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We’ve all felt it, the looming deadline, the quarterly reports, the employee reviews that should have happened last week. Pressure... it’s there, it feels very real, and it’s affecting us whether we want to admit it or not.
With up to 90% of doctor visits related to stress and a divorce rate of 50%, we have become the working wounded.
Stress has a huge effect on our health. We all know the statistics. We all have friends and colleagues suffering with a debilitating health challenge. Our health is suffering, and our productivity is plummeting.
Worker productivity is only at 33%... and that includes us.
So, what do we do with all this pressure? How do we weave our way through it, over it, or around it so we can continually make a high level contribution in all that we do?
There are lots of ways to reduce stress physically. We can:
But,what if we could diminish the amount of stress we feel by the simple act of changing our perspective?
Our life is filled with incredible amounts of stimulus. According to a recent article in The Telegraph,the average person fields, on average, the equivalent of 174 newspapers of data per day! Whether through email, regular mail, social media, text, pings, or phone calls, we are inundated with data.
Most of us move directly from stimulus to response, stimulus to response, stimulus to response, all day long. We are completely reactive and thus let this flow of information control us.
The interesting thing is that most of our responses are based on our own individual past experiences and the learned emotional responses we have repeated over and over again during our lives. We build stories about everything that happens in our lives. An interaction with someone, an email that may have a tone to it, an error someone may have made, a difficult conversation, even how quickly the barista completes our coffee order.
The stories we create are based on how we habitually perceive the world. The actions we take, or the behaviours we continually exhibit, are a direct off shoot of those stories.
When you’re ready to step off the hamster wheel of your life, take some time to check in and question your current perceptions:
When we give effort to examine, question, and change our perspectives, the outcome we call our life will naturally change with it.
Awareness is the key. You cannot change what you are not willing to acknowledge. So get out those magnifying glasses and take a look at what is real and what is not.
Your stories just may change... and your level of stress diminish.
To your continued success!
Find out more about Jenna here.
Are you ready to boost your career...and earnings?
Learn how the Power of Neuroscience can help.
© 2015 and beyond Executive Coaching University. All rights reserved.
As the New Year hits, most of us turn to recapping the year behind us, then setting goals for the year to come. Goals are fantastic as they help us set a direction. If you don't know where you are trying to go, how do you ever know if you get there?
When I think about resiliency as a goal, I think of being resilient as building a better foundation, so that we are more able to adapt, flex, and grow through the things life brings our way. Being resilient means demonstrating our ability to effectively and easily navigate our lives.
We have all heard the motto; "It is not what happens to us, but how we respond that matters." I am forever working to increase both my own and my children's level of resiliency. I want us to be prepared for those times when we may be knocked around, or even down. I want us to get back up, dust ourselves off, and have a reserve of energy to make what we want happen.
If you wish to take a look at your level of resiliency (or how well you bounce back), try taking a look at some of these aspects of your life.
Try to slow your pace a little. Stop, look, and listen, so that you understand what is really happening vs. what story you have built around the situation. The story is not tangible but will drive our emotions and therefore our actions. Be deliberate in the things you focus on.
Resiliency is a great goal. With a little focus, you can build it and be a better person for having it.
All the best!
Find out more about Jenna here.
Are you ready to boost your career...and earnings?
Learn how the Power of Neuroscience can help.
© 2015 and beyond Executive Coaching University. All rights reserved.
It is a universal truth that growth emerges from challenge.
To continue to live a “High Performance Lifestyle” we must seek out challenge every day physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Every day!
Now many folks will say “Believe me, I get plenty of mental stimulation at work!”, or “The kids are always keeping me on my mental toes!” That’s great… but not enough.
Challenge must come from novel sources. You need to be stretching and pushing and flexing those mental muscles against forces that are not comfortable to you.
For example, every day engage in a puzzle activity – either the pen and paper type (crossword, Sudoku, etc…), or something online like Lumosity. The activities need to push you into your dis-comfort zone so you really have to exert some effort, but not push you so far that you give up… finding that sweet spot is important for all your challenging experiences.
You can also make a list of those whom you’ve been saying "I should reach out to _______ ," and actually reach out to them through a written letter. Don’t type it… present your thoughts in your own hand writing. Words by our own hand convey thought and emotion a type set just cannot. This activity will help you sharpen your mind, writing skills, and perhaps re-connect you with someone important. This also is an exercise that allows you to take some of your mental “to-do’s but never done” items off the list… it lessens your mental baggage, which helps keep you sharp.
Lastly, another way to exercise your mind is through the old fashioned activity of reading. I was challenged by a friend to read a book a month last year. Here’s my 2014 list:
I haven’t yet compiled my list for 2015. If you have suggestions for my list please add them to the discussion section below. That way we can use the strength of the group to create an amazing, and challenging, list for all.
Happy reading!
Find out more about Greg here.
What's on your reading list? Please share below.
This program will help boost your career... and earnings!
Coaching In The Workplace
In the Coaching Crucible yesterday, we taught people how to use "Taylor's Task" to think bigger. Gary also mentored everyone on how to build a successful business by focusing on a few powerful areas. Enjoy!
