IN THIS ISSUE
Fast Focus: Find Your Way in the Fog
There are times in business and in life when it's just not possible to know what to do next based on your usual sources of information. Too often we react to these circumstances by trying harder to see what, in fact, cannot be seen with our eyes. We may barrel ahead, stumbling into the quicksand because we have not learned to tolerate being still.
If you find yourself in dense fog, stop beating yourself (or your staff and customers) up for the way things are. Quit trying so hard to see what cannot be seen. Stop. Breathe. Listen. Let your weight drop to your feet. Now hold out your hand. If you are very still, you will know what single step you can take now. Take that step, and only that step. Pause. Repeat.
SIMPLE GIFTS: JUMP START GUIDE TO PROMOTING YOUR E-ZINE
Last week more than 300 readers downloaded the FREE e-book, "Getting Free from Fear" from the Resources section of my Web site. This week, you're invited to download the "Jump Start Guide to Promoting Your E-zine." It's also FREE.
WHAT TO SAY IF YOU HATE TO SELL
I've been listening to Kendall SummerHawk's three-tape series, "What to Say if You Hate to Sell," and I am so impressed. Kendall shows exactly how to have a respectful, authentic, thoughtful conversation with prospects. She has a genius for breaking ideas down into easily digestible parts and for giving use practices that I can use to become more skillful at selling my work.
I thought I was already pretty good at talking to prospects, but Kendall's tapes have simplified, focused, and energized my approach to selling. (It's really not selling at all, at least it's not like the selling we've all come to resist. It's about listening!)
I own several of Kendall's tapes and recommend them highly. If you want to have effective conversations about your work but hate to sell, you'll find help here.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS: DO YOU HAVE YOUR INSTRUMENT RATING?
Are you looking for answers in your life or your work? Do you feel that you wouldn't be having the problems you have today if only you had made a better decision yesterday? Are you searching for the tips and techniques that will help you avoid error, achieve more, and enjoy a balanced life?
If you are looking for answers and beating yourself up for the choices you've made, maybe it's time to stop managing your business (or life) exclusively by "visual flight rules" and earn your instrument rating.
Visual flight rules are the principles that govern flying when visibility is good. Even skilled pilots cannot fly when clouds or darkness limit visibility unless they have earned an instrument rating.
Flying on instruments requires new skills and opens up new possibilities. In business, life, and flight, we can take off, land, and navigate in dense fog or utter darkness if only we know how to use the instrument panel.
Here, then, is the secret to making plans and decisions in uncertain times. But first you have to let go of your old ways of knowing. A pilot who keeps looking out the cockpit window, trying to see through dense fog, ignoring his instruments in a desperate attempt to get his bearings visually, is almost certain to crash.
Similarly, in the fog or darkness of our lives, we must stop looking outside for answers. We must stop struggling to see what is obscured and turn our gaze inward, attending to the signals that can inform our next step.
Here are a few principles for earning your instrument rating:
- Check your instruments when the visibility is good. That is, check in with yourself when the way ahead seems clear and when you are feeling confident, competent, and supported. Observe the sensations in your body that coincide with this clarity. Take the time to become quiet so that you can hear the still, small voice of Spirit or intuition.
- Instruments are not flight simulators. That is, what you observe when you check in with your body sensations and with your intuition is not going to look like what you would see externally.
The data you get from going inward is infinitely richer than that which you get by looking outward. You cannot process this much data cognitively.
- Flying on instruments requires subtlety and restraint. Beginners often over-react to instrument readings. Understand that the bumpy ride may be due to your learning curve and not a defect in your instrument panel.
- Instrument flight is not a solo activity. From the mechanics who keep your plane in shape to the air traffic controllers who coordinate your flight with other traffic and provide vital data to confirm your instrument readings, you need a support team.
- Sooner or later you need to test your abilities when conditions are truly challenging. Be prepared for the inevitable feelings of fear by learning to acknowledge and move through fear in the moment so that panic does not impair your judgment.
- The information you get from your instrument panel is only as good as the equipment. Learn what it takes to keep your personal instrument panel in working order. Make fundamental self-care the highest priority in your daily pre-flight check.
- Flying on instruments requires both learning and practice. Choose a skill to develop, find a teacher, and practice it until you have it down cold. This takes time, which leads to the next principle.
- It's dangerous to rely exclusively on instruments before you get your rating. It's even more dangerous to put off learning. The sooner you begin to practice in earnest, the sooner you can rely on your capacity to navigate the stormiest skies with reasonable equanimity and skill.
How do you get your life instrument rating? Here are three ways:
- Hire a coach. Even if I were not a coach, I would make this my number one recommendation because coaching is intended precisely to teach you to rely on your own wisdom.
