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By elaine, February 27, 2013 2:34 am

“Leadership is not about holding on to territory, it’s about letting go of ego, bringing your spirit to work, being your best and most authentic self.”

~ James A Autry, The Servant Leader

Why are people sometimes so afraid to be themselves?

One of the key principles of self-leadership is the importance of being you.

However, some of us hide who we really are and instead present an image of how we think the other person wants us to behave in the hope that we will be accepted or liked.

I see this happen a lot in business, especially when leaders are stepping out of their comfort zones to play a bigger game. In corporate you might be attending a meeting with senior managers. As a business owner, you might be meeting an influential client or someone who is a role model and you feel star-struck to work with them.

Whoever the person, it’s easy for us to feel small, unworthy, inferior, or of lesser value. We perceive them as being so much more important and fall to pieces in these situations instead of being our normal, confident and articulate self…

Our internal thinking has a huge impact on our confidence and self worth. Our social and parental conditioning is against us being authentic and over time we have created rules, such as:

• It is disrespectful to disagree with our elders, seniors or those more important than us.
• Only speak when you are spoken to: We are taught what to say, when to say it.
• Who you are is shaped by those who have influence over you. (You hand over your power to them.)
• Don’t brag about what you’re good at as it might make other people feel uncomfortable. Push it down… (This is why most of us struggle to talk about our own successes.)
• You have to be submissive with people more important that you.

Society creates ‘norms’ and we measure ourselves to them. We are under pressure to fit in. So here’s how we respond:

• You want to keep the peace and hope they like you. So you say what you think they want to hear in order to become a people-pleaser.
• You believe that your opinion is of lesser value and doesn’t count or it doesn’t matter. You perceive the other person’s opinion is of far greater value.
• If you challenge or disagree with something, then you’ll be shot down or seen as difficult or negative.
• You should keep your head below the parapet and blend in.

We live up in our heads most of the time, believing our thoughts to be the truth (you literally are what you think!).

Most of us go through life not knowing who we are or what we want. We settle, survive and keep our heads down. This is easier than trying to be yourself. Being real exposes you to vulnerability and judgment – this is scary.

The perception that someone is more important than you is often based on old concepts of power, especially in business. We try to work out where we fit in in the hierarchy.

True power comes from your personal power as a human being. By building trust and support you naturally attract other people.

Here are some tips on how to be you:

1. STOP WORRYING about what other people are thinking about you. You have no idea what they are thinking. These assumptions aren’t real. They are probably not thinking about you at all! This distraction only makes you get your own way of success. Instead of worrying about what to say, or how you look, focus on your intention for the meeting. Be 100% present for the person who is talking.

2. KNOW YOUR VALUE – Be useful as a leader to those you serve. Know WHY you’re attending the meeting.  Understand the value that you bring. You are there to provide information or  expertise so that others can make an informed decision. You are helping them to understand and make sense of things and prevent them making mistakes: Here’s how I can help you…

3. BE AN EQUAL –As human beings we all have the same worth and dignity. We are all equals no matter what role we play. See yourself as a consultant, not as a sub-ordinate. Let go of ego (theirs and yours) – it’s a distraction. Understand that some personality styles are different to yours. They package their language in a different way. It’s normal, not personal.

4. ALWAYS BE YOUR REAL SELF – Be the same person at home as you are at work… because you are! Be your authentic self – It’s who you really are. You have the same values whatever role you are playing. You already know how to interact with people at other levels – This is no different – Just be YOU. Find the language to help you say what you want to say.

5. FIND THE COURAGE to be you. Learn to listen to your heart as well as your head. People want an honest opinion, not ‘lip service.’ Be authentic and respond assertively, even if it is a difficult message. Remember, you are just talking to another person – we are all the same.

Be the person YOU want to be… from today!

It’s really okay to be YOU – Take yourself to work!

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By elaine, February 20, 2013 5:01 pm

We all have ideas right?

Some of us have LOADS of them!

