Once Upon a Time

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Once upon a time in a bustling city, there lived a young professional named Sarah. She was ambitious, talented, and full of dreams, but like many individuals navigating the complex maze of life, she often found herself at a crossroads, unsure which path to take.

Sarah’s dilemma wasn’t unique. In fact, it was a universal challenge that many people face – the art of decision-making. She yearned for clarity, direction, and the confidence to make the right choices that would shape her career and personal life.

One day, while grappling with a particularly tough decision about a career opportunity, Sarah discovered the world of coaching. She had heard about it before but had never given it much thought. Intrigued, she decided to explore this avenue, hoping that it might offer her the guidance she so desperately sought.

Enter Coach Maya, a seasoned and compassionate decision-making coach. She had spent years helping individuals like Sarah navigate their personal and professional journeys. Coach Maya believed that everyone had the answers within themselves; they just needed the right guidance to unlock them.

Their first meeting was a revelation. Coach Maya listened intently, creating a safe space where Sarah could share her fears, doubts, and dreams. Through thought-provoking questions, Maya helped Sarah explore her values, priorities, and long-term goals. She encouraged Sarah to dig deep into her inner wisdom, empowering her to see possibilities she had never considered.

As the coaching sessions progressed, Sarah began to experience a transformation. She not only gained clarity about her decision but also developed a newfound self-awareness and confidence. With Coach Maya’s guidance, she learned to embrace the decision-making process as an opportunity for growth and self-discovery.

Their journey together was not without its challenges. Sarah faced setbacks, encountered unexpected obstacles, and even questioned her decisions at times. But Coach Maya was there every step of the way, offering unwavering support and helping Sarah build resilience. She reminded Sarah that the journey itself was as important as the destination.

Over time, Sarah made the decision that had once seemed daunting. She embraced it with courage and conviction, knowing that it aligned perfectly with her values and aspirations. With Coach Maya’s guidance, she had learned to trust her judgment and take ownership of her decisions.

Sarah’s story is a testament to the transformative power of coaching in the realm of decision-making. It’s a reminder that we all face choices that shape our lives, and with the right coach, we can navigate those choices with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Coach Maya had not only helped Sarah make a decision but had empowered her to become the author of her own story, setting her on a path towards a future filled with fulfilment and success.

And so, in the heart of the bustling city, the narrative of decision-making and coaching continued, one person at a time, unlocking the potential within and illuminating the paths toward brighter, more purposeful lives

THE POWER OF DECISIONS: A COACH’S PERSPECTIVE

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Every decision we make involves cutting down other possibilities, which often feels like a loss. This sense of loss can weigh heavily, even in small choices—like picking a Netflix show—and becomes even more daunting when facing life’s bigger challenges.

In today’s complex world, decisions are everywhere, from the trivial to the transformative. Yet, our mental energy has limits, and decision fatigue—a state where the quality of decisions declines with the sheer number we make—poses a real challenge.

As a coach, understanding decision fatigue and equipping others to navigate it effectively is key to fostering resilience, clarity, and growth.

What Is Decision Fatigue?

Decision fatigue occurs when our ability to make quality judgments diminishes after a series of decisions. Think of your decision-making energy as a finite resource. Every choice, big or small, draws from it, leaving less mental clarity for subsequent decisions.

For leaders, entrepreneurs, or individuals navigating uncertainty, decision fatigue often shows up as procrastination, impulsive choices, or a sense of overwhelm.

A Coach’s Perspective on the Evolution of Choices

Our ancestors made survival-based decisions: food, safety, shelter. Today, we’re bombarded with endless options—from toothpaste brands to career paths. This explosion of options stretches our mental bandwidth. However, while our cognitive resources are finite, our capacity to manage them strategically is limitless with the right tools and frameworks.

The Cost of Decision Fatigue in Leadership and Life

Decision fatigue doesn’t just affect individuals—it can ripple across teams, organizations, and even families. Consider the research by Stanford professor Jonathan Levav: judges were far more likely to grant parole in the morning (70%) than later in the day (10%), irrespective of the cases. This highlights how fatigue influences even the most objective professionals.

