Lamisha Serf-Walls

My First Testimonial!

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Yesterday I gave you an update on what I have been doing behind the scenes and today I am going to share with you my very first testimonial!

I asked Erin M.  (aka my guinea pig client) if she would be willing to write a 100% honest testimonial based on her experience working with me over the last 2 months and I was blown away by her kind words.  I have not made any changes, tweaks, or adjustments to her testimonial and am sharing it as it was delivered to me.

This is what Erin had to say about her experience working with me.

“A few short months ago, I would have described myself as teeming with potential, yet unsure of how to tap into and harness that incredible power. In a journal entry two years prior, I had written nearly the exact same thing. I suddenly realized that my situation wasn’t going to change until I took action. However, I had no idea know where to begin.

My vision of the future was steeped in hopeless daydreams and laced with far more fear than excitement. I wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t think that I was qualified or that people would pay for my services. Through her poignant questions, objective observations, and practical suggestions, Lamisha helped me find the clarity and confidence necessary to actively dream and scheme towards my ideal future. She helped me realize that my “silly little hobby” was actually a solid foundation on which to build a sustainable income. In my eight weeks working with Lamisha, I have transitioned from “I hope to be a writer someday” to proudly declaring myself a writer and sharing my dreams with others.

Lamisha encouraged me to follow my inspiration, which led to an incredible series of synchronous opportunities, as well as the courage to walk away from a “perfect” situation that did not feel right. I have since learned to trust and fully embrace the journey. My comfort zone has been expanding exponentially, and I’m realizing that the periphery is a safe place in which I can challenge myself and grow. As that “safe zone” has expanded, so too has my self-confidence.

Being held accountable for my personal dreams suddenly made them feel both achievable and imminent. Lamisha not only believed in my dreams, but supported my efforts along the way. Small achievements–such as having a piece published and joining Toastmasters–felt monumental when I could share with someone who had invested in my success; whereas I could be assured that creeping self-doubt–such as fear of applying for freelance work–is normal. The second I spilled out my biggest dreams and the second that Lamisha chose to believe in my potential, I knew that I had no choice but to achieve greatness.”

I am so grateful for this wonderful experience that consistently reaffirms that this is the work I am meant to do and I am so happy to share it with all of my readers and future clients.

P.S. If you are thinking about working with a coach and want to find out more about how I work, please don’t hesitate to send me an email.  I will be announcing some exciting information next week about free introductory coaching calls, my services, and special pricing, but if you just can’t wait to get started, send me an email to lamisha@lifeoncedreamt.com and I will give you the inside scoop a week early!

My Flying Leap-Update

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As many of you know I made a conscious decision to take a leap of faith and move forward with one of my dreams to become a life coach.  I created this blog as a way to share my insights and build a readership with the intention that it would soon turn into my website for my coaching business.  Little did I know it would happen sooner rather than later.

At the end of April I made the announcement that instead of continuing to wait for pieces to fall into place I was following my inspiration to create my own coaching model.  Within a week of my flying leap post, I had my model outline and I was overflowing with ideas and inspiration for what I wanted my business to become.  About a week later an amazing thing happened, I had secured a guinea pig client to work with using my model!

For the last two months I have been working with Erin McNaughton aka my guinea pig client and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such an amazing writer and story-teller.  It seems as if the stars aligned perfectly for Erin and I to work together just a few short weeks after I decided to create my own model.  As I said before my inspiration was overflowing and I was allowing it to take me wherever I needed to go in order to fulfill my dreams.  While not worrying about how I was going to find clients or how I would be able to test my model, I read this post, one of many beautiful pieces Erin shares on her blog.  I shared my thoughts in the comments section and offered my assistance for what it was worth and as they say, the rest is history.

In the time we have been working together, I have seen a transformation in a woman who once dreamt of becoming a writer and now proudly announces that she IS a writer.  She has made some incredible strides in her journey as she follows her inspiration including having her latest post listed on The Art of Non-Conformity website for her description of the World Domination Summit 2013 and “Portland as a mecca for superheroes.”

I am so grateful for the opportunity to connect and coach such a talented woman and am honored to be able to witness the journey of one dreamer living the life she once dreamt.

Tomorrow I will be sharing how Erin feels about working with me for those of you thinking of hiring a coach to move you forward on your path.  I hope you will check out her website at www.analyfe.com.  I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Dreamer Highlight: Elizabeth Harper From Sealed With Love

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image property of Elizabeth Harper www.sealedwithlove.com
image property of Elizabeth Harper www.sealedwithlove.com

Lately I have been drawn to dreamers who give in fully to the inspirational pull they have and in doing so, find a wide variety of dreams waiting for them.  I think part of the reason I am drawn to these type of dreamers is because I am one of them.  I have never been a woman to do just one thing.  In fact I have always had some sort of midnight hustle in addition to my day job that fulfilled the creative soul within me.  I have choreographed pieces, coached dance teams, taught dance, and am now writing and beginning my life coaching business.  I am convinced we aren’t meant to do just one thing and if we were able to remove all doubt that blocks our progress, we all would be doing 2,3, or 4 things that fills us with joy.

This week’s Dreamer Highlight is a woman with bubbling passion, creativity, and ingenuity in all of the wonderful things she does.

Elizabeth Harper is an intuitive medium and healer as well as an author, artist, spiritual teacher, and creative soul.  Not only does she do various intuitive readings for her clients, but she also attends and teaches various workshops to teach clients how to tap into their intuition and use it in their every day lives. She also allows her creativity to take flight in her art that includes amazing jewelry, silk energy wraps, meditations, and her book Wishing: How to Fulfill Your Heart’s Desires.

