Mindfulness is a very important concept when it comes to coaching, and when it comes to living a conscious, fulfilled, successful life!

Enjoy this discussion with Featured Coach Jessica Reddy of www.jessicareddy.com …

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What is Laughter Coaching?

Why does it work?

How can you apply it to your life?

How can you bring more laughter, levity and energy shifts into your coaching?

Find out in this recording of my interview with Mary Rives of www.laughterinc.com !

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More and more, people are coming to realize that food is taking the role of an addictive substance in their life.

It can be a real challenge, since, we do need to eat, and it does have such an immediate impact on our bodies, brains and, often, emotions.

I found a great article on CNN on food addiction…

Here is a good article on CNN, 10 Habits of Highly Organized People…

It seems to me it might be called, 10 Habits of Not-Normally Highly Organized People that Don’t Want to be Overwhelmed Anymore, because it is very good advice for those of us that aren’t naturally organized.

I find that people consistently UNDERESTIMATE how draining clutter and disorganization is for them!  Simplifying your environment and your life can have unexpected benefits to your energy and your outcomes!

Ultimately, coaching is about helping people reach holistic health.

When people are at their best, they tend to perform well.

Here is a great page that summarizes 101 crucial ways to be healthy.

Some of my favs:

42. Love what you’ve got

Treat your body with respect and appreciation. Focus on what it can do, not what it can’t. Find something to celebrate, not something to criticize.

73. Embrace play

Fun, novelty, humor and joy are key sources of energy, strength and inspiration. If you’re suffering from a case of fun-deficit disorder, remedy that situation ASAP.

88. Give your best gifts

Developing and sharing them endows you with enthusiasm and energy. Neglecting or squandering them slowly kills you.

Proactively choosing health *is* revolutionary.  We need revolution.

Oprah said some amazing things in her final show.

I especially loved this part, about what she knows for sure.

It reminded me a lot of the Vision, Voice and Vocation work I’ve been doing…

You can watch Oprah here…

As a life and executive coach I do a lot of work with people around their goals. Setting goals puts you in the driver’s seat, giving you the power to transform your life or take a company to another level. Successfully setting and executing goals is not rocket science but there is a tried and true way that works for my clients and me. Sticking to this program guarantees success. It doesn’t matter whether your goals are personal or they are used to direct a large enterprise, the steps and the pitfalls are identical. I’ll take you through a quick tour. If you like, you can identify a goal of yours and do a test run of the system.

The steps to executing goals are simple, unambiguous and easy to follow and should be practiced every day. Skipping one step increases the odds that you won’t realize your goal.

The first step to goal setting is to have absolute belief and faith in the process. If you don’t believe you can absolutely transform your life and get what you want, then you might as well put down your pencil and do something else. If you are in doubt, look around you. Everything you can see began as a thought. If you identify something you really want, you can make it happen if want it badly enough.

Visualize what you want. Think of what you deeply desire in your life or where you want your company to be a year from now. What has to change for that to happen? What transformations need to take place? What do you need to know or learn? What spiritual, emotional, personal, financial, social or physical properties need to be addressed? The clearer you can get with each of these dimensions, brings your vision into sharp focus. The clearer you are about what you want, the easier it will be to focus on making it happen. Write down as many things as you can think about. Not being absolutely clear about your vision will make taking action very difficult.

Get it down! Writing down your goals is key to success. A 1953 Yale study followed 100 students to see how they ended up. Only 3% had written goals. Ten years later, this 3% was happier, more satisfied and had reached the goals they had set out to achieve. More importantly, the net worth of that 3% was greater than the rest of the 97% combined. By writing down your goals, you become a creator. Failure to write down your goals often means you will forget them or won’t focus on them, most likely like that other 97%.