For you as a leader, partner, or decision-maker, unchecked decision fatigue can lead to diminished productivity, strained relationships, and poor outcomes. Recognizing and addressing it is essential to thriving in today’s fast-paced world.

Strategies to Overcome Decision Fatigue

As your coach, I encourage you to approach decision fatigue with intention. Here’s how:

  1. Prioritize High-Impact Decisions Early
    Make your most important decisions when your mind is fresh. Reserve the first part of your day for critical thinking and reserve less demanding tasks for later.
  2. Delegate and Empower
    Hand off non-critical decisions to others. Not only does this lighten your load, but it also builds trust and fosters growth in your team or support network.
  3. Streamline Options
    Too many options can paralyze progress. Narrow down possibilities to a few key ones. Simple decision-making frameworks—like pros-and-cons lists or prioritization grids—can make the process easier.
  4. Create Systems and Routines
    Automate repetitive tasks and establish routines to reduce daily decision-making. This frees your mental energy for the decisions that truly matter.
  5. Schedule Breaks
    Your brain needs time to recharge. Regular pauses throughout the day can reset your mental energy and improve clarity.
  6. Release Perfectionism
    Not every decision needs to be flawless. “Good enough” is often better than indecision. The pursuit of perfection can drain you—focus on progress instead.

Shifting Perspective: Embracing Imperfect Decisions

Many decisions, when viewed from a broader lens, aren’t life-altering. When coaching clients, I encourage them to ask:

  • Will this decision matter in a month or a year?
  • What’s the worst that could happen if I choose imperfectly?
  • Can this decision be revisited or adjusted later?

This perspective helps to lower the stakes, reduce anxiety, and enable confident action.

Navigating the Fear of Better Options (FOBO)

In coaching, I often encounter clients paralyzed by the fear of making the “wrong” choice, also known as FOBO (Fear of Better Options). The truth is, most decisions don’t require perfection—just momentum. By making timely decisions and learning from their outcomes, you sharpen your intuition and decision-making muscles.

Reclaim Your Decision-Making Power

Decision-making is about creating clarity and alignment with your values. The ability to decide with confidence, even in the face of uncertainty, is a skill that can be cultivated. With intentional practice and strategies, you can move through life with less stress and more purpose.

Remember: Every decision is an opportunity to learn, grow, and move forward. As your coach, I’m here to guide you in navigating options with confidence and clarity.

Adapted from: Decision Fatigue: Understanding and Overcoming the Hidden Strain on Decision- Making by Leah Fessier, Chief Newsletter, October 2, 2024

Overcoming Fear

What Are You Afraid Of?

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Are you pursing the goals that matter most to you?
Are you satisfied with your level of success?
Are you glad to be where you are in life?
Are you playing YOUR own game or are you playing someone else’s game?

Everything seems hard. We are all busy and we are all tired. We all don’t have enough money. We all know someone who says we can’t or that we would never make it. And then we are worried with what comes next. Are these excuses familiar to you?

What about these:

• Fear of change
• Fear of failure
• Fear of not being good enough
• Waiting for something to happen
• Perfectionism
• Being overwhelmed with all that you have to do
• Not know how

Well guess what – there is a battle going on….. and it is between your ears!!

Don’t surrender. While your fears may be real they are not good enough reasons for inaction. Your biggest work is in front of you and it has to do with how well you lead your life – how good are you at self-leadership?

Understanding Energy Leadership is in my opinion the missing link or secret ingredient to making all the methodologies you’ve tried and tossed aside about leadership, work — the petrol in the engine, the currency that fuels your success. Today let’s focus on energy itself. What is this mysterious quality? It’s not just movement or activity, sometimes it is stillness and reflection. Some call it a vitality or force. Energy gives us the capability to differentiate ourselves from another. Energy gives us the physical ability and drive to win the marathon — not in the first 25 miles — but in the last mile, when it is so easy to give up.

Energy can be conserved, stored, stockpiled, transformed, leaked and shared. In life we get energy from an amazing array of fuels. We can use this power to grow and develop, use our senses well, attract and repel other energy.

