Staying Focused on Your Goals

It is not always easy to stay focused on your goals. Life brings all kinds of planned and unplanned challenges and changes our way. It is important to remember that if success was seen as possible more of us would attain our goals. It is the uninvestigated thought that keeps us a slave to our habits. According to Byron Katie, we should investigate all our thoughts gently with inquiry to find out the truth for our selves. If you believe that it is hard to reach whatever goal it is that you have set for yourself, then that’s exactly what you will experience. When the thought comes to you that it is hard to take the necessary action towards your success, apply inquiry and ask the question: Is it true? Can you absolutely no that it is true? Then ask yourself the question: If I were to see this as not hard is there a way I could begin to enjoy this routine. You will be surprised what answers you may find.

I continue to hold this space and good intentions for you as you take small steps towards reaching your goals.

Let me know how you are doing and how inquiry is helping you to reach your goals.

Goodbye September, 2009

Well it’s the end of September, 2009. What do you need to give thanks for have done or accomplished in September? As I look back, I find that I could use another week in the month of September if it was offered but the reality is that I don’t have that offer on the table so I need not consider it. What I do have control of is how I will end 2009.

Its 2 days away from our 90 Days Goal Setting Challenge! Who will win the surprise price? Is it you, do you have a goal in mind that you have been considering? Plan to begin our challenge this Friday and begin taking steps to end 2009 with a bang!

How about setting a goal to begin and keep a gratitude journal for the rest of 2009? Will that be of benefit to you on New Years Day? There are so many things we need to stop and give thanks for. Start now by identifying 5 things that you would like to give thanks for in September.

Bringing Passion to Your Goals

Having passion for your goals is not always something easy to muster. However, it’s been proven that we all have passions in our lives so how can we then find ways to increase the passion levels for our goals? First I want to ensure we have the same understanding of passion. I have developed an acronym for passion that I share with my clients that I would like to share with you now: 

PASSION: 

P- Purposeful
A- Attention
S- Successfully
S-Stated
I – Intended
O-Outcome based
N- Noted
Here is the expanded version:
Purpose – goals should have a purpose. They should take you closer to your life purpose? Does this goal help you fulfill your destiny?

Attention – much attention should be given to goals. Do you give attention to your goals? Do you reflect on them/it daily and take actions that will consistently take you closer to their achievement?

Success – Are you beginning to feel successful? Are there subsidiary goals you can achieve that will allow you to experience and maintain a successful outlook as you work towards your goals? How do you plan on celebrating the small milestones on your way to your greater goals?

Stated – have you stated your goals out loud to yourself or to someone else? Sharing your goals on our blog will serve to engage the brain and the power of intention. This will also help you affirm yourself and the value of your goals.
Intended – when we focus our attention, we begin to harness the power of intention, which forces the brain to produce thoughts, ideas and solutions that are in keeping with our intentions. Do you hold successful attainment of your goal as your intention?
Outcome Based – is the outcome of this goal very clear, can you see the outcome and its benefit to your life or to others? If it is to lose 20lbs can you see yourself 20lbs lighter and all that comes with the weight loss?
Noted – when we write things down it engages the brain on a different level and helps to anchor our learning on a deeper and more fully. In this case you will be tapping into the entire universe to achieve your goals.
So take some time to assess your goals for one or all of the criterias above and ask yourself the following questions?
Am I grateful to have these things in my life?
What will my life be like when I am fully engaged in my purpose?
Am I blessed to have this opportunity to achieve something?
If that does not help then attend our Passion Test Workshop on October 15^th at 6:30 pm, here at the Centre, to learn more about tapping into your passions!

I would love to hear about your process of finding passion for your goals.

Goal Setting Challenge Sign-Up

Here is how to sign-up for the 90 day goal setting challenge:

Tell us your name (use pseudo name if you want)
Tell us your goal
Tell us when you want to achieve your goal by (date)
Tell us why you want to achieve this goal
Tell us how we can support you in reaching your goal
Are you passionate about your goals for the 90 day challenge? I am passionate about my social networking goal and I am planning on becoming even more passionate. Look out for our posting on goals and passion on Friday.

Goal Setting Challenge!

