As 2015 comes to a close, I am looking at what I accomplished and what I want to achieve in 2016. With this introspection, I am also becoming aware of the trap of focusing on achievement, versus accomplishment.

Our society holds achievers in high esteem. In fact the definition of achievement is:
Something accomplished, especially by superior ability, special effort, great courage, etc.; a great or heroic deed (Dictionary.com).

I realize that I have spent a lot of my life focusing on achievement, and I find that it is rarely attainable, especially when the person who is judging whether or not I was successful is my greatest critic (me). So achievement has been illusory and arbitrary. I can see how I have been, and so many people are, paralyzed and don’t take action because of the risk of failure. And failure, from our warped perspective (based on popular culture), is anything less than grand achievement.

But as I have been focusing on living a Divinely guided life, I have come to understand that we are here to do things – to participate in this world. We are here to create and serve. So I have shifted my focus from achievement to what I want to accomplish. This focuses on the effort instead of the result. This allows the Universe to participate and allows me to focus on what is mine to do, and what is not mine to do. When I do this, the results are usually unexpected and miraculous.

I begin with connecting deeply to the Divine truth within myself to see what I want to create, what is needed from me, and/or wants to come through me in service and joy. From here I ask: what actions are needed to bring this into form? What do I need to accomplish to bring this creation into being? I then do it and trust the outcome.

When I focus on accomplishment, I can stay task oriented, grounded and just focus on doing my best (from the Four Agreements, taught by one of my favorite teachers, don Miguel Ruiz). Here is the definition of Accomplishment:

1. an act or instance of carrying into effect; fulfillment: the accomplishment of our desires.
2. something done admirably or creditably: Space exploration is a major accomplishment of science.
3. anything accomplished; deed; achievement: a career measured in a series of small accomplishments.

(Dictionary.com).

I have become a master of accomplishment in my life. I can say that without my ego getting to involved, as it is true. Whether or not what I have accomplished is bad, good, or considered a great achievement is irrelevant. The people I know who have truly achieved great things are those who have focused on the tasks at hand, and have gotten the job done. They have taken action, and thus have accomplished something. This is where the miracles happen.

One of the things I continue to do is help others accomplish wonderful things in their lives. Whether it is in partnership with a renewable energy business startup, or as a teacher and coach helping individuals find and unleash their intrepid creativity, I love to share the very practical tools of Divine Mastery for fulfilling accomplishment.

What are you planning to accomplish in 2016? How do you think about achievement in your life? Did this article help you? I would love to hear from you.

Blessing,

Diane Dandeneau

Diane Dandeneau is a startup consultant, artist, author, singer, songwriter, speaker, renewable energy specialist, and spiritual teacher. She helps people accomplish what they truly desire; creating the miraculous life they have come to live.
www.dianedandeneau.com

Thank you for signing up to receive: Talk to God AND Get the Answers in 5 Easy Steps.  Below is the link to the PDF of your free gift.  I would love to hear your experience with your journals with God.  Please feel free to post below.

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Good morning everyone!  I am excited to share the next incarnation of the Daily Reminders from the Journals with God.  This next chapter has been revealed to me through God and several angels who have come into my life.  I thought I would be going back and posting what God had written to me these past 16 months.  But no, it will be mostly new, and from a place of sharing what God has wanted me/us to learn, and what I have been learning from the teaching.  So, starting today, you will again be receiving the Daily Reminders from the Journals with God, from a whole new perspective.

With this, I will also be writing my book with the title that will be something like:  The Year of Awakening through the Journals with God.  A journey from depression, addiction, and heartbreak to Self realization, empowerment, and love.  Kinda long, but I think captures the experience.  If you have any other ideas, let me know.

I am so grateful for your presence in my life.  I am humbled by this experience and hope it is helpful you.  I feel compelled to continue to share this writing, the teachings from God, and the joy and transformation that I am experiencing in this wild wonderful journey!  Please feel free to share these with anyone you think would benefit.

Love, Diane

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Copyright, Diane Dandeneau, 2015

The Author of the upcoming book:
The Year of Awakening through the Journals with God
A journey from depression, addiction and heartbreak to Self realization, empowerment and love

Good morning God.  As I am thinking about what I am doing going into this new year, I can see how my past belief about what I should be doing has created the context for my life.  What is fascinating is to see how what I believed was manifested exactly.  As I am truly embracing your words that “I don’t have to DO anything”, and to “focus on fun, joy, and love”, I am contemplating my choices and beliefs from here.  I think this is what you mean by moving from grace and ease versus stressing out about what I “should be doing”.

