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As a coach, I’m often thinking of what we can learn if we open our minds and objectively view the hands we are dealt in life. And as a former professional poker player, I often think about this in the context of the games we play.
What’s the true power of belief?
Right now, invest 2 minutes and listen to two-time Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins’s thoughts on the power of belief:
“We tiptoe through life hoping to safely make it to death.” – Unknown
Fear, worry and angst have been conditioned into you. You’ve been pumped full of it. By media. By marketing. Even the people who love you.
You’re wing-clipped by caution. You may even think fear is “good” for you.
That it keeps you safe and has all kinds of hidden, mysterious values.
If your happiness depends on anyone or anything, that’s not happiness.
That’s pressure, anxiety and tension.
If you don’t appreciate me, that’s your problem.
If I need your approval, that’s my problem.
“Often it isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s the little pebble in your shoe.” – Muhammad Ali
We all know fear is a core emotion designed to make us aware of real or imagined threats.
What is less known is that fear is an emotion consisting of specific components without which it cannot exist.
Just like water ceases to exist if you remove one of the atoms in the H2O-molecule, fear can’t exist without the following three components:
“It has to be a habit, you can’t call it an activity that you’ll get to.”
– George Jedenoff
It’s been 45 days and I haven’t missed a single morning exercise routine.
On the contrary, on most mornings I wake up excited to do it.
Better yet, I don’t see any end in sight.
How did it happen?
“Never affirm or repeat about your health what you do not wish to be true.”
– Ralph Waldo Trine
Your mind is your superpower. And I mean that literally.
For example, what do you think would happen if you visualized flexing your biceps as hard as you could 5 times per week for 12 weeks?
Many years ago, a man was sitting in quiet contemplation by a riverbank when he was disturbed by a beggar from the local village.
“Where is the stone?” the beggar demanded. “I must have the precious stone!”
The man smiled at him. “What stone do you seek?”
There is an old Zen story about a king who wanted to teach his people a lesson. He placed a large boulder in the middle of the main road, completely blocking entry into the city. Then he hid and observed their reactions. The king watched as person after person came to the impediment and turned away or tried halfheartedly before giving up.
When he was 14, he received a C-minus in music. His teacher specifically commented that he “had no aptitude for singing.”
A senior monk, named Tanzan, and a junior monk, named Ekido, were traveling together through the countryside. They soon came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross, they saw a young woman also attempting to cross.
Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.”
Mastering the inner game is the key to sustainable personal and business success. It’s possible only by a deep understanding of what the inner game is all about and what success within it really looks like.
Curing your intention deficit disorder is key to realizing your fullest potential.
It is possible for you to become a much more powerful creator. But it’s only obtainable through real inner work.
As an example, a CEO client of mine who was also acting as the head of sales complained that he hadn’t closed a new deal for several months. He believed this problem was due to their product and marketing departments.
Your self-concept is probably the most important aspect of your life.
Why? Because it includes everything you believe is true about you. Everything you believe about what you’re capable of and what is possible for you. Your self-concept is visible everywhere in your life; it generates your current results.
Ben is 30 years old and the CEO of a high-growth and venture-backed Canadian tech start-up.
As I studied him deeply when speaking to me in our first session together, I noticed that he was yawning frequently. He had dark bags under his eyes. During a pause in our conversation, I asked him about it:
“All things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.” – Stephen R. Covey, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”
Thoughts create things.
The device you are using to read this first existed as a concept in someone’s mind. These words first existed in mine. Take a look around and literally everywhere you’ll see ideas that originated within a mind.
“The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.”
– Wayne W. Dyer
There was once a man named Ali who owned a large farm with many orchards. Ali was perfectly content with his lot in life until one day, when a local priest told him how the Almighty had created diamonds, and how one stone the size of his thumb was worth enough to purchase an entire country. As the story goes, Ali went to bed a poor man. He sold his farm and set out to seek a fortune in diamonds.
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
There are no musts in life. Only choices and consequences. Everything you do (or don’t do) is a choice.
So, before taking action on something ask yourself – “Do I really want to do this?”
You don’t have a time management problem.
You probably think you do, but the reality is that everyone has the same amount of time. In fact, and you may want to take a deep breath here: you have plenty of time.
What you may have is an “integrity” problem.
“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” ― Aristotle
You don’t have a time management problem.
You probably think you do, but the reality is that everyone has the same amount of time. In fact, and you may want to take a deep breath here: you have plenty of time.
What you may have is a “people pleasing” problem.