If you have multiple goals, you may need to chunk elements of your vision into individual goals. Having a list of twenty or thirty objectives can be hard to keep track of and even more difficult to focus on. Chunking involves grouping “like” items together. For instance let’s say you have goals around taking your business to the next level. You might chunk your goals into financial, marketing, organizational and so on. It’s easier to focus on a few goals than a list of 20-odd items. Failure to chunk results in failure to focus and loss of direction.

The next step is to identify a purpose for each goal. Knowing why you want to achieve your goals is powerful. Identifying the purpose of your goal will help you instantly recognize why you want that particular goal and whether it’s worth working toward.. Knowing why you want something furnishes motivation to see it through to the finish. After all, if the purpose of earning a million dollars is to put it in the bank to save for a rainy day, you probably won’t be as motivated as if you need it to pay for your child’s cancer treatment. Your purpose says a lot about you as a person and your goals.

The next step of goal setting is to commit to your goals. This might sound obvious to you but it’s a step that has huge consequences when it is taken lightly. Write a few pages about why and how you are committing to each goal; why it’s important to you, what it means to you, why the outcome is necessary and what are you going to do to make it happen. Without strong commitment you aren’t likely to follow through.

Stay focused. By staying focused on your goals, you manifest. You may not know how you’ll reach your goals but when you make a daily practice of focusing on your goals, they become easier to reach. The more you focus, the more people and things will come into your life that help make your goals a reality. Having your goals written down somewhere where you will see them each day is a good idea. Your mind will notice that there is a discrepancy between where you are now and where you want to be which will create pressure. Pressure is motivation to change. If you lose focus you can always bring it back. Without a regular practice of focusing on your goals you will get distracted by something and your goal will disappear.

The next step is to create a plan of action. Being really clear about what you want, knowing your purpose, writing your goals down, committing to them, and staying focused gives you the power of clarity to write down a list of action steps the need to be executed over the year. You may not know all the steps ahead of time but you will know the next steps that take you in that direction. Even if you don’t know how you are going to do something, write it down and when the time comes, you will be surprised at the options that may appear. Having goals without a plan of action is like trying to complete a complex project without a project plan. There is too much going on, it’s too disorganized, you miss deadlines and you don’t have priorities. Eventually you get frustrated and the project/goal fails or collapses under it’s own weight.

To show how committed you are to your goals, think of something you can do right now that will get you moving toward fulfilling your goal. Even if it’s just making a phone call, do it now. You will be surprised how this simple step reinforces all the previous steps and gets you motivated and moving toward what you desire. Why wait? If you are not motivated to so something right now, how are you going to get motivated tomorrow?

To push through when things get tough, you will have to hold yourself accountable unless you bring in outside help like a coach. It makes sense to have someone besides yourself who can provide valuable feedback at critical junctures, like in the visualization stage. Some people tell their friends and family about their goals which gives them the accountability they need to stick to it. Once you start to achieve some success you will find it easier to keep motivated. Consider having a backup plan. What can you do if you get stuck for too long?

Make it part of your day to review your goals and take action. This will keep your goals alive and top of mind. By following these steps and practicing your goals each day, you have all the elements you need to succeed and achieve your goals. It isn’t always easy to push through. Some days will be easier than others but if you keep focused on your goals you will be amazed at the progress you will make. Remember, almost everything begins as a thought. You can be what you imagine if you follow these simple goal-setting rules.

The Top 2 Challenges that People Face

I have been surveying people for over a year by asking them for their top three challenges. Everyone who signs up for a free strategy session with me- fills out a form where they can list their top three challenges that they face. Consistently- wanting to feel peaceful and relaxed about money and desiring inspiring work have been the top two. ( I do, sometimes, find that during our initial discussion, these top two are really masking something else).

But let’s look at money issues and inspiring work.  

You can feel peaceful and relaxed about money no matter how much money you have or lack of money that you have.   

So, when you feel that bills are looming and overwhelming, how can you feel peaceful about money? Set the intention that your inner-peace is not related to money. Learn to be peaceful and relaxed in the present moment.