You may see yourself as an Ideas Person. Ideas just pop out of your mind all the time and it’s hard to keep track of them all. You feel like you might burst with excitement! But how many ideas actually leave your mind and make it into the real world?

Many of our ideas float around like untethered kites and never crystallize into anything tangible. The latest idea just becomes another distraction as you continue generating more and more of them. They stack up in a holding pattern waiting to come in to land. This stack can become exhausting and overwhelming because you don’t know where to start or what to do with them all.

I often coach creative clients who have loads of ideas. Every coaching session, they arrive with another one (yes… I’m guilty of this sometimes too – you ask my mentor!). And of course, this latest idea is the best one yet! …Until, the next idea comes along a few days later! Months can be wasted dreaming but nothing ever gets done. There’s no action, there’s just the next idea coming along…

IDEA          IDEA          IDEA          IDEA          IDEA          Another IDEA

If this sounds like you, then you need a formula to create some momentum…

Without a having a system it’s difficult to take an idea and make it happen (even the good ones).

I’ve learned that there are three elements to taking an idea an making it real:

Your idea needs to become grounded if you want to give it a chance of becoming reality.   Creating a system or process helps you to take your idea and plan HOW to create some momentum. You then need to take specific action to make it real.

Here are a few tips around each of these elements:

IDEA

I’ve sat in daylong leadership strategy meetings where loads of ideas are shared and everyone is very excited and enthusiastic. A year later the same ideas are still being talked about, because nothing happened in between.

We often see the IDEA as the sexy exciting bit because it’s fun being creative. There’s nothing quite like that adrenalin rush when you think you’re on to something new and great!

Get clear about your idea understand WHY you want to make it real.

Sometimes we stop at the idea stage because we’re frightened to take the next step and make it happen. If you don’t start then it can’t fail, because you didn’t have to try. Your idea needs your energy and belief if it’s going to germinate into reality. You have to take a few risks and step out of your comfort zone and do some things scared.

SYSTEM

For an Ideas Person, the SYSTEM bit is the painful process of planning and working out how it’s all going to happen.

For some of us planning, thinking it through and then creating a stepped process to make it work is the tedious bit… YAWN!

Why?

Because it involves sitting down and working it out a step at a time. THIS STAGE is hugely important because it’s the difference between your idea staying just a dream or becoming real…

Creating a system/process for implementing your idea will save you a lot of time and energy. Get some help from someone who can help you create a framework for what you need to do if this is not your GENIUS work!

Here are a few tips:

• Create an Ideas Book if you’re always having loads of ideas. Write each one down in a paragraph as you think it.
• Re-visit your book every one-two weeks to re-read each idea and cross out any that no longer feel like they are do-able or ‘have legs’.
• Schedule time to take your idea and break it down into doable steps.
• See your idea as the vision and the system as your tactical plan:
  • What tactics you will employ to make it happen?
  • What’s specifically involved in making this become real?
  • What individual steps need to be taken?
  • Who else needs to be involved?
  • When to you need to do it?
  • Where will it happen?

Work backwards on a timeline to identify some milestone dates and will help you to break down what needs to be done. Remember, big things are done in small chunks! Breaking it down will make it doable.

Creating a framework and then working through a process gives you clarity and direction. It helps you to feel more confident and in control.

ACTION

This is where the rubber hits the road. You have to actually show up and do the work! Just talking about it doesn’t make things happen – You have to DO it!

• Schedule small pockets of time in your calendar and take one step at a time.
• Commit to making it happen
• If you decide to delegate or outsource part of the work then you’ll need to commit being responsible for leading them to do a great job. There is a difference between delegation and abdication!

Take conscious, deliberate action regularly and this will help you to create momentum towards your outcome. Building momentum will encourage you to keep taking action, as you move towards your goal. You’ll also start to feel a sense of completion.

Review your progress regularly, so you can tweak and modify your plan if necessary.

If you have an idea that you want to bring into the world, always create a system for it and plan ahead for its arrival!

Success needs a system – EVERY TIME!