“ Seeing is not believing; believing is seeing! You see things, not as they are, but as you are.”- Eric Butterworth
You don’t have a time management problem.
You probably think you do, but the reality is that everyone has the same amount of time. In fact, and you may want to take a deep breath here: you have plenty of time.
What you may have is a “mindset” problem.
“ Be quick, but don’t hurry.”- John Wooden
You don’t have a time management problem.
You probably think you do, but the reality is that everyone has the same amount of time. In fact, and you may want to take a deep breath here: you have plenty of time.
What you may have is a “purpose” problem.
A senior monk, named Tanzan, and a junior monk, named Ekido, were traveling together through the countryside. They soon came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her cross to the other side. The two monks glanced at one another. They had taken vows never to touch a woman.
James* is a client and the CEO of a successful medium-sized consulting firm in Vancouver, B.C. He is in his 50s and has done quite a bit of personal growth work in the past, including working with several executive coaches. Despite this, he still finds himself stuck on the same topic.
“I know exactly what to do. I’ve known it for a long time. I’ve had the same vision and plan in front of me before, but for some reason I just can’t execute.”
He looked at me with deep concern in his face.
“What’s going to be different this time?!”
“In all of my experience, I have never seen lasting solutions to problems, or lasting happiness and success, that came from the outside in.” – Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Are you a business leader struggling with too few opportunities for growth, a lack of interest in your ideas, or the sense that you don’t have enough time or resources? Are you in any way unhappy about the results, including your inner experience, that you are producing?
The past is gone. The present is unfolding even as I type this. Your thoughts, your emotions and your bodily functions arise spontaneously. You can learn to influence them, but you cannot control them. In fact, the only thing you can ever control are your choices. And specifically, how you choose to respond to whatever is happening in the present moment.
How often have you heard someone say, “The U.S. President is the most powerful person in the world,” or “True power comes from within,” or “It’s important to empower others”? Power takes on completely different meanings in each of these phrases, but what does it actually mean to be powerful?
Wellness programs have been shown to provide approximately a 300% return on investment (ROI). In other words, companies who spend $1 in a wellness program (e.g., exercise clubs, personal trainers, smoking cessation workshops) earn $3 as a result of decreased turnover, fewer sick days, reduced health insurance costs, etc. The ROI from professional coaching is more astonishing. According to a Manchester Consulting Group study of Fortune 100 executives, the Economic Times reports “coaching resulted in a ROI of almost six times the program cost as well as a 77% improvement in relationships, 67% improvement in teamwork, 61% improvement in job satisfaction and 48% improvement in quality.” [CBS News Moneywatch 2011]
In today’s modern “creative economy” the industrial management model, where humans tend to be viewed like material resources to command, control and expend, is rapidly giving way to a more evolved business approach where great leadership and a culture of learning and excellence is being created through the pursuit of higher levels of personal mastery and genuine self-actualization at work.
Just like every person has a philosophy, so does every business and organization. The philosophy that has dominated the business world since the industrial revolution was built on the notion that the purpose of a business is to maximize profits. But this belief system is a rapidly eroding the very profits it claims to be producing, and is thus losing its legitimacy as a viable and sustainable business philosophy and approach. Conscious Business philosophy has emerged as a new way of leading in business to combat this old-school ideology.
Today, mindfulness and meditation are commonly promoted and practiced by everyone from Rupert Murdoch to Arianna Huffington and Jerry Seinfeld. In addition, some of the world’s largest and most recognizable brands have implemented corporate mindfulness and meditation programs, including Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Intel, Nike, LinkedIn and General Mills. But where to start learning about mindfulness? I’ve compiled a list of resources to help you out!
Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, recently published an article about mindfulness and its connection to the corporate bottom line which generated a lot of buzz in the online community. As Integral Leadership Coaches and mindful leadership practitioners, we always appreciate when our craft and industry are discussed in mainstream media by influential public figures. In today’s business environment, where complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty rule the day, we see mindful leadership as an essential part of being more effective and satisfied in work and life. To have that philosophy endorsed by today’s business leaders is very gratifying and essential to our work.
In this very moment you are experiencing one of a number of different performance states (e.g. relaxed, energized, anxious, exhausted). We tend to think of (and experience) each state as a temporary event in time. Yet every state or experience is intrinsically linked to how you felt the moment before, how you slept last night, what you thought about this morning, what you “need“ to do tomorrow, etc. So while we can only experience this very moment, our experience is impacted by a stream of previous moments, like a flow or a domino effect. The more we realize this—the more we allow for this ‘flow’—the more we are able to perform optimally in each moment.
