Be your own Life Coach:
Face your Dragons

I’m inspired by Eckhart Tolle.  Particularly the concept of living in the present moment.  

Be your own life coach: face your dragons

 After practicing this for a while I can notice my own destructive thinking.  And there’s still plenty of it! Particularly comparisons, envy, and “clever tactics”. So I’m trying to observe these happening and not react to them. Otherwise I end up blaming myself for having them, rather than celebrating the new awareness.

I’ve noticed that when I pay attention to these thoughts and just observe them, they lose their intensity. It’s like facing the monster in a nightmare – the monster disappears, and so does the fear.

I guess this is what M meant when she told me “to become a Masterful Life Coach you before need to become a Masterful Human Being –and for that you’ll have to face your dragons” and accept them as part of your human nature (this is my bit). Then change will happen naturally.

How do you deal with your dragons?

Hi! I’m Marien, Oxford-based Life coach, leadership skills trainer, devoted wife. If you want to reduce me to a sound bite: I release human potential, one person at a time. Contact Life Coach Marien

Picture by Fergus Ray Murray

Be your own Results Coach – part 2:
Strategy to Achieve your Goals

So what am I going to do this time? How will I ensure I keep writing on this Blog, for six months? Particularly when it gets tough?

Be your own Results Coach - part2

I’ll make it into a game.

First I need to know how to win.

What does winning look like in this game?

- Post 2 blogs/month
- For 6 months

What are the rules of this game? The blog has got to be:

- Authentic
- Useful
- Simple

What plan can I come up with to ensure I win?

What’s my daily action plan? This is the daily routine that I know, if I stick to it, I’ll win this game.

Productivity Actions

- Read blogging book – 1 hr
- Research blogs – 1hr
- Write – ½ hr
- Sort blogs – 1hr

Self-care Actions

- Yoga – 15 min minimum
- Meditation – morning and evening
- Exercise – 15 min

Sorted!

What’s your strategy to ensure you stick to your goals and get results?

Marien

ps – to find out more about this strategy, read How to Achieve your Goals and find Success

Oxford-based results coach, leadership skills trainer, devoted wife. If you want to reduce me to a sound bite: I release human potential, one person at a time. Contact me.

Be your own Life Coach: Remove the Mask

I just realised how much editing I do.

Be your own Life Coach: remove the mask

 It happens in my head as I write. But writing this journal is different. When here I keep editing to a minimum, as the nature of a journal is to record our un-edited thoughts. And you know what? It’s easier, and at times even better, than other writing I do.

That’s because it’s authentic. When I change it I destroy its soul. I strip its beauty from it because I’m afraid.

Afraid it won’t be good enough.

 
And that is what we do in life too. In our interactions with others we worry about how we may come across, so we “edit” ourselves. We put on a mask that we think is prettier than we are.

But going around with that mask on takes a lot of energy. Like with writing, when we let it flow it gets easier. It’s more authentic, more likeable, more you.

What editing do you do? Who is the authentic you?

Hi! I’m Marien: Oxford-based Life coach, leadership skills trainer, devoted wife. If you want to reduce me to a sound bite: I release human potential, one person at a time. Contact me.

photo by Riccardo-Cuppini

Be your own Authenticity Coach:
how can you be more authentic in your life?

It’s only recently that I have realised how much mind-reading I do. You know what I mean: guessing what others are thinking.

Be your own Authenticity Coach

I do it all the time.

And it gets on my nerves.

But yesterday I managed to be authentic during a heated discussion with a friend. I was honest about what was going on for me. And also listened to her. Without superiority, or inferiority, or judgment (well, there was a bit of judgment …).

I found the whole thing liberating, like I could finally ride along on my bicycle without a heavy rucksack I’d been carrying.

It wasn’t easy, and it was possibly a one-off.

So, how can I sustain this? How can I be myself? How can I be real more often? Or, even better: how can I pass this to others?

In my life coaching practice – that’s the place to be 100% authentic, and where I can model what being authentic is like.

For example, yesterday I’d have been more authentic if I had expressed my concern as my client became quieter and retreated.  She seemed unable to listen.

Next time I’ll tell her what I’ve noticed, and see if she wants to take more time in the session, move faster to pin down a tactic, or stay processing what we have just discovered.

That’s it: being authentic as a life coach involves noticing what’s going on for me, and saying it out loud.

Even if it’s not easy to hear.

How can you be more authentic in your life?

Oxford-based authenticity coach, leadership skills trainer, devoted wife. If you want to reduce me to a sound bite: I release human potential, one person at a time. Contact me.

Be your own Results Coach: how do you get in the way
of your own success?

How do you get in the way of your own success?

As you know, I really want to make this Personal Development Blog happen. But there have been other times when I really, really wanted to make something happen… and never did.

What side-tracked me?

Firstly, I know I can get all excited about an idea. And I always start thinking “this should be quick and easy”. But it never is.

And when reality kicks in, I get discouraged.

Secondly, I can be a great procrastinator. What’s worse, I know how I ensure I don’t feel bad about procrastinating. My favorite tactic is going to Amazon and getting lots of books on the subject. Then going through them in detail, without getting on with what I need to do, and without getting any results.

Eventually I lose motivation as I realise I haven’t advanced, and it wasn’t that quick and easy to get results after all.

How do you get in the way of your own success?

Oxford-based results coach, leadership skills trainer, devoted wife. If you want to reduce me to a sound bite: I release human potential, one person at a time. Contact me.

Be your own Personal Development Coach:
join this Authenticity Blog

Be your own Personal Development Coach

As I struggled to come up with a way to start this Blog, I realised how that struggle was the antithesis of what this blog is about. It’s about being real. It’s about letting our words, thoughts and feelings flow. And about the authenticity, vulnerability and inspiration that comes with that.

This is my journal entry on the day when I had the Blog idea.

“Wow – I just realised something.

I want to get out of the closet – big time, and start writing a blog. Kind of a diary blog. With the insights that are already in this journal, and other ones. This would be an authenticity blog, where I come out, and help and inspire others do the same … this would be a hit.

It would be a hit for me, as I would have to get out of my shell, and overcome my own fears … that’s for sure!

It would be a hit for others, as they could use it to come out and be themselves.

I think I’m onto something here. How exciting!”

Would you like to join me?

Oxford-based personal development coach, leadership skills trainer, devoted wife.  If you want to reduce me to a sound bite: I release human potential, one person at a time. Contact me.