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By elaine, February 13, 2013 11:46 pm

“The best thing about the past is that it’s over. When people don’t deal with the past as if it’s over, then they’re not free to go into the future.”

~ Richard Bandler – Make Your Life Great

Throughout our day we are constantly talking to ourselves – Yes, THAT voice in our head, the one who seems to be sat pulling all the levers in the control tower of you!

I’m constantly reminded about the awesome power of language and how it influences who we are, what we believe and how we show up in our lives.

One of the great masters, who I once had the honour of learning from, is Richard Bandler. I was reminded of his work this week as I was coaching a client who was struggling in her mind to move away from the past and towards a new future that she was defining for herself.

She’d decided on a direction of where she wanted to go, but the voice in her head kept subconsciously sabotaging her thinking and taking her on a road trip back to her past, rather than to the future where she wanted things to go. Also, the close family around her was saying: “You’ll never change, you’re set in your ways!”

When we set a goal and decide to make a change in our lives our conditioning and internal language is still set on the old default pattern that got us stuck in the first place. As our unconscious thoughts travel down the neural highway, we find ourselves suddenly back in that old place where we used to be and we’re stuck once again in the past:

“History is repeating itself…”

“Here we go again…”

“It must just be the way I am, I’ll never change…”

I love using the metaphor of our neural highway being like a busy motorway or freeway. You can almost see the blur of taillights flowing past you at great speed. It feels overwhelming and fast… Before you know it, you’re in the wrong lane and you’re turning down that old piece of road again:  All routes lead back to the past – your old behaviour and patterns of language and beliefs.

We get caught up in old thoughts and loops that no longer serve us.

As my client spoke, her words made me realize that she was going into a behavioural loop; she was becoming anxious and started to become self-deprecating. She became once again, the person in her past rather than the person she now wanted to be.

I asked her to STOP and BACK UP…

This broke the chain… These words opened her to a deeper level of thinking.

We explored her thinking and how it was making her feel. She was frustrated that she was still going down the old road and not catching herself in time. She then described where she wanted to be with passion and enthusiasm.

Then she got clear – She knew exactly what to do…

She decided that this was the last time she was going to take this route. So she mentally installed a ‘Wrong Way – Go Back’ sign on her neural highway slip road (on-ramp) before the entrance of the old highway she was unconsciously turning onto.

She is now watching her language and paying attention so when that old thinking comes along, she has a conscious system to STOP and BACK UP so she doesn’t go the wrong way. She’s now able to follow the new signage of where she wants to go:  Happiness ahead. Better relationships – next exit, new career coming – 800 yards!

I helped her create some strategies to back up and reframe the situation, and replace her negative language with positive using the power of her intention.

My client reconfigured her brain with some new language patterns that serve her future and not her past. This shifted her state of mind and made things different so she can keep an eye on where she wants to be. She’s moving forward once again.

The past is what we know and we use it as a compass point, a frame of reference for comparison, whereas the future is unknown. It’s uncertain and we’ve no tangible evidence to support that anything could actually be different or better out there. It’s risky and uncomfortable. But you have two great advocates:  faith and courage, if you choose to take them along on the journey with you.

Creating and following a new route takes time and sometimes a little extra support and direction. It’s hard to do it all on your own. The last thing you need is someone with a clipboard standing over you telling you “you’ll never change or it won’t last long – look what happened last time!”

Dwelling on the past keeps you stuck – You’re going the wrong way!

Some people spend years and loads of money in therapy trying to understand WHY the past happened. My philosophy is that learning and growing (and healing) is all about letting go and taking forward motion. Life is fluid and too short to keep using the past as your navigation tool for the future. Create something new; you’ll be surprised how refreshing and exciting the new feelings are that come your way. It sets you free to go into your future!

Sometimes you need a little coaching support to get you started and change the language in your head. This opens you up to a world of infinite possibility.

What do you want behind you and want do you want in front of you?

Watch your language! How is it serving you right now?

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By elaine, February 6, 2013 8:33 pm

“Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that their price is too high when, in reality, the value communicated is too low.”

