Could a Blues Lover Benefit from Life Coaching?

Has this ever happened to you before?  You’re in a conversation with someone and the next day (or even a few moments later) you think about the conversation and say to yourself, gee, I wish I had said XYZ or just said anything other than what I said!

Yeah, well it happened to me recently! I have talked in previous posts about a Personal Action Certificate and some of you may have read mine. I have a line in mine that says “I expect to constantly question and challenge who I am by continually learning and loving life and strengthening my mind, body, soul and character.” Well I missed an opportunity to be kind and to show interest in another person.  I missed the chance to learn something new and strengthen my mind and soul.  I failed to recognize the best in another human being. 

Here is what happened. We’re at Beale on Broadway, an atmospheric Blues joint, in downtown St. Louis. Black and white photos of Muddy Waters,Elvis Presley, Etta James, B.B. King, Keith Richards, Tina Turner, Johnny Johnson and others line the walls. The place is no larger than most people’s living /dining room combo.  I’ve witnessed artists pluck a guitar off the wall to replace the one they are playing on stage. The haze in the air is from blues musicians past.  Your soul is comforted just entering the doors and your cares melt away.  The blues is to me as life coaching is to my clients. The way forward. 

It was between acts, about 10:15 on a Saturday night. There to experience the remarkable guitar playing of Marquise Knox, I started talking to a gentleman who was holding a guitar.  I walked up to him, introduced myself and asked what he was doing.  He told me that he was Mr. Knox’s brother and was just holding his guitar.  And then it happened!  I launched into questions about Marquise.  I failed to recognize and acknowledge the human being directly in front of me. 

So you may be wondering why this has stayed with me for this long.  Well two reasons. One, I did not live in accordance with what I say is important to me. I am out of alignment with what I say matters to me.  After living my Personal Action Certificate for this long, when I’m out of alignment with what it means, boy do I feel it, acutely. And two, I need to fix this, correct it! Not that I’m traveling around the world ready to pounce.  But I do want to apologize to his brother and carry on a conversation WITH his brother, about him and acknowledge him!  I don’t even know his name and I really want to fix my oversight. Each and every person is worth at least that much!

So that is my new mission.  Truly be with the person I am talking to.  Acknowledge the person who is in front of me and live in the now. Ironic since I’m trying to go back and change the past, isn’t it?

Oh, and if you see that Marquise Knox is in your area, and you are even a passing blues fan.  Check his styling's out.  Now that is time well spent. 

I'll let you know when I have corrected this oversight.  And I WILL let you know how I’m doing with being with the one I’m with. (is there a song in there somewhere?)

Friends, my guess is yes, even blues lovers would benefit from life coaching, it could help them find their way forward

Friends, this is long enough for one read. If you want to know more about designing your life and your Personal Action Certificate and and making choices out of Personal Freedom, feel free to contact me. Also, check out my earlier posts on Personal Freedom.  I also offer coach and self-directed workshops on 3 Steps to Personal Freedom.  You can learn more about those at www.rightlysuccessful.com.

Until then, I would love to read your comments!
Robin

Life Coaching and your PAC

A Sample Personal Action Certificate

I created my Personal Action Certificate in November of 2001. And to this day, still live by it.  I wrote this because I wanted to be the architect of my own life and then live accordingly.

It has become fully ingrained and implemented into my life, yet it continues to live and breathe as I do.  I'm sharing it with you so you can perhaps see one benefit of participating in a life coaching partnership with me.  I'd be happy to guide your through this process.

Benefits of YOUR Personal Action Certificate:

In addition to your friends, family, it can remind you of why you are here on earth.  You will have your Personal Action Certificate to hold and refer to.

·  It focuses you

· It provides you hope and clarity

· It becomes your moral compass through the “stuff”

                        · If you have any type of decision to make in life

                                · You feel lost or frustrated

                                · You don’t quite know what to do

                                · You are faced with something really unsettling

                                · Any limiting self-talk wants to run the show

 

PERSONALLY…

Robin, do not discount today because yesterday it held such promise as tomorrow!!

As I go through life, and absolutely each moment in it, I must recognize that how I live also impacts me.  I will do all things because and as if I care and care deeply.  I expect to constantly question and challenge who I am by continually learning and loving life and strengthening my mind, body, soul and character.  Just because it looks difficult is absolutely no reason to shy away.

I live a stress-free, balanced life

exercise with regularity,

feel, be and act responsibility,

be honest with myself and others,

smile, and be realistically, optimistic,

realize that I also learn through my mistakes

seek and recognize options (there are always options), and

focus on the solution only after demonstrating that I clearly understand the problem.

I value my many extremely important roles.

