The Coach's Notes

I explore this question on the Coach's Notes today: What do you need to unlearn or what patterns do you need to break in order to manifest the future you really want? It's from Patricia Adson's book, Deep Coaching: Discovering Archetypes for Empowerment, Growth, and Balance .

Today's Coach's Notes is going to be a bit of a mind-bender, which often happens when you talk about spiritual growth, Self-development, consciousness, and things of that nature. I've been getting the ship ready for another voyage into the murky waters of the unconscious mind in search of the "I" that is my True Self. I've sailed these seas in various forms in the past and now I'm ready for anothe...

Fear shapes our limits I've read somewhere that we are born with only two fears...the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears are learned. And what that means to me is, if you can learn a fear, you can unlearn a fear as well. I think the first step in that is to uncover your fears. In what ways does fear show up in your life? What is fear? I like the acronym version: FEAR...Fa...

Today is one of those days where my mood is as gray as the sky outside. Watching the rainfall, my mind drifts from thought to thought without rhyme or reason. I settle on the thought of imperfection and how much time we spend trying to correct our imperfection.  Personally, I'm inclined to go with the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi which is concept that: motions us to constantly search for the b...

I like this idea of having no plan B.  I often tell the story of Gen. Grant and the siege of Vicksburg. