about looking stupid probably means that you’re not going to look stupid.  Did that just make sense?! I don’t know, but the bottom line is: just do it!

Enough rambling already…here are 4 of this week’s photographic gems and you can click through to my flickr set to view the rest.  This week I posted inspirational messages with each photo so please click through, look, & read and make it worth all of my time & effort!

Question

One of the best ways to discover your answers is to ask

Submerge

Immerse yourself in what you love

Focus

Choose what to focus on – what will you see?

Independence

The best kind of independence is when you’re far enough away to stand on your own and close enough to stand together

Seriously I have 2 dozen more Weekly Winners with inspirational messages right here.  Oh yeah, and please visit Lotus @ Sarcastic Mom the host of our little weekly photo party!

I lied to hide my feelings, my talent, my anger, my vulnerability, my past, my family, my belief in God, my fear, myself, and my humanity.  I was so used to lying I thought I was telling the truth.  I didn’t know in my mind I was lying, but I knew in my heart.  Deep down I felt it. It touched me in rare, open moments like while I was showering.  A wave of sadness would wash over me for no apparent reason.  It took all of my energy not to cry.  I would tell myself there was no reason to cry and rush myself out of the shower, the moment, and most of all…the feeling.

I felt it when my eyes would flutter open in the afternoon after a whole night of drinking, dancing, and debauchery {read: sex without love or relationship}.  I was so numb and hungover; and yet, the numbness would always bump up against something within me that told me I was hiding.  That this wasn’t the way.  I would shut down as soon as possible with another lie.  It probably went something like, “I’m fine.”

In my very first private coaching session, I knew I couldn’t lie anymore.  And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to.  It was because I knew she could see right through them.  She could see me.  The real me.  The thing is…she liked me.  She saw me and like me.  She wanted to support me through the ugly.  No one else had ever showed up for me like that.

So I told the part of me that wanted to run away and never look back that that was it.  We’re doing this thing called coaching and we’re going to stop lying.  No more running.  It’s time to face up.  Oh and boy did we ever!

We stripped away those lies piece by piece, bit by bit, until I arrived at myself.  And wow! I’d never known myself like this before.  You mean, I wasn’t a terrible monster? Nope!  I found that I was a lovable person with human fears, flaws, and foibles.  And it was in the very things I tried to hid that I found the beauty in my life, my experience, and myself.

I am okay. I am me. I am beautiful. And I am human.  I’ve only ever wanted…okay, I can’t think of one or even a few words to describe this longing, but I do know that by embracing all of me – even the liar – no, wait especially the liar – I have become just that: {no, not a bigger liar!} I’ve become:

ME.

Simply.

Beautifully.

Me.

Foibles and all.

In this video {2:50} I laugh, I cry, I coach myself on the spot, and I share about 100 Things I Fear. Here’s the link that explains it all: http://www.cassandrarae.com/100-things-i-fear/

Oh!  And it’s also great to use when you’re stressed out!

In this short video {2:45} I come to you live, without any makeup, after running and all sweaty – good thing you can’t smell through video! I just couldn’t wait to give you this gift. This video is for whenever you are feeling down, unloved, or lonely. Visit this video whenever you need some love.

Oh my heaven…I’m in heaven! I came over to the Palo Alto Art Center to register for the Book Class and I thankfully brought my camera. There is a community garden next door with a plethora of photo opps. My soul was quite literally shouting in ecstasy as I browsed the twisted aisles of fresh veggies and flowers. It is crazy beautiful here! What a blessing. And I’m blown away by how much it nourished my Soul.

Wow.

This is it. I’m really in a groove here. My newsletter went out this morning and it was smokin’! My next Coaching Call is filling up. I’m connecting with new people. The books are under way and the ideas are flowing. Thank you Soul!

And now I’m basking in the beauty of this amazing garden.  The above photo is by far one of my all-time favorites.  It’s so soft and colorful.  Oh and FYI no post-processing!

click here to view all of my photos on flickr

In this video I talk about the biggest barrier to living Your Simply Fearless Life and give you some key phrases to watch for so that you can catch yourself in the process!

Here is the link to what I talk about in the video.

{note for email subscribers: to watch this 3 min video click the title above}

Every Sunday Lotus over at Sarcastic Mom holds a photo party where everyone is invited to share their best photos from the week. Here are mine along with some of my personal wins for the week:

I posted the invitation for my upcoming free Simply Fearless Coaching Call!

I posted my very first video blog all about connecting with your heart!

I found heaven!

I talked to God who told me to forget all about doing a good job!

I explored the topic of productivity at work

SimplyFearless.com was nominated for the best wordpress design!