What do I mean by this? For example, let’s say you have a bill due on the fifteenth and it’s the fifth. You don’t know how you are going to pay this bill and it’s an important bill. Your past reaction to situations like this has been to fret, worry, and lose sleep. Instead of experiencing all the worry, you can bring yourself fully present through some deep breathes, feeling your feet on the floor, and recalling a moment when you successfully met a financial challenge. Pat yourself on the back for your success. Recognize that you have made it this far in life. As you calm down, your thinking clears and you are more open to intuition. You may get a brainstorm around taking care of that bill. Maybe you think of something you can sell, or another solution pops into your head which is exactly the right solution. Approach every money issue from a place of peace and calm.

What about inspiring work? You may have heard stories about people quitting their jobs and starting companies and eventually becoming millionaires. Yes, this can happen, but I am not here today to tell you to quit your job and start a business. I am here to tell you that no matter what you do, you can find something inspirational about it. If you have ever watched the reality TV show the Under Cover Boss- you have witnessed entry level employees with repetitive tasks and their lights still shine in their work.

I do think that everyone has a purpose – something that ignites passion and fulfillment. While you do inner work and soul searching to uncover this purpose and to determine your path, you can still shine at whatever you do.  You can be inspired and inspire other people. The key is to find something that you love about the job. When I was in high school, I worked at a fast food restaurant and came home each night smelling like a French fry. There was a lot not to love about working in this environment, but I focused on the customers, I loved talking to people and helping them. Guess what I love most about my coaching practice today? Talking to people and helping them. I knew my purpose as a teenager. Yes, I lost my way a few times as an adult, but the essence of what I love about my work has stayed the same.  My work, now, just exists on a higher level.  My challenge to you today- is for you to find something inspiring about your current work. As you learn what inspires you- your path will unfold.

Stop waiting for some day to be peaceful, relaxed and inspired. You can have all of these elements in your life today.

Post your comments here.

I’ve created a form that is a simple decision making tool.

It can be used in a variety of circumstances, but I designed is specifically for those moments when you are deciding “what to do”.

Accomplishing things is important.  Reaching goals is important.  Time management is important.  Managing our ENERGY, is more important.  This tool is meant to help you manage your thoughts, your time and your energy effectively.

If you use the decision making tool, and then stick to the choice you make, you will save yourself a good amount of energy and angst.

Post your comments here!

In our group coaching class tonight, we started an interesting discussion about sharing concepts with life coaching clients.  If we have an idea about what might be going on, how do we share that without leading or forcing our ideas onto our clients?

The discussion arose out of our topic of Using the Ego to Your Advantage.  We talked about ways we could identify when our egos were feeding us some disempowering thoughts, become conscious of that, and find the empowering approaches, because of this consciousness.  Very useful in discovering and living truth and love, and freeing ourselves from illusion and suffering.

The question came up, how can we avail our clients of this idea?  In real life coaching examples of a client who reacted from ego at a meeting, how might we, as coaches, respond?

Here are some of my thoughts…

• Of course, we are not coaching when we are leading our clients anywhere…If you find yourself tempted to lead, you are already outside of the coaching groove…
• Questions that can illuminate the situation will always lead to more understanding…Consciousness automatically leads to learning
• You’ll be more natural if you are not in the habit of making too many assumptions about what is going on
• Commenting on things you’ve learned in your experience as a coach (or a human) CAN be appropriate…This might sound something like…I’ve observed many times that people sometimes overreact when they feel threatened…Could that be part of what was happening for you?  Again, you want this to be a real question, not one that you already “know” the answer you “want” to hear.
• Introducing clients to concepts can be appropriate as well.  This can be stated just as such…You putting forth an idea that you are asking your client to consider if it is true for them or could be helpful for them.

Again, as a coach, if you are making assumptions about what a client “needs” to know, you will be getting in the way.  Let the client’s wisdom emerge via your non-judgmental, open, curious, present, loving approach.