Take our goal setting challenge and make the last part of 2009 your most successful! As we approach the last 100 days of the year, it’s a time for many of us to look back and see whether we have reached and surpassed our goals for 2009. I think it’s also a good time to set one or two more goals to get us in the habit of setting and keeping goals so that we will enter 2010 with enthusiasm and vigor. No one shows up for a race without having practiced and being in good shape. Rather those preparing for a race spend time practicing and studying the course to ensure their success. I want to encourage you to think of the last quarter of 2009 as your practice run for more success in 2010 by setting a big goal for yourself! Last week I delivered a speech on goal setting so this week I want to engage my readers on some goal setting strategies that may help you improve your goal attainment success.

• It has already been proven that those who set goals:
• Live longer, are healthier and experience more joy
• Are more positive and experience greater interpersonal wellness
• Experience more financial and life success
• Have a greater chance at being leaders and motivators of others

I believe that GOALS means:

G- Great – goals should be great because they should expand our individual possibilities in an extraordinary way.

O- Opportunities – goals should bring new opportunities to our lives, new hope, new options, growth or learning, either personally or in our careers.

A- Achievable – goals should be achievable; they should not be unrealistic dreams that we have no possibility of attaining.

L- Leaping via stretching – goals should stretch us, life is a race that requires some running and some leaping

S- Successfully – we need to reach out for success or we will fail to reach our goals. We have only one chance to take a successful leap and if we are bogged down by fears, self doubts and negative self-talk it becomes difficult to get moving toward our success.

 Steps to Setting Your Goals

As you prepare to set your goals, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is one thing you want to achieve more than any other in your life at this time?
2. Why do you want to achieve this goal?
3. What would be the benefit, to whom?
4. How long have you had this desire?
5. Are you ready to make sacrifices to accomplish this goal?
6. Are you ready to take action towards achieving this goal?
7. What will it take for you to be ready?
8. How will you know that you are ready?
9. What will it look and feel like to accomplish this goal?
10. Will this change your life?
11. What resources will you need to accomplish this goal?
12. Who will support be a support for you?
13. What is one habit you will need to give up or form to achieve this goal?
14. What self defeating thoughts or ideas will you need to change?
15. What is good now in your life that will help you succeed?
16. How will taking this be rewarding your new life?
17. When will you accomplish this goal by? (Be Time specific)
18. Does this goal reflect your true values?
19. Is this a goal or a commitment to someone else?
20. Will achieving this goal take you closer to becoming the person you truly want to be?

If you are able to answer these questions then you will be able to set an achievable goal for yourself and your chances for success will be great. Take a moment to complete this goal assessment to help you connect your goals with your passions.

Goal Assessment Exercise

 Write down your top two goals on a sheet of paper

1. Read through goal number one
2. Repeat this with your eyes closed and your right hand on your heart
3. Do the same thing for each of your goals
4. Do any of your goals resonate with your heart?
5. Was there a quickening of your pulse and a tingling of excitement?
6. Was there a tightening of your chest and a sense of dread?

Good luck with setting your goals. As you we enter the last 100 days of the year take our goal setting challenge, set some time to set a really challenging goal and let me know your progress on our blog.

Here is How to Sign-up!

Tell us:

1. What is your name and your goal?
2. When did you set this goal?
3. How can we support you through your goal?
4. What actions have you taken?
5. How are you progressing?
6. What other options are available to you?

Each day we will add snippets and thoughts to keep you going and focused. Look out for new ideas!

What’s New

We have lots of exciting and new things happening this fall.  We welcome Erin-Brie Warwick, LLB (LLM candidate) as our new associate.  Erin-Brie is joining our team with a background in Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Coaching and with a strong interest in wellness. 

 The Passion Test

We have a certified Passion Test facilitator on staff to help you or your group discover and live your passions. 

 Passion Test for Your Organization

A way to help teams and groups engage and discover their passion and connect with their organizational goals and visions.  Call us for a consultation!

 Depression Recovery Coaching

A holistic and interpersonal approach to depression recovery.  Call for a consultation on the depression recovery coaching. 

 Contact us at: 204 668-5283 Call us today!

  

Interpersonal Wellness Coach Training Certification

Great News! We have added one more step to provide you with more flexibility as you plan on taking IWC training.  Join our Fall online webinar course training which will give you the option to access coach training from the comfort of your own home or office!

