Here are five habits for the end of your day, that will help you avoid procrastination:
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At some point it happens to all of us: Job Burnout. This is especially true for leaders, who can’t afford to feel that way for very long. Here’s a list to help you identify the cause of your Job Burnout:
Over the years, I’ve had some unusual experiences with my seeds of possibility.
Some of my seeds have popped up a very long time after I’ve planted them. For instance, I sent a resume to a company and didn’t hear back from them for three years! Then they contacted me to interview for an entirely different job (which I ended up getting).
Another time a woman kept picking up my fliers over a 2-year period, thinking that she wanted to attend a workshop, but never did. Until one day her best friend handed her a flier and said she was going to attend the event. They both became Coaching Clients.
One woman received my E-Newsletter for 4 1/2 years and then hired me to coach her son.
Other seeds have popped up in unexpected ways.
A woman from Ireland found my website and became a coaching client when she moved to Long Beach.
Also, I’ve been called to do Speaking Engagements because someone found my Coaching Business Card. And I’ve been engaged as a Coach because someone found a Workshop Flyer.
Once I was at Jury Duty and was talking about my Coaching services and the gentleman next to me overheard the conversation and hired me as his coach.
I am very grateful that my gardening efforts reward me with beautiful flowers, whenever and however they show up!
I hope this encourages to get out there and start sewing more seeds!
Do you get discouraged because you can’t seem to find what you’re looking for?
It could be a new job, more business, more friends, a romantic partner, or a bigger social network. Whatever it is, being discouraged can get in the way of you doing what you need to do to get what you want. Perseverance and patience are the keys to building a great business and life.
I want to share a metaphor that has helped me avoid becoming discouraged and given me the strength I need to get what I want in life. The metaphor is: Sowing Seeds of Possibility.
When I’m working to get something I want in life I sow as many seeds as possible. I don’t need every seed to grow, just enough to fill my practice, find one job, or find the right people to connect with.
I try not to get mad at the seeds that don’t grow, because I know that some of them will grow. As long as I plant enough seeds, I will get what I want. As long as I talk to enough people, send enough messages, and make enough connections I will find what I’m looking for.
Sometimes it seems as if I’ve found just the right flower for me, but then it wilts. Fortunately, I know that other seeds will soon bloom.
I water the seeds, pull weeds, and fertilize the ground. I know I will be rewarded for my efforts. Not by each individual seed or action, but from the collective work I do in my garden.
I also know I can’t ever stop planting seeds and tending to my garden because the beautiful flowers won’t be there when I need them.
This metaphor prevents me from getting discouraged, because it reminds me to:
Don’t ever forget to tend your garden: keep marketing & selling, meeting people & maintaining valuable connections, and keep your focus on the opportunities that are all around you.
Pleasure is an important component of happiness. It re-energizes, refreshes, and renews us after the hard work of life. It gives us relief from thoughts about our stressors and it is a reward that gives us motivation to keep moving toward being our best.
In this first part of a 3-Part Series I will discuss the definition of pleasure and give an overview of ways to increase your pleasure.
What is Pleasure?
Pleasure is fleeting raw emotion that is brought on by social, environmental, and physical factors. Happy social events such as parties, family dinners, and weddings give us pleasure. Environments like Yosemite, a bustling San Francisco street, or Disneyland incite pleasure. Physical factors that create pleasure include eating vanilla ice cream, wrapping ourselves in a warm soft blanket, or receiving a hug from a friend.
We experience pleasure through our senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. Pleasure is a Van Gogh painting, Diana Krahl’s velvet voice, a kitten’s soft fur, ripe strawberries, or the aroma of sweet lavender drifting on a spring breeze.
Unfortunately pleasure has a pitfall: it habituates easily. This means that if you imbibe in the same pleasure too much or too often, it has less positive impact on you. I like to use the example of chocolate. When you take the first bite of chocolate, you feel it melt in your mouth and you taste the bitter and the sweet. You may say, “hmmm.” In the subsequent bites, you are less conscious of the taste.
Another example is music. If you listened to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” 24 hours a day, it would not only loose its positive impact and but would probably become irritating.