 ~ Seth Godin, The Bootstrapper’s Bible.

While this quotation focuses on entrepreneurs, I think it’s safe to say that most of us aren’t good at knowing or promoting our own value at work or in our lives.

Most of us don’t know how to market ourselves to others and it’s easy for our strengths and talents to become the best-kept secret in the organization we work for or the business that we’re trying to create. If you’re a business owner, you’re charging less than you should. If you work in corporate, you might be waiting in the shadows hoping that your boss (or someone else) will notice you.

I’ve met leaders and business owners who have amazing talent doing the work that they love. I’ve listened to them play down their own value and dismiss their work almost trying to convince me that they’re not really THAT good or they are just ‘lucky.’

Because what you do is easy to you, doesn’t mean that it’s easy for others. I’ve worked with clients who have felt guilty about doing work that they love and are passionate about. Isn’t work supposed to be hard?

There’s no guilt associated with being on purpose and sharing your brilliance with the world. I see it as your true purpose for being here!

I think some of the challenges around knowing and leveraging our value is cultural. We are taught to play things down because we’re frightened to appear pushy, sound desperate or ‘full of ourselves.’ Our early conditioning might teach us: Don’t stand out – Blend in. So instead, we learn to hide our light and keep our true value a secret locked inside.

Here’s how I see it…

To be successful you have to own your value and brilliance and learn how to communicate it authentically to others.

The most important part of knowing your value is getting out of your own way!

The voice in our head warns us against promoting our value with others because we feel like we are selling ourselves!

This is not true…

You are selling a solution, a different approach, an experience or your expertise and advice. You are providing benefit to others to help them move forward, make change or achieve a successful outcome.

People perceive the value of others directly from the benefits that they can receive from working with them. Think about someone you admire or perceive to have value. What difference have they made to you? For example, they helped you to see something that helped you to be more successful in a situation.

It’s true that you often see a glimpse of your value mirrored back in the gratitude from the people you are helping or serving. I know that over the years my clients have taught me my value, through feedback and gratitude. This is a gift and not something to be pushed aside quickly because we’re too embarrassed to hear it.

My mentor taught me to listen to this feedback and TAKE IT IN…

This helps you to see your value through the lens of others. You start to believe in yourself and get out of your own (Ego’s) way! This is a great gift from those who we serve.

Sometimes it’s hard to know how to value our work, or how to charge people.

Here are a few places to start…

Know your strengths – What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing? Take time to get to really know yourself. Make a list of things that you’re good at – Don’t hold back now! Ask other people to share their observations of your strengths. Start to see yourself in the feedback and gratitude that people share with you. Own it! A great book to get you thinking about your strengths is StrengthFinder 2.0 

You bring more than your credentials – Qualifications can sometimes be important in your work. But it’s not just having the qualification – It’s the application of it! You also bring a combination of your unique experience in the world. In other words, you bring everything you are to your work. One of the best coaches I’ve ever worked with has no coaching credentials. She brings an abundance of experience, intuition, authenticity, passion, and results. She lives what she teaches. This cannot be learned in a classroom. This is life experience!

Share your strengths with others – Walk in your power and own your brilliance. It’s a waste NOT to use the unique gifts you have been given. Through using them you are helping others to be more successful. If they don’t know about your strengths, they won’t be able to find you. You are providing a valuable service by letting others know what you have to offer. You’re helping them get clear and make a decision.  People who stand in their power share why they love what they do… they don’t try to tell you why YOU should love it!

Set your thinking for success – You are what you think and your value and your pricing reflects this to the outside world. So others pay you a reflection of what you think of yourself. Your playing small could be limiting your beliefs and holding you back from promotion or diminishing your value and stopping you charging what you are worth. People who admire you (and a great coach) can help you to see your value in yourself.

I have value do you want some? Remember that you are providing solutions for others, giving them hope, so they can be more successful. You’re helping them achieve more by communicating what you do and offering to help. Validate your gifts and stop playing small. Practice how you communicate this and your message will become stronger and clearer. You are doing a dis-service to others by not sharing what you can help them with.

