“Challenging” or “Hard”?
“All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive safely at death. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don’t tiptoe.” –Shane Claiborne This morning I was thinking how life is a lot like spin class. I was noticing that I can never get through the whole class […]
Ask for What You Want
In my on-going theme about language, I was recently reminded of this quote by Mother Teresa. Nothing more to say. Ask for what you want. Do not focus on what you DO NOT want. And if you are, like many people, having a hard time shifting out of what you do not want, write it […]
Argue for Your Limitations
“Argue for your limitations, and surely they’re yours.” –Richard Bach It’s funny isn’t it? How we talk about certain things are “just not possible?” We don’t have to say, “No” or “I won’t.” We can prove it. We can prove that certain things are just not possible. Coach: So why didn’t you get that report […]
The Power of The Declaration
When I coach people, it is to discover new things they did not know before – usually new things about themselves. Usually this means that some kind of action is revealed to them – some kind of forward movement or next step. At the end of every coaching call, my clients make “declarations.” All coaching […]
Hope is a City in Arkansas
Last week I posted a piece I wrote on “have to” versus “get to.” For me there is no difference between the two. All of life involves choice and “have to” is still a choice. In a couple days my newsletter will come out. In that, I have focused even more on the power of […]
Have to – Get to
I was in an on-line writing class and every day we were prompted to write something. Day Eight was this: “make two lists: have to and get to.” My newsletter in August will have an expanded discussion about language, how we use it and what opens up or closes down based on what we choose […]
The Power of Labeling
Label: to put in a certain class; classify. How often to we label? And why? “This is poison.” “That is spoiled.” “She is German.” Labels give information. They help us understand. However, labels also cause us to stop looking. To be non-curious. In business, in communication, in life, it is helpful to be curious. For […]
For Learning and Change, Listen to Your Language
Words mean so much — the words we say to each other and the words we say to ourselves. Most of us are aware that there is a constant ongoing dialogue in our heads. Many of us do not realize the effect this dialogue has on us and that we can change it. As a […]
Complaining 101 – How to Stay Exactly Where you are
Have you noticed how warm it’s been lately? Well, I live in Northern California and here it has been unseasonably warm for Winter. It’s terrible. I wish we had a real Winter here. That’s why I moved away from Southern California and now it’s the same—all year long, just one season–sometimes very hot, sometimes less […]