What I love about Elizabeth Harper is her vibrant energy (which can be seen in her weekly Colorscope intuitive readings on Youtube) and her love of life.  She follows her heart in all of her pursuits and simply does what makes her happy whether it is creating amazing fairy wing pendants or following her intuition to create personalized energy wraps for her clients.  Her energy is contagious and she is the ultimate dreamer.  To find out more information about Elizabeth and her amazing work, check out her website Sealed With Love.

The more I do this post, the more I realize how many people find that their path just unfolds almost effortlessly when they follow their hearts.  There may be small challenges to overcome, but generally speaking each step of their path unfolds in exactly the right time and without a lot of “work” on their part.  Instead of planning, stressing, and worrying in order to make something happen, they find that the more they follow their hearts, the easier it becomes.  And you don’t just have to do one thing.  You can do many things if they bring you joy!

So what are you waiting for?  Go find your joy!!

Gratitude: Telling A Different Story

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Over the last few weeks in my rush to get things done, I have missed my gratitude posts and I am feeling the effects.  Instead of reflecting back on each week with wonder and appreciation, I am finding myself returning to a mindset of “if only” and lots of frustration about seemingly small blips on my emotional radar.  I have also found that my meditation practice has been very hit or miss and that is also affecting what I like to call my emotional feng shui.  With that said, I wanted to make sure I got back on track with both meditating and my gratitude practice because I know how important both practices are for my growth and sanity.

Coming back from a week-long vacation can be a bit jarring and uncomfortable for some and I had a few ups and downs myself trying to get back into my daily groove.  While I found myself appreciating the time off, I was also more cranky than usual.  Outside my moments of crankiness I took on an observer role to figure out the cause (if any) and to see what it was that was causing me to head down a much-traveled-never-turns-out-good-road that I have experienced before.

Here’s what I realized…

I have read many blogs and articles about “telling a different story” and while I understood what the phrase meant, it never hit me emotionally.  It seems I only understood it on an intellectual level and never really applied it to my life.  Maybe I was in denial or maybe as a student of life, I wasn’t ready to receive the message.  Either way, I now understand.

We all have certain characteristics that have become a part of our emotional, psychological, moral and spiritual fabrics.  Many times we don’t take the time to question if the story we tell is still true as we say things like, “I’m not a good communicator.” or “I’ve never been good with writing.”  We even use these stories to describe others based on how we perceive them and yet we never once question if the story we are telling about ourselves or others still holds true.

We have grown so accustomed to living in a space of familiarity that we will hang on to an understanding of someone, something, or ourselves so much that we assume we have it figured out.  (And you know what they say about assuming.)  Instead of coming into situations and experiences with fresh eyes and a sense of discovery, we use our memories as the be-all, end-all truth.  But the funny thing about life is that things are always changing.

The person I am today is not who I will be tomorrow and the person I was yesterday is gone, yet when we have a death grip on what we know to be true about ourselves or someone else, we leave no room for learning anything different.  And when we have a set expectation of how someone is going to act or react (including ourselves), we generally experience the exact expectation we set forth in the beginning.

So, this week as I was going through some personal challenges, I began thinking about my story.  My story about success, work, relationships, my partner, and the story about who I am and I began to wonder what would happen if I told a different story in each of those areas?  What if instead of telling the same old tired story of lack, frustration, hurt, and any other negative emotion I thought was the truth, I told a different story?  How different would my experience be?

I must admit the idea felt refreshing yet foreign.  I had never consciously attempted to change my own description of what I had always known myself and others to be.  What I found is that like any life or perspective change, it takes time.  I won’t magically begin describing myself as a laid back, go with the flow person in every scenario that I experience, but slowly I can begin changing my story to reflect the person I am becoming.

I am so grateful for this life changing thought that has allowed me the freedom to change how I experience the world around me.  I now know I don’t have to live in the confines of who I always was (or thought I was) and can move into new territory where I am the writer of my reality.

You are too.

I challenge you to take some time this weekend to explore the stories you use to describe yourself or others and see how those same old stories are creating your very existence.  See some things you don’t like?  Try to re-frame and re-phrase your story to reflect what you want to see.  It may feel foreign at first, but just as the caterpillar takes time to transition into a beautiful butterfly, your new story will take some time too.

Be patient and kind with yourself as you explore new territory, but most of all enjoy the freedom of creating your reality, including living the life of your dreams.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and as always thank you for reading!

Never Stop Dreaming

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I subscribe to a lot of inspirational newsletters and blogs and one hit my inbox yesterday that left me thinking ” Yes, Yes, Yes!!”  That post was one from amazeballs life coach, singer, song-writer, and actress Michelle Ward of When I Grow Up Coach.  She is someone I have long admired along my journey to fulfill my dreams of becoming a life coach and someone I have mentioned on more than one occasion on my blog.

Her post yesterday was about re-energizing her dreams and the realization she had at the World Domination Summit last week that she had stopped dreaming big.  Instead she was being realistic and responsible and likely thinking about what was logical about where her business and her creative life would end up and instead of writing a real post, I am going to leave you with the link to her post.

I encourage you to read it and ask yourself when was the last time you had a whopper of a dream?

May it breathe new life into your imagination and inspire you to dust off your imagination and allow it to float you high into the clouds to dream big.

You can read her post here.  I promise you it is well worth it.