Get Experimental
Here’s the deal: you don’t change your life by thinking really hard about it, or by dreaming, or talking about it. You change it by taking action. I just watched a talk on youtube given by my fellow coach and former co-worker, Michael Melcher. It’s a great overview of how coaching works — no hidden tricks or gimmicks. He outlines four basic pieces of career coaching that guide the process: 1. Values, 2. Vision, 3. Relationships, and 4. Experiments. Number 4 is key. Yes, you need to know what you like and what’s important to you (values), and you need to...
Read MoreWhere is Your Outrage?
I know I’m late to the party, but I just finished reading Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, a provocative and fun to read economic analysis of many social phenomena that turned many of my assumptions on their heads. I like that. But it also sheds new light on something that I encounter often in coaching – fear of change. In their chapter on parenting, Levitt and Dubner discuss risk and demonstrate how wrong our calculations of risk frequently are. For example, many more children die from drowning in a swimming pool than by gunshot even though there...
Read MoreMake Your New Year’s Resolution SMART
Several years ago I swore off New Year’s Resolutions. (Yes, I see the irony of that.) The annual hopeful energy and inevitable late-winter decline was a cliché, and I was too cool for all that. So I steadfastly ignored Auld Lang Syne and set personal goals willy-nilly throughout the calendar, with varying success. But as we enter a new year and a new decade, I am struck by the moment and by a desire to turn a new page and even to turn over a new leaf (how’s that for a cliché?). So then, how do we avoid the mid-February dissolution of our resolve? Make a SMART*...
Read MoreWhat Do You Want from 2010?
Time Magazine’s cover last week dubbed the 2000′s “The Decade From Hell,” and many are saying “good riddance.” But what lessons have you learned, and how do you want to enter the coming year, the coming decade? With a New Year’s resolution that will be stale by February, or with an energized and rigorous plan to achieve a well-integrated set of goals that will improve your performance, satisfaction, and life balance? Now is a great time to try coaching, a collaborative relationship that helps you develop your own goals and take concrete actions to make real...
Read MoreNow, More Than Ever
Times are tough – we see it all around us. The economy is faltering, people are losing their jobs and their homes in numbers that make even those who have a relatively secure job feel nervous. So maybe your first response to coaching is, “That sounds nice, but I can’t afford inspiration and fulfillment right now – I’m lucky to have a job and I just want to keep it.” To which I reply, “Yup, and coaching will help you do just that.” More than ever, you need to understand your mission, perform at your best, and be recognized for your contributions in the...
Read MoreQuantum Leap or Baby Step?
A Facebook buddy has the following quotation on his home page: “Doing is a quantum leap from imagining.” I am struck both by its truth and by the way in which it is not true. The truth of it is commonplace: talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words, wishing don’t make it so, etc. But I am also aware of the way it is not true, or rather, the way in which we exaggerate the size of the leap and make it too hard in order to excuse our inaction. Psychologically, doing can be an enormous leap. But in the words of a cd that my kids currently demand as soon as we get into the...
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