 Fundamentals of Coaching - (full day)
September 28, 2009
Time: 8:30am – 4:30pm.
Location: 13-875 Gateway Rd
Fundamentals of Coaching - (Webinar Option)
Part I – Oct 27, 2009 – 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (CST) Part II - Nov 3, 2009 – 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (CST) Part III - Nov 10, 2009 – 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (CST) 
Coaching Communication Styles – (full day)
October 26, 2009
Coaching Communication Style – (Webinar Option)   
November 17, 2009
See our course calendar  here
Register for courses here 
Half day specific topic focus coach trainings available again this fall:
Encouraging Change
Sept 23, 2009 – 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm.
Responsible Communication
Oct. 21, 2009 – 1:00pm – 4:00 pm.
Check out upcoming teleseminar course dates here
To find out more, call our office today at: 204 668-5283

Coaching – Building Trust

What is trust? How do we build trust? Can coaching help individuals build trust in their relationships at work and in life? 

Trust is a fundamental part of the human relationship process.  Those of us who experience trustful relationships know that it adds depth to the relationship as it allows one to have confidence and hope in something outside one self.  Trust can be described as a belief in something, or a belief that we can rely or put confidence in something or someone.  It is the ability to put faith in someone or something other than oneself.  It gives us comfort, allows us to put significance in people or things and rids us of feelings of isolation.

Trust is a verb, an action word that requires one to take action to develop, maintain or rebuild trust by doing or saying something that encourages another to trust.  In order for there to be trust in a relationship, there must be action from the parties involved to create an environment conducive to trust.

In order to build trust there must be transparency and openness.  Trust is built when there is an absence of ambiguity in the exchange, when parties share openly, practice truth telling, inquiry, freedom of speech and honest interactions.   Let’s examine trust building from Jane and Sally’s story.

Jane and Sally have been working together for the past five years and share some work responsibilities.  Last summer the two had a disagreement, as a result, their work relationship has suffered.  Sally had been off on stress leave for 8 weeks and part of her return to work requirement was a “Collaborative Response Plan” which required her to work with a coach.  When asked what she would like her working relationship with Jane to look like upon her return, Sally promptly reported to her coach the she doesn’t trust Jane anymore.   

Coaching is a relationship built on trust, due to the transparency and openness of the process.  Transparency in coaching is the absence of ambiguity.  As a client centered process, the coach is required to explain to the coachee how the coaching process will unfold.  This creates equality and shared responsibility for the coaching relationship and the results.

When asked what she planned to do about the lack of trust in hers and Jane’s working relationship, Sally replied that she was not able to do anything without trust. Through working with her coach, Sally was able to begin taking small steps to initiate a trusting relationship with Jane.  The first step was to initiate a conversation to establish openness in their working relationship.  In this exchange they outlined steps to enhance transparency and reduce suspicion and also ways to create more opportunities for truth telling.  Today, Jane and Sally are enjoying a healthy working relationship and Sally commented that: “I don’t dread going into work in the mornings anymore since I have confidence that Jane and I can share openly and deal with whatever arises in our work day.  I feel that I can trust Jane now and I believe she feels the same”.

Are you in a relationship where trust is an issue? 

Is this creating stress or joy in your life?

What is one thing you can do from Jane and Sally’s story?

Please share with our readers how you built trust in your relationship by posting a comment below.

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Module IV – Core Coaching Skills

In this module we examined some of the core skills in coaching such as: listening, attending, respecting, acknowledging, enthusing, goal setting, powerful questioning and moving clients forward.  We also had lots of fun practicing and developing these skills.  As we learned and experienced all our actions as coaches are directed towards our clients awareness, learning and taking responsibility.

Question:

1.  What new learning have you taken away and applied from this module?

2.  How will you continue to differentiate between enthusing and motivating?

3.  What core coaching skill do you think may be most challenging to develop into competencies?

4.  What coaching core skill are you having more opportunity to practice?

5.  As you build your coaching skills, what new goals have you set for yourself?

Module V – Coaching Versus Managing

In this module we examined the differences between coaching and managing, explored some of the challenges that often makes it easier to manage as opposed to coaching.  We explored the need to help organizations make the shift from managing to coaching in their quest to develop self-correcting, and self -generating employees who are positively engaged.  We also explored the various limitations to employing coaching in the organizations and practiced some innovative and creative opportunities and vehicles for coaching such as “coaching up”, integrity and planning.

Questions:

1. What was most impactful for you in this module?

2. What new goals did you set for yourself in terms of coaching and managing?

3.  How might you further explore the power dynamics involved in coaching up?

4. How can a deep sense of personal integrity aid you as the manager/coach?

5. As you explore the role clarification matrix, what do you consider to be its most vital function in this coaching relationship?