- Study a martial art that teaches you to identify and work with rather than struggle against both internal and external forces.
- Meditate. Regular meditation can teach you to detach from the mental noise that scrambles your inner guidance.
There are times in business and in life when it's just not possible to know what to do next based on your usual sources of information. You can learn to access the wealth of wisdom that is encoded in your body and soul. You can get your instrument rating.
[Email discernment@mollygordon.com for instructions to a FREE daily discernment process that can teach you to connect with and interpret your personal instrument panel.]
HOW (AND WHY) TO PREDICT THE FUTURE
Fast Company's July issue had a fascinating article on how Royal Dutch Shell creates scenarios of future events to help it remain flexible, pro-active, and profitable in changing times. Here's a brief, useful tool to use for adapting part of Shell's approach for your own business. It's not just about predictions, it's about getting real and owning up to what you DO know about your business and the world around you. http://www.fastcompany.com/feature/02/tina.html
A JOYGRAM
[Editor's Note: I was so charmed when Coach Peggy Joyce's JoyGram showed up in my in box that I just had to share it with you. Here's what Peggy says in her masthead: "I reserve the right to change my perceptions as well as my weight and hair color. What you can count on is openness, an unabashed belief in a beneficent Creator, and the ability to see another point of view. Dialogue is encouraged." ENJOY! mlg]
From the JoyGram, Volume 1, Number 1: Nobody is incapable of being joyful. The qualifications, expectations, and limitations we put on experience keep us from noticing it. Joy is always there; often we aren't. We are caught up in our personalities, fears, judgments, complaints, blames and excuses.
Joy is a required element for lasting satisfaction, fulfillment and success. Joy is NOT a by-product of those experiences. Joy is a predecessor. In fact, it's a powerful precipitator. In analogy, can you imagine That Which brought forth cardinals, dancing dolphins, and fields of golden sunflowers having said "I'm aggrieved today. I think I'll create something."? (God is purported to talk like that.)
Joy is in courage. It's in grief. It's the prime ingredient in love. It's in the willingness to risk, in vulnerability and honesty. Admitting a mistake and making amends contain components of joy. It sweetens the celebration of birth, and, yes, of death. It lurks behind anger, willing to suddenly burst forth at the complete absurdity of it all. Joy is the basic element of life. It IS Life.
An inquiry for you to ponder: What am I enJOYing most about my biggest complaint, pain or excuse?
Copyright 2002, Peggy Joyce. All rights reserved. http://www.thejoycoach.com
To subscribe to The Joygram, send an email to thejoycoach@ARN.net with "subscribe" in the subject line or body of the email. Be sure your entire email address is included if your program contains a privacy feature.
THE BEDSIDE TABLE: BOOKS I MEAN TO READ, HONEST!
Okay, I'm gonna cheat here. Rather than a list of the books I've read lately, this is a list of the books I intend to read. Here's what's in the stacks around my office and bedside table.
Leadership Coach Beth Hand told me this week that Teri-E Belf, the founder of Success Unlimited Network, has released a book. "Coaching with Spirit: Allowing Success to Emerge" incorporates contributions from over 50 coaches including Julio Olalla (founder of The Newfield Network), DJ Mitsch, former President of the International Coach Federation, and Beth herself, Leadershiphand.com. Beth doesn't know (until she reads it here) that I'm telling you all what an inspired and inspiring leader she is. Now her secret is out! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787960489/mollygordonperso
"Changes of Mind: A Holonomic Theory of the Evolution of Consciousness" (Suny Series in the Philosophy of Psychology), by Jenny Wade. This falls in the category of: "Do I know how to have a good time, or what?" It's not the lightest read on the shelves, and it promises to be rich fare. I learned about Jenny Wade's work from reading Ken Wilber and studying Spiral Dynamics.
Here's an excerpt from a review at Amazon.com: "...an excellent survey of research regarding stages of consciousness, from prenatal to after-death. Perhaps because she is working principally with academic research, her writing style is likewise very academic." So, not for everyone, but maybe just right for you. I'll let you know more once I've read the darn thing. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0791428508/mollygordonperso
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COACHING IN THE MEDIA
USA Today ran two articles on Life Coaching last week. You can read them online here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-08-04-lifecoach_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-08-05-lifecoach-side_x.htm
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Copyright (c) Shaboom, Inc. ™ 2002. All rights reserved. U.S. Library of Congress ISSN: 1530-311X. You may reprint or copy or distribute The New Leaf provided this copyright notice and contact information for the author are attached. The author is Molly Gordon, CPC, PCC. Contact her at mailto:molly@mollygordon.com or at 360-697-7022 in the US.
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