“Yes my love.  And it is removing your judgement and just allowing yourself to do what you want without scrutiny.  You get caught up in worrying about whether or not what you want to do will make money. But when you remove your judgement about that and embrace taking care of yourself in all ways, you find you will want to do what brings you money.  You have committed your life to serving me, which you are doing in so many ways.  But now, you must remember that serving you is also serving me.

Love,
God”

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Copyright, Diane Dandeneau, 2013

Good Morning God.  Yesterday I shared my music and listened to several wonderful speakers talk about connecting to guides, angels, and loved ones who have passed. They talked a lot about meditating, and connecting within, but I also noticed that they really didn’t talk very much about you.  You have continued to invite me to connect to you, what am I missing?         
 
“Good morning love.  You aren’t missing anything.  There are many people who are not comfortable with the name or idea of “God”, and that is OK.  You understand that I am you and that all you must do to find your answers is to bring your attention to me.   You have learned that you do not need to look outside of yourself to discover what is true for you.  This does not mean that you don’t also want to connect with other beings on the physical and spiritual plains.  In fact it that is part of why you are here.  But, once you become proficient at connecting to your Divine wisdom, you no longer “need” a guide to show you the way, because you are the guide.
 
Love,
God”

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Copyright, Diane Dandeneau, 2013

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Good morning God.  As I am getting busy with some good things in my life, I am noticing that I don’t think I need to spend as much time with you, but I know that is not even remotely true.  I am realizing that the time I spend every day with you is what is helping me to stay connected to my truth, creativity, and intuition and the good things that are happening.  It is my foundation for everything I want to experience and create.  Thank you!  Or, should I say, thanks Diane?  Love, Me.

“Good morning sweet One!  This is a beautiful discipline and practice that you are sharing.  This is a conversation with me, with you, and with everyone.  All is beautifully unfolding for you because you are staying connected to your Self, to Me, and to your Divine path.  This is when the miracles really start to happen.    

Love,
God”

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Copyright, Diane Dandeneau, 2013

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Journal Entry:  7/15/13

“When you feel stressed and wondering what to do, remember:  When you are connected with me, you will know what you need to know when you need to know it.   With this knowing, comes peace.  With this peace comes focus.  With focus comes clarity.  With clarity comes the answers you need to know right now.  So, remember to come to me first.”

Love, God.

I continue to evaluate how I can communicate what I do more effectively to help people decide if my work is a good fit for them.  One of the fundamental rules of marketing is to describe what you do as a benefit to your market. The other is to focus on a niche.

I did that in my computer business.  I became an expert in auto body collision management software industry over my 18 year career (talk about a niche) where I helped small auto body shops save time and money running their business.  In that niche I gained skills and experience in sales and marketing, product management and a gazillion other things you learn through business ownership, courting investors and being acquired.  What I learned was it was good to niche, but it is better to do what you love with a niche that you are passionate about.

So after leaving a life of focusing on making money for me through saving money for my customers, I went into the world of service and environmental causes. I do know money is important, but I now know you can focus on both: doing things that improve our communities and our planet and being supported financially.  But even doing that, it is only truly successful when we include doing what we love.

From this I have gotten even clearer about describing who I work with and what they achieve:

I work with entrepreneurs who want to share their greatest gifts to make the world a better place, and help them achieve extraordinary success while they’re at it.

What is Extraordinary Success?

Definition of Extraordinary (websters)

a : going beyond what is usual, regular, or customary <extraordinary powers>
b : exceptional to a very marked extent <extraordinary beauty>

Both of these definitions apply as I feel that extraordinary success is about stepping into something greater than what is easy and usual.  It’s easy to just follow the crowd, get a job, show up and do what you are told.  I know when I live in this way I may feel safe or content, but I don’t feel inspired.  It is about stepping into the unknown, tapping into the greater power we have within us and to experience the excitement of discovering our greater potential.

Definition of suc·cess  (Dictionary.com)
1.the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2.the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success.
4. a person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show.

There are many ways to look at success and I believe that our thoughts about success can actually define our experience of it.  I know many people who look at those who have attained wealth, position, or honors, with disdain as they judge it as bad for a myriad of reasons.  Some people think of those who have achieved success with their book or art as “lucky” and look at them with jealousy.  To some people success is a bad thing.  And I believe that those who have negative beliefs about success, struggle with their own “success” and maybe happiness.

I think the question about how we feel about success is comes through how we define success.  I used to define success through the achievement of my goal of selling my business and making a lot of money.  Now I define success much more broadly because for me success is defined as a way of living.

