2010-2015......Five years of potential!

2010 - 2015.......Five years of potential:

• Five years ago, where were you?  
• Did you anticipate that you would be doing what you're doing now?  
• How do you want your life to be in five years time, and what is your plan to get you there?

 If nothing changes, nothing changes!

• What can you differently to ensure that in five years, you have achieved exactly what you want to and you are exactly where you want to be?
• Most importantly of all, as you put yourself into that future place, how does it feel?
• Create your vision - make it so real that you can feel all the emotions that success has given you - the more intensely you experience your future success now, the more certainty you will create, easily and effortlessly.

Success is achieved by creating a vision that inspires, and creating a team around you to help you achieve your vision.  Your team can be anyone who is involved in your success - family, colleagues, bank manager, lawyer..... so articulate your vision clearly and let them become a part of it.  This will ensure that everyone has a clear picture of the destination, and will help you to find the best road to get there.

2010 - your five years start now.  
Where will you be in 2015?

For information on how we can help, please contact us via our website.

'Dis' is the problem - engagement is the solution!

Disenchantment, disengagement and disgruntlement are often a feature of the workforce in many large corporations - and some small ones!

Traditionally people in these jobs had security, reasonable salaries and conditions.  Many stayed in their jobs for exactly these reasons - even if their work no longer stimulated or challenged them, the comfort of the regular income and stability outweighed the pain of boredom and frustration.  The result - people who feel disempowered.  And the current climate means that these jobs are no longer secure, so there is fear of change added to the dissatisfaction.

Is it all doom and gloom?  In some places, yes! - however if you're managing people like this, you can easily improve the situation by making a few simple changes.

1. Engage the team

Include them in discussions about the strategic direction of the organisation.  What is the big picture, what are the long term goals?  How valuable is their contribution towards achieving these - let them know.  Often disenchantment grows from a sense of being unappreciated and unnoticed.  Recognition of people's existence and their value to the organisation may sound obvious, but is often missed in the day to day routine.  What are their ideas for improving systems, customer service, increasing sales, reducing wastage?  The people at the 'coalface' usually have clear ideas about these areas, and would love to be asked - and if their ideas are implemented, give them the credit.

2. Be open about organisational changes

Insecurity usually grows from uncertainty, not knowing, hearing rumours.  The more open you can be about keeping people in the loop, the better they will adjust to changes - and the more they can contribute.  Of course sometimes changes need to be kept confidential until new deals are secured or contracts signed - however as soon as it is feasible and practical, communicate openly with the team.  If individual circumstances are going to change significantly (for example, redundancy) the more support and input you can give to the person, the better their experience of redundancy will be and therefore the better their longer-term memory of your organisation will be.
3. Ask them what would make their jobs more interesting/stimulating/challenging. 
You might be surprised at how many are keen to try something new, step up to new responsibilities, have an opportunity to gain new experience - which will make them more valuable to the organisation.  If their suggestions are not feasible be sure to give them the reasons why.  Consistently open and effective communication will go a long way to giving people more engagement in the organisation.

4. Consider team development work

Investment in team coaching and development can create significant shifts - such as helping the team and individuals to explore their personal values and compare them with organisational values.  Alignment between values will make a team far stronger; a mismatch, when discovered, will help to explain why some team members may feel the way they do - and help to give them clarity on whether or not they should stay, or search for a new position that more closely aligns with their own values.

Email us to arrange your free two-hour business needs analysis consultation valued at Aus$247.  Limited to the first three people to respond.

Change is the only constant!

Opportunities arise, technologies evolve and demands change.  

To take advantage of these effectively, we need to be able to embrace change and welcome it.  Yet so often, people feel threatened and become nervous about organisational changes.

Whilst there is a sense of security in things remaining the same, it may be false.  As we all know, to continue doing the same things we've always done and expect a different result is optimistic at best, suicide at worst.  

So how do we create a sense of security to keep our team confident about their future, and at the same time encourage them to welcome changes?

Create a culture where new ideas are encouraged, input from the team is welcome and adaptability is acknowledged and appreciated.  If change is seen as exciting, as creating new opportunities and giving people a chance to learn new skills it will be embraced by the people who can best help us to take advantage of it.

If this culture is the norm, change will be less daunting.  This means looking at our communication processes - how are new directions communicated, and when?   Is it once decisions are made, or before they are finalised in order to give people a chance to contribute?

Review the organisational values.  Just as individuals have values, a company's values evolve over time.  It's essential that what is promoted in a mission statement as a value, such as integrity or dynamism, is practised and recognised in actions that occur.  For example, a mission statement that includes "we value our employees" will be devalued if we do not encourage and recognise input, responsibility and innovation from our team.  Poor morale, absenteeism or inadequate skill levels may result.

If you work alone and you don't have a team, how do you respond to change?  With enthusiasm, excitement and anticipation?  Or with dread, fear and uncertainty?  

The approach you take will impact on your health, and on your enjoyment of life - and may be the difference between having the right mindset to take advantage of opportunities, in order to grow your business further!

For more information, please visit our website.

Conquering overwhelm - 7 key steps

Some people are extremely good at doing overwhelm - it's a strategy that they employ regularly, and live in a world of being crushed by the weight of their overwhelm.

If this is you - or someone you know - then identify the trigger that sets it off - every strategy has a trigger.  It may be something you tell yourself, something you see, or something you hear.

As soon as you are aware of the trigger, you can decide to change your strategy to that of the conqueror, following the key steps below - so that instead of being crushed, you will conquer!

1. Take a deep breath.  Stop and breathe again.  Take a third deep breath....Sounds simplistic - but next time you're being crushed by the overwhelm, try it - you'll discover that it's a good thing to breathe!
2. Stand back (or go for a walk) and look at the big picture.  What is your key end goal - what action will give you the greatest momentum towards your ultimate goal?
3. What can you delegate, outsource or ditch? (or put off to another day.......as long as this is a measured decision rather than procrastination!).  Who is on your team that can help?
   
4. Break the actions required into smaller chunks so that they become more manageable.
5. Make a plan for how you will action each chunk.
6. Most importantly, plan how you will reward yourself once you've achieved what you need to do.
7. Laugh (if you can't find anything funny, imagine yourself dressed as the conqueror - that should do it!)  Take action - begin.  Laughter will lighten the load, and focused action will give you the pleasure of momentum towards your goal.

Remember: Change your thinking - change your results!

What are you focusing on?

When I think of focus, I think of cameras, binoculars and telescopes - each one focusing on something a bit further away from the last one, but still focusing on the specific point that I want to see.  When we do this, we are deliberately shutting out all the information around, in order to get greater clarity on our target.

If you go for a walk on a dark night, you shine the torch ahead of you to light your way and ensure you can keep a steady footing.  However focusing only on the path ahead of you means that you're less likely to look up and see the stars, or the silhouette of the tree against the moonlight.  So focus inevitably involves exclusion of other information.

When we say 'I don't want to fail', failure becomes our focus - we are excluding the possibility of success because we're not focusing on success, so we don't even see the alternatives.

If we say 'I don't want to be unhappy any more' - what are we focusing on? - being unhappy.

When we decide it's time to lose weight because we don't want to be overweight anymore - where's the focus? - on being overweight.  So no matter how much our intentions are good, our results are less likely to be successful because the focus is wrong.  In the same way that you focus the camera incorrectly and get a fuzzy photo as a result, if you set the focus of your goals incorrectly your results will be fuzzy!

As you can tell, this is easily fixed!  Simply refocus - change the way you express your goals so that your intention is positive and very clear, such as:

• 'I am a successful person' (and be clear about what a successful person is your view),
• 'I want to be happy so I will find out what really makes me happy and focus on achieving more of that in my life', or 
• 'I live a healthy lifestyle because I am becoming a healthy weight for my body'.
  

By focusing on what you want you will find and create evidence to support your focus.  So what are you focusing on, and is it in the direction that you want to be going?

For more information visit www.activelifematters.com.

Active Life Matters provides active coaching for outstanding results in business, life, health and fitness.

Top ten key skills for managerial success!

