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6 signs that you will benefit from working with a coach

Not sure if you might benefit from working with a coach? Today I share some common situations that professionals and small business owners are finding themselves in right now. If you relate to these scenarios, you might want to consider hiring a coach.

  1. You feel overwhelmed or stressed
    The main causes of overwhelm and stress relate to how you manage your mind and how you manage your time. Of course at the moment, you also have the global pandemic, which is adding to stress levels for many people. Your coach can help you develop specific strategies to address stress and work with you on managing your mindset to reduce overwhelm and stress.
  1. You feel stuck
    Things have ground to a halt in recent months and you can’t seem to feel confident about the future let alone make decisions. In times of uncertainty it’s normal to feel thrown off-track. Your coach can help you navigate the way forward in small steps to get you moving again.
  1. You don’t have a written vision, goals and a plan
    You need the big picture for your future defined in a vision as well as a written set of goals with a specific plan to achieve them. Regardless of any uncertainty around you, your coach can work with you and provide resources that assist you in this process.
  1. You’re so busy and don’t see an end in sight
    If you feel like you have no time, then you should definitely seek help. Your coach has an “outside” perspective which can help you see your way through this. Together you can implement a time management plan to get on top of things once again.
  1. You want reliable and objective support or feedback and someone to keep you on track
    It’s SO much easier having someone to talk to about your business or career. Imagine if you had someone whose job it is is to listen and support you, someone who will help you keep on track and be the sounding board you need. This is what your coach can do for you.
  1. You haven’t defined your values or understand your purpose
    If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you can end up with motivational challenges the moment you hit a bump in the road. Additionally you need to understand your personal values and confidently know that they align with your business and professional goals. This ensures that you’re creating what will be truly fulfilling for you. Your coach can help you define your values and keep you focused on your purpose.

    If you think you may want to try working with a Certified Coach, sign up to my FREE Coaching Introductory Session.

    A Coaching Introductory Session is a 1 hour one on one meeting to discuss your business and life concerns. It’s an opportunity to experience what it’s like to be coached and if you would benefit from coaching. Register here.

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Maintain momentum into February and beyond!

So I’m guessing about now you’re feeling the great New Year bouyancy. In this first month of the year we can seemingly all get by on enthusiasm and adrenaline alone. We’re feeling revitalised, refocused and have more energy. But, I’m sorry to say, it just isn’t going to last.

Right now it’s easy and you might be tempted to coast along for the next few weeks. I suggest you don’t. Instead, read my tips that follow on how to maintain momentum and set yourself up for success. Taking the easy road now will not keep you humming along in a month’s time.

I want to keep you moving forward after the energy wears off, after life“happens” and you get derailed. Here’s my 5 tips to keep the momentum way past the month of January:

Understand the structure of your winning actions
Right now you’re doing things efficiently and it’s all working. Why is it working?What are you doing that is producing your winning actions? If you seem to be on top of things, how have you achieved that?Ask yourself: what am I doing to make this work? 
Example
Ensuring that you have only 3 priorities on your list every day. Not answering emails and phone calls for a few hours a day.Even if you put down your current success to the time of year – “it’s quiet at the moment, so it’s easier”… Maybe it is quieter but what are you doing differently?Are you spending less time in meetings? What are you not doing or not being distracted by? You must find out what the structure is that is underpinning your current success. The structure will likely small key behaviours and involve boundaries. This is the foundation of your success! Understand it and aim not to compromise it moving forward into the following months.

Track it
Once you understand your winning structure that is producing your current results, you want to start tracking these small key behaviours now. If you can
keep these small key behaviours going at least most of the time, you will be able to keep up your momentum. So set up a spreadsheet (click here to download my tracking table) or use an app to track your key behaviours. 

Simply record each key behaviour and record the number of times you need to do it in a week.Then update the spreadsheet/app every day or every other day with a tick, an emoji, whatever indicates to you that you have done that action.Don’t leave it for more than 2 days because you won’t remember what you have done. Keeping this record for a week will give you a simple indication of what you have and haven’t done with your key behaviours. At the end of the week, tally your number of each key action. 

With this whole process, your aim is twofold:

  1. Aim to meet your target number of actions
  2. Have a clear visual indicator of any changes in your behaviours.

Tracking sounds simple but is incredibly powerful! Just bringing this information into conscious awareness every week will act as a reminder of the key things you need to do and indicate clearly when you’re off track. And yes, we will all get off track many times throughout the goal achievement process, so this is important!

Don’t allow derailment to mean anything
I absolutely swear by the tracking tip we just discussed for the very reason that you will get off track in pursuit of your goals. Everyone does. It’s pretty simple really. Life happens, unexpected urgent tasks arise, things are delayed, unexpected changes in your office etc. You know what I mean. It’s not inevitable that these things mean the death of your goals, it just means you need to be prepared.