Now let’s look at leadership. Interestingly each of us leads by choice or default. The question is not whether you are a leader but how well you purpose to lead. To lead well takes awareness of your energy and a willingness to learn ways to use it better. Your body is a perfect example of an energy system. It’s self-contained, self-governed and thought-affected. Each thought you have contributes a specific energy pattern to the energy within and around you. There are no idle thoughts. Your energy encompasses every thought, feeling, and emotion you’ve had today, as well as, your recent actions. Because thoughts create energy in their own likeness – some can injure and others heal.

Energy Leadership Coaching is designed to reveal and develop your personally-effective style of leadership energy. This energy will positively influence and change not only you, but your family members, friends and everyone you work with and meet each day.

Albert Einstein is reputed to have said: “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

Well, regardless of who said this, I know that energy is also the secret power of great leadership. Once you understand how you create your reality and attract the things you do in your life, you can create the life you really want. Where to start? Here are some tips about how to overcome fear, and any excuses you may have.

  1. Identify your goal and embrace it. Use this question as a start. What do you want the change to look like? How will that give your life meaning? Think about it – even go for a walk to reflect on it.
  2. Create the space – even a small space (or time) to make a change.
  3. Be accountable to someone while surrounding yourself with others making similar changes themselves.
  4. Take small steps that will move you forward. Movement begets movement. Now take another small step…… and change is created. It is time to decide what you intend to do next and what the next few years will mean to you.
Positive Energy

Creating Positive Energy With Your Words

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One of the ways we generate energy is in the words we use.  Every word spoken or read creates an image and energy in our minds.

Did you know, we actually remember positive words better than negative words! Here’s an example: Don’t dump trash here! 

Sounds OK.  It communicates!  But in your mind, something amazing happens when you read this – amazing but not good.

Why not good?  Well, when you read an instruction that is worded negatively, you have to switch tracks from “I can’t dump trash here” to “where in the world AM I supposed to dump the trash!”

What is better and more effective to say is: “Dump trash here.”

Eliminating one word turns the negative order into a positive order that can be easily followed and avoids having to switch around in a thought dilemma, which wastes time and creates negative energy!

Here are a couple more to consider:

Negative Positive
No, we don’t have that one, we only have this one What we do have is this one and its features are…
I can’t have this ready until Friday I can have this ready for you on Friday
They cannot correct that problem until they redesign the motor When they redesign the motor, they’re going to correct that problem
Our managers don’t communicate with one another Our managers need to find better ways to communicate with one another
We can do this but it… We can do this and it..

Think about the word “problem”.  This word actually produces stress because we feel we must solve something and it is likely to be complicated and that we’ll be graded on how we solve the problem.

The word “challenge”, although a vast improvement over the word “problem”, still carries hidden emotional baggage.  It comes with feelings that maybe you’ll be “humiliated” if your performance isn’t equal to others or you’ll have to climb over a great obstacle or run a tiring race.

The words “problem” and “challenge” are emotive words, meaning there are feelings and emotions that accompany them.  Most of the time we’re unaware of these emotions as the words are so common.

When you see a challenge you naturally begin to see reasons you can’t achieve it…when you see a problem you see failure looming.  With both, you’re recognising a manifestation of a fear you have.  Once you’re victim to the fear of failure you can’t think in a healthy way.

The answer?  Change your perspective.

What if there was no such thing as problems or challenges?  What if there were only opportunities to test what you believed, no failures to keep you from trying, and only growth from your experiences?

“What would you attempt to do today if you knew you could not fail?” 

There’s huge power in this kind of thinking! (Another good reason for having an objective coach in your life.)

Changing your perspective – just the way you use a word for example – helps you tap into an inner energy to accomplish your dreams.  Changing your perspective helps you identify and overcome internal obstacles and barriers so you can succeed.

So think carefully about the words you use and the positive energy they bring to you and to those around you.  For example, I changed the way I used the word “but”.  I try to avoid it completely where possible.  I did not realise that everything you say before you say “but” is in fact cancelled and the person only hears what comes after the “but”.  Try for a week not to use the word “but” and see what happens.  I would be most interested to hear how you go.

How well do you influence?