Research suggests the 10 most frequently noted skills for successful managers are the ability to:

1. Develop self-awareness
2. Communicate verbally
3. Set goals and articulate a vision
4. Manage individual decisions
5. Motivate and influence others
6. Build teams
7. Define and solve problems
8. Delegate
9. Manage time and stress
10. Manage conflict

 How do you stack up?  If you were to evaluate yourself on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being consistently excellent and 1 being greatly in need of improvement, which areas need work?

What are you going to focus on in the next 90 days?

Write it down, set a clear intention - and work out a plan to make it happen!

Evaluate your progress regularly to ensure you're on track.

Who do you have on your team that will support you? - enlist their help. 

Above all, have fun with it - the more enjoyable we make things, the more we do them!

For more information visit our website:  www.activelifematters.com 

Active Life Matters provides active coaching for outstanding success in business, life, health and fitness.

What's holding you back?

Have you ever looked at someone you admire and think "I'd love to do that, but I couldn't - I'm not good / brave / strong / good-looking / clever / confident (choose your own adjective) enough"?

Why is it that so many of us sabotage our dreams without even taking one step towards achieving them? 

Often, it's down to a limiting belief that we aren't enough in some way (see above).  Are these beliefs real, or are they an excuse for not taking action?  Either way, they hold us back from achieving the results we want, from allowing us to be the best that we can be (and if the thought ran through your head "I'm already the best I can be" - is that another limitation you've imposed on yourself?).

Most of our beliefs are generalisations about the past, either through misinterpretation of events.  They are usually formed unconsciously, and once we have them we forget that they are a generalisation.  We filter in evidence to support our beliefs, and filter out evidence that does not support them - even if this is to our disadvantage.  For example, if we've formed the belief somewhere along the way that we're not brave enough, we tend to focus on all the incidents where we consider we acted weakly, and ignore all the times when we've had to stand up for people, to go to new places alone, to start new jobs, to venture into new relationships - all of which require bravery in one form or another.

So is it possible to change our beliefs?  Absolutely - you simply decide to choose a new, more empowering belief and start focusing on evidence that supports this new belief.  Become an evidence-hunter, and seek out every instance that will verify your new belief.  You are in charge of your mind, and therefore your results!  

What sort of evidence are you looking for?  Things people say to you that support your new belief; things you say to yourself; results you've achieved in the past that support this belief; goals you have for the future; behaviour that you carry out today as a result of your new, empowering belief!

So now that you've done this, what's holding you back?  Exchange the limiting beliefs for ones that empower and support you, and move forward to achieve the results that you're looking for.

For more information, please visit our website:  www.activelifematters.com 

Have fun becoming an evidence-hunter!
Active Life Matters provides active coaching for outstanding results in business, life, health and fitness.

Health and Fitness - the same thing or not?

If you train a lot, you can run, swim, cycle - do triathlons, run marathons, swim distances - you must be fit and healthy, right? - Not necessarily.........

If you eat right, indulge in moderation only, control your intake of food and alcohol - you must be fit and healthy, right? - Not necessarily.........

The above two examples will already have given the game away.  You can be fit, in terms of cardiovascular fitness, endurance etc. and still unhealthy.  If you're not feeding your body well, with the nutrients it needs to maintain the lifestyle you're choosing, then you run the risk of being fit but not healthy.  How often have you seen marathon runners get sick often, and break down through lack of sufficient nutrients to sustain their fitness regime?

How many people do you know that eat and drink frugally, and limit their intake of excessive sugars, fats, carbohydrates - they may be slim, yet if you ask them to run for a bus they would probably be in a bad way by the time they got to the bus stop!

So what's the solution?  A focus on both, of course!  We need to train our bodies, train our minds and train our metabolism!  That's why elite sportspeople have a coach! Get your mindset right, get expert information about what and how to organise your training, and your results will follow.

If you're determined to improve your health AND fitness this year, check out the ActiveLifeMatters website to help you find the assistance you need to achieve your goals:

www.activelifematters.com

Have fun achieving your results!   
Active Life Matters provides active coaching for outstanding results in business, life, health and fitness.

Change your thinking - change your results!

