Tag Archives: Demp Coaching

“A good goal is like a strenuous exercise. It makes you stretch.”

Posted on by

“A good goal is like a strenuous exercise. It makes you stretch.”

– Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

image of young girls stretching in ballet outfits

Image from Flickr by tom@hk

Just as a personal trainer helps stretch their clients physically to support their fitness goals, coaches stretch people beyond their comfort zones to achieve their professional and personal desires.

In both cases, the stretching beyond our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual limits provides a catalytic stimulus to support new growth and the development of capacities previously not available.

Exercise:

Where do you want or need to stretch beyond your current abilities to pursue and achieve even more than you previously thought possible?

“All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a twin.”

Posted on by

“All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a twin.”

– Lord Byron, English poet566Image from Flickr by Freddycat1.

Take a trip down memory lane with the following list of famous pairs:

  • The Lone Ranger and Tonto
  • Batman and Robin
  • Lucy and Desi
  • Barbie and Ken
  • Sonny and Cher
  • Bert and Ernie
  • Holmes and Watson
  • Mork and Mindy
  • William and Kate
  • Bruce Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • Mickey and Minnie
  • Abbot and Costello
  • Adam and Eve
  • Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
  • Charlie Brown and Snoopy
  • Jack and Jill
  • Kermit and Miss Piggy
  • Lennon and McCartney
  • Tarzan and Jane
  • Tom and Jerry

Exercise:

Consider those people who you pair up nicely with, to more fully experience happiness and joy in your professional and personal life.

“I will prepare and someday, my chance will come.”

Posted on by

“I will prepare and someday, my chance will come.”

– Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States

Image of hands planting a small tree

Image from Flickr by alexindigo

It is early summer in Michigan and this past weekend, I noticed a large number of my neighbors working on their lawns and landscaping. Many were also preparing the soil and planting flowers in their gardens.

Their driveways were piled with soil, mulch, grass-seed, and lots of other preparatory resources, to help the flowers and greenery grow.

Exercise:

What preparatory activities can you engage in today, and all year long, to increase your professional and personal chances of success?

“Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.”

Posted on by

“Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.”

– Norman Vincent Peale, minister and author

547

Image from Flickr by Marco Gomes

In the personal development world, the phrase “breakthrough results” has become a cliché. It reminds me of one of those late-night infomercials for some special non-stick cookware or a Ginsu knife that can cut through a pop can without getting dull.

A key to these claims, as well as the claim of professional and personal breakthroughs, is that the product, system, or method must have the inherent ability or capacity to achieve a result not previously possible by other means.

Peale is suggesting that when our heartfelt commitments are involved, they will inspire and motivate us to scale the highest life fences to realize our sincerest goals.

Exercise:

Select at least one heartfelt professional and/or personal fence you wish to scale, and share this intention with others who are committed to your success.

With their commitment and support, you will find yourself on the other side sooner than you ever imagined.

Choice Not Chance

Posted on by

“It’s choice – not chance – that determines your destiny.”

– Jean Nidetch, co-founder of Weight Watchers

545

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see Lisa Nichols speak at a coaching conference. Lisa first came to the attention of the personal development world when she was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, due to her involvement in the movie “The Secret” that focused on the Law of Attraction.

Her inspirational journey from poverty to running her own public company was a result of her many courageous choices along the way.

Please check out Lisa at her website www.motivatingthemasses.com. You can see her appearance on Oprah here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zuW_tEbz1Y

Exercise:

Where can you use your own power of choice, not chance, to help determine your professional and personal destiny?

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later

Posted on by

“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”

– Og Mandino, 20th Century American motivational author

Image from Flickr by symphony of love.

Image from Flickr by symphony of love.

Asking people to do their best, to seek excellence, on a key project or top priority seems like the ultimate cliché of coaching. Blogs, books, and quotes related to this simple idea abound.

What does doing your best truly mean? For most of us, it often seems impossible, given the image we have in our minds about how our “best” can look.

Consider the idea that we all have a “best continuum,” in which what we’re capable of varies depending on the day or time. Consider, too, that your actions are like planting seeds and tending a garden, where all efforts count and add up.

Exercise:

What does your best effort look like today? Take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate yourself, knowing that the sum total of all your daily bests will bring you the harvest you seek.

affectionate communication of insight

Posted on by

“Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.”

– Leo Rosten, American novelist

Image of women laughing

Image from Flickr by eschipul.

Stand-up comedians have one of the most difficult jobs on the planet. Imagine waiting 23.5 hours just to stand in front of a packed room with the job of making everyone laugh on cue for 30 minutes, at 11:30 pm!

The masters of this art have an uncanny ability to touch our head, heart, and funny bones with a surprising insight into our inner lives that’s rarely discussed.

Finding those universal notes that harmonize with everyone in the audience is magic, and the resulting synergistic laughter overtakes everyone – causing belly laughs, gasps, and in the best cases, the inability to catch our breath.

Exercise:

How can you learn to develop this special form of communication to deepen your connections with others and attract new people who share  common but hidden affinities and attributes?

“Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand.”

Posted on by

“Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand.”

—Mother Teresa, Catholic saint and Nobel peace prize winner

Image from Flickr by Skyseeker

I do the majority of the food shopping in my family. When I was a young boy, my mom would often take us to the supermarket where we would get a little coaching on how to pick the best produce – including the ripest and sweetest fruits, in season, of course.

Today’s mega-markets have all types of fruits in all seasons due to the advent of worldwide distribution channels. In many ways, these varieties seem a bit less tasty due to the processing required to have them make their considerable journeys.

Love, as Mother Teresa suggests, is the choicest fruit and is always at hand in every season. We don’t even need to go to the market to fill our lives and homes with its sweetness and abundance.

Exercise:

Love not only makes the world go round but also makes the ride worthwhile. How can and will you sweeten your life and the lives of others today, and throughout every season?

Committed but Flexible

Posted on by

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

– Tony Robbins, motivational speaker

528Image 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.

“Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.”

Posted on by

“Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.”

– Ben Okri, Nigerian poet

523

Image from Flickr by woodleywonderworks

In the coming days, pay particular attention to the stories people tell in your professional and personal life. You can even examine the stories told in the books you read, the shows you watch, and the other forms of media you engage with.

Notice the stories that tug at your heart strings and move you deeply. The common theme is when someone summons the courage from some deeply held belief or commitment to overcome a barrier that seems improbable (or even impossible) to conquer.

Exercise:

Consider picking up a copy of one of the many Chicken Soup for the Soul books by Jack Canfield. The subtitle for the original book reads “101 stories to open the heart and rekindle the spirit.”