Month: October 2014 Page 1 of 2

Sometimes the biggest limitations we have in life are the ones that we impose on ourselves and have in our own minds.

We are all born with unlimited potential but on occasions we simply get in our own way and make life more complicated than it needs to be. There is a great quotation by Confucius, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated!”

When I was completing my coaching skills training in 2001, I was taught a very simple but powerful formula that I have subsequently used with thousands of people to help them identify and deal with the obstacles to them being the very best that they can be.

The formula is:-

Performance = Potential – Interference

It was devised by Timothy Gallwey who previously worked as a tennis coach. He said that on a tennis court the biggest opponent is not the one you are playing against but the one up in your own head.

His book “The Inner Game of Work” is all about helping people overcoming mental obstacles for maximum performance. His has also written books called “The Inner Game of Tennis” and “The Inner Game of Golf”.

Gallwey claimed that performance in any activity, from hitting a tennis ball to solving a complex business problem, was equal to one’s potential after the interference factor had been subtracted from the equation.

Performance rarely equals potential. A little interference is all it takes to greatly diminish one’s actual performance.

Some common examples of interferences (obstacles) are self- doubt, fear, lack of confidence, self- condemnation and negative self –talk, procrastination, self-consciousness, busy mind etc.

One of the biggest interferences is fear or as I like to call it “False Expectations Appearing Real!”

I was once told we are only born with just two fears – the fear of noise and the fear of falling down. Every other fear that we have is a learned behaviour.

The good news about interferences including fear, is that as it is a learned behaviour, we can unlearn it! It requires us to form some new habits and behaviours

90% of what we do each day is habit! Changing our daily habits and rituals allows us to get out of our own way.

In his book “Habit busting” Pete Cohen gives guidance and tips on how to break habits. He suggests that it takes 21 days to break a habit. So patience and determination are required to achieve a change in habits.

This week why not spend some time thinking about how you get in your own way? Is there something that you would you like to change or are you happy to keep things as they are?

If you decide that you would like to change something, you may find it helpful to get clear on your motivation for doing so. Getting clarity on your motivating factors ensures that if the going gets tough and challenging you can remind yourself of your reasons for wanting things to change so that you persevere.

Also you may find it helpful to think about what resources and people are available to support you with the change?

When you are clear about the above you can start taking some action.

Remember small actions are better than no action and that nothing happens or changes without action.

Good luck!

This week’s quotation:

“Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have” Norman Vincent Peale

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

 

In last week’s blog, I talked about creating a personal vision and vision poster.

Once you have done this you can start visualising achieving and experiencing the various goals that make up your vision.

Visualisation is the act of creating compelling and vivid pictures in your mind.

Visualisation activates the creative powers of your sub conscious mind and it is a practice that has been used by sports people as part of their training and preparation for many years.

There is also a part of the brain known as the Reticular Activating System – or RAS that plays a vital part in your ability to achieve goals.

Your RAS is the automatic mechanism inside your brain that brings relevant information to your attention.

The RAS will help you spot opportunities that will move you towards your vision. It acts as a kind of filtering system between your conscious and subconscious minds. It takes instructions from your conscious mind and passes them on to your subconscious.

It focuses your brain to notice available resources that were always present but had previously gone unnoticed. Try it for yourself. On your next journey to work, look out for yellow cars. These cars would have been on your journey but you may not noticed them if you had not made a point of consciously looking for them. You may be surprised by how many you spot!!

I once suggested to participants on a two day training workshop that they look for yellow vehicles on their journey home after day one and to report their findings on day two of the course. One participant said they had been amazed by what they found. They saw a whole stream of brand new yellow AA breakdown vehicles that they probably would not have really taken any notice of if they had not been looking out for them!

You can practice this skill yourself. Take a moment now to look around your environment and look for things that are blue in colour (assuming you have objects that are blue). Have certain objects come into sharper focus?

Researchers have found that when you perform a task in life, your brain uses the same processes it would if you were merely visualising the task. Your brain sees no difference between visualising something and doing it. Your reticular activating system cannot distinguish between ‘real events’ and ‘synthetic’ reality.

In other words it tends to believe whatever message you give it. Imagine that you’re going to be giving a speech. You can practice giving that speech by visualizing it in your mind.

This ‘pretend’ practice should improve your ability to give the speech.

Imagine, if you programmed your RAS to spot resources, people or information that will move you closer to your goals and vision – would that be helpful?

Visualisation actually magnetizes and attracts to you, the people, resources and opportunities that you need to achieve a goal.

If you give it images of your dream house, your perfect partner, the career that you would like or the places you would like to visit, it will set about providing ideas and solutions to help you achieve those dreams.

This week spend some time to start to use the RAS to your advantage to help you spot resources and opportunities that will move you closer to achieving your goals and vision.

This week’s quotation:

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Napoleon Hill

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

 

Something that I really enjoy doing is helping people successfully navigate the move from full time employment into starting and running their own business.

To guide and support them through this major transition, I am able to draw upon my own personal experience of taking a leap of faith 14 years ago. It gives me a real buzz to observe people grow, unlock potential they didn’t realise they had and to turn their vision into a reality.

As part of the process, I get clients to devise their own personal vision covering all aspects of their life. I ask clients to think about what they would like to achieve professionally and personally over a period of their choosing. Some prefer to keep the period to 12 months, some think about 5 years and others 10 years or more. Everyone is different, there is no right or wrong and the important factor is for the client to come up with a definite period that they are comfortable with.

Once we have agreed the period that they are going to focus on, I ask clients to take some time to think about what they would like to Be, Do, Have in life (as described below) and to make a note of their answers.

BE

This section relates to qualities and behaviours that you would like to be known for.

What are the strengths and character traits that you display in the various roles that you have to perform in life?

If someone were writing a tribute about you, how would you like them to describe and talk about you and what you bring to the world?

DO

Take some time to think about the things that you would like to do and experience in life.

This does not have to be completely new stuff, it can include things and activities that you are already involved in that you would like to sustain and develop. In devising this list clients find it helpful to consider and answer the following questions:

• Are there places you would like to visit?

• What skills would you like to develop/learn?

• What knowledge/experience would you like to acquire?

• What jobs and roles do you really enjoy performing?

• Are you involved or would you like to be involved in acts of service/contribution to your community?

• What hobbies do you enjoy or would like to pursue?

• Are their clubs or societies that you are involved with or would like to join?

• What ambitions and dreams would you like to fulfil?

HAVE

When formulating responses in this area, you may find it useful to think about:

• What you would like to own or acquire?

• What possessions you would like to own or are grateful for?

• What qualifications you have and if there are any additional qualifications you would like to acquire?

• What relationships are you grateful for?

• Are there any connections or relationships that you would like to develop?

Once they have given this some thought many clients find it really useful to create a pictorial summary of their vision.

They do this by taking a flip chart sheet or a piece of card of a similar size and creating their own vision poster. They place a picture of themselves in the centre of the paper and then divide the page into three sections Be, Do, Have.

They then stick images/pictures/words that represent their vision to the page.

The images can be collected from a variety of sources – magazines, brochures, leaflets, newspapers and from the internet.

They then place the poster on a wall at home and look at it on a daily basis. Some take a picture of the poster on their phone or pc/tablet and review it daily and think about what they need to do to make their vision a reality.

This week, why not spend some time thinking about “What you would like to achieve professionally and personally over the next 12 months?”

This week’s quotation:

“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world” Joel A. Barker

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk