The little book that's easy to read, but hard to do!

Are you up to the challenge? Are you ready to change your life?
Tango is a dance of subtleties and nuances ... and so is life. Taken to the extreme, nuances reflect the difference between dining in an exclusive restaurant and racing through the pick-up line at a fast food place. Too many people and organizations exist on life's equivalent of fast-food diets! Organizations that learn to tango take a quantum leap as they see motivated resources emerge from surprising places. Nagging problems solve themselves, issues like:

• What could your life look like if you focused on your ideas?
• What if turning these ideals into reality became the measurement of success?
• Could you start thinking of life as "art" - not just productivity?
• Could passion, rather than quotas and another's view of success, lead your life?
• How could you apply your own values, authenticity, grace and partnership to lead your organization?

You will not find the answers IN this book. You will find them through EXPERIENCING this book. And so will everyone in your organization, large or small. Use it as a team-building guide that shifts your paradigm about what needs to be. It can be fun!!

Through Tango: Dance of Self-Discovery, Katherine Carol helps you open your soul to creative living. For more information on the book, read our Press Release.

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"Tango Time"

(This is an excerpt chapter from Tango: Dance of Self-Discovery.)

Demonizing Time

Who would ever have thought demonizing Time was America's most popular past time ... more than baseball? But you know all the sayings like: "There is no time!" or "I just ran out of time." These slogans have become our ready response to failed commitments. They rupture many a relationship. "Oh, honey, I didn't have time to_____ ." (Fill in the blank.) You might use this phrase to pacify the boss, the subordinate, the co-worker, the customer, and - even worse - your children. Consider all the times you may have blamed someone special in your life for why you didn't finish a project or couldn't keep a commitment. If you believe Time is the bad guy in your life, it will continue to be that.

Instead of a demon, think of Time as a person. Give it a personality. Hey, wait a minute. Make sure it's a personality you like! Treat Time as a relationship, a new friendship rich with abundance and joy. This relationship expands or contracts depending on your intention and your ability to nurture it. As relationships go, Time has great potential to satisfy and give back. Imagine if that relationship began to take on the same meaning in your life as those people closest to you. Imagine how it makes you feel safe and treasured; it is always there for you.

How different would life look if you had a spiritual connection with Time, if it became your best friend? Instead of abusing it, you'd love it! The beauty is, when we fall in love with Time, it grows and we find we have plenty of it. If we show our gratitude, it feels appreciated and is much more accommodating to us. Time has energy and spirit. You know how much it possesses you when you keep saying you're running out of it.

Time as a Powerful Partner

Turning this new best friend into a powerful partner requires some space. Just like any new love relationship, it beckons us to devote more energy at first. We savor every minute, listen to our heartbeat, and slow down. We share openly, letting barriers crumble as we discover our partner's likes, dislikes, motivations, and thoughts on life. To dance with Time, we make room by clearing out the unimportant. We have choices. We can listen to when Time was plentiful - a cornucopia of richness teeming with opportunities. Or we can listen intently to Time's sad stories disguised as crises, angry relationships, unpaid bills, and stacks of paperwork.

Using Time To Value Life

Go back to your Values list that helped you determine your priority values. (Yes, some values do carry more weight than others.) If you had to choose one among all the important beliefs you have in your life, what would top the list?

When I go through my list, I see "Freedom" at the top. In my view of life, everything stems from freedom. I love the freedom to choose, to create, to commit, to love, and to work the way I want. Freedom becomes the stage on which I create the dance of my life. It allows me to dance with the partners I choose. Sometimes I take the role of following; other times I lead. But the Tango of life is always fun, no matter how challenging learning new steps might be.

As you review the list, prioritize each one, and give them percentages representing their order of importance in your life. The percentages should add up to 100%. This critical step aids your ability to make decisions, so don't skip it.

Priorities Serve As A Compass

I recently considered taking a corporate job that a colleague of mine was promoting. The position paid well, but it would require a long workweek and lots of political savvy. Though I was attracted to the salary and benefits, the job would limit my freedom. It was easy for me to decide; my Values list told me my priorities. I realized that, though I don't have the financial security of a regular paycheck, I do have control of how much money I can make just by choosing how much I want to work.

My values will continue to serve as my compass in the frontier world of the 21st century. Yet they are also guided by past generations. I come from a family of pioneers. They homesteaded in the late 1800s in the rugged Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the prairies of Nebraska. They brought a new brand of civilization to places like Aspen and Steamboat Springs. With no extended family around, few friends, and little governmental structure, how did they use their time? How did they prioritize? How did they know what decisions to make in an unpredictable wilderness?

I can imagine from their stories they based their choices on what was best for the family, what they believed in, and a great deal of faith. They shared a common purpose with their neighbors by focusing on safety, prosperity, and survival.

In my adventures through the 1980s and 1990s, I have looked at the proven path and, as Robert Frost wrote, decided to follow "the road less traveled." As the single mom of Mikelle, a child with cerebral palsy, I advocated for her educational rights and worked to change our local school system. I began to help others to do the same. My work continued into local community rehabilitation agencies, assisting them in building more progressive programs. Drawing on my expertise and the experience of others across the country, I continue to create awareness of how to integrate people with disabilities into the mainstream.

Sometimes I felt like my foremothers and fathers must have as they cut a new trail. How did I know what to do? Intuition, faith, and knowing what I believed in got me through many taxing situations. Out of that, I found new career directions.

Today, my Values list affects my career as a professional trainer, consultant and speaker. Family time is near the top of that list. This priority guides me as I plan my work. That means no matter if I totally love every minute of my career, I do not compromise the integrity of my family time. Each month, I have to determine the tolerance of my family situation for my business travel. I find the most that my kids can handle (and me, too!) is between six and ten days a month. If more seminar opportunities come up, I decline or reschedule them. I could make more money by traveling more, but my Values call for me to participate in my children's lives.