My new book “Get Passionate, Get Leads” is on fire and spilling onto the page at an amazing rate. Joy!

I’ve been waking up at 4 a.m. to let the words fill up the pages. This week, 9000 words appeared. I love this inspired sensation, when the magic that I observe all around me is translated onto the pages for others to appreciate.

This new book is about getting passionate about what you are doing, and the leads will come. More leads, better leads, leads all the time. Great connections with others. Feeling alive, feeling ON FIRE with passion for whatever you are doing.

Realtors and Solo – preneurs will feel especially honored by the content in this book, and as with “Prospect When You Are Happy” it will help anyone in search of opportunities in business or life.

I can’t wait to see what the cover looks like! My publisher is getting going on that now. “Get Passionate, Get Leads” is slated for publication within the next quarter. Wow. I can’t wait.

We are going to get clear & passionate & into 2010 as the best year ever.

Stop and take an hour Wednesday, October 14 and join us on the tele-call. Just e-mail for the dial-up information. Noon PST, 9 am EST, etc.

Are you clear about your direction? Stop for a moment and focus.

This is an opportunity to stop and define yourself. Plus I’ll make it fun and relatively easy.

E-mail for dial-up information!

If you do nothing else to plan for 2010, write this letter. This is a powerful tool.

You write it in the present tense, and you date it at the end of 2010 or a year or so from today.

Dear Erica,

It is December 2010. An amazing year indeed. The new book published to a warm and loving reader base and more than 50,000 people read it! You kept hearing how much it inspired and helped people on their path.

This is what you do, and you keep writing and dreaming and writing and dreaming. In your writing, you are telling your subconscious mind about where you are headed. You are clearing it up for the world to see.

Then at each crossroads, at each decision, you have in the back of your mind a blueprint for where you are going. Stay true, stay clear. Stay on this path.

The future is not done yet. You are creating it with all of your actions in the present. The now has the most power. Write in the now, and write your future now.

I went to an amazing high school reunion party on Friday held in a lovely beach house of a woman that I had not seen in about 33 years (not that we were counting). I walk in and I’m looking at the view and I am feeling so stunned, another woman that I was friends with in Palo Alto High School in the 1970s greets me and I am feeling so warm, loved, energized, happy and joyful.

A few hours of laughing about old times later a woman shows up who is a neighbor. “We saw the lights on! Is this a party,” she says. It turns out this woman is an executive leadership coach.

Long story short, I am inspired meeting Joanne.

Earlier this week I kept hearing in my mind’s eye that I have gifts and it is time to share them with the world. Joanne solidified my vision for me.

Thank you! Thank you to the Universe for bringing exactly what was needed at exactly the right time.

My mom was so big on birthdays, and whenever we get into birthday season at my house I miss her all over again (1938-2003, Martha Glessing)…she would be very proud of my kids and all of the good they are doing right now. She would be disappointed in all the clutter I can’t seem to get rid of around my house! And she would go on a walk on the beach with me, tomorrow.

As I look into this next year, with my third eye I see challenges; bright shining breakthroughs with the kids and family; a kind of being constant with me and all of my professional endeavors; and more friendships than I have given time for in the past.

Lately I’ve been making friends and this feels very good. For so many years, I didn’t give friendships much space. This year, I seem to be connecting better with all of my women friends! I love this. Re-connecting with my Palo Alto High School Class of 1979 buddies is good, too.

I am not sure what is next but I’m pretty sure things are going to be interesting. What’s the alternative? Mom knows, I’m not ready to know!

There are days when I wish I were staring into a crystal ball, and could see a glimpse into where my present is taking me.

I’m at a crossroads (again)! Walking into my future, with this thirst for a new career or a re-birth of a former career. Not sure what it means or where my life will take me.

I keep seeing books and I am not writing right now! I mean, actually I am writing this very instant of now! Yet, I am not sitting in the mornings and writing chapters as I have done for years in the past.

So, when will I be into my next book? When will my next career take me into its wildest dreams? I’m ready!

I am so blessed! I feel this wild sense of anticipation and joy around what is coming. I am being shown next steps, again, and it feels great to be part of a greater whole that is so much more than the sum of all of the parts.

