The Coach Approach

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Photo by Diana Bella

My six-year-old daughter asked me:

Who made God?

How come they call a tree a "tree?"

What is the point of you?  The point of a towel is that it dries you off.

Friday's inquiry:  What is the point of you?

My apologies to email subscribers who received an unedited copy of this post yesterday.  I hit the wrong button while composing and was unable to retrieve from cyberspace.

 

Related Posts:

• Inquiring Mind Friday, October 31

• Inquiring Mind Friday, October 24

Improve Your Opportunities for Success with Laser-like Focus on Your Goals

You've thought about your goals.  You're clear why you want what you want and what it will get for you.  And, you've visualized achieving your goals in rich sensory detail.  Now what?

Get them out of your head and on to the paper or somewhere else where you can see them and review them regularly.  Why?  Two reasons, commitment and focus.

It is an urban myth that the 3% of Harvard graduates in 1953 who wrote down their goals earned 10 times more money than the rest of the class over a 20 year period.  However, a more recent study by Gail Matthews at Dominican University arrives at a similar conclusion.  And, according to Harvard success scientist, Dr. Stephen Kraus,

    "There’s a power to the simple act of putting something in writing.  It enhances commitment, maximizes motivation, and diminishes the wiggle room that opens the door to revisionist personal histories (e.g., not putting forth your best effort, but rationalizing it as “I never really set that goal, anyway”). "

Save Time and Energy by Visualizing Your Goals

Visualizing your goals is not simply day dreaming or wasting time.� It is a well-documented tactic for accelerating progress toward your goals and improving performance.

The Science.� In the 1980's, Dr. Denis Waitley discovered in working with the astronauts at NASA that your brain does not tell the difference between a real and an imagined experience.� Through a process called "visual motor rehearsal" at that time and using sophisticated biofeedback machinery, he discovered that when you visualize an event, your brain produces the same pattern of impulses and sends instructions to your biological systems just as if you were doing the event.

The Facts.� Dr. Waitley went on to use this process to improve the performance of Olympic athletes.�Surgeons, successful business people, and elite athletes, such as Michael Jordan, have reported using visualization techniques to reach their goals. Virtually every team at the Beijing Olympics will be employing the services of multiple sports psychologists to continue training these athletes to visualize their success among other things.

Success Tip: Release the Past, Intend the Future

Its a different New Year's day today.  I am at the beach in Santa Cruz, California with my husband and two of our four children.  We have been running on the beach, building sand castles with shell gardens, swimming in the pool and dipping into the hot tub.   My husband surfed.  We rode roller coasters and while hubby and kids are out at the movies, I am here at Borders book store writing my first blog of the year.  Of course, the first blog of the year MUST be about the infamous new year's resolution right?

Well, sort of.  Mostly, I just want to share with you the ritual I enjoyed last night with my good friend LeAnne which made for a unique last day of the year.  We went to a burning bowl ceremony, a first for me.  Here is what we did.  We joined with a group of people to reflect on the year past and to set our intentions for 2008.  We were asked to answer the following questions:

• What do I want to release from this past year?
• Who do I need to forgive?
• What do I need to forgive in myself?

We each wrote the answers to these questions on a piece of a paper and when we were ready, tossed the paper into a camp fire, releasing the regrets of last year into the wind.

We answered two more questions on a separate sheet of paper.

• What are my intentions for 2008?
• What do I want to call forth in myself this coming year?

We placed this page in an envelope addressed to ourselves with the understanding that it would be mailed to us on July 1, 2008 as a reminder of our intentions for the year.

A simple, yet powerful exercise which helped me think about the bigger picture for 2008.  I invite you to try the process or at least work through these really important, guiding questions.   Would love to hear what you are releasing and intending.  And for more on new year's resolutions and goal setting, see my blog post from January 2007.

Abundant joy, abundant health, and abundant wealth be yours in 2008.

All the best,

Lora

Lora Banks, CPCC

lora@TheCoachApproach.net

The Coach Approach, LLC

Leadership Tip: Is Your Organization Awake?

That is the question asked by Nancy Spears in her latest business book, Buddha: 9 to 5: The Eightfold Path to Enlightening Your Workplace and Improving Your Bottom Line  Regardless of your spiritual orientation, you will find this book packed with leadership tools, workplace wisdom, and professional development tips. 

Spears overlays ancient teachings upon today's corporate environments providing a road map for healthy change which is people, profit and ethics centric - all at the same time. She brings deeper meaning to the classic terms, "mission" and "vision."  Through a series of self-coaching exercises, she points the reader toward accountability, discipline in communication, passion and patience at work.  Short case studies populate the book both from the author's own professional experience as well as popular media.  While educating on Buddhist principles of thought, each chapter is organized in business like fashion into strategies, tactics, and operations.

