"Thought is the blossom; language is the bud; action the fruit left behind." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

As a speaker, Maggie Hanna has been described as a heart-full taskmaster, a feisty storyteller, passionately present and humorously edgy. Her delivery oscillates between the everyday and the transcendent, the colloquial and the poignant, and the practical and the spiritual.

The singular message underlying of all her topics is that doing what you came here to do with ever increasing consciousness is worth it, requires effort, and is absolutely necessary to live a life of meaning, authenticity and joy. Spirit is alive and well and living in each of us.

Maggie Hanna : a woman of diverse background which includes

• A Professional Geologist (BSc.Geology 1981) and president of her own company Common Ground Energy Corp., an oil and gas company and consulting firm in Calgary Canada

• A minerals geologist in wilderness remote settings around the world

• A registered massage therapist and subtle energy worker

• House painter, roustabout on a sheep-shearing gang, photographer of weddings and theatre work, teacher of Tai Chi, cook on a lobster boat, University teaching assistant, corporal in the military, meditator, sustainable community researcher

• A Member of Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (Protégé of the Year Award 2000), a certified and experienced teleclass leader, an internet radio show producer and host, teacher of life mission courses, facilitator of retreats and outdoor wilderness excursions including her annual all women canoe trip called "Good Girls in the Badlands"

• 20 year partner to a wonderful man

• Mom to a 6-year old fabulous agent of chaos - Scott

She has over 30 hours of delicious material to draw from. It can easily be adapted to programs ranging from an unforgettable heartful 1-hour keynote to an action-packed, content-rich week-long alchemical experience.

Contact her at maggie@transitionsbychoice.com or call her office at 403-277-0335 in Calgary, Canada to discuss your needs.

Click on these topics below to view the details.

1. How to Save Yourself the Next 21 Years of Workplace Misery
2. Workshop on Life Mission – What Are YOU Here To Do?
3. Enlightened Management of Your Own Personal Energy System
4. Setting and Holding Your Boundaries . . . . Gracefully!
5. The Success of Failure!
6. The Creative Power of Intention
7. Sacred Rage – A Life-Skill Mother Never Taught Us!

1) "How to Save Yourself the Next 21 Years of Workplace Misery"

Intention: To plant the seed in people's minds that it is truly possible to do what you love for your work and get well paid for it if you choose! To give all your gifts, express all your passions, and live all your joys, is to fully squeeze your lemon and make great lemonade out of your life for the world to savour.

Description: On average, people in the western world spend 50-75% of their waking lives getting ready for work, going to work, being at work and coming home from work. That is more than any other activity! Most of us regularly come home from work feeling drained, and perhaps oddly compromised. We can put in 8 hours at work and feel like we have had 16 hours of life force sucked out of us! How can we engage in work that feeds us more than just money? Why don't we pour all that attention and creativity and life force into work that has personal meaning to us? If there is something that we are here to do in this world, then what is it? What is the difference between destiny and fate when it comes to our work choices? This talk addresses these questions, and why it is important to ask ourselves these questions. It also provides answers as to how to identify the heart-work that each of us can be in love with and that we are perfectly designed to do.

2) "Workshop on Life Mission – What Are YOU Here To Do?"

Intention: One-quarter lecture and three-quarters hands-on workshop. Builds on the opening keynote described above. People come away with a clear understanding of how beautifully unique and rare they are and with more conscious personal information about the elements that are important in their Life Mission. Be prepared to write.

Description: We as human beings tend to commit ourselves to what is in front of our faces when we lack the knowledge of what we are truly committed to. This workshop is designed to bring to light the nature of your perfect design, and what matters to your heart of hearts. Then you are free to intentionally craft those golden threads into the fabric of your life. My favourite definition of Life Mission is, "To do the thing you most delight, with the people that most inspire you, in the place that most enchants you, and in the way the world needs the most." It truly is possible! And we are perfectly designed to do it. Be prepared to write.

3) Enlightened Management of Your Own Personal Energy System

Intention: People will come away with a consciousness understanding of where their personal energy leaks are, and simple practical ways to "stick bubble gum in them"! Each person will be ready to take action on the first gentle step to take to reclaim energy they didn't even know they had! Be prepared to write.

Description: We are such powerful beings as humans. Our life force is our gold! It is the most precious thing we own, next to our consciousness. And yet so much of it can be tied up in unconscious behaviours and thought patterns that no longer serve us and therefore the energy is unavailable to us. So we feel tired, drained, and lack energy to do what we choose. We will examine the three top strategies to reclaim and manage energy you didn't even know you had. Depending on time allotted, organizers can choose from:

• 1) Forgiveness – Getting complete with the past. We will do a powerful exercise and short burning ritual after the talk. Be prepared to write.

• 2) Zapping Tolerations (not being intolerant!) The idea is to become aware of the semi-conscious and irritating things in our lives and environment that need to be handled. They drain us every time we are reminded about them. In fact, each one has already drained much more energy from you than would it would take to just handle it. Be prepared to write.

