I am still in the process of figuring out how I want to create the conversation around the personal geography newsletter. So, for issue number one, and maybe more after that if this seems to work, I have created this post to share your ideas about what you read in the newsletter.
Please, share your thoughts on the first newsletter below so we can get the conversation started.
If you have no idea what this post is talking about, but would like to know more sign up for the Sunday Night Success Personal Geography newsletter here:
I have picked up work with two different coaching organizations providing coaching and writing services.
I have maintained a small number of clients in my private coaching practice.
I am now supplying the majority of my family’s income through my new adventure as a coach.
I have grown and continue to grow the reader base of Sunday Night Success.
Everything has been going better than “according to plan”.
Funny how that is such a precarious place to be.
Positive results and silly thoughts
With all of these positive results I made a decision a couple of weeks ago that I would put building my private practice on hold and focus on my contract work. At the time it made perfect sense: the contract work is paying my bills and a little bit more, it is most important, full steam ahead.
Which was followed by an even sillier thought: I can start building my private practice again if the contract work slows down or comes to an end.
All the cogs in the machine
Most of you have already seen the complete gap in my thinking process, funny how it took me a few weeks, and some prodding from my SNS group and my own coach, to catch on.
Why stop helping people just because things are going well?
Why wait for something to go wrong before building up another income stream for my business and my family?
The contract work is great, but it is only a piece of the overall vision for success. I am having a lot of fun with the work and learning a lot. The opportunities just keep opening up and it is fabulous. However, that does not mean I don’t need the other piece of the vision, my private practice, spinning inside the machine.
If I am having great success with one aspect of the plan, why not work on having even more success by continuing to work on all the parts?
Gratitude for my support network
The thanks for this realization goes to those relationships that provide me with the support that has helped me with my recent success. Without their questions and gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) prodding I would be moving forward but leaving some important pieces behind.
Now it is time to refocus and get back on track.
What is one area of your own life that you may be feeling too comfortable with? How would things look different if you shook things up and put some energy back into this area?
I like the anticipation of the game. I like setting it up with my friends. I like getting my gear ready. I like driving into the parking lot. I like carrying my gear to the first tee. I even like paying for the privilege of playing.
There is something about the game that has an allure to me.
Turning my cell phone off and having some “me” time. Joking around with my friends at the tees. Watching my friends succeed on the green. Walking through lovingly manicured courses. The anticipation that the shot that I am about to take may go where I want it to go.
My problem lies in the fact that I am not good at hitting the ball. As a lefty golfer I have developed a habit of hitting every drive that I make left instead of straight. Left into the rough. Left into the water. Left into the sand. And not just a little left – I am shooting left by 45 degrees or more. :S
What happens after I shoot left? The first 5 or 6 shots I can usually suppress my frustration but eventually it bubbles to the surface and my day is ruined. Friends cannot console me. The joy is gone but I play on like a man walking through a rain storm who is soaked to the bone.
So for a long time I did what any man would do. I would try harder. I would try to force my body to HIT THE BALL STRAIGHT!! I would practice harder and more often. I would contort my body in ways to make the ball do what I want it to do. I would turn my body so when I hit it left then at least it would be straight (this made it worse). All to no avail.
I just figured out my problem.
My problem is that I care where the ball goes more than I care about the process for getting the ball there.
Now I have a new plan – focus on the joy of the movement within the shot and stop caring about where the ball goes. My shot may not improve at all but by changing what I consider success to be I will find peace on the course. And this is my real success – peace.
If you take a look in the upper right corner of the SNS homepage you will see a brand new sign up form for the Sunday Night Success newsletter. Like the new “Weekly Environment” posts on Tuesdays this newsletter is another experiment to see what happens.
At the moment the sign up form breaks one of the most common internet newsletter rules: I am not offering anything free with the newsletter….yet. At the moment it was most important that I get the sign up form live on the blog. I have what I think is an important and valuable freebie that will come with the newsletter I just haven’t quite figured out the technicalities of setting up the distribution of that freebie.
Freebie or not I hope you will sign up for the SNS newsletter and join me on this new experimental journey. Then, when the freebie is actually available you will be twice as happy!
What to expect from the newsletter
The newsletter is set up to provide a brand new environment for my, and hopefully your creative environment. I am working on writing a book that brings together some of my new ideas about success that I have learned over the past year through my own self-improvement work and my work with coaching clients.
These ideas are raw at the moment, and need to be developed. You can check out the very start of one of the ideas in my post on personal geography. My hope is that you will work with me, by sharing your comments and ideas about the newsletter, and help me write the book one idea at a time.
What other benefits?
Even if you are not interesting in helping develop and clarify the ideas everything I write in the newsletter is helpful in how you operate in your daily life. These are the ideas that I use with my clients and in my own life to be successful. Not all of these ideas will end up on the SNS blog so the newsletter gives you a unique look at some really interesting ways to help yourself move forward and be successful with whatever you are working on right now.
