I have been in a new coaching program for the last 8 months, it’s focused on lifestyle and personal growth and also has a trickle down effect into business. I have been really enjoying what I am learning, especially since this coach fits my mindset and style so nicely.
One aspect that I have worked on a lot is…thoughts become things and that our thoughts create our emotions, and we ARE in control of both of those things. More on this later. Tying into the above, is taking control of the words that come out of our mouths. Even when talking with my kids, when I hear a statement they repeat to themselves, I have stopped them and said…not only are you saying that with your mouth, but your ears are hearing what you say. THAT IS POWERFUL. What we say with our mouth, we hear with our ears. It’s like a double whammy. While I would catch my kids in this area, I hadn’t stopped to check myself until maybe about a year ago, and then with much more intention once I started in this coaching program. This sense check led me to ban some common phrases in my vocabulary all together. I wanted to share what those statements are. In the next couple weeks, I will focus on a statement each week, I’ll go a little more in depth by unpacking what the hidden meaning had been and how changing the verbiage impacts moving forward. Banned Statements…. “I’m (so) busy!” “I can’t…” “Made me feel…” “Work life balance…” These are some pretty common statements, ones we hear often in our daily lives and I bet many say not even thinking about it, like I always had. This week, practice listening to the words that come out of your mouth. Do you have phrases that you seem to repeat often? Next week, we will unpack “I’m so busy.” Cheers, Beth
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One of my passions is personal and professional growth. I love to learn, I love to explore new thoughts and ways, to push, and expand my horizons. I love working towards the next best version of me and to surround myself with others who do the same, the journey is fulfilling.
I love to read, and have the most ridiculously long list of books I can’t wait to read. I listen to podcasts, I have a few mentors, accountability partners, masterminds, and a coaching program I am committed to. Let’s just say my commitment to realizing my full potential is an intrinsic drive I have always had. I am not sharing this to impress you, I am sharing this actually to expose the flip side. You see, many of us who are engaged in our growth hear messages like “readers are leaders” and other taglines that are catchy, I don’t necessarily disagree with the message…but there is more to it. So, what is the flip side? Over years of lots of information consumption, it can leave a person unchanged. While I can certainly agree that even simply just hearing/ reading growth-oriented messages will help with your mindset, I think the focus is often on the consumption/ intake of information, and as I have experienced, it’s taking the next step that really makes the difference. What are you going to do with the information that you just learned? That is the key, implementation! I would rather read one impactful book, and pull forward and apply what I learned from it into my life, rather than just read ten books. About a year ago I started to reframe how I was going to approach reading. I’d like to share my process with you because it’s helped me to narrow down and implement what I have learned. I tend to gravitate to non-fiction books about business and growth, I can’t say that this is very applicable for fiction/ novels. I can say that most books when I am done reading them look like they have gone through a war, I write in the book margins, I highlight key items I felt were impactful, I dog ear pages that I want to revisit. So, my first share is that I almost approach the book like a textbook of sorts. This is one reason I can’t borrow a book to someone or from someone. I also must have a paper copy! Once I am done with a book, before I start the next book on my list, I pull up a word document and turn on the dictate function. I start at the beginning of the book, and I read out loud while the word document transcribes the highlighted and key take aways I had from the book. I go through the entire book this way. When I am done transcribing my highlights and take aways, I read that document and pull forward the most impactful take aways as well as any action items or ways I want to implement what I learned. The action/ implementation items get put into my planner and scheduled. I have enjoyed this ‘pause’ of sorts after each book, it’s like taking a little extra time to debrief and reflect and DO something with the information. I don’t feel like an idea/ information dumping ground anymore and I kinda love that. Side note, this habit has also inadvertently caused me to be more intentional with the books I am choosing to read. Happy Growing, Beth The insurance person in me wants to call this an audit, but being how much both myself and my clients tend to dislike audits, I like the word ‘pause’ much better.
Life in all it’s fullness can easily lead us to live on autopilot, where we just do, and we don’t think. While that is the goal with good habits, we can also get into a bit of a life trance and slide through subconsciously without putting much thought and intention into where we are going and what we want or don’t want.It’s too easy to live life on your heals, and I’ll dare too say it’s likely rather common and not so fulfilling! I have a series of habits throughout the year where I pause and reflect and readjust accordingly. These habits are pretty darn simple and really help me to be intentional with how I live and how I show up. I’ll share them below: Weekly – In my planner there is a section for processing the past week, it has a series of questions and I pause and look back to answer these questions, I also review my weekly register and add up where I landed compared to where I aim for, I review my quarterly goals and my progress in them, I brain dump any leftover items from last week and the upcoming week (this starts my Sunday Sit-down), I look to see that what I say are my priorities with my mouth show up this way on my calendar. Quarterly – My personal goals as well as the agency are planned out quarterly. Each quarter I have a pause blocked out on my calendar. The time I have blocked out, I look back at my previous quarter goals and make sure there are no remaining items needed to be done and measure my progress, I review my next quarter goals to gear up and plan and dig in deep. I spend a good 3 hours of focused time on this so that I can keep my momentum. This is typically when I also do a quick review of my different routines I have, just to be sure they are serving me and supporting who I need to be on my growth journey. Annual – I have a LONG planning process for myself and the agency. This may feel exhausting for some, but I get a lot of satisfaction planning and most of my team does too. So, we do fall planning kick offs the first Wednesday of October every year. We look back, we evaluate and start to plan forward. I do this personally too – I take my time and put intention into it. Kind of like creativity, when you are rushed and overscheduled, it drains your creativity…similar to planning, when you take your time it seems to come together better. The goals set are all on a quarterly cadence. I am sharing what I do, but that does not necessarily work for everyone, what I would encourage you to do is think about what may work for you to pause at some cadence to take a look around you, evaluate how things are going and where you are headed – put some intention into your direction. Life is much more vibrant when you are in the driver seat, join me! Beth I learned about the concept of a weekly register from Darren Hardy, he has been a mentor I have followed for 9 years now. Yet only in the past 6 months have I developed my own weekly register. A weekly register is essentially a list of things to do (habits to create) on a weekly basis. You mark the frequency or goal for the week for each action and then track it compared to your actual and then rate yourself. At first the weekly register was for personal habits, but after reading Dirty 130 by David Carothers, I have added some professional habits into my register too. Here is a snapshot of what my weekly register looks like (this is not my full register but is a snapshot so you understand the logistics) : I keep this register as a one-pager per week in my planner, I also use this during my Sunday sit-down to make sure the actions show up on my calendar and to be sure I am staying consistent – I mark down when I did a task. It’s gratifying in the way that checking something off a checklist is. I update this as I need depending on what is working for me and what I am not getting to. I also try to ‘batch’ items, for example, my morning routine includes visualization and reading. Although, I get that this can feel overly structured, it helps me to have a list of items and not to try to remember everything. Also, I am typically pretty free spirited, and so I need to set external structure for myself in order to keep myself in growth mode. Would you ever try to use a weekly register? Cheers, Beth |
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