This episode of the Coaching Crucible training is about employing a powerful "Product Pyramid" to help you grow your business. This information is critical, no matter what market you might be in. This hour long training is bursting with helpful information which can help you build a solid foundation for your business. I hope it serves you well!
Warmly,
Drayton
You can find out more about me here.
Here's the link to the complimentary video training on our special YouTube Channel:
*Due to the amazing demand for the complimentary public service training we do each month, we have created a YouTube Channel where you can access all of the previous training webinars dating back to 2012. These are all complimentary. Please subscribe to our channel so that you will be notified automatically when we post new videos. Enjoy!
You can register for future Coaching Crucible webinars here.
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Please join Gary Henson and me as we take on the biggest issues in the coaching industry. This is a free public service program we offer each month. It is lively, provocative, and packed with helpful information!
per·se·ver·ance - noun
Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.
You must persevere! This is what I and many others are told when we hit rough times in life and in business. This is easily said by many, well executed by few.
Perseverance means different things to different people depending on upbringing, generational differences, overall outlook on life, etc., etc. While I believe it to be true that we should stand tall in the face of obstacles in our path to freedom, success and happiness, I also believe we must utilize a higher-level perspective of these issues. We need to employ own inner wisdom (which we frequently ignore), along with a trusted outside source, and attempt to get some distance from the issue or problem so as to decide if it is worth persevering for. As my friend Robin Rose often asks her audiences “What do you really want?”
I got the opportunity to learn this lesson in my own life and business. I will be eternally grateful that I did not get the very thing I was spending the energy to persevere through a few years ago, when I was in a different industry in a horrible economy. At some point I knew it was time to end the pointless perseverance and focus on getting through the upcoming changes that needed to happen so I could focus on building the life and business of my dreams. It was not easy. I was warned by some that I should stick in out. Listening to my inner voice (and some excellent coaching around what I really wanted out of this short life)made the decision easy.
Then came the hard part. The fear. The concerns about stopping what I was doing. Taking the risk to do what I wanted to do. All the emotional, mental, and physically draining things I had to do to prepare and move ahead, were beyond overwhelming. There were many things to test my perseverance - family issues, partnership issues, and money issues, to name a few. Then there was the unexpected loss of support from some friends, whom I thought were true friends. In reality, they were only my friends when it benefitted them. Once that benefit went away with the changes I was making they no longer needed me. I am not going to lie, that one hurt.
If you are not happy. If you are searching for something. If you need to change your life and/or business. If you desire to reinvent yourself, I say DO IT!
Below are a few tips to get you started.
This is a subject that needs much more discussion based on where you are and what you want from your life. It is meant as a discussion starter so please share your thoughts, and stories about your own times of perseverance. It could be invaluable to someone who is unsure of what to do next.
If you are persevering just for the sake of it, the time is at hand to decide on the changes that will bring the outcomes for you to live the happiest, most productive life you can. You will still have ample opportunities to use your perseverance skills. Only this time, those hard-earned skills can be in alignment with what you truly want. To quote Stephen Covey: “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
Find out more about Scott here.
This program will help you become an even more valuable performer!
Coaching In The Workplace
© 2014 and beyond Executive Coaching University. All rights reserved.
This episode of the Coaching Crucible training is about employing sound business fundamentals to grow your business, no matter what market you might be in. Gary Henson, from BusinessCoach.com, and I presented a version of this to thousands of professionals at the World Business and Executive Coach Summit earlier this summer. I hope it serves you well!
Warmly,
Drayton
You can find out more about me here.
Here's the link to the complimentary video training on our special YouTube Channel:
*Due to the amazing demand for the complimentary public service training we do each month, we have created a YouTube Channel where you can access all of the previous training webinars dating back to 2012. These are all complimentary. Please subscribe to our channel so that you will be notified automatically when we post new videos. Enjoy!
You can register for future Coaching Crucible webinars here.
*************************************************************************
Please join Gary Henson and me as we take on the biggest issues in the coaching industry. This is a free public service program we offer each month. It is lively, provocative, and packed with helpful information!
After 27 years in business I know how imperative it is to consistently fine tune your offerings for what is relevant for your clients, you and your business. Working as an Executive Coach the needs landscape is constantly changing. Through listening to the needs of our clients we change what we offer in our suite of services accordingly. One area that is a constant and is consistently on the rise in the world is stress in life and business.
Stress is like an odorless gas. It seeps in and slowly begins to asphyxiate us. Before we know it the symptoms of stress show up in our relationships, work quality, and our physical body. We treat these symptoms in a variety of ways from medicine, to escapism and everything in between. These treatments however do not take care of stress itself as the core issue.
My colleagues Drayton Boylston, Jenna Forster, and Greg Styles and I at the Executive Coaching University have committed to taking on this stress epidemic. Each of us has our specialties in coaching clientele ranging from high level executives, business owners, women in business, high performance athletes, engaging the millennial workforce and serving fellow coaches. The brain trust at ECU is constantly seeking ways to serve the highest number of people, for the greater good of all, in areas that have the most impact in behavioral change, for the best results in life and business.