Or, you read a few issues and decide I am a lunatic and it is all pointless. Really, no harm done, and you would get the chance to peek inside the head of a madman.
Will you be selling stuff?
The answer is yes, but only at the very bottom of the newsletter after all of the non-selling information has been provided. If reading offers in a newsletter bothers you, it won’t be a huge problem, you can just stop reading before you get to the bottom. If I ever decide to change this policy (and this is an experiment, it may evolve) I will give warning so you can jump ship.
My number one purpose is to develop my ideas and provide value to you with my thoughts and writing. I would also love to have some of you join me in coaching relationships so we can start moving your ideas out of your head and into reality. For those of you who decide to take me up on the offers I look forward to working with you.
So, I hope you will enter your information below. It should be an interesting time that we spend together.
“If cleaning out your closet everyday helps you achieve your dreams then why not clean out your closet everyday?”
The small things matter
This idea has popped up twice in the last two weeks during my coaching sessions: clients brushing off the silly little things they do as if these things have no effect on why they are having success.
“I always run if I write my runs out on a calendar and make sure I have my iPod with me. Silly things like that.”
And,
“I cleaned out my closet and got this burst of energy. If only I could clean out my closet before every challenging task I have to do.”
If scheduling and listening to music help you run then are they silly little things?
If it works then why not clean out your closet every time you have a challenging task?
Pay attention to what works then do it over and over again
It seems like people like to focus on the big things that help them to succeed: training and education, business systems, mastermind groups, coaches, meetings, etc.; while ignoring the little things that could be just as important.
I start everyday of working from home with two cups of coffee. Cup of coffee number one signals: time to hang out with my son and enjoy the morning. Then I get ready for work and grab cup of coffee number two which signals: time to go to the office and get the day started.
Two cups of coffee. Every morning. In the exact same pattern.
Silly? Perhaps. Does it work for me? Definitely.
What parts of your day do you currently consider silly or unimportant that could actually be one of the small keys to your success?
“Geography is destiny in medicine” Jack Lord, MD
Have you ever thought about how where you live can have an effect on your health?
I was watching a TED presentation by Bill Davenhall today, the topic: “Your health depends on where you live”. It is just under ten minutes long and well worth watching:
By design if I wanted to have a heart attack I lived in the perfect places
This is the conclusion that Bill comes to part way through the video after mapping out his geographical location over the course of his life. Watching this video started up the gears in my brain (special thanks to Andrea Lee and Thomas Leonard as well), as TED talks generally do, and got me to thinking:
If physical geography has such a huge impact on my health, how does my overall personal geography affect my life and my success?
Forming an idea: Personal geography
I love to talk about environmental design and how it affects the success that we have in our lives. So, what if I took Bill Davenhall’s idea of environment affecting health and applied it to a review of my own personal geography. Instead of limiting the question to how does this personal geography affect my health, expand the question to how does personal geography affect all aspects of my life.
What does the physical space of my home look like? My office? My car?
How much time am I spending in the natural world?
Am I taking care of my body?
What important relationships do I have?
How does my job/business affect me?
What am I reading? Watching? Listening to?
How are each of these different environments, which build up my personal geography, affecting my success?
How is my personal geography helping me to live the life I dream about?
How is my personal geography holding me back? Pulling me forward?
Mind moving fast
Admittedly, this is not the most cohesive blog post in the history of blog posts, but that is all right. I am excited. My mind is activated. I am just trying to get the ideas out and on “paper” so I can start to work on them.
And I could use everyone’s help. As I start to develop this idea of personal geography I would love feedback and comments from all of you. Let’s start with:
What is your first impression of the idea of having a personal geography (personal life geography?)?
“To reach our goal a straight path we will not follow.” Yoda
There is a vast amount of information written, and being written on the concept of setting and achieving your goals; Sunday Night Success being one of the contributors. Interestingly, within the first few weeks of 2010 I have already fallen behind on, delayed, or completely changed a couple of the goals I set for myself.
Why?
Opportunity came knocking.
The destination or the journey
Goals are your destination: they are the bigger idea that you are working towards. Losing 25 pounds, making $50000, publishing a book, going to Mexico, switching jobs. You set your goal as something you will try to achieve, and, once you achieve it you are done, you have reached your destination.
What is often forgotten is that there is also a journey to enjoy. How you work your way towards that goal can be just as important to changing who you are as finally reaching the goal. In many cases how you get there may actually end up being more important, and more interesting, than the final goal.
Straight path or twisting trail
Not only is the journey important, so are all of the different routes you can follow during that journey. Just because, in January, you determine a certain path will get you from point A to point B doesn’t mean that you have to follow that path. In fact, following such a rigid path may end up restricting you so much that, in the end, you limit your growth, or you are unable to reach your goal.
