As a coach, I often hear people say things like, “I struggle with will-power and motivation.” They seek help with accountability and a task manager. While I’m happy to help, just focusing on your will-power is not enough!

Motivation is an area I love to focus on with clients because once you learn the power you have inside you, you can change your life’s circumstances pretty quickly. In this article, I’ll share with you 3 things about motivation you might not know in order to help you grow.

3 Truths About Motivation

• It begins in you! Do you wake up every day ready to face your day or do you have to drag yourself out of bed? I used to have to drag myself out of bed every day. Until I found my passion for helping myself and others grow and learn to serve others. Once I found what I was really good at and had a simple plan in place, every day I wake up ready to go- most days before my alarm goes off! If you’re not feeling motivated, chances are you...

Some people seem to have more momentum in life than others, don’t they? Their business is growing, their children are angels, and they seem to have amazing relationships. Especially if you watch social media posts! Do they have some sort of secret that the rest of the world doesn’t know about?

Well, one thing I’ve noticed is that the people who understand certain principles of life tend to be more successful. And, one of those principles is the law of rhythm. The law of rhythm in its simplest form says that there are natural highs and natural lows and you are either going into a high or a low at any one time.

We see this in nature. The 4 seasons. The farming cycle. Day and night.

We can also apply this principle to our thought life. And this is what really successful people do. They know that there will be natural ups and downs and what to do when you experience those. For example, if you are feeling ill or injured- you might be in a low. When in a low, it’s...

Thomas Troward, one of the members in my ‘old, dead guys club’, a mentor, writes about the laws of the universe and Nature and how you can apply those to your thinking. One law in particular is the law of growth. He writes about the plants, and trees, specifically the huge sequoias and how they all, including many generations over time, come from a small seed.

He explains that thoughts and ideas are just like seeds in the physical world and when they are planted in great soil, watered, and fertilized, they can grow exponentially.

I’ve found, after coaching hundreds of people, that there are three choices you can do with an idea:

• Force it to happen: usually by hurrying, worrying, overworking yourself, or MAKING it happen
• Give up hope that it will happen- dismissing the idea right away or letting someone influence you NOT to do something with that idea
• Watering that idea with an intentional and persistent thought process.

Guess which client usually sees better...

My good friend, Carl, asked me two questions the other day and it really got me thinking. So, instead of just answering him, I thought I would answer for all of us. Here are the two questions:

• Have you always had an appetite for success?
• What would you tell people with no hunger for success?

Appetite For Success

Have I always had an appetite for success? The short answer: No! I wasn’t raised in an environment that encouraged dreaming or shoed a picture of success. When I was in high school a teacher asked me where I was going to college and I told him, “Nowhere. Why would I go to college?” He was flabbergasted! He couldn’t understand; it just wasn’t in my awareness.

I thought success meant finishing college. Then I thought it was getting married and having children. Then I thought it was getting a good job that paid well. Then I had a stroke and it completely changed my life! I reevaluated everything and started my own business as a speaker and...

I cannot even count how many times a coaching client comes to a call and says this to me! It’s a huge warning sign to me and let me tell you why.

Emerson said, “Do nothing you can do wholeheartedly.”

So, what happens when you get to that place of not being able to do something wholeheartedly?

• “I’ve got to get more motivated!”
• “I just HAVE to do this thing.”
• “I need someone to hold me accountable.”

I think it goes back to what drives you? What do you love to do? What gives you passion and excitement and fills you with energy? Are you doing those things? Do you have a process in place to make sure that you are regularly checking in to increase those things in your life?

I know I do!

I regularly take time to pause and reflect on my business at least every quarter to see what I can get rid of- ditch or delegate- and what I want more of- usually what I’m really good at. This helps me stay in my strength zone. When I hear...

How To Be Like Mother Teresa (8/4)

Mother Teresa had no job title, no money, and was a part of a dying organization. Yet she had a huge influence and helped change the world!

Why? Well, I believe there are several myths about leadership and influence that keep people from having this same impact. Let me share with you four examples of common coaching clients I deal with when working on their leadership. Let’s see what clues we can gather.

Martha The Manager

Martha believes that, because she is a manager, promoted for her skills, she has automatic influence. Martha rests on this fact and takes her authoritative voice a bit too far sometimes and her people are beginning to not like her. She is excellent at getting stuff done, especially when using preset systems and processes. For these reasons, her bosses saw potential in her. However, because of her lack of ability to build relationships and connections, she lacks true, deep, and meaningful influence. Here people will listen...

This post is a follow-up from yesterday as I had a few people reach out for clarification. These questions really centered around how you deal with anger with people outside the workplace, specifically people you know very well and even live with. Let me put it into MY personal perspective and tell you a story!

Recently, my husband and I had a bit of a problem. I won’t tell you exactly the problem but rest assured it was one of those marriage problems that ends up in loud talking and recognizing the same patterns over and over again. Let’s just say, I was very angry!

Now, in the past when this pattern happened, I would hold it in and not try to make a scene- let’s just keep everyone happy. Until…. I would BLOW UP! That didn’t work out too well for either of us or our kids.

“Working steam is not heard. It’s the escaping steam within which makes a great noise.” James Allen

So, I decided I didn’t want to do what I’ve always...

I chatted with a coaching client the other day and she was angry! She had a staff member that didn’t follow through on her promises and put their grant in jeopardy. This is a BIG deal with many people affected. As I listened to her tell me all about the facts of the situation, I was reminded of a quote I read recently by James Allen,

“Working steam is not heard. It’s the escaping steam within which makes a great noise.”

Working steam is contained, captured, and used to power something forward.

Escaping steam does damage! Much like the anger of a leader. So what can we do with that anger so we don’t hurt our people AND move things forward?

• First of all, acknowledge the anger! Many people try to deny that feeling and that’s how you can explode. One day the anger just boils to the surface and you hurt yourself and others. Acknowledge the validity of your feeling.
• You need to find a safety valve! Anyone who’s ever cooked with a pressure cooker...

“Every significant breakthrough is first a break with tradition, with old ways of thinking, wit old paradigms.” Thomas Kuhn

Copernicus discovered the center of the universe was the sun and not the earth. He suffered greatly for that shift in thinking! The scientist who discovered that ‘germs’ caused infection and killed mothers giving birth was put in an insane asylum by his colleagues. Einstein was ridiculed for birthing the field of science we now know as Quantum Physics, which is completely opposite of the Newtonian Physics and linear mathematics that was prevalent in his day.

Are YOU ready for a shift in your own thinking? Really ready? Ready to change you, the people you lead, and possibly the world?

What’s the value of one shift for you?

• Maybe you lead a multi-level marketing team and you’re stuck with your recruitment and engagement numbers; you can’t quite meet those monthly goals?
• Maybe you see the writing on the wall and you know...

“Leaders listen.” Simon Sinek

When I started as a school administrator, I hate to say it, but I rarely listened – truly listened- to anyone. I was so caught up in my own world of deadlines, metrics, and demands to notice someone else’s need. Over the years, with lots of training and experience, I’ve gradually learned how to connect with others more effectively. I also learned that when you connect will you get the results you’re looking for- almost as if it’s not any work at all!

I’ve learned a few tips about WHAT to listen to that I’d like to share with you:

• WORDS: listen to the kinds of words they use for clues about how they experience their world. For example, do they say, “I see now..” or “I noticed…”, if so, they may be a visual learner. If they say, “I was walking the other day and….” Or “I moved across the room…” they may be a kinesthetic learner. This...