“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.”

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Barry

“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.”

—George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist

Image from Flickr by Loren Kerns

Whenever I begin a new coaching relationship, I conduct a core values exercise, as part of my personal excellence training.

In this personal inquiry, the individual examines their most important priorities, beliefs, and commitments. Family is almost always on this list, if not among the top three.

Upon completion of our one-day training session, each client is encouraged to plan and initiate various projects for their professional and personal lives. One of my latest executive clients has named his current personal project “Home Sweet Home,” as he is now placing a much higher importance on his family.

EXERCISE:

Should the value of family be a top priority for you, please consider developing your own “Home Sweet Home” project with family members, and make this area of your life an even more beautiful masterpiece.

Easy Street

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Barry

“Easy Street is a blind alley.”

—Author Unknown

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Are you always looking for the path of least resistance and the easy way to navigate your world?

If so, you may have noticed a drawback from such a strategy. Consider people who don’t exercise and live sedentary lives. What do you notice about their relative health, well-being, and overall vitality?

Coaching is all about helping people stretch and push beyond their physical, mental, emotional, and sometimes their spiritual limits to open up bright new vistas of professional and personal possibilities and achievement.

EXERCISE:

How can you take a more challenging “road less traveled” today, to strengthen your capacity to clearly see and realize an extraordinary life?

Committed but Flexible

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Barry

“Stay committed to your decisions but stay flexible in your approach.”

– Tony Robbins, motivational speaker

Image from Flickr by Shar Ka.

One of my primary goals as a coach is to support the organizations I work with in building coaching cultures. Very few people would disagree with this commitment to help each individual and the organization as a whole realize their fullest potential.

Critical to this journey are the skills of inspired leadership and empowered management. My experience over the years has shown that, with sufficient collaboration and cooperation, creating alignment toward these common objectives is very achievable – yet complete agreement with all the tactics necessary to realize their over-arching future rarely occurs. As today’s quote points out, staying flexible in your approach is essential.

Exercise:

Today, and in the days and weeks ahead, focus on your receptivity to “buying into” important group goals. Inform the people around you that you are absolutely open and willing to be flexible in your approaches to reach these new objectives.

“Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.”

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Barry

“Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.”

– Janis Joplin, singer-songwriter

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Earlier this month, my family celebrated the wedding of my daughter Rachel in Sanibel Island, Florida. It was simply the best event I’ve ever attended. The venue was a secluded beach, complete with close family and friends. We also got the bonus of a beautiful rainbow, an inspiring sunset, and even some dolphins swimming by.

Videographers, photographers, great food, a beautiful venue and dancing till midnight were just some of the things that made it special.

The credit for these memories goes to many people, especially my extraordinary wife Wendy and my beautiful daughter for never compromising their vision of a fairy-tale wedding come true.

Exercise:

What could you achieve by not compromising? How can you take a step closer to your highest vision today?

Everything Begins Today

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Barry

“Today is when everything that’s going to happen from now on begins.”

– Harvey Firestone Jr., businessman

Image from Pinterest

A considerable number of people who enter into a coaching relationship have a “governor” on their life and career engine that seems to be limiting them from moving forward at the speed they desire.

Their trips down memory lane regarding past accomplishments and setbacks often limit what they’re willing to do at this moment in time.

Exercise:

To minimize these journeys into the past, which may limit your orientation for forward movement, consider creating a number of Post-it notes with the following question. Place them throughout your personal and professional environments.

What is the most important thing I can do at this very moment?

Repeat this question often, to do what you can from where you are.

Thank you for being part of The Quotable Coach. Remember, you can hit “reply” on my emails at any time to let me know your thoughts and suggestions.

Quality of Life

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Barry

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

– Vince Lombardi, American football coach

Image from www.transformation-catalysts.com

I have had the honor of coaching over 1,000 individuals over the past 19 years.

The pursuit of excellence in all areas of their lives is a common characteristic. I even named my six-month coaching program “Personal Excellence Training,” where each person gets to plan and execute their own personal excellence journey.

Exercise:

List five to ten of the most important areas of your life.

The list may include family, career, health, finances, community, faith, relationships, education, service, leadership, sports, skills, hobbies, travel, or other things.

Answer the following question for each area you listed:

What would I accomplish if I fully pursued personal excellence in this area of my life?