The journey between now and then, here and there, needs to be flexible. If something changes then be willing to adapt. You may need to change your approach or change the entire original goal; the point is to pay attention to how you are getting there and allow new opportunities to be part of the process.
Sometimes the best decision is to do something entirely different and see where it takes you.
Words versus intent
When an opportunity presents itself that at first appears to be in conflict with one of your goals, take a moment and look past the wording of your goal. Take a long look at what the INTENT of the goal really was.
If a new path presents itself you may find that the way you worded your goal doesn’t fit, but the intent, the real reason you set that goal for yourself fits perfectly.
Or, you may find that the intent of that goal was all wrong in the first place and the new path you have discovered fits you much better.
Opportunity example
One of my big goals for 2010 was: grow my private coaching practice financially to a point where I can cover all of my family’s basic living expenses by September 2010.
In January I received two new opportunities to do coaching work, enough work that it will be difficult for me to grow my own practice as quickly as I wanted too. At first, I struggled with this idea as I realized it directly conflicted with what I had set as a goal for myself. However, when I looked at the intent of my goal: to support my family through my work as a coach, I realized that both of these opportunities fit perfectly.
Yes, growing my private coaching practice will probably slow down, but my ability to provide for my family from my coaching work will rise much faster. The opportunity goes against the goal, but fits the intent and that is what is most important.
Try reviewing your goals for 2010 and determine the real intent of each goal. Does switching from goal to intent open up any new and interesting possibilities you hadn’t considered?
Need some assistance with setting your goals for 2010? Check out Jocelyn’s post on creating a vision board.
When your various environments are functioning correctly they should be supporting you in being successful. A functional environment, when in place, helps make completing your actions and reaching your goals simpler. The environment, by just being there, provides the structure for success and because of this you need to put less energy into the tasks that you are attempting to accomplish.
Example of a functional environment
Marketing websites and marketing newsletters were two of the environments that I leaned on heavily during the summer. These sources of information provided me with a background in marketing I did not have, and with the support I required to move forward. By not having to come up with all of these ideas on my own, I saved energy.
These two environments supported me in being successful.
These two environments were functional.
Dysfunctional Environments
When environments are no longer supportive and no longer saving energy they have become dysfunctional. The problem is that we do not always immediately realize that our environments have become dysfunctional, and end up continuing with environments that are eating up energy and actually hindering success in some way.
Example of a dysfunctional environment
The marketing newsletters that I received over the summer are an excellent example of a dysfunctional environment that I did not identify immediately, and because of this, they ended up taking energy from me on a fairly consistent basis.
During the spring I read every marketing newsletter sent my way. I would eagerly scan through the information and pick out the pieces that I thought would work for what I am doing. I enjoyed reading the newsletters. However, during the summer I began moving the newsletters to my “Marketing” label in gmail without even reading them. I figured these newsletters were still a supportive environment; I would just need to read them later.
I was being delusional.
Flooded inbox
I finally realized my marketing newsletter environment had become dysfunctional after returning from a three-day camping trip with my family. I opened my gmail account to 45 email messages, of which 41 of them were marketing newsletters and four were from actual people that I correspond with.
I realized I would never have the time to properly read all of them, so started moving them over to my “Marketing” label once again. This required thought, which required energy, and none of this energy was moving me forward.
Wasted energy = dysfunctional environment.
Repairing Environments
Once you have identified a dysfunctional environment you will need to alter, eliminate, or replace this environment in order to stop losing energy.
I repaired my marketing environment through elimination. If I opened and read a newsletter it stayed on my list. If I moved it to my “Marketing” label without opening it, I removed myself from the subscription list.
Nice and simple: I don’t read it, I don’t get it anymore.
What is one simple action you could take right now to clean up one of your dysfunctional environments?
With New year celebrations and family time, I will have a shortened week this week. I also set these actions to be completed by the end of 2009, so Thursday is my deadline as opposed to Sunday:
1. Write coaching reflection for client 1.
2. Write coaching reflection for client 2.
3. Write coaching reflection for client 3.
4. Write coaching reflection for client 4.
5. Contact client 5 to get coaching reflection form.
6. Write coaching reflection for client 5.
7. Complete class schedule.
8. Write self-assessment.
9. Research/take notes for coaching research paper.
10. Write outline for research paper.
11. Write introduction for research paper.
12. Write total behavior explanation for research paper.
13. Write total behavior application for research paper.
14. Write conclusion for research paper.
15. Edit research paper.
16. Write bibliography for research paper.
17. Send all completed written work to coaching school for assessment.
18. Celebrate New Year’s Eve with Ashlea and Fionn.
(From my focus goal pencast earlier in the week I have already completed my powertool and coaching model)