• 3) 10 Daily Delicious Habits – The Universal Principle #3<grin> is "What we focus on expands in our lives". Each of us will identify specific simple things that restore, rejuvenate and re-create us – things that GIVE us energy. When we regularly put our attention on those things we find beautiful, that connects us to our truest selves, which give us joy and pleasure then that is what expands in our lives! Be prepared to write.

• 4) Meditation Practices That Restore – Meditation is the Eastern Hemisphere's greatest gift to the West. We will actually try out several meditation practices to see which one fits for you. These include, a sitting meditation while breathing in three of the highest qualities of a human being, the attachment/non-attachment exercise, the mother earth meditation, and the moving mediation of Tai Chi. Several others will be described as options.

• 5) Extreme Self Care – There is a big difference between small ‘s' selfish and capital ‘S' Selfish. The former is about greed, narcissism, rising through the ranks at others' expense, gossiping, and narrow self-focus. The latter is about taking REALLY good care of your self in all aspects of your life – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It is about having a reserve of the good things that nurture you – love and hugs, money and freedom, safety, time and space, energy and vitality. When your needs are fully met you can be of true service in the world. Be prepared to write.

• 6) Daytimer Magic – Steven Covey has written "the book" on creative principles of organizing your life. Many of his principles are incorporated in this talk to help you use your daytimer more effectively so it doesn't use you! We will talk about the distinction between Important vs. Urgent and how to take action on what is truly important to you in your life. Be prepared to write.

4) Setting and Holding Your Boundaries . . . . Gracefully!

Intention: To provide a practical solution to the age-old problem, "How do I get people to treat me better?" Half lecture and half workshop, everyone goes home with a specific boundary they wish to raise with a specific person and with the tools to do it gracefully!

Description: As we evolve as humans, we need to increase the boundaries we set with other people. Our Boundaries are the set of behaviours we hold other people to in our lives. Our Standards are the set of behaviours we hold ourselves to. Walls are constructed where our hearts have been broken and so we fortify our hearts with "concrete" to protect them from ever breaking again. Whereas boundaries allow for a flow of energy and information in a two-way stream, a wall is impermeable.

Problems arise when the level of our boundaries is not commensurate with the level of our standards, when our boundaries are not far enough out to adequately protect who we are becoming, and when we substitute walls for boundaries. Most people need to set their boundaries about 3 times farther than they are currently. This presentation lays out a practical step-by-step method of educating your environment on how you wish to be treated.

5) The Success of Failure!

Intention: We are so hard-wired not to make mistakes, be wrong and fail. This presentation looks at the value of, and the necessity of, being willing to make mistakes if we are to climb a new learning curve, be creative, or be inventive. Creativity is the currency of the work world in the future. The problem is most of us tie our mistakes into our self worth. So often we won't even consider creatively trying something new or even a new approach to something familiar because we are so afraid of failing. In a very real way that is the recipe for living a small, uncreative life. It doesn't have to be that way.

Description: We will look at how we learned to be afraid of making mistakes as children. How our comfort zones can keep running the old tapes that were useful then and may not serve us now. Examples of famous mistakes will be cited to illustrate the concept that when mistakes are embraced, they often turn out to be great inventions – Corelle Dishes, Post-it notes, and Viagra to name a few.

Four quotes epitomize the substance of this talk:

6) The Creative Power of Intention

Intention: To bring awareness to audience of how powerful each of us are in this world. Our intentions reverberate around the world and are expressed through all our actions. Are you aware of yours?

Description: Intention is everything. What you focus your life force on expands in this world. By life force I mean your attention, creativity, thoughts, words and deeds. It is not enough to know what you are going to do. You must know why you are doing it. What is your motivation? Without an idea of WHY we are choosing to do a thing we surrender to fate instead of choosing our destiny. Fate is about being at the mercy of the strongest intention of the moment because we don't have our own strongest intention! Destiny is choosing what you do and how you will do it according to the highest intention you have for your own life.

7) Sacred Rage – A Life-Skill Mother Never Taught Us!

Intention: To bring awareness to the audience of the need to embrace, diffuse, and express our rage and anger in a healthy, effective, and non-damaging ways, and to present some clues as to how to do that.

Description: This is a humorous and poignant talk about Rage as a soul quality. There are right and righteous times to ‘blow a gasket' in this world – against violation, against the dying of the light in us, and against the programs of fear and doubt etc. As Bruce Cockburn so eloquently put it we sometimes need "To kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight!"

However, we were never taught how. We have the idea that we should not get angry, and as result our health is often negatively affected. So what do we do with the cry of the soul called rage? It is as if each of us has a "rage bucket" inside and when it gets over-full, when a meniscus forms on top, and when that last drop of aggravation plops in, the meniscus breaks and we inappropriately spill-over with more anger than the situation warrants. As a result, we do a dump of our pent-up anger mostly all over the ones we love. Learn a creative, and effective way to express our anger and rage, to honour our process, and preserve our good health!

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