What value are you sharing with the world?

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By elaine, January 23, 2013 6:07 pm

“People who live their dreams have big, wide-open hearts and the rapier focus of a secret agent on a precarious mission. They do not sweat in the heat. They do not run because of a tabby cat’s shadow in the alley. They no longer fear disappointment or disruption. They meet uncertainty with certainty.”

~ Tama Kieves, Author, This Time I Dance!

I’m coaching several people who are going through big changes in their lives just now. As they continue to step forward and uplevel in the direction of their dreams they meet resistance, feel fear and sometimes progress is slow.

It’s times like this when your mind can work overtime inventing stories of how things won’t work out or predicting how you’re going to fail. The voices in your head fill your thoughts with insecurity and doubt.

Resistance can be a dream-killer, if you allow it to take hold and unleash its power. Insecurity and doubt enter through the cracks in our self-belief. We begin to question our intuition, as everything seems to go on red alert that this is the signal for the beginning of the end!

Uncertainty makes you feel vulnerable and uncomfortable.

You may have experienced times when no one wanted to hire you or your services, or you received negative feedback about the very thing you’re trying to create, or everyone seems to be forming an orderly queue, waiting in line to criticise you. It sometimes feels like everything external is against you!

It’s easy to succumb to the illusion that these external things have the power to steal your strength and resolve and make you weak.

But… only if you choose to let them!

If you want to be successful, you have to face these challenges head on and work through them. They are a natural part of stepping up and creating a bigger life.

I’ve learned to see uncertainty and resistance as internal growing pains, where you get to make defining decisions, call upon your will power, and seek extra support. They are opportunities for growth and you can succeed through them.

You are literally growing from the inside-out…

The truth is that every successful person will encounter obstacles, negative reactions and slow patches along their journey. The key thing is to know that it is happening for a reason:  growth.

Here are a few tips on how to grow through uncertainty and resistance:

Shake it off! I was queuing for airport security recently and a toddler was being grumpy and whiney. His Mum told him to stand still and ‘shake it off.’ The little boy did exactly that:  he stood still and shook his hands, feet and then his whole body, releasing all that negative energy and tension. He then gave his Mum a hug! This technique acted as a circuit breaker to shift his state of mind and change his behaviour. Shake off your negative thoughts. I’ve tried it – it works!

Awaken your clarity. Re-align with your intention/dream and re-connect to the reasons WHY you are doing what you are doing and how it will make you feel when you have achieved it. What difference will it make? Get clear and re-decide want you want.

Know that your intuition isn’t shot! When we perceive that things aren’t going well we stop trusting out intuition. Know that your intuition is working perfectly and have faith to tune back into it. Deep inside there is a knowing that all is well and that you are much more than your fear. Listen to your intuition – it is such a powerful source from within. Have faith and believe in yourself.

You are not alone. Sometimes you’ve done all you can to change a situation. The next step might be to face the fear and deal with it directly. You might get the help of a healer or coach to help you reach through to find your courage and restore your gritted determination to succeed. Remember, you are not alone.

Stop resisting and lean in. Sometimes it’s about being honest, open and leaning into the truth. Crying is a great energy release that frees and liberates our souls from those bottled up emotions. It’s a release value that can act as a catalyst for change. Honest feedback can increase your self-awareness and shift your perspective. Make space to allow for your growing pains. Have self-compassion.

Keep moving in the direction of your dream. Constantly reset your mind for success. Your thinking influences your success. Your energy and consistency is so important. Trust in the greater good and remember that things don’t always go to plan. We screw up and make mistakes sometimes. Continue with forward motion.

Keep perspective. One event has nothing to do with the rest of the breadth and depth of your life. It’s easy to string things together, make assumptions and imagine that the Universe is conspiring against you. This doesn’t empower you and you’ll get stuck in your story. Ask yourself, what are you trying to make this mean about you and your life? Keep things real and in perspective and put your energy to positive work.

