Tag Archives: The Quotable Coach

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

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“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

—Authors Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Photo from Flickr by General Mills

Photo from Flickr by General Mills

My dad coached a number of sports teams as part of his role as a physical education teacher. When I was a boy, I sometimes had breakfast with him before his games. The only thing he would eat on game days was Wheaties — the “Breakfast of Champions.”  Call it however you want it, his team almost always won.

I wanted to be a champion like my dad, so I dove into those cereal bowls with great gusto!

EXERCISE:

Who are the mentors, advisers, and coaches that are committed to your success? How can you fully ingest their feedback to achieve your own personal or professional championships?

“People participate in that which they create.”

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“People participate in that which they create.”
—Barry Demp

Photo from Flickr by dalioPhoto

Photo from Flickr by dalioPhoto

I’ll wager that anyone in a management or leadership position for any length of time has had the experience of bringing a new policy or program to life and finding that, despite their own enthusiasm, the rest of the team or the family are either ambivalent or outright resistant to the change.

One of the most powerful ways for business or family leaders to exact commitment from the team or family members on any project is to draw them into the plan from the start— to make it a “we” rather than “me” endeavor.

When those whose lives are impacted in some way are drawn into the development process, when they know that their insights and concerns are welcome and necessary, they participate with a sense of ownership. This is true whether they are motivated by something they want, or something they don’t want.

EXERCISE:

Consider one aspect of your professional or personal life in which you have made decisions that affect those in your department or family.  How might their participation in the decision have made a difference in the outcome?

“Life is mostly froth and bubble…”

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“Life is mostly froth and bubble, two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own.”

—Adam Lindsay Gordon, 19th century Australian poet, jockey and politician

Photo from Flickr by Ross Elliott

Photo from Flickr by Ross Elliott

We all know the phrase, “Don’t sweat the small stuff…” In today’s quote, Gordon equates the small stuff with “froth and bubble,” making clear that the small stuff has little or no substance.

But what about the important stuff – the things that require our full attention and commitment?

Gordon is clear in this: be there for others when they are in need, and summon the courage to live our lives to the fullest.

Exercise:

Examine your own life for areas of “froth and bubble,” and choose instead to strengthen the two foundation stones of kindness and courage.

“I have always tried to make room for anything that wanted to come to me from within.”

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“I have always tried to make room for anything that wanted to come to me from within.”

—Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, Founder of analytical psychology

Photo from Flickr by Harturg HKD

Photo from Flickr by Harturg HKD

Among his many contributions to the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy were Jung’s works on extroversion, introversion, archetypes, and the collective unconscious.

We often find ourselves operating in an adrenaline-rich environment, with the volume turned up full blast. Jung suggests that we create and use an internal “Mute Button” to take a quiet or even silent journey of self-reflection and personal discovery.

EXERCISE:

Take at least five minutes today to sit in silence. Explore your inner world.  Notice how thoughts, feelings, and images bubble up and fade away. What nuggets of wisdom come through?

Consider picking up a copy of one of my favorite books, Quiet (2012), by Susan Cain, to discover the power of introverts in “a world that can’t stop talking.”

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

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“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
-Steve Martin, American actor and comedian

Photo from Flickr by Vipez

Photo from Flickr by Vipez

A common coaching assignment in the business world is to assist a client in earning a promotion. This effort has many facets, including performance measurement, relationship issues, and a bit of office politics.

EXERCISE:

Imagine your job as an Olympic event, and that you must mobilize all your effort and activity to be your personal best to earn the gold medal.

Determine exactly what behaviors and result you and others expect that constitute this remarkable level of accomplishment.

Consider reading the book “Linchpin” by Seth Godin (2010) to increase your indispensability.

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

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“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

—Maya Angelou, African-American author, poet, dancer, actress and singer.

Photo from Flickr by Kinl Straf

Photo from Flickr by Kinl Straf

Have you ever visited Niagara Falls on a sunny day? If so, I guarantee you saw a rainbow, due to the combination of sunlight and the mist that rises from the falls and acts as a thousand prisms of light.

Clouds, too, are collections of water vapor that often block the light and cast a shadow on whatever is beneath them.

As we enter the fall and winter months, some people experience a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which diminishes their energy and life satisfaction, due to a lack of sunlight.

EXERCISE:

How can you shine your own internal light through the clouds of those around you, to create more rainbows and greater possibilities – and help yourself and others live a more vibrant, colorful life?

“The trouble is you think you have time.”

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“The trouble is you think you have time.”

-Author Unknown

Photo from Flickr by Moyan Brenn

Photo from Flickr by Moyan Brenn

It is a proven fact that as we age, we perceive time as moving faster.

In our youth, there was plenty of time to complete everything on our bucket list. Today, that list may seem unrealistic, overwhelming, and even act a source of discouragement or sadness.

If someone told you precisely how much time you had left in days, weeks, months, years, or hopefully, decades, what different choices might you make as you spend your life currency?

EXERCISE:

How can you begin today to live even more fully and authentically to squeeze all the juice possible from the precious time given to you? Who do you want to accompany you on this wonderful, yet finite journey?

“Do one thing each day that scares you.”

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“Do one thing each day that scares you.”

—Eleanor Roosevelt, longest-serving First Lady of the United States

Photo from Flickr by Nikki Collett

Photo from Flickr by Nikki Collett

I’m not a big fan of being scared. I don’t care for heights, roller coasters are not on my list of fun activities, and I’m unlikely to go to scary movies. Why are such activities so popular with many people?

Facing my fears gives me a booster shot of “Aliveness.”  When I examine the fears I held as I entered and pursued my career in coaching, these things happened:

  • I resigned from the stability of a Fortune 500 Company, without a salary to support myself, my wife, and my two young children.
  • I spent three months networking and reaching out to people I did not know, with no tangible results.
  • I gave many talks and speeches (public speaking is one of most people’s fears) to numerous groups to create awareness of my services.
  • I tapped into savings to secure an office instead of working from home to save money.

EXERCISE:

What one thing will you do today that scares you and will help you achieve an authentic goal and fulfill more of your highest potential?

“Quiet People have the Loudest Minds”

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“Quiet people have the loudest minds.”

-Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge

Photo from Flickr by NASA HQ Photos

Photo from Flickr by NASA HQ Photos

For any of our readers who, like me, are interested in the study of the universe, black holes, and quantum mechanics, Stephen Hawking is a rock star. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein.

It the early 60s he contracted Motor Neuron Disease and was given only two years to live, which thankfully was proven wrong, given his distinguished career and great contributions to science.

In spite of his almost total paralysis and inability to speak without a speech generating device, Hawking has had one of the loudest minds of our time, and resoundingly gets his message across, making a considerable dent in our understanding of the universe.

EXERCISE:

If you are a quiet individual, or if you have quiet people in your professional or personal life, how can you more fully capture and appreciate the volume and value of this quiet inner world?

Small thing big shadow

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“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”

-Swedish Proverb

Photo from Flickr by Stuart Anthony

Photo from Flickr by Stuart Anthony

When was the last time you examined your shadow just after dawn or just before dusk? You know – the times of day with the sun just peeks over the horizon, on either side of the day. It is at these times that the longest shadows are cast.

Worry, fear, dread, or that forbidding feeling we sometimes experience is just like these shadows in that they make small issues so much larger and ominous than they actually are.

EXERCISE:

Imagine a world where it is always high noon – where the dark shadow of worry is either very small, or nonexistent.

How can you exercise your optimistic attitude, enthusiasm, and positive perspective so that you can carry around your own sunshine, making your life and the life of others brighter?