I define success as doing what I want to be doing most of the time, being healthy, having time for myself (God), my family and friends, and working on and completing projects that stretch me both creatively (spiritually), physically, and mentally.  I define success as knowing what and who I am and feeling at peace with that.  I define success as getting to offer my greatest gifts to lots of people and receiving compensation for the value they receive.

I define extraordinary success as the experience of living in a beautiful place that nurtures my heart, co-creating with the universe, manifesting miracles, having things turn out even better than I ever expected, meeting amazing and inspiring people, serving others, loving everyone, and being present with and in awe of this incredible life.

How do you define extraordinary success?

Want to explore more:  Sign up for an Extraordinary Success Visioning Session HERE.

As much as I have been learning from these teachings coming through me, I continue to get answers that call me to shift my perspective.  Here is one from the Canvas Journals with God.

3/21/10

God, what is the message that I am to bring to the world now?

Hello my love.  You are the message.  Your life is the messenger.  You might think this is backwards, but the truth is who you are being speaks louder than what you are saying.  This is why I keep inviting you to Step 1.  Connect to Source.  This is the only thing that matters.  It is the only thing that will change the world.  Now you will see who you truly are.

Love, God.

This message points to Step 1 in the 4 Steps to Divine Mastery.  God has been asking me to remember to take this Step before I do anything else and the more I remember, the miraculous life is.

Get a Complimentary Consult with me to learn more or read about my next coaching program here.

About 7 years ago I was out on my bike enjoying the scenery (which is where I have many of my conversations with God and others spiritual beings) when I heard a voice that I knew as the Christ Consciousness.  The voice said;  “Put down your sword.  When you hold up your sword to get what you want, you may get compliance, but you only gain distain, distrust, and fear.  It also perpetuates conflict, dishonesty and separation.  Instead, hold your sword with the blade down and stand in your true power – the power of Love.  As you engage with others say ‘I will love you no matter what’.   This is how you will elicit cooperation and communion, and heal the wounds of the past.  This is where you will experience the joy of the oneness that you are.”

As I received this message I realized that I did believe that I had to hold up a sword (energetically fight) to get what I wanted.  I could see that this the normal way that I and so many other people interacted in our society.  And I could see the image of the sword as shaming, blaming, criticizing, anger, dishonesty and fear.  As I questioned how to do this without giving everything away, I got the message that it was not about to rolling over and allowing others to take advantage of me, but for me to hold the sword as my power and the symbol of my unwavering commitment to Truth and Love.

I saw this image as the reminder to “Put down my Sword”.

Over the years I have had to continue to heal myself so I could stand up and hold the Sword of Love.  Sometimes I stand shaking and sometimes I stand strong.  But I have also seen the change in how others respond to me.  I now know that it is only through love that anything of value is created.

Right now I feel we all need to shift from our fearful (conflicted) interactions and consciously choose to stand with the Sword of Love even if it feels difficult.   I believe that each of us must do this to heal the pain of the past and find peace together now.

I am so excited to be a part of this project and to share the gifts I have been given. This is a beautiful piece and something I look forward to seeing the final work.

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This is the Journal entry for today for the Living a Sacred Life Class.

The pain body, parasite and ego (the fear-based part of the ego), is part of what is created in the life form (body) in the material world. It is an identity and a powerful energy that is created and reinforced by the others in your world who are also living from the fear-based perspective. When you believe that the world is dangerous, you will be afraid. And this fear creates an energy body within you that is powerful.

Fear is the true culprit and it is moving beyond fear that is needed to heal this fear-based being. This is the first step in awakening and stepping into soul consciousness. We all feel the pull of the pain body. It is the sense of fear that has no story, until you give it one. You believe that there must be a story and then you begin to look at all the problems and things that aren’t going how you want them, and justify this feeling, this existence.

The learning now is to know that you can choose. It is to know that there is another perspective and another aspect of consciousness that you can step into and heal the pain body. This is not obliterating the ego – the part of you that is needed to operate on earth. But it is taking control from the ego and giving it to the soul.
This process begins when you are so tired of being in pain that you will do anything, including die to be free. But what you need to die to is the past. You need to die to the fear and beliefs that support the fear.

So, it is a two part healing. One part is to release the energy of the pain body by truly facing it – without any stories until you realize that is it not the truth. The next part is to face every belief you have that is negative, fearful, and painful then re-frame and transmute them into the truth of love and possibility.

This is the process of awakening. This is what is needed to move to the next level. This work is done within meditation and intentional connection with Me. And it is miraculous.
Trust this.
Love, God.

There Are No Secrets
By Diane Dandeneau, December 15, 2011

God does not keep secrets.  People do.