As I stop for a moment before the day dawns, I look at my family and friends and know that life is indeed a precious gift and I am so fortunate to be on this planet at this time.

Meditation is central to bringing me back to this way of being in synchronicity. Life is so full of synchronicity! When I am being present, I am feeling connected to all that is.

I ask only that I am given the opportunity to grow, stretch, achieve, love, care, wonder, fill my life with experiences that bring all of humanity closer to the experience of love every day. Joy! It is.

Today I am thankful for so many things. I am grateful my children are healthy and happy. I am grateful I have good friends and colleagues.

Life gives so much, I am taking it all in.

How do you break into something new? How do you land where you want to land?

See it done first. Vision it. Picture it. Play out it being done in your mind. This is called pre-paving. Picture things going well. Become that individual you have in your mind’s eye.

Use language that reinforces the person you wish to become. Use words, descriptions, and powerful comments to firm up who you want to become.

Consider that everyone around you wants you to stay the same. Or at the very least, finds it less work to identify you as someone they know in a certain way.

To break into a new level, start with yourself. Talk about yourself as someone who is at this level. Manage things as though, indeed, the new you is already here.

Know your gifts. Have you forgotten your gifts? When people get into a negative mindset, they normally are not filled to the brimming with joy about the gifts they came to the planet to share.

Each of us on this planet has a gift. Or many. Find your gifts, honor them, and have more fun while you are doing so. Life is a gift, pouring through you.

Break into a new field or a new endeavor with zest. Why not?

When you are networking, you are activating the “reticular activating system” within the person you meet. This is the system that causes you to see pregnant women when you are pregnant (or your spouse is pregnant); causes you to see red BMWs when you just purchased a red BMW; and so forth. Millions of impressions are in your environment at any given time, and our human brains can only focus on a finite number of them – typically less than 10. So, what you are doing when you are networking is to awaken that part of the other person’s brain that recognizes opportunities for a person such as yourself.

Realize that success could be defined a year from now or six months from now. Do not approach the lunch as though this person has the key to your future – that is too much pressure for a stranger to take on!

Here are some practical steps to take:
1. Listen to the advice given by this individual. He or she is taking precious time out of his or her day to spend with you. Appreciate and acknowledge this. So often we will ask for advice and then we don’t want to hear what the person suggests. Even if you find the advice such that you may have heard it a dozen times, be of open mind and communicate receptivity to the advice he or she shares.
2. Find out if he or she is seeking something for which you may be of assistance. Even a plumber! Listen to his or her needs, if this comes out, and see if you cannot be of service in some small way to this individual.
3. Keep two to three key points in mind that you wish to communicate. Perhaps something like “I am seeking a position with a company that is working on exciting technological advances.” Or something like “I am seeking a position where I can be part of a project team. I have always excelled as an individual contributor.”
4. Define yourself well enough so that if in the next few months, an opening or connection occurs to the person, this person will remember you and make the match on your behalf.
5. Even if you are insecure and feel that you have not been successful in your job search to date, leave those insecurities at home. It doesn’t really matter to the person you are meeting whether your job search has been successful or fruitless. Who cares? No one except you and possibly your family. Define your job search to date from the framework of success. Be careful about your language around this. If you can’t say anything good, then don’t talk about your search at all. “I am open to the right position now,” or “I am looking for opportunities where my skills can make a difference” could be descriptions that frame your search in a positive light. You are a more desirable candidate when you are focused on landing the next position and not looking backwards at all of the places where you looked and did not find something.
6. Sing a few of your own praises in a way that is calm or connected. “I’ve been successful in the past when I …” “I seem to always land on my feet. Thank you for your time. Please let me know if you have other suggestions for people I might be able to meet with to further my search.” See if he or she can recommend another person to meet with on your networking journey.

Then, be sure to follow up with a thank you card, ideally a hand-written, mailed, actual card with an actual stamp, with no ulterior motives. Just a brief note that says thank you for your time, would be great. You would be surprised how nicely a real card will behave in comparison to a quick e-mail note. I have personally seen my cards sitting on the person’s desk or kept on their fridge months after I sent them. You don’t see e-mails printed out and tacked on someone’s wall. Be the difference, stand out. Why not?