How are you going with your New Year's Resolutions?  Do you even bother these days, since they are usually forgotten about by mid-January?

Why is it that so many people start the New Year with great intentions, and very quickly give up on themselves?  My theory is that it is often one of two things - either they never really wanted the results in the first place, or they didn't believe that they could achieve it and therefore self-sabotaged their prospects.  Does this sound like you?

So if you didn't want the result in the first place, why would you set a New Year's resolution in the first place?  Well, it could be family or peer pressure - for example, they're concerned about your health so they suggest you have a goal to lose weight or get fit - and whilst you know they're right you enjoy eating and drinking, and so it doesn't take long for you to be back in the old habits.

The other possibility is that you would love to achieve the goal but deep down inside there is something that stops you each time.  It could be fear that you're not going to be able to stick to a new regime, so it's easier not to try.  It could be fear that you're not really good enough, a belief that you don't have the willpower, a fear that if you change people may not feel the same way towards you......there are all sorts of possible reasons.  It could simply be that you love your existing habits (such as eating and drinking) far more than the thought of what your new life will be like (such as becoming slimmer and improving your health)!

Whatever the reason, until you make a decision about what you really want (for example a slimmer and healthier body) - instead of what you don't want (for example not wanting to eat and drink too much) your focus will be unclear, and your thinking will not support you in terms of achieving your results.

In my coaching practice, it is easy to catch clients focusing on what they don't want.  My role is to help them discover the language that they're using so that they can start becoming much more aware of what they do want, and start expressing their thoughts and intentions in a more focused way.  Our brains are incredibly powerful - all we have to do is learn how to use them effectively to achieve the results we want - easily and effortlessly!   www.activelifematters.com 

Active Life Matters provides active coaching for outstanding results in business, life, health and fitness.

Develop the mindset of a champion!

Welcome to Active Life Matters blog!  This blog has been created to help you become more successful, more certain, more confident in aiming for and achieving your results!

How would you like to maximise your results and achieve your dreams - in business, life and health?  You need the mindset of a champion!

So how do you get the champion mindset? Well, whether we're talking sport or life in general, the following are equally relevant:

Make decisions! - the more proactive you are about your life, the more alive you will feel.  Successful, proactive people make more decisions every day - about your training program, how you're feeling, which route to take, how many hills/repetitions/hours.........and they are also willing to:

Make mistakes - be willing to mess up!  People who aim to get everything right invariably end up doing very little, because they perceive too much risk in action.  Give up perfection - aim for steady progress and improvement, and view all mistakes as feedback to inform your next move.  At the same time:

Have more fun and play! - see your life and choices as play, and you will experience it differently.  Take yourself less seriously, and focus on what might be, rather than what 'should' and 'needs' to be.  Enjoy the journey!  At the same time.........

Raise your standards - the key to great performance is to expect and demand more of yourself.  The better you get at this, the better your quality of life will be.  Life is not about 'getting by' or 'good enough'.  It is about you giving your best, risking failure, playing at 100% and then doing it again the next day!  And in a similar vein:

Challenge yourself every day!  Don't settle for less, or 'close enough'  - this will slowly erode your results, and then your confidence.  However you also need to be realistic about your targets, so:

Focus on your strengths - Champions believe in themselves because they focus on what they are good at and what they like about themselves.  People who have low self-confidence focus on their weaknesses and where they aren't strong, and then wonder why they feel down!  So identify your strengths clearly, and use them to maximise your success.  Also:

Focus on what you can do - Champions naturally focus on what they can control and influence, and leave the rest alone.  This doesn't mean that you don't set targets and aim for more - it means you're taking charge and appreciating your strengths and abilities, and being clear about where you're going and what you're going to achieve.  Above all:

Be a leader - be the person you admire most!  Inspire and lead others through the example you set every day.  And whilst you are doing all of the above:

SMILE!  Share as many smiles as you can with as many people as you can.  As well as exercise, smiling activates chemicals in your body which will help you to feel better!

If you'd like to know more about Active Life Matters, please visit our website:
www.activelifematters.com 

Acknowledgement to Sharon Pearson, CEO of The Coaching Institute for some content in this article.