I find myself taken aback when I hear people use the term “secret” to describe their teaching or gift.  It seems to prey on the fears that there must be something that I want, that I need to know, that is being kept from me.  Wanting what I don’t have, leads to me wanting what you have.

I see this used to sell books, workshops, and movies.  Many of the marketing gurus are teaching that using this compelling idea is the way to “sell” expert or spiritual programs.

But, there are no secrets.  There are only distortions.  And this is the opportunity for people to step into their own truth to discern what is authentic and true.

I have been lured into wanting to learn what the “secret” is.  But what I find over and over again is that it is something I already know or maybe a new way of seeing something.  Sometimes the teachings are powerful and inspiring, and other times they are hollow and sensationalized and are just used to sell their product or service.  But mostly, I feel conned and disappointed that the author – teacher – producer felt compelled to use the ploy that they know some secret that they are letting me in on.

I am inviting those who want to live a conscious life, to step into their integrity and say it like it is.  We aren’t sharing any secrets.  You may be sharing your learning, perspective, new understanding, or message.  But, please stop playing the same unconscious game that is being played in the insane world.  They are better at it anyway (check out any car commercial).  The truth is, secrets can be fun for humans to play with, but God does not keep secrets.

What I am offering in my work are the gifts I have been given as I remember who I am and who we are.   On the deepest level, you know it all.  I am just helping you to remember.

Blessings,

Diane Dandeneau

Where is Your Focus:  Inside or Outside?
By Diane Dandeneau
December 11, 2011

I find it interesting that I am seeing similar patterns in the people I am currently associating with in my work and life.  Most of the people I am close to are working with or have some sense of spirituality in their life.  Many people are aware of the Law of Attraction and the benefit of meditation.  Many people understand the mind/body/spirit connection.  But what I am seeing is continuing patterns of using spirituality as the means to get what is wanted on the physical plain – thus using the inside to keep the focus on the outside.

I can see the cycles in my life being mirrored in others.  As things in my life would not be going so well, I would go within, connect to source, find the clarity, power and vision, then focus on the outer physical world and create great things.  I would be happy and feel good.  I would then get too busy to continue to connect, so over time, the visions get stale and things stop working so well.  Each time I would do this, the pain and disillusionment of the fall would be greater and the external conditions would get worse.  My faith in spirituality would dim as I felt it had failed me.

But, the disillusionment is the gift of awakening, and the continued focus on the external being the barometer for my happiness was the failure.  There was a time that I finally got the fact that the internal connection and my relationship with the divine was the point of everything.  And once this was the focus, the external became a reflection of that.  Even when things did not appear to me to be going well, I knew that I had to trust and focus on my part in everything.  I am now able to stay in a place of peace with what is, as I listen and do what I am called to do.  And ultimately, the divine unfolding of what is for the greatest good is revealed.

I have recently done a string of incredibly powerful channeled readings with the Messengers of Peace for some women in Austin Texas.  I did the first one for a woman who happened to hear me playing my music at the open mic at the Stone Cup in Lyons as they were passing through town.  She said she was touched by my song for Goldie, and picked up my brochure.  She called me a week later and we scheduled the session for over the phone.

The reading I did for her from the Messengers of Peace reached a new level of healing and transformation for her (and me).  As with most of my readings, I knew nothing about her other than her wanting some guidance on career.  The message that come through me had nothing to do with career (though eluded that everything would fall into place once this other issue was resolved) and totally about healing some family relationships.  When I read her the message, she was a bit surprised yet felt it was very true for her.  We then went into the next part of the session which is a guided meditation and coaching intro.

What happened next was very exciting and profound.  I felt the Messengers of Peace telling me that we were going to do some energy healing.  I was guided to take her into a process of forgiveness with the family member present in our meditation.  My client felt a physical energy shift and a profound release of a life-long anger and resistance.  Both were released from the bondage of their unresolved issues.

A day later I received a call to do a reading from the other woman who heard me in Lyons, who heard that her friend had a good experience with me.  Amazingly (probably only to me), the exact same thing happened.  I have since done 2 more readings from referrals from these women with one more next scheduled next week.  Each one being unique, yet as profound as the last.  The Messengers of Peace are now bringing a level of healing that is not just in their message, but through our session on an energetic level.  As I am doing this, I realize that this is an incredible gift that I have been given to help people make rapid profound shifts toward healing and awakening.

If you are struggling in any area of your life, please consider doing a session with me and the Messengers of Peace. It has been my prayer to serve and this is the greatest service that I believe I can bring.

Blessings,

Diane