Stephanie Staples - When Enlightening Strikes: Creating a Mindset for Uncommon Success

Stephanie Staples makes her home on the beautiful Canadian Prairies with her awesome family, Randy, Aaron, Kara, Gina and a menagerie of pets. She thinks you already know too much about her, but if you really want to know more, there are 30 things you dont need to know about Stephanie on her website, www.YourLifeUnlimited.ca.

Invitations for you:

To go backstage with When Enlightening Strikes

Please visit www.WhenEnlighteningStrikes.com for ongoing resources, tools, photos, videos, links and more ideas to help you strengthen your mindset for uncommon success!

To share your questions, challenges, wins or feedback, drop a line to Stephanie@YourLifeUnlimited.ca

When your company, group or association is ready for a little inspiration, perspective shifting and, of course, motivation, then inquire about Stephanies speaking or coaching services by stopping over at www.YourLifeUnlimited.ca .

Start getting to know yourself better today, with the Your Life, Unlimited Guided E-Journal.

Sign up to be a part of this positive, pro-active Your Life, Unlimited community and receive a monthly Motivational Moment in your inbox. To receive these life-enhancing tools visit =>

http://www.YourLifeUnlimited.ca

Get short bursts of motivation to lift your spirits, fun videos for kicking life up a notch and lots of interaction with Stephanie and our Facebook community full of like-minded, upbeat people =>

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Follow her on Twitter, too =>

@stephanestaples

To my husband; Randy you are the love of my life. I simply couldnt do any of this without you. Thank you for allowing me to be and to grow and for supporting me, always.

To my favorite children; Aaron, Kara and Gina, thank you for making me stretch, holding me accountable and teaching me everything I need to know. It has been a privilege to parent all of you. Youve done great, I am one proud Mamma!

To my Mom; Lillian Scarnati, who, at 85, continues to inspire me with her ongoing commitment to personal growth. Thank you Mom for all you are to me and the world.

To my Dad; Albert Scarnati, whose bravery started my ball rolling.

To my clients and colleagues; thank you for trusting and believing in me and my work, for helping me help others, and for your ongoing guidance along the way.

To Susan, Lea and Michelle my master-minders and my volunteer readers, who plugged through this manuscript, gave critical suggestions, helpful feedback and listened to all my insecurities associated with pouring out my heart and soul for the world to see. Without you folks this book would be in my head, not in your hands. Thank you so, so much.

And finally, to you the reader; for believing in uncommon success!

Thank you for growing yourself and making our world a better place.

Steph xoxox

I am myself for a living. James Taylor

Hello, my name is Stephanie and I am a motivational speaker. I have just come out.

Whew, that feels excellent! I am free to be me! In the past, I would never have uttered those words out loud let alone put them on paper for others to see. In my line of work calling yourself a motivational speaker is taboo, speaker suicide, a career killer.

You see, when I started out in this business my colleagues all gave me the same advice: Whatever you do, dont call yourself a motivational speaker the audiences will chew you up and spit you out. People might have preconceived notions about motivational speakers, people might not take you seriously, people might notand on and on it went.

It was a firm warning, and I thought they knew best, so I listened to them. At all costs, I told myself, I will not call myself a motivational speaker.

And so I would let the meeting planners name me whatever they wanted. I spoke everywhere from tiny church basements, to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, and most every place in between. Sometimes they called me an expert in personal growth and development, or a life enrichment coach, or my personal favorites, a life/balance or stress management speaker. Though what I do encompasses all those things, I had never uttered those words in any of my presentations. While my main niche has been speaking with nurses, I will happily speak to anyone with a life. So bring on the construction worker conventions, engineer symposiums; you name the group, Ive likely spoken to them.

While flowers, applause and standing ovations are great, I feel that it is an honor and a privilege to share my message and ideas with an audience. Every time I speak, I hope that something I talk about will resonate with them, and have a positive impact on their lives. In return, they give me the gift of engagement. No matter the size of the room, I can feel when the mood shifts and the energy lifts. I can sense when people begin to feel more hopeful, empowered and alive, like they have been inspired, they have beenmotivated! Uh oh, I better be careful, I certainly dont want to be labeled a motivational speaker!

After the presentations, however, long after the crowd is gone, I sit alone and read the evaluations. I am not sure what other career gets evaluated quite as much. Its a weird thing, strangers judging you like that, writing whatever they want with no names or strings attached.

Not everyone is ready to hear my message. While the great majority of the audience may appreciate that I am a fireball of positive energy, there is always that one evaluation sticks that out like a sore thumb. The one I remember most said: You are lost and hopeless. Ouch. Oh, and there is always someone who doesnt like my hair or what I am wearing and feels the need to tell me so. My head knows that you cant please everyone, but my heart wonders why its the negative messages that we remember the most.

The greater percentage of the participants, however, are kind and want to be inspired, happy and motivated. They want to believe in their own potential and they need other people to believe in them, even if its a complete stranger. Life can be hard, sad, complicated and overwhelming. Most people want to know how to find and maintain the time, energy and motivation to live life better. Some people are happy being miserable. Thats okay, thats where they are, and I know that I have to leave them there for now. I can tell by reading the comments that I usually strike a home-run with most people, that what I say and do has an impact, that I can and do make a difference. Most of the time it is clear that the message that was in my head and in my heart was expressed in such a way to make an impression on theirs. I love my work!

The most frequent comment I hear from people is, I never thought of it that way. This is a wonderful thing to hear, because part of my job is to make people think. I am with them for a short amount of time, so my goal is to leave them with a message that lingers, that keeps them thinking about life in a new way.

My wonderful audiences also write things on their evaluations that lead me to believe I must indeed be perfect: You must never get angry. I wish you lived at my house. You are the most positive person I have ever met.