You will emerge from uncertainty clearer, stronger and empowered. The cycle will continue and you may revisit the same pattern again in the future but from a higher level of experience as you continue to grow towards your dream.

Keep growing!

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By elaine, January 16, 2013 10:42 pm

 “Effective coaching is about challenging assumptions, examining habits, overcoming barriers, and embedding change.”

~ John Blakey & Ian Day – Authors - Challenging Coaching - http://challengingcoaching.co.uk/

A few of my professional coaching friends and I were talking recently about a common coaching challenge:

Why do some coaches shy away from holding up the mirror to show a coachee something that they might not want to see and may be avoiding about themselves?

Have you ever finished coaching someone and then wished that you’d been more direct during the session because you recognised the core issue was but too scared to give feedback or challenge them? So the issue takes up space and is not dealt with directly.

One of the common disappointments about coaching is that the coachee isn’t challenged enough by their coach (according to my Masters Research).

Sometimes coaches need to move beyond supporting to give feedback and challenge their coachee to move to a deeper level of self-awareness, helping them to be more accountable. This is hugely important if the coachee wants to break through blockages to achieve their goals.

The coachee may be following a textbook of what they need to do in terms of a step strategy for their business or how to lead a team, but they are still not getting the results. Things aren’t working.

Getting great results is not just about the knowing WHAT needs to be done… it’s also about HOW you do things.

Your coachee might be following the process and doing everything right, however, it is their personality or behavioral traits that are actually holding them back. For example, they might be overplaying a strength and getting in their own way of success.

I call this the Human Factor – how you show up and interact with others is so important. Yet this can be the one thing that stops you getting clients or commitment from your team. It’s also a difficult and sensitive area to coach.

Of course, no one wants to hear that their own behavior is pushing clients away or upsetting their team. Especially when they are trying so hard to make things work…

But who’s going to want to tell you that your behavior is stopping you from getting clients or from effectively influencing your team??  Some coaches are too frightened of upsetting you. After all coaches are meant to be supportive right?? And giving this kind of feedback doesn’t feel supportive.

Here’s the thing…

Whether you coach people for performance as a leader in an organization or you run your own coaching business, you’ve probably learned to coach from a traditional supportive stance. Most coaching books heavily focus on this approach for success.

I agree that being supportive is important for building trust, respect, developing rapport and for creating a safe environment to grow. This environment enables individuals disclose their private thoughts and feelings and develop their self-awareness.

Sometimes being supportive isn’t enough and you need to help your clients reach a deeper level of thinking that takes them out of their comfort zone, holds them accountable, makes them face those issues and roadblocks and take risks to courageously achieve their goals.

Great coaches intuitively know how to challenge and hold the tension until the pressure point is opened up and resolved. It’s like when having a back massage, you feel the tension of the masseur applying some pressure to a specific point, then they hold exactly the right amount of tension waiting for those knotty bits to move (I’m sure there’s a technical term for this!). It almost feels painful, but the relief releasing those knots is worth all the discomfort!

It’s the same with deep coaching…

As a coach, you have to be okay with challenging and pushing self-awareness to a deeper level for your coachee. You hold up the mirror and apply tension through feedback, challenging them to be accountable and take them out of their comfort zone into what Cranfield Business School calls the ZOUD (Zone Of Uncomfortable Debate) so you can get to the core of the issue and resolve it.

Applying and holding tension isn’t always pretty because you are creating discomfort. It might initially create a reaction of tears, anger, anxiety, worry or the coachee may feel tense and stressed.

Intuitively you need to recognize this and apply your supportive coaching skills to re-create a balance, by tapping into their feelings, taking a breath and re-grouping before stepping back into the ZOUD and working through it together. You have to believe that this will lead to a breakthrough for your coachee and provide positive supporting skills to face rather than avoid the issue. This can be a challenge for you as the coach to stay in your power and push further than before.

Working through the knotty-bits can take time, but the release of pressure and clearing the block can create transformational shifts for your coachee.