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To influence is an art that has been lost in the volume of information that people are swamped with today. As we are all aware, information is readily available in overwhelming volumes – through the media, the internet and social media networking. One of the biggest hindrances to success is all about persuading the people you wish to influence. Even the best business proposal will not gain traction if you are unable to influence or persuade your target. The important thing is influence and not just inform. Following are five prongs of persuasion:
  • Words: Express yourself with positive, specific and precise words. Don’t use negative, vague words.
  • Rhetoric: Use rhetoric to get your message across, include powerful messaging and use memorable phrasing.
  • Emotion: Draw on emotions to get your message across. Create feelings such as pleasure, fear, safety, acceptance, and prestige. Decisions are based on emotions.
  • Logic: People need to justify their emotional decisions with reason. Help to interpret the facts, information and ideas that are available. Take a point of view. Lead others to draw  conclusions.
  • Trustworthiness: Demonstrate your integrity. People need to trust your personal values and genuineness before they’ll believe what you say.

Information floods the airwaves, the internet, and our in-boxes. And with that influx, influence has become rare. Yet channelled toward a goal, influence – not simply information – drives action and results.

If you would like to improve your effectiveness as a leader, or communicator within your business, family or life in general, contact us for a complimentary 45 minute discovery session.

What is Energy Leadership

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As some of you may know, I am one of only 2-3 Australians certified in the Energy Leadership Index – one of the top tools recommended by the Coaches Forum at Forbes Magazine.

Energy Leadership™ is the process that develops a personally effective style of leadership that positively influences and changes not only yourself, but also those with whom you work and interact.

As individuals, we view the world through filters (based on our experiences, values, assumptions, etc.). Those filters will either limit what we see or expand what we see. As a result, they impact how we perceive and what we think about our circumstances. Throughout our whole life, we’ve unconsciously developed filters, which may be holding us back from seeing the full potential of ourselves and what our life and career have to offer.

LEADERSHIP: EVERYONE IS A LEADER EITHER BY CHOICE OR DEFAULT.

Leadership is how you interact with everyone, including yourself. Leaders are quite visible within small and large businesses. We tend to think of them as business owners, CEO’s and managers at all levels. Traditionally, leadership also extends into politics and other global affairs. However, parents, therapists and health care providers, solopreneurs, sports coaches, consultants, mentors, partners in relationship, teachers, authors, and others who interact with people on a regular basis are all leaders.

If we don’t think of yourself as a leader, then you are limited in your thinking. Leading is the way we help move people into action, including us. The question is not whether or not we are leaders, but how well we lead.

ENERGY – THE TWO STREAMS IN LIFE – WHICH ONE DO YOU SWIM IN? 

A relentlessly damaging stream is flowing through the world. This stream is not created by water, but by fear. It is the Stream of Unconsciousness.

Its constructive counterpart, the Stream of Consciousness, is fed by creative and positive thinking that produces questions like “What’s right,” “What’s the opportunity here,” and “How can we make this work?” In contrast, the Stream of Unconsciousness is based on only one question: “What’s wrong?” This stream is the one most of us have been trained to see, listen to, drink from, and bathe in since birth.

During any typical workday, most people spend a great deal of time focusing on what’s wrong — with their family, their jobs, their projects, their colleagues, their relationships, and their lives. At work, it’s not surprising that studies show that more than 50 per cent of the people would choose, if they could, to quit their jobs.

What will it take to shift the pressure and negativity that surrounds not only our careers but our personal lives and the state of our communities?  What will help employees to be productive, content, and have a positive view of both the organizations they work for and the people they work with?

CATABOLIC AND ANABOLIC ENERGY: THE TWO FORCES THAT CREATE YOUR WORLD 

More than a hundred years ago, Albert Einstein addressed the scientific community, passionately presenting the idea that everything we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell is not matter, but energy.  Everything that “matters” is energy.

On an energetic and cellular level, catabolism usually refers to a breakdown of complex molecules, while anabolism is the opposite.  When you hear about a person’s catabolic or anabolic energy, however, it’s a broader statement about destructive and constructive forces in an entire person, who is made up not only of individual cells but also of anabolic and catabolic thoughts and beliefs.

