home, car or office that’s cluttered, and enjoy the feeling of spaciousness that fol-
lows. More comprehensive changes may benefit from professional help, says
Richardson, who hired a personal coach at the beginning of her own coaching
career, with life-altering results.
“My home and my work environments became beautiful places to live and
work in,” she recalls. “My finances improved dramatically. I eliminated my debt, I
created an investment plan and I stopped giving away so much of my precious
time and energy to people who didn’t appreciate it.”
Today, Richardson coaches people on how to create lifestyles and environ-
ments that honor their deepest need for things like joy, beauty, rest, creative
expression and peace. She says the pursuit of bigger dreams and desires may take
a back seat to meeting basic needs at first.
“If you’re struggling financially, you should be investing in your financial
health,” says Richardson. “If your house looks like a bomb went off in it, you really
should be focused on making your home environment more soul-nourishing. If
your relationships are one-way streets and they’re not headed in your direction,
you should focus on either telling the truth in your relationships or letting some
toxic people go.”
Create a Circle of Support
When we start to practice these forms of self-care, our real dreams and desires
become more apparent, Richardson says. The challenge is to stay on track, espe-
cially when family members or friends don’t understand or appreciate our new
ways, and old habits slip back in. Without support and accountability, she
observes, most people will fall short of long-lasting success.
To help her readers get and stay on course, Richardson encourages them to
create free Life Makeover™ groups, based on the concepts and practices outlined
in her books. Her website allows people to connect with others on the same path
and to create support groups in their own communities, using guidelines found on
the site. Richardson currently counts about 4,000 such Life Makeover groups
around the world.
In Upton, Massachusetts, Jennifer Copley Downing created her own group
eight years ago, when she felt a need for community and connection. Today, she
has seven “sisters” in her life, who have shared challenges and triumphs around
careers, relationships, health, parenting and elder care.
“Working in groups keeps you accountable and supported; you don’t feel like
you are doing all this alone,” Copley Downing says. “Most important, you can
know that you’re not losing your mind—that others have gone through similar
things and think the same way.”
Little Assists from Lots of Friends
Bob Doyle took the group support idea to a new level when he created the free
Boundless Living Challenge (BLC) on the Internet last summer. Doyle, who teaches
an online program called “Wealth Beyond Reason,” was featured in the movie,
The Secret. The film describes a universal Law of Attraction, wherein a person’s
thoughts, emotions and expectations shape their life experiences. The film encour-
ages viewers to envision the lives of their dreams. In Doyle’s ongoing BLC, thou-
sands of people are doing this in a public forum.
“The idea was to give them an environment to basically state an intention in a
very visible way,” says Doyle. “And, in addition to having the tools and resources
Begin or end each day with a list of 10 things you
appreciate and are grateful for. Write or speak
them aloud, perhaps with a gratitude buddy.
26 Houston
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