Staying stuck in a solely supportive style doesn’t deliver the full potential of coaching for your coachee. Going deeper has a much greater impact -increasing self-awareness and creating upleveled performance and results.

I ALWAYS want my coach to challenge me so I can live outside of my comfort zone.

If you coach people – Are YOU challenging them enough?

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By elaine, December 26, 2012 5:38 pm

“Clarity is power, and knowing where you’re going is the first step in getting anywhere.”

Adair Cates, Author of, Live With Intention.

When I work with clients all over the world, I often talk about the imaginary sport of Blindfolded Archery. This is where people are trying to aim at a target with blindfolds on. As you can imagine, blindfolded archery can be very messy!

If you don’t know what you’re aiming for, the consequences can be disastrous!

While this is a silly example, it’s the way so many people are actually living their lives. It’s easy to lose focus, get distracted, overwhelmed, and live unconsciously.

The end of the year is a natural time for us to step back and reflect on our lives and for some, a chance to re-align to our goals and dreams.

Many of our dreams stay as dreams and every year we go through the same ritual of saying: “Next year is going to be different…I’m going to make some changes!” 
But nothing ever changes.

A New Year always brings with it a feeling of hope and the opportunity to show up a little different. I love the metaphor my primary school Headmistress used to share with us every January, when we returned to school: She believed that each New Year was like receiving a new exercise book or journal to write in.
 A brand new book, never been used before. Her metaphor gave us permission to show up differently or to begin again…You can almost smell the pages of the new book as you open it for the first time. Each new page is blank and it’s up to YOU to create each day and fill the pages with content, as your year unfolds. In other words – you get to create YOUR year!

You are the author of the next year in your life!

A New Year represents new beginnings. These might be big or small it doesn’t matter:

•    You can start fresh and make things different from what has been.

•    You can set a new course or direction.

•    You can show up a little differently (at work or at home).

•    You can do something you’ve never done before.

•    You can reinvent yourself.

•    You can restart a hobby or interest.

Whatever your goals are here are 5 ways to get clear for the New Year and make things happen:

1. GET CLEAR ON WHAT YOU WANT. For any goal or dream to have a chance of success, the first step is that you have to get REALLY clear about what you want and set an intention (or re-align to your intention if you’ve gone off track). Write it down – this does make a difference! The challenge for many of us is that we start off with good intentions. New Year’s Resolutions are often motivated by ‘musts’ or ‘shoulds’ and remain in our heads on a list of things to do. So write down WHY do you want it!

2. TEST YOUR COMMITMENT. Once you have set an intention you then have to make a 100% commitment to the outcome if you really want it to happen. Not a 60% or a 90% commitment. Otherwise, you’ll just do things when it’s convenient and your heart won’t be in it. Buy a notebook and write your intention on the first page. Use your blank pages to focus on your goal and record your progress. Writing down your goals helps you to commit to them because it keeps them in your mind.

3. GET STARTED. Talking about it won’t make it happen! You have to get moving and take action! You might set an intention and then get scared or bogged down in the detail before you begin. You know what you need to do but you never seem to get round to doing it. The key to being successful is simply to BEGIN… Focus on the first step. Big things get done in small chunks. It’s ALL about Getting Started!

 

4. TAKE CONSISTENT ACTION. Tony Robbins, author and motivational speaker says:
”In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” Conscious deliberate action is essential if you want to make your intention become real. Track this weekly and schedule time for small do-able activities towards your goal. Create a habit to make it happen!

5. GET SUPPORT TO HELP YOU ALONG THE WAY. Having someone on your side is extremely powerful. A coach can help you to stop playing small and start creating real forward motion towards your goals. They will help you to work through any roadblocks as you encounter them and keep you accountable 
(email me at info@elainebaileyinternational.com for a complimentary Clarity Call).

I LOVE the opportunities that each New Year brings…

How do you want your New Year to unfold?

Remember…You are the author of YOUR new book –  so get writing!