Anabolic and Catabolic energy are predominant in organizations as well as people.  Many organizations experience catabolic energy by constantly reacting to their circumstances with worry, fear, doubt, anger, and guilt.  And thoughts are indeed contagious.  When even a few people in an organization have negative feelings, it can spread like a virus. “Group think” sets in, and their thoughts become group “fact.”

Remember that “group think” begins with “leader think”. At its core, an organization strongly reflects how its leader thinks, feels, and acts.  Anabolic leaders have the ability to motivate and inspire themselves and others to do extraordinary things.

No matter how effective or ineffective you currently are in your role, you can transform yourself and others, as well as your organization, into a thriving, inspired, positive, productive, and successful entity. And, thus begins your journey to become the Ideal Leader.

The Energy Leadership Index (E.L.I.) is a unique assessment that enables participants to get a snapshot of their perceptions, attitudes, behaviours, and overall leadership capabilities. The Energy Leadership Index assessment reveals what specific filters you’ve developed and how those filters are influencing the results you’re achieving.

In a way, it’s a snapshot of you, and how you show up in the world. It shows the effects of stress on your performance and targets areas where you can shift your energy to be more successful.

If you would like to find out more about Energy Leadership get in touch via our Contact page.

Essential questions for success in 2021

10 Essential Questions to Guarantee Success in 2021

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Why do dumb things happen to smart companies? After 25 years of strategy consulting, I would like to suggest some of the following reasons:

  • Companies repeat mistakes
  • Work gets duplicated
  • Customer relations are strained
  • Good ideas don’t get shared
  • Competition is around price
  • Not keeping up with market leaders or innovators
  • Dependence on a few key individuals
  • Slow to innovate
  • Lack of good market knowledge

People don’t choose for good things to go bad, just as executives don’t choose strategies that fail.

Bottom line I think, is that people in organisations aren’t finding the insights they need, and this has real business consequences.

You may have your new year strategy already drafted, and now the focus is just on starting the new year afresh. However, doing this without first reviewing the past year could land you in some murky waters – with issues unresolved, staff dissatisfied, and without clearly understanding what may not have gone so well, and what could be done better next time.

So during February, schedule some time for yourself, or if you prefer as a team exercise, and use these questions to explore 2020, gain the insights necessary, and ensure you achieve higher goals in 2021:

  1. What was the most successful initiative of 2020?
  2. What was the most disappointing (honesty wins out over whitewashing)
  3. Do you feel you maximised opportunities? If not, why not?
  4. What could you change now that would have maximum impact on company performance?
  5. How could you make this change happen and continue in 2021?
  6. What will be your “theme” in 2021?
  7. What would be the ideal working environment you would like to have in 2021, and what steps are needed to make it a reality?
  8. What could you do to provide the tools to help you work smarter and better next year (eg mentoring, training, coaching)?
  9. What initiatives could you implement to help your staff work better and as a stronger team?
  10. What are the three actions you can take now to start the year off on the right foot?

These questions are a catalyst for looking at your business. Taking the time to honestly (and without any blame) review both what worked well, and what didn’t work, will strengthen the bonds within your team and ensure that you all start the year positively and motivated to making it a success for everyone.

 

Coaching in 2021:

If you have considered coaching and would like support in 2021 to achieve your career or personal goals get in touch via our contact form to arrange an initial discovery session.

A discovery session is a 45 minute complimentary session where you can experience the coaching process for 30 minutes and then ask any questions you may have for the remaining 15 minutes.  We will both know by the end of the session if we are a good fit.

Start 2021 on fresh footing – with clarity and purpose.

Simplicity Principle

The Simplicity Principle of Life

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Like many of you during this Covid-19 crisis, I read a lot and have come across some great articles and ideas that I would like to share with you over the coming months.

There was one article in particular around simplicity that resonated strongly with me. If you are like me, the pandemic has made me realise how much I want to simplify things both in my business and in my life.

Confucius once said that life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

How true is that?

