The Friday Guest post on Coaching Confidence is taking a break over the festive period. (Want to be a guest poster in 2011? visit HERE)
Instead, today you will find a list of all the guest posters since we started the feature with links to their respective posts.
I’d like to take this moment to thank all these posters for taking the time to share so generously. I’d also like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
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A few years ago I was approached to create a coaching CD around increasing self belief, forming part of a larger collection by other coaches. The brief was that the intended audience was for those new to coaching, perhaps never having experienced a coaching session or having any idea about what a coach does.
The result was this CD.
I’ve designed this CD to be a fun and very simple programme that will allow you to understand where your current level of belief lies, and once completed you can measure just how much more confidence and belief you have in yourself. This CD is about giving you practical tools that you can apply at anytime to ensure you feel at your optimum when it matters most to you.
On this CD I talk with you, and take you through various processes which allows you to discover for yourself what self belief is for you, and if you had more of it how would that change your life?
This session enables you to feel more confident and empowered to go and live the life you want. If you constantly worry, feel anxious or have the feeling that you are just not good enough, then this is the recording for you.
It is not a programme that is just to be used once, if you want you can listen and use it again and again! Building your confidence in yourself and moving your life forward to achieve just what you want.
This CD focuses upon overcoming doubt and having belief in your own uniqueness. As part of coaching is about having meaningful conversations you’ll find that the content is in a conversational style. Within the tracks you’ll find questions, techniques and exercises that you are invited to play with so that they make a difference for you!
By the end of the CD you will have been invited to have done the following:
Running Time is 39 minutes
Track List
1. Choices and opportunities
2. What is self belief?
3. Consequencies
4. Shining a light
5. Accomplishments
6. Quietening the “inner critic”
8. Where next?
The price for this CD is £14.99 + FREE P&P
Click Here to get your copy.
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” (Rudyard Kipling)
If you have been following this blog on twitter you will have noticed a variety of quotes being posted throughout each day. It’s something that I’ve had numerous comments about.
Quotes are yet another thing that can be at the coaches disposal to use during a coaching session. As with all methods that are at our disposal as coaches when and if you decide to use a quote will vary on individual circumstance. But why would you want to use quotes?
If you have used quotes through education you have probably been taught that you use quotes to credit the source of a piece of information or opinion. That may be something that appeals to some of your clients so it is possible that from time to time it is still one of the reasons you want to use a quote.
It is not the only reason you may use quotes as a coach. You may want to use a quote to provoke and not take personal responsibility for that message – perhaps you are afraid it would get in the way of the rest of your coaching relationship. As you are apparently talking about something somebody else said at a different time and place your client will often respond.
For example, coaching a customer-facing employee in a business you may quote a specific customer. It’s entirely possible that your client will be far more open to a conversation around this than if you voiced the same opinion as a bystander.
You can also use quotes to “borrow authority” to focus your clients attention or increase their willingness to answer a question or do an exercise. It can be used as a convincer to add extra-perceived credibility. For example, I’ve seen individuals willingly start an exercise after being told that it was something used by someone they admired, where they had previously been reluctant.
You may also use quotes that can inspire and motivate, grab attention or trigger new thoughts.
Starting in the New Year, in addition to the regular posting of quotes daily on twitter, there will also be a quote of the day appearing here on the Coaching Confidence blog. If you have a particular quote you like and/or find really helpful personally or with a client then feel free to share so I can include it on a future date.
I came across a great website recently that shows the before and after versions of digitally manipulated or “touched up” photos. If you’ve ever looked at an impossibly beautiful modal in the magazine and marveled, this may provide an explanation 🙂
Click here to see for yourself.
UPDATE (26/5/11): It appears that this link is no longer active, if anyone knows of a similar resource do let me know.
Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play [Amazon.co.uk link]
Get Everything Done: And Still Have Time to Play [Amazon.com link]
If you feeling pressured with having too much to do in too little time you’ll be relieved to find that this book by Mark Forster is not only easy to read and is full of down to earth and common sense.
This is also NOT a time management book that is the size of a phone book! It is a short read so that you can start applying the content to your life to make a difference to your time crisis.
One of the gifts I was given this Christmas was a DVD of a band and part of the special features was a film about them returning to where they first started out to do some secret gigs. As they were travelling to these locations they were being asked how they felt about going back to do these and one of them said “Part of me thinks, what are we doing back here? We’ve already done this.”
As we approach the start of 2011, it is the time of year when people are considering change and New Year resolutions. It is not that uncommon for these resolutions to be about getting back to something that you have achieved in the past – so it may be that you want to get back into the jeans that you could wear 5 years ago, or maybe its about getting back the feeling that you used to have about a particular event or person.
I often find that when people imagine themselves achieving such resolutions or goals that they are imagining themselves at a time back when they last did it – so for example, if the new years resolution is to get back into the jeans they could wear 5 years ago, they imagine themselves 5 years ago getting into the jeans, rather then in the present or the near future.
I’ve written previous posts about how your brain is a bit like a taxi driver – it’s easier for you to get to where you want if you are clear in what you want your destination to be (See this post for more details)
If when you imagine yourself doing something you are imagining a you from the past, you run the risk of part of you going “We’ve already done this.” Make it easier on yourself, by all means have a goal of getting into a particular pair of jeans – make sure that when you imagine doing that, that you imagine a present or future you (not one in the past).
I invite you to play with the following for any new year’s resolution or goals that you are currently working with:
1. Imagine what it will be like when you achieve this new years resolution/ goal
2. Notice what age you are imagining yourself to be – if this is a you in the past, remember that this is your imagination so change it to imagine something else instead.
Likewise if you realise that you are imagining achieving this a lot further into the future than you would like, have a play at imagining it happening sooner.
Have a fantastic week and I’ll take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year.
Love
Jen
This was originally posted on www.YourChangingDirection.com
Who Moved My Cheese is a parable where the 4 main characters (who live in a maze) are all looking for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. It is written in a simple style that means that it is suitable for all and will take the average reader less than an hour to read.
You will find that the book is split into 3, a short introduction, the main parable itself and a brief discusion. It is a book that deals with change. Specifically, as the back cover states “how to anticipate change, adapt to change quickly, enjoy change and be ready to change again and again.”
It is very simple to read and, some may say, common sense approach that is about suffering less stress and enjoying more success.
[Amazon.co.uk] Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
[Amazon.com] Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
This is the book that many credit as the beginings of coaching. Described as “how to improve your game and discover your true potential by increasing your concentration, willpower and confidence.” It doesn’t tell you what to put in a welcome pack but for many this book is classed as a classic. It is a book that explores how the author produced “dramatic” results in the tennis game of those he was working with.
The Inner Game of Tennis [Amazon.co.uk link]
The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance [Amazon.com link]