Recently someone asked me why I enjoyed my work coaching individuals and teams in a business context.  Before I had chance to answer, he added,“it has to be the most frustrating way to make a living!” The question and his subsequent comment was stimulus for me to think about what I do and why I do it.

• I love to ask questions. I love watching as people are caused to think about and put words to important issues in their life and business.  I love to be a stimulus for discovery.
• I love to see people discover their value. Life experiences can cause us to feel devaluled and invalidated.  I love to help people clarify their worth and discover new confidence to face their challenge.
• I love to be a catalyst for change. I love helping people confront their barrjers, explore options, and develop response strategies, that result in increased levels and new horizons.
• I love to witness progress. I love it when the lights go on and a persons eyes sparkle as they see possibilities.  I love it when I hear their success stories and get to celebrate their victories with them.
• I love it when we connect to that deeper place. I love when a person discovers their unique self and is able to connect what they do, to who they are.  I love it when one’s experience of making a living becomes synchronized with one’s passion for being alive.

Recently waiting for a performance to begin, I was struck by the horrendous and seemingly chaotic noise emanating from the stage, as the orchestra members were warming up, tuning their various instruments.  It was like finger nails on a blackboard.  A group of individuals with unique musical gifts, marvellously crafted instruments in hand, and the sound was unbearable.  A few minutes later, the random noise was transformed into a mesmerizingly beautiful piece of music, under the leadership of a very talented and impassioned conductor.

Our lives and our work are often more in tune with an orchestra in warm up mode.  We have the talent, we have everything we need, but the modus operandi is at best random and at worst, chaotic.  The music is in us, but our symphony awaits some structure, order, rhythm and leadership.

The work of a coach is to support you in the discovery of your capacity to achieve, by introducing structure, order, rhythm, and leadership, so the symphony in you is released.

 This is without a doubt my favourite season of the year.  I love the new and ever increasing warmth of the sun.  It is always exciting to me to see those first crocuses pushing their way up through the hardened earth and displaying their regal colour.  I love to look at the new buds on trees dripping with the life generating moisture of an April shower.  It is all such a reminder of the intriguing mystery and power of life. It shouts to us that we have potential and possibilities for change and growth. 

One of the real gratifying things about my work is the wide variety of people and organizations I get to interact with.  Although there are many universal realities about all people, it is the uniquenesses that really intrigue me.

 

» Continue reading “The Power and Potential of YOU, with inspiration from Dr. Seuss.”

The past couple of years, Gloria and I  have taken a mid January vacation in Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands.  We stay in a villa in a small, quiet resort, and enjoy a re-energizing week of warmth and relaxation.  (Photo is a shot from the rocks looking back on the small beach).  Apart from the obvious (the warmth of the Caribbean) this is always for me a wonderful opportunity for reading, writing and reflection.

This trip, I took Donald Miller’s latest book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years“, a wonderful stimulation for the heart and soul, and great cause of reflection for the beginning of a new year and new decade.  Miller’s point is a simple one, a great life will have the ingredients of a great story.  Great stories or movies are full of tension and struggle and overcoming the challenge.  He writes, “Writing a story isn’t about making your peaceful fantasies come true.  The whole point of the story is the character arc. You didn’t think joy could change a person did you?  Joy is what you feel when the conflict is over.  But it’s the conflict that changes a person.” Interesting don’t you think, how we spend so much time and energy trying to keep safe and comfortable, all the while robbing ourselves of the ingredients of a great story.

» Continue reading “2010 … Engaging the Character Arc”

In his third book Conversations with God, Neal Donald Walsch wrote – “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” I think he is right don’t you. At least it has been my experience.

Erica Jong wrote – “Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads”. We really do not discover who we are or what we are made of, until we pass through the fringe of our experience and enter that place where comfort and convenience are left behind and discovery and risk take over. It is the place where life really gets interesting and fully rewarding, but for most of us, we opt for that place of comfort and status quo. We can read an idea, hear a challenge, think a possibility, and just not respond. We may move close, take a look, make a wish or even dare to dream, and then something happens inside, and we shrink back to a previous, safer place.

» Continue reading “Confronting the COMFORT ZONE…”

A few months back while sitting in a boat fishing with a couple of friends, I noticed a field mouse on the river bank. He emerged out of his hole, darted in a couple of directions, and then scurried back. I thought of the existence of this little creature. His life is spent running around, frightened and frantic, following his nose. He darts here, scurries there, turns in circles, but never really sees much beyond his nose. He is trying to sniff his way to successful living, which defined, by a mouse’s existence, is finding some daily morsel to consume, to sustain him, so that he can carry on for the rest of his life, frightened and frantic. Sound familiar.

» Continue reading “A Field Mouse or An Osprey…”

I believe there is in all of us a “great part” and a “lesser part”. I believe there is within us a capacity for greatness, and the potential to be far less than we are capable of being. I like to call the great part – SOUL, and the lesser part – EGO.

When we work from the soul, that is from that deep, inner core of our being, we will discover within us the great qualities of our character and the creative powers of our “personhood” that will make us all we can be. On the other hand, when our egos get calling the shots, as they often do, we lose that potential for greatness and find ourselves functioning on a level far less than our true self is capable of.

» Continue reading “Reach for the GREAT PART….”

Assessing 2009
It is the day before Christmas, and in my personal reflection time this morning I engaged in what has become a personal annual ritual of journaling through an assessment process of the past year. I like to do this, as a way of trying to capture the essence of another year gone by. I also like to do it, because over the next few days I will be identifying my goals and objectives for 2010, and this time of evaluation and reflection, sets the stage for looking ahead at another year.

Hal Borland wrote, “Year end is neither an end or a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us”. I need to get better. I want to learn how to get better. I want to be the best “me” I can possibly be. The only way I know how to do this, is to keep trying. This year end ritual is part of this larger process.

As we approach the final few days of 2009, I thought I would share with you the questions that I use in my year end journaling exercise, in case they might be helpful for your year end reflection time …

» Continue reading “How Does One Evaluate a Year in His Life?”

As I write this, there are only 40 days left in the year, and the predominant thought in my mind is – Where did it go? I have been wondering this for some time, now I am absolutely certain, something is happening in the cosmos, that is making each year a shorter period of time than the previous one. Where has 2009 gone?!!

We say interesting things about time … “I don’t have enough time” … “If I only had more time” … “Can you give me more time” … etc. etc. We see it as some commodity that we can create or collect, but in reality, time is but a measuring tool, the real comodity is life. Time is the stuff life is made of. J. K. Rawling wrote, “Time is making fools of us again”.

David Russell wrote, “the present is a point just past”. It has been said, that the inertia hardest to overcome is that of a perfectly good second. The older I get, the more I am reminded of the importance of cherishing the moment. I want to measure time by sensation and meaning, not with clocks and calendars.

Fourty days left in this calendar year … that’s a 40 day window of opportunity for cherished moments and building momentum that will carry us into the new year with optimism and energy.

HByne