Today in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) World, the complexity of business decisions, automation, technology and AI, bears both financial and emotional consequences for us all. Then with the disruption of Covid-19 on top of all of this, we are experiencing significant stress levels.

As humans, our desire for simplicity is not new, especially during times when society undergoes upheaval. So while everyone is talking about robotics, machine learning, AI, we need to be reminded that we – as humans – need meaning and connection. We also need boundaries as much as we need to sleep.

Psychologists and neuroscientists understand that we can not go overloading people with systems and structures that are complex and anti-human. We have information overload, decision fatigue, and the “always-on” culture. So the craving for simplicity is not surprising.

The opposite for CAT – a work-life of complexity, anxiety and time poverty – is KISS.

Most of you would know the KISS principle – Keep it Simple Stupid! Living by KISS means making a commitment to pursuing clarity and a commitment to avoid decision fatigue in which too many choices limits and inhibits people. Steve Jobs always wore a black t-shirt and jeans, Barack Obama wore either a blue suit or a grey suit, and Apple remains a great example of a company committed to simple and functional design.

People who live by the KISS principle think and behave in a more agile way as they don’t feel so burdened.

So what are the elements of the simplicity principle?

Here are five areas that leaders following the simplicity principle observe – you may come up with more:

  1. They have boundaries. They know their limits, and they observe them. Did you know that it has been estimated that it takes literally 23 minutes and 15 seconds for the human brain to refocus after being online and task switching? A boundary may involve being clear about when you will be on digital devices – and when you will be focused in conversation.
  2. They know how to reset and rest. By trusting simplicity, you take time out to value nature and appreciate how calming it can be. As we all know, being always ‘on’ is bound to lead to failure.
  3. KISS leaders treat their schedules like their bodies. They control what goes in their schedule like they would control what they eat. They know when to stop and may choose to create daily time blocks to address important tasks.
  4. They balance technological speed and scale against reality. They address the human dimension and its impact on every worker and customer in an organisation. They place the human at the centre of work execution.
  5. They understand that there is collective talent, insight and wisdom among their network. People want to serve and share in a myriad of ways.

Turning the complex into the simple will always be a constant challenge. It is something we all need to consciously work on to improve the way we think and act. Steve Jobs said “Simple can be harder than complex; You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it is worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains”.

Accentuate Positive

Accentuate the Positive

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This month for something different I thought I would share some short messages and videos which I’ve recently found – many of which have been quite useful!

Accentuate the Positive
I was watching some old movies and recalled a song called “Accentuate the Positive”. After a little research I learned the words were written by Johnny Mercer in 1944 – at a time when the “War to End All Wars” was still raging. The world longed for peace and hope and a way to look up. The songs wonderful lyrics are actually useful as a powerful success formula:

“Accentuate the positive,
Eliminate the negative,
Latch on to the affirmative,
Don’t mess with Mr In between!”

What we accentuate and dwell on, focus on and look for in each day makes all the difference. It’s just like looking at a glass and seeing it half full or half empty.

Words have power. I challenge you to eliminate the negative words as you recognise them. For me, I say the word “Cancel!” when I hear one come out of my mouth and immediately select a positive word to replace it. Try it for just a day. You’ll feel the results! Then make it part of your life routine.

Latch on to the affirmative. Remind yourself what you’ve achieved. Write out positive affirmations that assume the best and keep them in your pocket. Review them often. It’s truly powerful!

And when you’re not sure, just leave those neutral, puzzling areas alone. The questions you can’t answer should not vex you or stop your progress. Just don’t mess with them.

Finally, find a bouncy song that can become YOUR theme song and hum it to yourself now and again. It works for many.

And to add to the affirmative here are two videos that might also help:

Cultivating unconditional self-worth
When a person demands perfection of herself or himself, anything less can feel like failure. Adia Gooden knows this from experience. In addition to her work as a staff psychologist at the University of Chicago, she’s learned in her own life how to break negative thought patterns and live more freely. She shares those lessons in her talk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EirlZ7fy3bE

What I learned from 100 days of rejection
Jia Jiang adventures boldly into a territory so many of us fear: rejection. By seeking out rejection for 100 days — from asking a stranger to borrow $100 to requesting a “burger refill” at a restaurant — Jiang desensitized himself to the pain and shame that rejection often brings and, in the process, discovered that simply asking for what you want can open up possibilities where you expect to find dead ends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vZXgApsPCQ&feature=youtu.be

What about the choices you make?*
You always have a reason–and usually, a pretty good one– for doing what you are doing and choosing what you are choosing. Be careful not to convince yourself that you are doing something against your will. Such a thing is impossible.

