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Browse published articles attributed to Gail Barker, with full-archive search.
As someone who's got some pretty big goals that I'm working towards, I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. My focus has been on some of the traditionally great thinkers in the area of law of attraction, success, positive thinking and goal achievement — you know, Napolean Hill, James Allen, Bob Proctor and the like.
One of the words that is used a lot in everyday conversation is the word “but.” Usually, it’s considered to be a pretty benign word, or at least that’s my impression given the way in which it’s carelessly bandied about. I mean it’s a fairly small word, seemingly innocuous enough. I think, grammatically-speaking, it would be a conjunction, although I’m not really sure of that, so don’t quote me. All this being said, what I want you to think about for a moment is the inherent meaning of the word “but”. When you use this word.
“The reality is…” Years ago, when I was first engaged in my training to be a professional life coach, I learned in a pretty dramatic way how the use of this simple and fairly pervasive statement was a sure-fire way to keep me from creating life as I actually want it. The phrase itself is brilliantly seductive; I mean, who wants to argue with reality? Well, in the interest of serving what I believe to be my purpose, I’m going to give it a valiant effort. How often do you find yourself using the phrase, “The reality is…”? And what’s it generally in reference to?
I’ll bet the title question has you just a little stumped. Maybe perplexed. And maybe not. Regardless, the idea of limits is what we’re going to explore in this article. More specifically, we’re going to look at limits in the context of how you create your life. One of the things that is important when you set about to create the life that you want for yourself, life on your terms, is for you to know your capabilities, your passions, your talents, and your limits.
For this article I'm going to do things a little differently and just start with the bottom line. The answer to the title question is, "yes, honesty is the best policy when it comes to relationships."
"I win!!!"
The last couple of weeks have been a little nutty – time-wise – in my world. This isn’t overly surprising; every year at this time things get a little hairy as my family and I adjust to everyone’s post summer schedules, and try to coordinate all of them with as much ease as possible.
"The Choice is Yours." The previous statement is one that is so often forgotten, especially when it comes to the business of living life. In the midst of the daily grind that most people move through, with the competing demands of work schedules, family commitments, personal needs and perceived wants, it's easy to abdicate responsibility, simply allowing "life" to dictate how things unfold.
I’m so confused; it just doesn’t make sense; something doesn’t add up. These phrases, or ones similar to them, are ones which I hear often. Whether I’m working with colleagues, chatting with friends, conversing with my family or just being in the vicinity of a conversation in a restaurant, at some point someone, somewhere is bound to utter these words. Why is that? Well, here’s my take on it, after observing and experiencing a wide variety of confusing scenarios over the years
For as long as I can remember – I have been called an optimist. This is a term that I embrace and love. When somebody calls me an optimist, I feel truly seen and understood. I feel like my habitual way of showing up in the world is spot-on with how I wish to be experienced – I feel like I’m making choices that represent what I really want for myself – yay me!
One of the biggest challenges that many of my clients bring to their coaching sessions revolves around achieving life balance. This is not surprising when you consider that we live in a world where there is so much going on, so many choices to make, and a myriad of demands on our time. Given the fast-paced nature of the world in which we live, how exactly does one achieve the ever-coveted state of “balance”? This article -- the first of a two-part series -- will start to guide you in the right direction.
Now, that’s a different sort of question isn’t it? I mean, at first glance, you might think I’m talking about a fugitive, or that you’re involved in a hide-and-seek conspiracy with your children. But that actually is not what I’m referring to at all. Instead, I’m talking about you, yourself and you.
These days, there seems to be a lot of discussion in the world about “life purpose”. Certainly, I experience this to be the case in the various circles in which I find myself. Oh, the degree varies; the form and substance of the conversation changes. But the upshot of it all is the same: why am I here on this planet? My guess is that the popularity of this topic stems, at least in part, from the influence of individuals like Oprah, who often talk about discovering their purpose and the resulting sense of joy, fulfillment and excitement that comes from living into that.
This article is all about personal responsibility. When it comes to living your life in alignment with who you are and what's important to you, it is imperative that you take responsibility for all aspects of your life. Feelings, responses, actions, reactions, choices -- these all fall under ...
I have had the opportunity in recent weeks to notice the busy-ness of the world in which we live. Part of this is a simple reflection of where I am at myself right now. My business is growing and building (which is a great thing). My children are growing and expanding their social worlds (which naturally contributes to the busy-ness of my life as a parent). And I’m slowly expanding the range of activities that I’m involved in, beyond simple income-generation, exploring and dipping my toes in various pools of volunteer work as a means of “giving back.”
I know; you have no idea what I’m referring to in this article’s title, do you? I’m not really trying to be coy, I just couldn’t think of any other way to speak to a learning which I had this week. As so often happens for me, the actual information wasn’t new. But the concrete experience was like none I had ever had before. Let me explain. Obviously, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts over the last week. Something that allowed me to know beyond a shadow of a doubt what was missing before, and what I’m slowly but surely getting enough of now.
We're 4 weeks into a new year, and many of you have likely given up on whatever new year's resolutions you set. Don't beat yourself up; new year's resolutions are inherently fraught with barriers to success -- but that's not what this article is about. Instead, this is the first in a series ...