As Mother, raise a loving contributing member to society who I mature with as I watch grow.  I want to react to her as who she is now and toward maintaining an open and honest relationship.

As Daughter, recognize that my mother did the best with what she had.  To know that because I am me, this does not lessen who she is.

As Employee, think ahead and prepare for change because change is a fact of life.

As Friend, respect our differences, learn from them and remain open minded.

Recognize my fears embrace them, conquer them. There really are so very many ways to succeed (and fail) – Persona Victories

Live as if goals are dreams in action and dreams are goals in waiting.

You really can do this!

Making the PAC your PAC.

• What are the areas of your life that work well and consider reinforcing those areas?
• Are you willing to address personal or professional habits that limit your effectiveness?
• What value would using aspirational language add to your PAC?
• What words would inspire and motivate you?
• Do you have a personal motto you might include?

I would life to talk to you in more detail about how you can create your own Personal Freedom. I have developed a mini-course, 3 Steps to Personal Freedom.  Please contact me at coachrobin@rightlysuccessful.com to learn more about the course and life coaching. Until then, I would love to read your comments!

Robin

3 Steps to Personal Freedom - Part 3

I’m dedicated to providing tools, ideas, and motivation for each of you who are interested in living a “Rightly Successful Life”. Put another way, it is crafting a life of your own design.  One way to do that is to write and live out your Personal Action Certificate. 

3 Steps to Personal Freedom

1.    Engage your Life

2.    Create your Life

3.    Live your Life

Step 3: Live your Life

A Personal Action Certificate (PAC) is your measurement against how YOU are living your life.  Remember, it’s personal, dynamic, achievable yet aspirational. Yours may also be inspirational, however you’ve written it, you are about to embark upon your journey to Personal Freedom.

You have written your Personal Action Certificate and now what?  The key word is in the middle, action.  Now it is time to bring your plan to life.  But just how do you do that.  There is good news here, that’s totally up to you!  Since it is personal, you decide how you will execute on your PAC.

Your journey to Personal Freedom 

·         Which area of your life will you start with, your family, friends, work, yourself? 

·         What ways will you share your document or the spirit of it with others?

·         What measures will you put into place to keep you on track to living your PAC Out?

·         How would you know you have Personal Freedom when it’s achieved?

Consider the impact implementing your PAC would have in your life.

·         How is living the life YOU created working for you?

·         What would your life be like if you lived this way every day?

·         What would your days be like if you absolutely loved life?

These are just some starter questions in your process.  I’d love to work with you to develop your own Personal Action Certificate, your ticket to Personal Freedom.  Next post, I’ll share my own Personal Action Certificate.

If you don’t want to wait until the next post, feel free to contact me at coachrobin@rightlysuccessful.com to learn more about crafting your own Personal Action Document. Until then, I would love to read your comments!

Robin

Leave a comment, share you thoughts.  Let's all grow together!

3 Steps to Personal Freedom Part 2

I’m dedicated to providing tools, ideas, and motivation for each of you who are interested in living a “Rightly Successful Life”. Put another way, it is crafting a life of your own design.  One way to do that is to write and live out your Personal Action Certificate. 

3 Steps to Personal Freedom

1.    Engage your Life

2.    Create your Life

3.    Live your Life

Step 2: Create your Life

A Personal Action Certificate is your measurement against how YOU are living your life.  First and foremost it is personal, only you can craft it.  It is dynamic, achievable yet aspirational. It is how you know you are living your Personal Freedom.

Use your assessment notes as a starting place. If you have no notes, it’s now time to start writing your thoughts out.  Open your mind.  Keep pushing through.  It may take several drafts for you to get what you want. Give yourself permission to create.  Again, don’t be concerned with the format; it could be phrases, full sentences or journaling.  But I strongly encourage you to write this out.

Include all aspects of your life. 

·         What are your overall objectives for your life? 

·         What are your values, who decided on them and do they still hold for you?

·         To what degree do you want to include religion or spirituality?

·         What are your beliefs, who decided them and do they still hold you?

·         Who is important in your life now? Do you want them to remain so?

·         How would you know you have Personal Freedom when it’s achieved?

Again consider where or who you want to be in your life?

·         What would living the life YOU created mean for you?

·         What would your life be like if you felt awesome about almost every interaction you had each day?

·         What would your days be like if you absolutely loved your job?

These are just some starter questions in your process.  If you want to explore how to punch your ticket to Personal Freedom, contact me.  Next post, we’ll talk about what to do with your Personal Action Certificate.

If you don’t want to wait until the next post, contact me at coachrobin@rightlysuccessful.com . Until then, I would love to read your comments!

Robin

Leave a comment, share you thoughts.  Let's all grow together! 

