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Tag: Energy

It’s Not About Change…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Change, Covid-19, Executive Coaching, Success QuotesLeave a comment

It’s about adapting to change.

Change is the norm. Always has been. Covid-19 has been a big change for sure and it’s effects are likely to continue for some time to come. So, the key is adapting and doing our best to adapt well for the long term. Here are a few key points for adapting to change. 

The Three P’s

Be Positive – As much as possible, keep it optimistic. Our tendency is to initially fear the sky is falling but that rarely happens. Think about worst case and be prepared as best you can but hope for the best.

“Optimism, when applied to your life, develops strength and peace within you.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

Be proactive – Sudden change will give rise to fear and put us in a reactive mode, i.e. fight or flight. Self-directed change or change we prepare for allows us to respond in a more logical manner for better results. Develop contingency plans and robust systems so when the need arises, you are ready to go.

“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.

– George Eliot

Be Purposeful – Set your goals, both short term and long term, based on your core values. Doing so allows you to go after them and move with purpose. That purpose gets you out of bed in the morning, it helps you dispel any doubts, and it helps you to be ready for any storm that may come.

“Occupy your thoughts with purpose and you will be so busy pursuing a meaningful future there will be no time for doubt, chaos and disappointment.

– Carlos Wallace

Do your best to be positive, proactive and purposeful and you will weather the storm.

Let me know…how are you handling the change?

Rock on!

Covid-19 Anxiety, Find Your One Thing…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Change, Covid-19, Executive CoachingLeave a comment

Covid-19 and social distancing for the last couple of weeks has been stressing me to my limit as it probably has for you too.  Being off my routine, in lockdown mode (I know, safe at home) worrying about business stuff and family stuff and with a lot fewer warm hugs has really knocked me off my game.  Can’t sleep, stress eating, not getting out to run (worsens everything) and a low level anxiety from everywhere have been the new norm…the negativity creeps on you and before you know it, it’s hitting you hard.  Thankfully, my friend Tim Cole sent me a link to an insightful article by Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press which I really needed today.  Mitch writes about Knox who has an incredible story…a blessed ray of sunshine all the way from Haiti that helped Mitch find his one thing.BikeRideJoy

My one thing…this weekend, my 9 year old son finally learned to ride his bike overcoming a ton of anxiety.  He’s been putting it off for years.  There was a super stress moment and some tears but he pushed through and of course, once he got the hang of it he didn’t want to stop.  He rode about 8 miles before the day was done and he didn’t let me help in any of it except to cheer him from a distance and adjust the seat and the brakes a few times.  This win was all him!  I got a long warm hug for the assist and then he let go but came back and gave me a second long warm hug, bonus!  :)

In writing this I also realize for the umpteenth time, that we have rays of sunshine all around us all day every day.  We just have to get out of our funk and look for them.  Life’s best things are the littlest things right under our noses.

As these next days and weeks come and go, find your one thing(s), your rays of sunshine, and count your blessings.  And if you can, help someone else find theirs because we are all of us everywhere on quite the rollercoaster.  Thank you Mitch and thank you Tim!

What is your one thing?

 

Enthusiasm Makes or Breaks You…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Running, Success QuotesLeave a comment

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm:
– is to be inspired
– is a self-fulfilling prophecy
– is a signal for what is right
– is infectious
– is the match that lights the candle!

enthusiasm

The Fundamentals Translate…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, RunningLeave a comment

OilCreek2012achieveIt’s the fundamentals that make the difference in business, in running, and in life…and they are pretty much the same!

1. Don’t Take it Too Seriously:  It may be important but if it stresses you out, your performance will suffer…laugh often!
Runners: Leave your Garmin at home on occassion.  :-)

2. Ask:  Ask for the sale, ask for help…from the heart, for the right reasons!  No one really wants to do it alone.
Runners:  Run with buddies…to speed you up or slow you down.

3. Stay in the Moment:  What you DO right now is all that matters…not yesterday, not tomorrow.  Right now.
Runners:  Run the mile you are in!

4. Be Generous:  If you want something, give something first.  Trust that it will come back to you.  Givers gain.
Runners:  High five fellow runners, congratulate the winner, volunteer.

5. Use Your Time:  We all have the same amount of time available to us.  You can choose to use it or not.  The keyword is “USE.”
Runners:  Go run!

6. Reflect:  Take some time to slow down, look around, breathe.  Find some quiet time.  You may see something new in that mirror.
Runners:  On occasion, stop and enjoy the view, the quiet, the moment.

7. Feed the Fire Within: …to live with joy and passion but make choices with your head.
Runners:  Do what you love whether fast or slow, short or long, but listen to your body.

8. Find Balance: Work, family, faith, health…the tree that leans too far will fall.
Runners:  Mix it up, cross train, rest!

9. Find the Positive:  In winning and in losing. In Everything.
Runners:  It hurts but it’s a good hurt!

10. Face your fear:  That which we are most afraid of is exactly the thing we need to go after.
Runners:  Sign up for that race already!

11. Choose…to be successful, to be happy, to be you…then ACT on it.
Runners:  Run Steady, Run Strong!

Success Starts with Getting Out-of-the-way!

Posted by on in Executive CoachingLeave a comment

Success starts with getting out-of-the-way!

Most of us walk around working hard at being busy, doing more, getting better.  We want to win, take it to the next level, go for the gold.  But all too often, we get into our head and let the doubts set in, do the old woulda-shoulda-coulda routine on ourselves, beat ourselves up.  We spin a whole lot of negative energy around in our head.

That spinning is us getting in our own way.  Where does it come from?  Much of it from our past…getting picked last for the neighborhood ball game, told by a grown-up we wouldn’t amount to anything, maybe a supervisor gave us an unflattering employee review…but in reality, where it came from doesn’t really matter.

What matters is what are we going to do about it right now!  Step left, step right, get out of our head and we can do the things we need to do to succeed.

Instead of saying, “I can’t,”  “I’m stuck,” “They did this to me,” we can say, “I can,” “I have options,” “I can do this!”  We get ourselves off the negative spiral and on to a positive spiral.

Positive speak generates more positive energy and that gets us positive behavior getting positive results…because in reality, we have everything we need to do all that we want to do.  It’s about choices in this moment right here right now.  We can choose to wallow, fall behind or give up.

Or, we can choose to step-up!

So, if there is something not working for you, something you are not happy with…ask yourself one of the most powerful questions you can ever ask yourself, “What am I going to do about it?”

Then do it!

Rock on!

 

Motivation – the Start, the Finish and Everything in Between!

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, RunningLeave a comment

runningIf you’ve ever participated in a race of any kind, or a big or long term project, you’ve probably experienced the motivation effect. That’s when at the start of the race your adrenaline is pumping, the starting gun fires and off you go! Typically, you go as fast as you can and sometimes too fast because you are so excited and pumped up!

After a while, you start to get tired, your energy lags, maybe your legs start to cramp.  It gets harder and harder to keep going!  You just want to sit down.  Your inner thoughts start to spin, “What was I thinking?” “Why did I ever sign up for this?”

Then you see it!  The finish line is just up ahead!  Your adrenaline starts pumping again and your energy comes back.  You pick up the pace as the cramps start to subside and the fatigue fades away!  You cross the finish line moving just as fast as when you started!  Woohoo!

The start and the finish are almost always great.  We’re moving well and fast, gettin’ it done!  The problem is the stuff in between.  That time when our energy lags and we slow down is what pulls our performance down more than we realize.  And it’s exactly that time we often can pay attention to for the best opportunity to optimize performance.  If we can keep our energy up and maintain a more consistent pace, our overall performance will be much better…faster finish time, less cost, fewer mistakes, improved customer satisfaction.

Keep your motivation and energy up with sub-goals…don’t just run a 5K race but pay attention to how you run each mile.  Add rewards along the way…get a massage after each month of back-breaking labor for that huge construction project.  Visualize the end…bring the sense of accomplishment from being ahead of schedule and below budget from way out there to the here and now!  Woohoo!

Tell me…how do you keep your motivation up?
Rock on! – E

Stop Spinning, Start Doing!

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive CoachingLeave a comment

Business is tough.  Sometimes, we make it tougher by getting down on ourselves and saying “shoulda, woulda, coulda” and dwelling on the past, or saying “what if” and worrying about the future.  If we do this on a regular basis, we’re doing what is called spinning…telling ourselves negative stories that continually brings us down and into a negative spiral.  Then every time something doesn’t go our way, we spin even more…we’re already in a bad mood…then we step in something yucky and we tell ourselves we deserved it…then we make a costly mistake and tell ourselves we’ll never make it!…and on and on.

If you find yourself spinning, a simple method to get back into a positive frame of mind is simply to get busy.  When we are idle and have nothing to do, we tend to spin…and spin negative!  If we get our hands and feet doing something, we have to think about the task and stay focused which means less opportunity to think about the past or the future, i.e. less spinning.  Completing our task also leads to a sense of accomplishment and positivity…staying busy gets us on a positive spiral…a much better place to be…and typically, when we’re in a good place, better results follow!

What we get busy with can be work related or something else.  It might be going for a walk, tackling that big project we’ve been putting off forever, mowing the lawn (yes, ice cream would be better!)…whatever works for you.  :)

Stop spinning, start doing!

Tell me, how do you catch yourself spinning…and what do you do to get back on a positive spiral?  Thanks for sharing!

And, don’t forget to subscribe…if you have a blog, be sure to send me a link!  Rock on!

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