As a Coach I am often coaching clients through derailments and most of the conversations revolve around what they think about getting off track. I spend time reassuring them that it’s normal. Even well experienced successful people will reach the same conclusion when they get off track. They conclude(like you and I do) that something is wrong. We all conclude that our ability or the circumstances around our goal are wrong. We use the“getting off track” week(s) as evidence that“it’s just not working”. 

When you’re at this point, firstly, have compassion for yourself. You’re clearly feeling disheartened. Then gently remind yourself that this is in fact not evidence of anything except for the natural progression of goal achievement!

Let me reiterate: Getting off track means nothing about you, your ability or the potential success of your goal.

Getting off track is a natural part of the journey. Don’t make it mean anything other than that. Keeping this in mind, you will be able to avoid the negative thoughts that can creep in and inevitably impact your momentum.

Plug into the WHY of your goals
One of the reasons that we feel so motivated at the start of the goal setting process is that we are very clear about WHY we want to achieve our goals. We have a vision of what that will mean for us personally. We imagine the accompanying emotions and feelings of success. After we start on the goal achievement journey however, this can often be lost.

The day-to-day disciplines required, the focus and energy that you need for success can erode rather quickly. Understanding why you want to achieve your goals and actually recording these reasons to review later, will help you to keep moving forward. We all want to achieve our goals so that we can experience certain feelings, whether they be of accomplishment itself or the outcome of the goal, such as feeling better/significant/lighter/less stressed. So now is the time to record your WHY for each goal and read over them every fortnight. This will help ensure that you keep your momentum in the months ahead.

Make sure you implement these 5 tips over the next week to get you set up for rolling momentum!

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You need to review 2019 and here’s how…

Before we turn our eyes and expectations to a new year, there’s a place we need to go first. It’s highly underrated but really essential in creating the life and business that you want for yourself.

It’s time to revisit 2019 and review it.

Why?

Because it helps you see what went well and what didn’t.
It reminds you of significant events and the learnings that you have taken away with you. Review is essential in getting an overall picture of what went down in 2019 as this is how you got to where you are right now. And are you happy with where you are right now? Was this where you expected to be?

Reviewing your year in terms of personal and professional events and achievements provides significant insight and wisdom that you need to utilise as you move towards the next year.

There is no better time than now, to review the year before embarking on your path next year. To simplify the process and get you started, I’ve provided review questions for you to consider.

It’s important to take the time to complete this exercise thoroughly, that way you will get the most out of it. So don’t try and squeeze this in before a gym visit and your commute. Set aside a good hour or two of uninterrupted alone time. By the way, alone time also means turning your phone to silent or off completely. Take your time to reflect on each question and record your answers in a notebook or digital resource of your choice.

What were my top 3 accomplishments of 2019?

 Did I achieve the goals I set in my business / professional life this year? Yes/No 

Which goals were/ were not achieved? Why do you think this is the case?
 
What is working well in my business / professional life?

What is not working as well as I’d like in my business / professional life? Why do you think this is the case?

What were my top 3 experiences of 2019? 

What were the 3 most important things that I learnt this year?
 
If I could go back and change things, I would… 

If I could sum up 2019 in 3 words, it would be… 

What I need to do more of next year…Habits or actions I need to DO MORE OF next year:

What I need to do less of next year…Habits or actions I need to DO LESS OF next year:

I think you’ll find that after doing this exercise you will have a better sense of what kind of year you’ve had and what changes you may want to make moving forward. You will know very quickly if you’re on or off track or if your priorities have changed. Take an hour or two this week to complete the review and we’ll continue next week with looking towards the New Year and how we can use the information that you’ve uncovered in this review.

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Where your focus should be for best results

Vision is important. Having the big picture in mind for your business or project is essential. But here’s the caveat: Once you have the big picture, you must break it down into small, manageable pieces.

 Do you have a step by step outline to achieve your big goals?

I ask this because one of the main causes of overwhelm and stress with any project lies in looking at the big picture for far too long. It seems that we like to dwell more on the expected outcome, the end result. We often want to get to that place as fast as we can. But working on a large project or big goal requires another skill set altogether. 

You must step away from the big picture, or adjust your focus so-to-speak. Blur the bigger picture and focus on the step you’re taking right now.

Breaking your project or goal into smaller pieces and working on one piece at a time is how you can actually accomplish big things. It’s in managing the little things, one step at a time, that a power is unleashed. Procrastination and stress are reduced and a whole lot of benefits await you if you can just focus on the one step you are taking right now:

Reduced stress and overwhelm
Imagine standing at the bottom of a mountain and looking at the summit. You’re going to climb the mountain. Do you keep looking at the summit as you climb all the way up? No, of course not. When you look at the summit it’s overwhelming. The scale of the journey is too big for your brain to manage. It will instinctually resist, get stressed and start telling you how hard it is, if not totally impossible. This is why small steps are so important. It makes it more manageable, more consumable for our brains. Consequently it reduces stress and overwhelm about the big climb that is your project or goal. 