Consider these facts:
By attacking the root of this stress issue we are helping our clients find:
Over the next few months we will be offering a one day Oregon Stress Slayer Workshop and a Colorado Stress Slayer Workshop to kick off our dedication to increasing the happiness level in our clients, by reducing stress in our lives and businesses through mindfulness. We want to lessen this common link of stress and replace it with higher quality of living for you! Keep watch for other offerings as we continue to serve the greatest number for the greatest good through coaching. Take the time to invest in yourself and join us to help reduce your stress. It may just save your life!
To register for the workshops in Salem, Oregon or Denver, Colorado click the links above. For more information about other locations and dates or to bring us into your organization or city please contact us here: 1.800.251.1696 or email us.
Stress : 1) a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.; 2) something that causes strong feelings of worry or anxiety; 3) physical force or pressure (as defined by Merriam-Webster.com)
“Stress” is a word and concept so ubiquitous in our western society that it is difficult not to encounter its specter everywhere you turn. You will hear “stress” referenced by all ages (I recently heard a 4 year old exclaim “Mom, leave me alone…you’re stressing me out!”), by professionals and amateurs, high and low performers – as an actual thing, a marketing tool, or the reason someone adopted any myriad lifestyle change.
“Stress” appears to be everywhere, in control of, and laying waste to everyone! But it doesn’t have to be that way – you do not need to live your life at the whim of this thing we call “stress”!
Here’s my main focus of this entry – you can control “stress”, and all the symptoms we lump into the category of “stress”, because STRESS IS NOT REAL!
Modern day “stress”, the psychological process of feeling overwhelmed or pushed beyond our ability to cope, is a carry-over from the “fight or flight” hard wired system. This system has been our best defense over eons when faced with threat – turning a corner and running into a lion for instance – it allowed our forebears to stay alive by dumping large amounts of chemicals into our system for the boost we would need in strength, speed, or focus to survive.
Though “stress” is not an actual thing – you cannot show me “stress” or point out a “ stress” – the symptoms of a lifestyle filled with “mental tension” and “strong feelings of worry or anxiety” are definitely real and negatively impacting life.
Did you know:
That’s all bad stuff, right? Of course it is… but because you live a high performing life does not mean you are sentenced to developing those symptoms, or any symptoms other than resiliency, strength, and mental toughness due to this thing called “stress”!
“Stress” is simply the catch all term we use to describe the manner in which we approach the adversity we each experience every day. And without “stress” we cannot grow beyond who we are right now!
Who determines the working definition of “adversity” in your life?
You!
Not your friends, parents, family, co-workers, board, doctor, priest, therapist, television commercials, etc. You and I determine not only the level of disruption this adversity will have on our life, but the manner in which we engage that adversity plays a large part in how that adversity will be resolved.
The impact life events or experiences have on you is up to you!
You have the power to use “stressful” experiences or events to improve your life – leverage that power and take full ownership of your life by using some of the tools below:
“Stress” is not the external boogeyman we are led to believe! “Stress” is a chosen (and often habitualized) set of responses to life – responses to life we choose!
It’s up to you – follow the sheep and helplessly live a life full of “stress” and the health limiting symptoms listed above, or follow your own “stress resistant” course and identify, engage, and emerge from life adversity with a more higher functioning, higher performing you.
Find out more about Greg here.
Ever said that to yourself?
Everywhere you look there are articles, videos, and advertisements stating the need to shut off our negative thoughts and be more positive. While I am all about viewing life from the perspective of “what you can do” versus “what you can't do,” I also understand that turning off negative thoughts is not a light switch that can be turned off with enough willpower!
Did you know that?
So why can’t you just stop being negative?
Because you have wired your brain and your body to think certain thoughts and have certain feelings. You have done this so well and for so long that those connections are stronger than ever.
Moving from negative to positive is a physical process.
Start to think of your brain as a garden.
Your job is to plant enough new thoughts, emotions and experiences that your current connections automatically get pruned away. When your garden is full and vibrant, you will naturally start to remove some of the older, unhealthy plants that don’t serve your garden anymore.
In the neuroscience world (like in the gardening world) it is called pruning. You see, you’re a human being and your nature is to be successful…you’re built that way. With a little attention you can shift in the right direction.
Start small, chose to learn something new and begin to create new experiences in your life. Here are some ways to do this:
As we learn something new, we fire a new synaptic connection. As we experience something new, we get our body involved and feel differently.
The more you gain new knowledge and experiences, the more you can wire and fire your brain with brand new connections. The more you repeat your learning and experiences, the more current is sent to these new connections.
If your brain is busy wiring and firing your new thoughts, feelings and emotions, it is not signaling your old ones.
Your job from this day forward is to:
This is how change is made and finally you can STOP being so negative.
To your future!
Find out more about Jenna here.
The Executive Coaching University is one of the leading Executive Coaching Training and Leadership Development firms in the world. We have trained thousands of individuals in 39 countries in our proprietary MasterMind Executive Coaching Process™ as well as many other leadership skills. Our programs are approved by the International Coach Federation (ICF), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in the UK.
