Bring your best self to light
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Musings - What's your filter for 2006?
I love the idea of New Year's resolutions. I know they tend to be dismissed as unrealistic and doomed to failure. But why not add a different slant to them this year? Why not choose a flavour? a theme? For example instead of saying that you are going to lose weight, exercise more etc why not set health as your filter? So instead of going on a diet, failing, going on a binge, beating yourself up and then dismissing the whole thing...why not make health the theme of your year? Ask yourself about every choice if this is a healthy one. Now let me say first of all, that we all have the tendency to go on automatic pilot so expect there to be some discomfort as you work on pulling your choices into awareness. And know that you will fail...but that's OK too. When a child starts walking, most parents don't say to him/her when they fall the first time (or the second or third) "Well, you are useless...you can't do a simple thing like getting up on your own two feet and walking. Don't bother...it's pointless." (At least I hope not!) No, they salute every little effort and give lots of encouragement. Encourage your inner child. I find the inner child argument very useful when I "borrow" some chocolate from the bag of sweets my mother has for my son!
Set up systems for yourself to keep you reminded...here are some ideas
- Put a sticker with health (or your theme of choice) on it on your mobile phone.
- Put a post-it with health on your desk.
- Set up a screensaver with Choose Health
- Choose a photo/picture that really represents health to you..and put it on your fridge.
- Make a poster with Choose Health written on it and post it up somewhere where you see it regularly.
- Choose someone to be your encouragement buddy. Ask that person to encourage you as you choose health...it could help them too!
- Salute every healthy choice you make. Create an acknowledgement book of all the times you choose to walk instead of staying on the couch, of when you stop when you have had enough.
One of the most powerful side- effects of keeping this up is that gradually, almost effortlessly your choices will become healthier. You will exercise more, eat better, possibly stop smoking.
I've decided to make compassion my theme for the year..that includes compassion for myself and for others. This means that I intend to choose to be kind when I could be bitchy, calm when I could be cranky, that I will set aside time every day to do the things that nourish me.
LantzQuest - The training/coaching corner
Keeping on the health theme, let me draw an analogy for you...Instead of going once to the gym and learning lots of new stuff and then not going for months (or practising it!)...
What would it be like if instead you went to the gym but it was then followed up by 3 months' of coaching, encouragement, practical suggestions and support?
Which do you think would be more effective? If you think the latter approach would be better for your staff development...leading to more motivation, more cheerfulness, greater competence, why not contact me and we'll see if we can come up with a programme to suit YOUR staff and YOUR challenges.
If you have the following problems in your organisation...the chances are, LantzQuest can help you.
- High staff turnover (the combination of training and coaching means that staff feel valued and appreciated...and more likely to stay!)
- Poor relationships between managers and staff. (Our Coaching Clinic can help you there)
- Need to fast track the training of a group of new employees? Our Academy can design a programme to help you do that...
If you feel this is something that you/your staff could benefit from, please contact me at 087-2825578 or at anne.walsh@lantzquest.com. I'm happy to have a no obligation conversation with you about what LantzQuest could do for you and if you decide its not for you.
Articles
I'm thrilled to find out that one of my articles (Staying calm in chaos) is going to be published on the IFSC website. Check out Training & HR advice from the Ask our experts section. Woo-hoo!
Bits & Pieces
I've recently come across Suzanne Falter-Barn's work www.howmuchjoy.com and www.getknownnow.com (a good programme if you want to get more publicity for your programme/product).
She has an interesting offer for her Soul Purpose CD but even if you don't decide to buy it you can download her excellent How Much Joy companion workbook at no charge. You can check it out here...
Recommended
My friend Colette Clail has some excellent job-hunting resources which you can check out here..