Therefore, be honest with yourself as to why you are choosing to do a particular thing. Then, do it gladly, knowing that you are always getting to do what you want. The statement “I have no choice” is a lie. You can choose. You simply do not prefer the alternatives available to you, for whatever reason. So you select the outcome that you most prefer. Isn’t that power?

If you would like some help working through your choices, do get in touch.

*Source:  Neale Donald Walsch – http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com

 

Energy to Succeed

Do you have the energy to succeed?

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So let me start with a simple question – Do you have the energy to succeed?

You can’t hide lack of energy and motivation since it’s evident from how you carry yourself. Sit down somewhere and watch people walking by and you will quickly notice who has what it takes and who hasn’t.

So what do I mean by energy?

Think of energy as two streams of life – one based on negativity and fear thinking, that is “What’s wrong” and the other fed by creative and positive thinking that produces questions like “What’s right,” “What’s the opportunity here,” and “How can we make this work?”

During any typical workday, most people spend a great deal of time focusing on what’s wrong — with their family, their jobs, their projects, their colleagues, their relationships, and their lives.

What we accentuate and dwell on, focus on, and look for in each day makes all the difference.  It’s just like looking at a glass and seeing it half full or half empty.

Which stream do you think you currently swim in? 

What do you think it will take to shift the pressure and negativity that surrounds your life?  What will help you, your colleagues and co-workers to be productive, content, and have a positive view of both the businesses we all work for and the people we work with?

It will require a shift in thinking – as essentially what you think creates your reality.

Let me explain – our thinking is a result on our beliefs, the assumptions we have about the world and life, the interpretations we make about other people’s behaviours and the limitations we perceive in ourselves.  These four factors are the foundations of our thinking and as a result produce the energy we exhibit.

Here are seven suggestions to boost your energy and shift your thinking:

  1. Develop self-awareness

Learn about your default tendencies, that is the way you react generally to circumstances.  Understand how you personally filter information and your perceptions. Ask yourself – what are your thoughts and beliefs in a particular situation you face? How often do you focus on the negative or find yourself in a reactive mode?  How often do you focus on what’s right and are excited about the possibilities?

  1. Be aware of others

Observe your colleagues, co-workers, friends, etc and see how they engage and contribute.  Are they seeing the glass half empty or half full? It is all about “what’s wrong?” or “how can we make this happen?”  Where is their thinking coming from?

  1. Intentionally choose how you are going to show up

Decide how you want to lead and how your energy, values, etc are going to show up in conversations, relationships and decision-making.  Don’t ever forget you have the power to choose.

  1. Ask and listen

Become more aware, through probing and listening, so that you can address matters in a more positive manner. Go back to the video in our Monday Motivation of August 3 to learn more about listening.

  1. Be a coach

Coaching is all about drawing answers from deep within the “coachee”.  It is a positive, collaborative, thought-provoking process.

  1. Find a coach for yourself

Sometimes it is difficult to understand our own deeper feelings and values without someone helping us out.  We may only see our reflection rather than the amazing person in the mirror.

  1. Bring out greatness in yourself and others.

Recognise people for what they are capable of.  Acknowledge and point out their greatness.

Words have power.  I challenge you to eliminate the negative words as you recognise them.  For me I say the word “Cancel!” when I hear one come out of my mouth and immediately select a positive word to replace it.  Try it for just a day.  You’ll feel the results!  Then make it part of your life routine.

Latch on to the affirmative.  Remind yourself what you’ve achieved.  Write a gratitude journal or write out positive affirmations that assume the best and keep them in your pocket.  Review them often.  Both are truly powerful exercises.

How are you going to show up? Do you have the energy to succeed?

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