Easy Street

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Barry

“Easy Street is a blind alley.”

—Author Unknown

QC #981c

Are you always looking for the path of least resistance and the easy way to navigate your world?

If so, you may have noticed a drawback from such a strategy. Consider people who don’t exercise and live sedentary lives. What do you notice about their relative health, well-being, and overall vitality?

Coaching is all about helping people stretch and push beyond their physical, mental, emotional, and sometimes their spiritual limits to open up bright new vistas of professional and personal possibilities and achievement.

EXERCISE:

How can you take a more challenging “road less traveled” today, to strengthen your capacity to clearly see and realize an extraordinary life?

“Big shots are little shots who kept shooting.”

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Barry

“Big shots are little shots who kept shooting.”

– Christopher Morely, American Journalist, Novelist, Essayist and Poet

photo from Flickr by Simplistic.designs

What are your favorite examples of people who achieved great success through the power of persistence? Some of mine are Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, and of course, Michael Jordan.

What are some of your own personal stories where you stayed the course to achieve some important professional or personal victory?

Consider how you might break your “big shot” wins down into daily “small shot” behaviors you can easily practice on your journey of personal mastery. If this exercise is one you enjoy, both the journey and the results will reward you.

EXERCISE:

Consider picking up a copy of one or more of the following resources to enhance your resolve to keep shooting to realize your most deeply held desires:

Three Feet From Gold by Sharon Lechter & Greg Reid
The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson & John David Mann
The Power of Persistence by Justin Sachs
The Dip by Seth Godin
Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden

Want your own copy of “The Quotable Coach”? Click on the image below.

“There’s plenty of room at the top, but there’s no room to sit down.”

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Barry

“There’s plenty of room at the top, but there’s no room to sit down.”

– Helen Downey (attrib.)

Photo from Flickr by Horasis

Look at the people you most admire in your professional and personal life.

How did they reach the top of your list? My guess is because of their values, their character, and the way they take a proactive approach to life.

Exercise:

Where would a “stand up and step forward” attitude help you take your rightful place among the people at the top of their game?

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Barry

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”

-Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis

Brené Brown, from her TED talk (see link below).

In recent years, the subject of “vulnerability” has received a great deal of media coverage due to the work of authors such as Brené Brown.

In two of her recent books, The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly, which are based on considerable research, she clearly debunks the idea that vulnerability is weakness and indicates that it is far more correlated with courage and strength, as Freud suggests.

Exercise:

Where would being vulnerable in either your professional or personal life demonstrate the strength of your commitment to something of great importance to you?

Consider watching Brené Brown’s TED talk, The Power of Vulnerability

When no one is watching

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Barry

“The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”

– John Wooden, American basketball coach

mage from Flickr by Arlington County

I was enterprising as a young boy. At age 11, I mowed lawns during summer and shoveled snow during winter to earn money to purchase things I wanted. One winter day, I was headed out to shovel snow in our neighborhood, and my dad asked me to shovel our elderly next door neighbor’s sidewalk and not charge for the effort.

I must admit I hemmed and hawed, thinking this request unfair, and I remember my dad’s words, “It will build your character.” To this day, I can’t lift a shovel of snow without those words running through my mind.

Exercise:

What are the things you do or could do, without anyone knowing, that contribute to your character?

If you happen to be a coach, mentor, parent, teacher, or other service-oriented individual, how can you share today’s nugget of wisdom with the coach-able people in your life?

Motivated by Character

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Barry

“Character is revealed by action, action is motivated by character.”

– Norton Wright

Image from www.glogster.com

There is an organization called the Josephson Institute that teaches “Six Pillars of Character” in its youth educational programs. These pillars are:

Trustworthiness – i.e. being honest, being reliable, doing what you say you’ll do.
Respect – i.e. following the Golden Rule.
Responsibility – i.e. being accountable, doing your best, setting a good example.
Fairness – i.e. playing by the rules, being open-minded, taking turns, sharing.
Caring – i.e. being kind, compassionate, forgiving, and showing gratitude.
Citizenship – which includes getting involved in your communities to make them better, protecting the environment, and volunteering.

Exercise:

How will you be motivated by and act consistently with these six pillars above?

How can you coach, mentor and support those around you – especially children – to develop these qualities through your example?

As a bonus, please consider replying to me with other qualities beyond these six pillars that you believe are attributes of people of character.

Character is like a tree

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Barry

“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

– Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States

Who are you and how do you behave when no one is watching? Are your values expressed in your deeds at all times, or only when you are on display for others to see?

Golf is a sport of great character, where the participants actually call penalties on themselves, even when their playing partners rarely, if ever, see these penalties.

Exercise:

What are your daily standards for living a life of honor and integrity? To what values do you hold true, so that you always live in this manner, regardless of whether an audience is there to observe?

What changes will you make to focus on your character, rather than your reputation?