3 Steps to Personal Freedom

This blog is dedicated to providing tools, ideas, and motivation for each of you who are interested in living a “Rightly Successful Life”. Put another way, it’s about crafting a life of your own design.  Most people don’t wake up and say, “hmm today, I’m going to design my life”.  The majority of the world doesn’t even acknowledge that they really can do something, anything different today from what they did yesterday.  I encourage you to consider creating a life that works for YOU and stop living life by default. 

3 Steps to Personal Freedom

1.    Engage your Life

2.    Create your Life

3.    Live your Life

Step 1: Engage your Life

If you have a commute try turning off those sounds and tuning into your own inner voice.  They don’t have to be long periods of time, but at moments over several days, THINK about your life.  Dig deep.  Be honest with yourself.  Write your thoughts out.  Don’t worry about the format; it could be phrases, journaling. 

Start by taking assessment of where you are in life. 

·         Are you doing the work that’s meaningful to you? 

·         Are you in a relationship that “works for you?”

·         Think about what you did yesterday. What is your level of satisfaction with your life performance?

·         Think about your relationships with your partner, yourself, children, employer, employees, fellow workers and others in your life, are they functioning how you want them to?

Now consider where or who you want to be in your life?

·         Deeply, really, honestly, where do you want to be in life?  Are you there?

·         What would living the life YOU created mean to you?

·         What would your life be like if you felt awesome about the interactions you had that day?

·         What does your own Personal Freedom look like, feel like, who would you be?

These are just some starter questions in your process.  I’d love to talk through these and other questions with you and assist you in developing your own Personal Action Certificate, your ticket to Personal Freedom.  Next time, we’ll talk about writing your own Personal Action Certificate.

If you don’t want to wait until the next post, feel free to contact me at coachrobin@rightlysuccessful.com to learn more about crafting your own Personal Action Document.  Until then, I would love to read your comments!

Robin

Leave a comment, share you thoughts.  Let's all grow together!

Is Your Life a DIY Project

We all know life is full of choices. The most powerful choice you have to make is how you view your life.

Choice #1: Life happens, you react
Choice #2: You are the designer of your life
 

The wonderful thing is that there is no “wrong” choice. Since it’s your life, you decide which is best for you. However, each option produces extremely different results. Perhaps the best approach is not to choose which option you like, but choose the option that has the end result you believe is best for you.
 

End Result of Life Choice #1 – Unknown
It’s impossible to determine the outcome here. Why? Because you’re letting everyone and everything else determine your life’s outcome. The one constant is that you will spend your life reacting to events around you.
But beware: many who choose this road end up considering themselves a victim of life. It’s easy to spot a Life Choice #1 individual – they are full of excuses and are quick to blame others. Like why they’re late every day to work (“traffic is horrible”), why they have no job (“nobody will hire me”), why they don’t have supportive relationships (“my parents didn’t teach me who to look for”), and in general, why they just can’t seem to get ahead.
 

End Result of Life Choice #2 – Known
The outcome here is much better defined because you are in charge. Essentially, your life is a blueprint, full of locations, building blocks, building materials, and even a few twists in the design. The exciting part about Life Choice #2 is that you are also the designer in your own life. What do designers do?  Create. Review. Revise. Add color, texture, landscaping – whatever it is that makes the design.
It’s easy to spot a person whose chosen Life Choice #2 - you take responsibility for your actions and accept the consequences, both negative and positive. The end result is that your life is yours.
 

Who’s Your Life Designer?
You…or everyone else? (Remember that not making a choice is not an option – it’s a passive way of picking Life Choice #1 - letting life happen.)
Now is the time to actively take control of your life. What path do you choose?

Just a few starter questions to consider as you begin to choose your path:

1.    What brings me joy?

2.    Do I like working with people, places, numbers, words or some combination?

3.    Is it my work or is it what I do in my spare time?

4.    What are the 5 areas of my life that are most important to me?

5.    What can I do to fully live life in each of those areas?

I'd love your comments on this post:

1.    Are you living the life you love?

2.    How have you designed the life you love?

3.   Is your designed life in accordance with your values and principles?

4.    Is it as your parents, friends, or other loved ones have suggested?

5.    I tripped and fell into a career years ago, and now I'm creating one that works for me.  How about you?

Okay this is long enough for one to read.  If you want to know more and begin your own journey, feel free to contact me at coachrobin@rightlysuccessful.com

Check out my series on Eliminating the Stress and Anxiety in Your Life here.

Thanks for reading.  I sincerely appreciate your time and attention!

Robin 

Learn more about Robin Spence

For more information about Life Coaching go to Rightly Successful.com