Happy Long Weekend Monday! It is time again for Good News Monday where we celebrate all the good things in our lives, big or small.
My Good News: I just completed a major project which took up a lot of time. The end product was amazing and made a lot of people happy so I am incredibly pleased with it all. And now I’m looking forward to spending time on other projects that have been pushed to the side.
What is your Good News?
It is all fine and well to talk about wanting change in our lives, and keeping our eyes on the prize when we hit the rough patches if we do decide to make a change. We all know that nothing is really that easy. Without a great support team behind us, it often doesn’t take long until we’ve given up. As important to our success as support, is commitment.
Maintaining our commitment to change, especially when it comes to changing job positions or careers, can be incredibly difficult. Bills still need to be paid, mouths need to be fed, bodies need to be clothed. Family and other engagements continue to take up much of our time. So just how are these changes supposed to be made?
Over the next few blog posts I’m going to talk about goal setting. To start, it doesn’t matter what goals you set yourself, you need to be committed to achieving them. Yes, there will be times when goals are not met and frustration sets in, but then you need to re-commit yourself to them.
In every coaching session, we ask our clients what action steps towards their goal they will commit to that week. Then we ask you how committed you are to those steps. How can you keep from getting overwhelmed with striving to make major changes when you have so many other responsibilities?
You make sure your goals are ecological.
Next week we’ll talk about what that means.
It’s Monday, and you know what that means! Time to celebrate the week that was and look forward to the week ahead. So many adventures and opportunities and surprises that may come your way!
I was going to say that my good news is that Spring seems to finally have arrived and with it the birds nesting in the trees outside my home. As much as I love listening to the birds, my real good news came from a coaching session I had. Yes, coaches get coached as well. I made a really important discovery and a huge breakthrough happened as a result.
What is your good news this Monday?
In my e-book and workshop “Silencing Your Inner Saboteur” I discuss how common it is for family and friends to be the ones who stand in our way of making changes, completing our projects, following through on a diet, and even following our dreams.
It isn’t that our family and friends aren’t well intentioned. They are. They want to keep you safe, keep you from being hurt. The problem is that their idea of keeping you safe from rejection or the pain of failure creates a different pain inside you. They don’t realize that preventing you from growing, exploring, dreaming, and changing, can stifle your spirit and make you unhappy.
Often times, the sabotaging by family and friends can be subconscious. It can be as simple as pulling away from us when we begin to change, so to keep them close, we return to the way we were. It can also be as simple as miscommunication. We may be saying the same words but for each of us, they may have a different meaning.
It can be as painful as them telling us they know us better than we know ourselves and that we are only setting ourselves up for failure. Do they really know the passion inside of you for pursuing what you want?
What about our own perception of what our family expects of us? Do you believe it is expected of you to go into the family business? Are all your relatives doctors and lawyers and so you believe you are expected to do the same when you would rather be a teacher?
Does this mean you have to throw away your family and find new friends? Absolutely not. Start by sitting down and talking with them, explain your passion, reassure them you are aware there will be pot-holes along the way but you are working out a plan to deal with them.
Most importantly, tell them you love them. Tell them that your desire for change does not diminish your love for them or your need for their friendship. Tell them you need their love and support more than ever as you embark on this new path.
When you have the support of family and friends softens the pain of the potholes you may run into, and elevates the victories as you have people to share them with. And the journey becomes that much more enjoyable and manageable because you have people behind you, cheering you on, and helping you out when you need them.
It has been a particularly rough week for a lot of people in Boston, Texas, China, and Ontario. It can be so easy to get pulled into the horror and tragedy and see no good in the world when there are bombings, explosions, earthquakes and floods. And yet through all of these horrific events, communities pull together to help each other and we are reminded that there is good in this world.
So I would like to dedicate today’s Good News Monday to the first responders, the doctors and nurses, and everyone who has helped a neighbour or friend or total stranger this past week, wherever you are. And I celebrate you as my Good News this Monday.
What is your Good News? What acts of kindness have you seen?
I woke up to snow and blowing snow. I need some good news to brighten my week.
My good news: I had a great conversation with other coaches this weekend. It’s always inspiring and motivating and educational to talk with others and share what we’re doing and learn how we might do things differently.
What’s your good news?
Following up on my blog post “The Satisfaction Equation”, today’s blog is on working with the roadblocks in our way to achieving the career we want.
A number of years ago, I was in a highly stressful job. I enjoyed it, or aspects of it, but I was quickly becoming clinically burnt out, and I knew that it was not where I wanted to ultimately be. I knew where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, but there was no way I could leave my position, and what I wanted to do didn’t pay well, if at all.
I took a career planning course over several weeks. We did all kinds of aptitude tests and Myers-Briggs tests. I knew my personality, and the aptitude tests, well, I knew I was good at certain things, but that didn’t mean I liked doing them. The tests either gave me bad options or they didn’t asked what I preferred, they asked what I was good at. The results were predictable and not what I wanted.
I spoke with the instructor privately, telling her what I really wanted. She suggested I pursue it. I said, great, but I can’t afford it. She said I should keep my job. And I said, great, but what do I do in the mean-time? She had no answers for me.
Several years later, and a few changes of jobs, and I am finally doing what I love.
The change in the right direction was a very deliberate one. Recognizing it would take time was the beginning. Giving myself a deadline of 12 months to get out of that job was a close second.
Are you looking to make a major change? Is it something you can make happen right away? If it isn’t, make a list of the roadblocks. How will you overcome each of those obstacles? How long will it take for you to overcome them?
Last week I saw Jillian Michaels on her “Maximize your Life” tour. Something she said is very true for this situation and I will paraphrase here. Think about the change you want, the end result. If it is worth it, you will tolerate the how for the why. Meaning, if the change is something you really want, if it is worth it, you will tolerate and push through and overcome the obstacles and the possible years before it is realized.
It hasn’t always been easy. There have been a lot of ups and downs and I’ve questioned my decisions many times. But the end result has definitely been worth the rest.
What change are you looking to make? How will you overcome the obstacles toward that change?
