I spent last week with 20 amazing women, who are also in the entrepreneurial world, in a beautiful house in Vermont. We cooked amazing meals together, exchanged our life stories, shared our dreams for 2014, worked away on our computers to keep the juices in our individual businesses running smoothly, went on walks through the snow, skied, and had a totally goofy talent show (way to step out of my comfort zone). It was amazing and inspiring to be surrounded by women who are also pouring their time, energy, money, and trust into creating their soul’s work.

I believe that surrounding yourself with people who share your vision, inspire new ideas, and motivate you through the challenges that seem toughest is the very first -and most powerful- step in actively creating a life you love. It’s even greater if

If you have been following my blog for a while now, you know that my coaching is based on the principle that embracing your own authenticity (aka. knowing and loving who you are as a woman, friend, daughter, mother, girlfriend, worker, money-maker, care-taker,…) is the key to creating a life you love. I have discovered this over and over again in my own life. When I was stuck and had no clue what I actually wanted to do with my professional life, I first tried to maneuver my way out of confusion by “following the rules” or “doing what I should do.” Guess where I ended up? Yup, you got it… in even more confusion plus added feelings of guilt and self-dislike for still not being happy.

The way to true bliss, flow, and happiness always led me through my own authenticity and that meant that I had to tune out the could-s, should-s, and ought to’s and tune into what actually made me happy as the individual I am. It was through discovering and ditching old patterns and believes about myself that I was able to let go and emerge with confidence, clarity, and direction. From there I could strategize and create opportunities for myself that would take me where I actually wanted to be. Do you see how this is the only way you can be totally on board with the decisions you are making for yourself?

Stepping outside of the box like this often generates a lot of fear in people –fear of the unknown, fear of embarrassment, fear of failure, AND YES, fear of actually getting something and then losing it.

To clarify what I mean, here are examples for what this might look like in your life:

being in a relationship but not deeply surrendering into everything it has to offer for fear of doing something wrong.
putting off making a decision or trying to get other people to make decisions for you, so that you won't feel responsible.
being in a job that you worked really hard to get to but then not really speaking your mind for fear that your ideas might be rejected or that the outcome might be different from what you anticipated.
not letting yourself fully enjoy the present moment because you don’t know what tomorrow will be like.

Basically, you deny yourself the honey life has to offer from the get-go (by not fully participating in your current life) because you are afraid that there might not be enough honey for the rest of your life or that you might be disappointed because the honey won’t taste as sweet as you expected.

Check in with yourself:

Do you make yourself small first so that nothing (love, work, health) and no one (your partner, boss, neighbor, parents) can do it later on?

Do you tend to never let life get really really good so that you cannot be disappointed afterwards?

Is your fear of LOSING IT keeping you from LIVING IT?

So, before this blog post gets too depressing, there are good news: You are still the boss in your own life and once you recognize what you have been hiding from oh so badly (love, romance, work expectations, body image…), once you recognize these powerful ways in which you have chosen not to show up for yourself, you can begin to release, to befriend, to let go, and to change these patterns. You can begin to lead your life with more awareness, more confidence, and more zest so that you can stop sabotaging yourself and actually get what you want.

I have to honestly tell you that I could not have done this work of unveiling, re-vamping, letting go, and strategizing in my own life without the help of mentors and coaches who guided and challenged me through this process.

Patterns are super strong (which is why they are patterns in the first place) and when you add fear on top of it, you got yourself in a pretty sticky situation. Think about it, we repeat patterns (most often unconsciously) over and over for years and sometimes generations, so choosing a new and different path that uniquely suits YOU can be pretty intimidating.

As you can probably sense by now, I am so passionate about sharing this concept of personal authenticity as the fundamental framework for creating a life you love, that I am giving away 5 1-hour long Strategy Sessions (value: $150 each). In this hour, we will laser in on what is currently most challenging for you and what is keeping you stuck. I will help you get really clear on what the next steps are that you need to take in order to move into a direction that feels most authentic to who you are and what you want.

(Why am I giving away 5 sessions NOW, you wonder? Honestly, the last few months have been so busy with getting my new website up and getting all my coaching materials and assignments polished and ready, that I simply didn't have the time to focus on more than a few clients. The last thing I want to do is not deliver the highest standard possible. Afterall, I, too work to set myself up for happiness, balance, and success.)

Ok, here is how you can enter to win one of my 5 FREE Strategy Sessions: All you have to do to qualify for one of these strategy sessions is to email me at Caroline@carolinezwick.com by 12 noon this Thursday, March 21st and let me know what topic, difficulty, or problem you would like to hear more about in a future blog post. I will then randomly select 5 winners and email you with a few different time slots for YOUR personalized Strategy Session. Sounds good? Click here to contact me now. (Subject line: Free Strategy Session with Caroline)

I am so excited to hear from you.