Switch It Up!

Center for Creative Leadership

I’ve been away from my blog for a while! This is because I have been working for the Center for Creative Leadership.

CCL is a non-profit leadership development organization that focuses on leadership research, self-development courses, and executive coaching. I am still accepting coaching clients, but on a much more limited scale. I hope to post to my blog whenever possible, but to honor my value of balance, it will be sporadic. Meanwhile, if you have questions, drop me a line!

-Andre

Setting a Transformative Goal

I wanted to share this post from Karen Kimsey House (Coaches’ Training Institute) here with you. It perfectly summarizes the essence of good coaching:

The New Year is upon us. . .that time of new beginnings, new intentions, New Year’s Resolutions. Enrollment at health clubs soar. People clean up, clean out, shape up and get down…In my experience all this huffing and puffing usually peters out before the earth dries from the winter rain and snow.

What then does make a “goal” stick? What turns a goal from a good idea into something truly transformational and life changing? Here are a few of my “top tips” for setting transformative goals:

Begin from inside yourself.

A long time ago, I heard a motivational speaker Jim Rhon say, “Set goals not for the goal itself but for who you will become in the process of achieving it.” Every goal holds the potential to evolve and grow our consciousness. What needs brightening in your consciousness? Set goals that will allow you to nourish and grow that part of your inner garden.

Use emotion to fuel passion and intention.

Our emotions are like the coal in the engine of our intention. They fuel and focus our vision and our desire to express ourselves in the world. What is the emotion or energy that will source and power your goal? Is it love? Fierceness? Determination? Is it Lust? Emotions are energy in motion and carry great power. How will you harness the power of your emotion to fuel your vision of your goal?

Do your homework.

WHY do you want to accomplish a certain something? What’s important about it? What is the experience it will bring you? What are the limiting beliefs that you will need to overcome? The self identity you will need to change? In order to accomplish a significant goal, you’ll need to become someone new. In order to become someone new, you’ll need to generate a different image of yourself BEFORE you start.

Create a structure to carry you through.

In the noise of the day to day, it’s easy to forget our desire and longing. Bills, phone calls, work things are loud and demanding. Our own heart’s desire to change and grow. . .not so much. What are structures that will help you remember what is most important? Perhaps it will help you to create a vision board or share your goal with a partner.

Remember that the goal is about YOU.

A goal is only useful in so much as it points your intention and desire and provides an arena for your own evolution and growth. Where do you need to put your attention during the process so that you win whether you accomplish the goal or not?

In this whole life changing goal accomplishing domain, it’s easy to get focused on the outcome: “Beat the pattern! Take the hill!” While changing an existing pattern does require a certain “git-er-done” energy, it is the RIDE that is most alive, most nourishing and most transformative.

KKH

…Take this with you into the new year!!!

Your face, marred by dust and sweat and blood

Almost a year ago I started my coaching and training business. As I reflect back, I can’t help but smile and feel whimsical. What an experience it has been! Electrifying. Despite some moments of doubt, persistence has paid off. For 2011, the pipeline is rapidly filling.

But this post isn’t about blowing my own horn. It’s about recognizing what you’ve done in 2010 so far, and giving you inspiration for what you will do in 2011. If you’re starting something new, something that terrifies you, but feel you just MUST do, read this quote, courtesy of Theodore Roosevelt. Print it. Keep it in your pocket. Stick it on your wall. And when you’re right at the edge, read it. Again.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Happy Holidays,

-Andre

Free 1/2 hour coaching session

As a Californian who until 2 years ago had no idea what it was to experience a change of season, I have had quite a time adjusting to the sharp contrast between winter and summer. In Los Angeles those seasons blend together, and I remember many a “winter” Christmas with 25 degree sunny days.

But, a change of season, and the coldness of winter have brought unexpected gifts. My sense of awareness of the change in weather and how nature is affected by it is so much sharper now. More importantly, cold and dark days have given me the opportunity to be much more introspective. Time to look inside and reflect has allowed me to grow in some really cool, unexpected ways.

So in the spirit of appreciation and giving back, I would like to give you the opportunity for some “winter introspection” by offering you a free 1/2 hour coaching session until the end of January. Sign up soon, using the contact form to the right on this page, as I only have limited spots available!

I knew this would happen…

Once I got busy, I knew the blog wouldn’t get much love, and indeed, it’s been since May (!) that I’ve posted. I’ve since expanded my coaching by adding a practical, hands-on, internationally-focused component to my business, training managers on how to best communicate and conduct business across the globe. This relates more to my Organizational Behavior background. You can find more information about it here: www.global-business-skills.com.

Meanwhile, I continue to be inspired by my coaching clients! I have received several updates from my first clients and they’ve all made major changes or shifted their perspectives to be in a place where they can find opportunities and feel confident about their success. In the words of Marshall Goldsmith, Life is Good.

The original KISS principles

There are some really great small-business gems in this interview with Paul Stanley of KISS, from last week’s LA Times.

Work hard to look good:

“In the early days, KISS intentionally limited its New York appearances — even though it often had no gigs elsewhere — so fans would think the group was out on tour. The members saved money by setting up their stage equipment themselves, but did so hours early so no concert-goers would see them. For the same reason, they delivered fliers for upcoming engagements in the middle of the night. “There’s no substitute for hard work, for lonely hours and sleepless nights,” Stanley said.”