So how can you increase your pleasure?
In Authentic Happiness Martin Seligman, Ph.D. gives some important strategies for increasing our pleasure:
Spreading Out the Instances of Pleasure
It’s easy to habituate pleasure. We go to the same restaurant and eat the same thing, take the same route for our walk every day, listen to the same music, and play the same sport.
You can avoid habituating pleasure by spreading out the instances of it. If you listened to “Born to Run” just once every Saturday morning, it would be enjoyable every time.
In my life I spread out pleasurable activities by only going to Pasta Al Dente restaurant once a month, walking a different route every day (and saving the Naples Canals for the weekend), and only reading “People” magazine on Sunday afternoons.
I want to challenge you to apply this Life Coaching tip to your life. For the next month spread your pleasurable activities throughout your week, month, and year.
Look for Part 2 of this series on pleasure in which I will discuss other strategies for increasing your pleasure.
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Feeling tired, overwhelmed, disengaged, directionless, or pulled in too many directions? Working with a Life Coach can help. Life is complicated. There are limitless options, a myriad of pressures, and an avalanche of information coming to us every day.
When I coach clients who come to me in a state of overload, I start by helping them determine what they can cut out or cut down, what they can delegate or pay someone else to do, and what can be scheduled for the future, to take the pressure off now.
We then clarify what their goals and priorities are in work and life. Once we identify this focus, we look at whether where they are spending their time truly aligns with their priorities. In most cases, it doesn’t.
M.H., owner of the Long Beach based Infant Family Services, talks about the effect coaching has had on her life : “With you as my coach, I step back and think about what is really critical, and then I have a productive day. I also make sure I get the rest I need. I’m glad to be living a more balanced and focused life.”
Many clients who come to me say that health is a high priority for them, but often they spend zero time on maintaining their health. Coaching can help you put action behind the goal of having good health. Most of my clients create eating and exercise plans and they are able to stick to them because of the focus our regular discussions put on these goals. Having a coach creates accountability for them to get the important things done.
S.S., a Global Supply Chain Vice President, is typical of coaching clients : “Life Coaching helped me get clear about what I want out of life. Now I’m able to make a plan and stay on track I’m able to keep moving, one step at a time, and persevere. I’m finally living the life I’ve always wanted to live.”
Having an outside, unbiased expert to help you examine your life is invaluable. We’re often too caught up in our day to day lives to spend any time thinking about how we can get what we want in life.
Regular coaching sessions are a time to create strategies to make your life meaningful, satisfying, and pleasant. It’s a time to create a plan to attain success. A time to think strategically and globally about your life. Coaching creates space for you to focus creatively on the big picture.
“I feel much more in control and on purpose. I’ve been able to get in touch with what’s important to me and my family. Now I am living an examined life.“ R.V., Real Estate Entrepreneur/
People ask me, “Does everyone need a coach?” My answer is that anyone who wants to live life as well as they can and be the best they can be, will benefit greatly from working with a coach.
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Living in our frenetic “Information Cloud”, twitter-laden, blogospheric world, we often move from task to task, screen to screen, sound bite to sound bite, without ever stopping to smell the roses. We as human beings need to stop from time to time. And we need joyful moments to feed our hearts, souls, and minds.
“The experience of scent enriches, improves, and deepens our lives in multiplicative and multifaceted ways. Our sense of smell allows us to experience an intense emotional life, awakens our memories, is interlaced with our mental health, and triggers our passion. . . The use of scent to enhance our lives goes way back in history: . . . cavemen dragged pine and fir boughs into their caves.” –Rachel Herz, Scent of Desire
Smelling a pleasant scent can create a joyful moment and the small break we need to keep going. Whether you light a vanilla candle, take in the sweet scent of strawberries, stop to smell the ocean breeze or pine needles, or smell your loved ones’ hair, enjoying a pleasant scent takes no time and enriches your life. And you deserve this kind of break, at least once a day.
Scent can help you feel more grounded, present, and alive. It can nourish your spirit and lift you out of a stressful situation. It can shift your thinking from negative to positive thoughts.