I love the book, like most of those recommended by my good friend Nicki Marcellino at Prudential California Realty.  The company has their entire management staff reading the book!  Spears and I are on the same page here.  You can read my take on business and the eightfold path on my old blog, Thoughts on Leadership over at blogger.com.  What do you think?

Enjoy,

Lora

Lora Banks, CPCC

lora@TheCoachApproach.net

The Coach Approach, LLC

Success Tool: Mental Journey to Millions Live!

I was able to jump on a plane at the last minute Thursday night to accept the invitation I received from Thach Nguyen to attend his program Mental Journey to Millions Live! in Irvine, California.  While I was grateful to receive the invitation a couple of weeks ago, it didn't appear that I would be able to attend because of a previous commitment AND I had an intuition that I would be going.  My intuition was correct.  There were some changes to the program I was delivering at San Jose State University and I just said, "Yes" to the opportunity to hear and support Thach and his co-leader Matthew Ferry.  Not surprisingly, when I saw Thach Friday night what did he say?  "I always knew you would be here."  Sometimes when I am creating and connecting with others, it feels a little magical.  This was one of those times.

So the program - this is a great jump start if you have been putting off creating, living, and/or working from your vision and values.  Ferry's energy and entertainment value are over the top.  Thach is a humble, funny, fountain of wisdom and experience.  The two put on an energizing performance complete with giant visual graphics and inspirational music.  Here is a short summary of the highlights.

Success Tip: Eight Steps to Manifesting

Last week, after receiving an invitation from Thach Nguyen to his Mental Journey to Millions Seminar Live in Irvine, California coming up this weekend, I enjoyed reviewing some of the YouTube video clips he and Matthew Ferry have posted on their site.  I enjoyed their "Eights Steps to Manifesting" as so much of it is about relationship, relationship, relationship.  Like I always say - ALL business is relationship business!

Here are the eight steps. 

Little Things Create Change

My husband and I are blessed with the opportunity to shepherd four precious children through the early years of their lives.  They are our teachers.  Not a day goes by that we don't learn something from our kids.  This little jewel was presented to us last week at the dinner table by our nine-year old daughter.  Read, enjoy, be inspired. 

                           Little Things

                                     By Ashley Ley

One day I went to school and met up with my best friend. My friend smiled at me. I smiled back at her. I smiled at my teacher. She smiled too. Soon the whole class was smiling. My friend whispered to me “Want to come over tomorrow?” I whispered back “ok!”

That evening we went home with our great attitude and smile. As we both talked at dinner we spread that smile and the great attitude. And when anyone in my family sees or talks to the next person or people, it will spread. And then soon the whole world could be smiling back.

We can change the world with simple things like smiling. You don’t have to be famous to change the world. You don’t have to be old or young to change the world.  Any thing you do will make a difference.

Other ideas on how you can change the world. You can pick up trash, you can be helpful to your family, and you can start a rice bowl, and volunteer at a soup kitchen. And there are a whole bunch more simple ways to change the world. Come on every one we can change the world!

This story was inspired by my sister. She once told me we can change the world with simple things.

Thank you Ashley Ley for these beautiful words of wisdom.

   

In gratitude,

   

    

Lora

Lora Banks, CPCC

lora@TheCoachApproach.net

The Coach Approach, LLC

Stretch Your Dreaming Muscle

I believe in miracles.  Can't help it.  Always have.  Always will.  As much as I am a left-brained, logical, rational thinking type, miracles by definition are unexplainable and yet, I accept them.  What I do know, is that if you are not open to receiving them, it is pretty hard for one to land in your lap.  That is why I encourage my clients to develop their dreaming muscles.

Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve.

                                                  W. Clement Stone

Hard to imagine that there is a muscle that does your dreaming for you, there's not.  It's really a practice of stretching your imagination in way that is not limited by what is now, what has been in the past, or what you suppose to be likely about your future.  There is plenty of time for a reality check down the line. This is a conversation that frequently comes up in coaching around big changes in work, relationships, and life.  In my practice, clients often want to start addressing an opportunity or solving a problem by first determining what is realistic.  NO, I tell them, not that!

Success Tip: Be Do Have

My friend Stewart Gall, over at Shirlaws here in San Francisco, recently presented a brief overview of a consulting framework he uses with clients through a license from partner, Open Up Communication in Australia. 

The concept is this.  Most people approach problems, opportunities and goals in the mind set of "Have, Do, Be" which translates to something like this for example:

When I have the promotion at work, then I will get to do more of the things I enjoy, and I will be more fulfilled by my career.

To succeed, you must reverse the order to "Be, Do, Have" such that:

I will be more fulfilled by my career, do more of the things that I enjoy, and  then I will have the promotion.

The formula says you create solutions, opportunities, and circumstances by choosing a perspective now, acting with confidence that you will achieve your objective and then ultimately achieve it.