Go all-out for each and every customer – all the time:

“Success came partly from KISS’ reputation for raucous live shows — punctuated by Simmons’ infamous fire breathing and blood spitting. “From very early on, I don’t want to say we were a service-minded company, but we were about giving people bang for the buck,” Stanley said. “I wanted to be the coolest-looking band, the loudest band, the one with the most gear on stage, the one blowing stuff up.”

Stay focused on your mission – talk to people who believe in you:

“We did a bloated, self-important and completely ill-conceived concept album in the ‘80s called ‘The Elder,’ ” Stanley said. “That was a time we became more concerned with trying to impress our peers and get credibility from people who didn’t like us. Life’s too short to try to convert people who don’t like you.”

catching a wave and learning about life

I spent most of my life living in Los Angeles California, not far from the beach. And since we moved to California, I was in love with the ocean. The beaches in California are somewhat rugged, with deep blue oceans, cold water, clear skies, and especially strong waves, perfect for surfing.

I started surfing when I was 16, and even here in Europe in the Summer, I will go to the Atlantic Coast in France to catch a few waves. Now over the years, surfing has not only given me great physical pleasure. Surfing has also taught me some great lessons about life:

Being in the moment.
There were many times in California where I would surf before going to work. I would get out of bed, pack my wetsuit and my surfboard, get in the car and drive through a busy city, park my car at the beach, put on my wetsuit and paddle out through the breaking waves to get right to that part where the waves are about to break. Many times, I would often enter the water still thinking about a work project or my to-do list, but once I got past the lineup, I would look around and enjoy the surroundings. Behind me would be the Santa Monica Mountains. In front of me would be a clear ocean. To the left would be the sun going up, already warming the air, above me would be pelicans and seagulls, and in the water occasionally a harbor seal would pop it’s head out of the water. Sometimes even a group of dolphins would swim along and try to catch some waves as well. It was when I stopped, took in my surroundings, the sights, the smells, the excitement of catching a great wave that I was truly in the moment. I was not thinking about anything else, and this was an amazing, cleansing effect.

Embracing Failure.

Surfing can be a lot of fun, but to get better at it, you must be comfortable to fail. The only way to get better is to surf bigger waves, which can be very scary. The ocean, with its currents and strong, sometimes overpowering waves, can be dangerous. But even worse, there’s often lots of great surfers in the water, and you don’t want to look bad in front of anyone. when I was younger, the most frustrating days of surfing were those where I didn’t catch any waves because I was afraid to fail. But later in my life, I stopped caring about that, and actually started looking for the opportunity to fail. Surfing taught me that fear of failure is always a balancing act of reaching beyond my limits of what I think I can do, while at the same time trusting that I have the skills to do it well. And that it was in those moments of wiping out that I learned the most. Along the way, you make lots of mistakes. It’s what you find out about those mistakes that makes you better.

Commitment.
When you surf, it’s really a three step process. there’s catching the wave, where you have to paddle really hard to have the wave start carrying you forward. there’s the drop-in, where you feel like you have enough momentum to stand up and push yourself into the wave, and there’s the ride, where you’re actually standing up and riding the wave. Out of these three steps, the drop in is the most difficult part. Why is that? It’s because you have to do many things all at once. You have to go from laying on your board to standing in one fluid motion, and you already have to make your mind up about where you will go once you stand up.but the biggest challenge is that you have to commit, because there is always a moment where you can change your mind, and not take off on the wave. The problem, is that very often, if you are not clearly comitted to dropping in on the wave, you’ll either get sucked in by the wave’s momentum because you backed off too late, or you make a half-commitment without making up your mind about what you will do next, and you’ll definitely spend a lot of time under water. The lesson surfing has taught me is that once you “drop in” to something in your life, the outcome is often better if you stay committed all the way. for me this means staying focused, trusting my intuition, and my abilities.

So there you have it. Surfing has taught me many lessons about my life, but the three lessons that i reach back and think about these days are about being in the moment, embracing failure, and staying committed. Even though I live in Gent now and it’s difficult to surf, I will never give it up. There’s plenty of beaches to visit this summer, and I am looking forward to learning more from this master teacher in my life.

Photos by Mike Baird (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird)

Are you in Flow?

Great stuff from the PBS series This Emotional Life.

Are you in flow? Here are the nine elements that together create the conditions for flow (identified by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi):

1. Clear goals every step of the way—you know exactly what to do next
2. Immediate feedback—when you’re in flow, you can tell how well you’re doing
3. Balance between challenge and skill—the task is not so easy that you get bored, but you have enough mastery to be engaged and successful
4. Action and awareness merge—you’re concentrating completely on what you’re doing
5. Distractions fade away—you’re so absorbed in the activity that you’re not aware of other things
6. There is no worry of failure—you’re too involved to worry about failing; you know what to do and just do it
7. Self-consciousness disappears—you’re not thinking about yourself or protecting your ego because you’re too wrapped up in the task at hand
8. Time flies—you may look up after being in a state of flow surprised at how much time has gone by
9. The activity is meaningful for its own sake, rather than as a means to an end

That last one, doing something for it’s own sake, how often does that happen? I’m really buzzing in this space, especially when working with clients, and being in the moment.