Feeling more engaged with the project or goal
If you’re keeping your eye on the end result as you work on your big goal you’re going to be more attached to the end result. The end result is important, but it comes… at the end. While you’re in the middle, be in the middle. This is how engagement is increased. Staying with the step you’re working on increases your concentration and connection to what you’re working on. Feelings of engagement are generated when you stop treating the thing you’re working on as a means to an end, to get to the result. Try it, you will enjoy it. Trust me.

Feeling more in control of large goals and projects
Large goals and projects are exciting… until they’re not. Until you feel overwhelmed, out of control and spiral into an attitude of reluctance. It’s so big you feel like you have no control. That’s why breaking it all down into bite-sized pieces is essential. This is the only way to accomplish big goals. If you thought those people who are achieving big goals were just doing bigger things, then you’re wrong. Quite the opposite thing is happening. If anyone is achieving big goals it’s because they’ve mastered breaking it down into small pieces to keep them feeling in control. Bottomline: the more you feel in control, the more motivated you are to keep going.

Increased quality of work
When you focus on the step you’re taking right now, more care and attention will flow into what you’re working on. The result is a significant increase in the quality of your work. And increased quality also contributes to some of the enjoyment- see the next benefit…

More enjoyable process
An increase in the quality of your output is certainly satisfying. In addition to this and perhaps more significantly, is the enjoyment created in the focused doing. Allowing yourself to focus on one thing brings you into the present moment and helps you move into “flow”. Whether you call it flow, being in the zone or just presence- it’s all the same. When you are fully present with what you’re doing, the process automatically becomes joyful.

Prevents burnout
One of the major causes of burnout is in trying to things all at once. This is what can happen when working on a goal or project without breaking it down into the small steps. In fact, having no plan at all is what usually contributes to burnout because there’s a big effort put on many things all at once with no sequence or defined paramenters. It’s difficult to a) maintain this momentous effort and b) recognise any real progress. Focusing on one step at a time gives you one thing to put your energy into with a clear result or stepping stone being accomplished at the end. You will feel the progress.

It’s more trackable in smaller pieces
As I just mentioned, the small pieces become stepping stones. If the whole goal is broken down into 5 stepping stones, then you know after accomplishing 2 of those then you’re almost half way. This is great for tracking progress, resources and managing your time. When you can track it, you can anticipate all of these things much easier.

Eliminate resistance
A wonderful thing happens when you focus on one step at a time. Your brain relaxes a little. It can see that it can manage the task because it’s a small task and only one single task it has to deal with. The effect of this cannot be underestimated. The resistance you naturally experience when working on a big project or goal- all that procrastination- is overcome just by staying with the one smaller task at a time. When your brain has no resistance, you can easily start working. So it’s goodbye procrastination and hello efficiency. I say yes to that!

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Will you keep, modify or drop?

It’s the second quarter of the year already! Can you believe it? I hope you have had a great start to the year working on your goals. How are they progressing? It’s so important to check in about now and do a quick review of how it is all going.

Why?

So you know how far you’ve progressed with each goal and so you can clearly see what is and is not working. It does not have to take long, but this simple one act can make all the difference! You see, the goal-setting process is actually more flexible than most of us think. Well, it’s a paradox in a way. You have to fully commit and not waver, yet you must be flexible to allow your goals to evolve or change.

If it sounds confusing, stay with me… 

When you set your goals at the beginning of the year, you had to make choices about very specific directions you wanted to go in. Then you made a plan and started to go to work. You have had the end result in mind as you continue to move forward one step at a time.

That commitment and certainty to your goals path still remains important but now you must evaluate how that path is serving your goals. And if those goals are still relevant. A quick way to do this is to ask good questions.

These questions will help you to establish if your goals are still relevant. This is the first step.

For each goal you have, ask yourself:
Is this goal still important to me and my business?Will achieving this goal still have the impact/effect I thought it would when I first set the goal? Or is the outcome likely to be less impactful?

Next, you need to establish if the path you are on with your goals is serving its purpose or needs adjusting. Adjusting your goals path can be necessary for all sorts of reasons. It could be taking longer to progress than you thought. Maybe what you’re doing is not working at all. This is why we need to remain flexible. We must be willing to make changes based on the feedback we get from the review process.

Ask yourself:
Is the time-frame to achieve this goal still realistic?Am I getting good ROI with the actions I am taking? This could be time or monetary investment.Has another way to achieve the goal become apparent?

With your answers you can then decide whether to keep, modify or drop each goal. This review of your goals now, will help you avoid getting to the end of the year (or goal time-frame) and finding that you don’t have the results you wanted or that they have become irrelevant.

I hope you find it helpful in becoming more focused in the pursuit of your goals over the next few months.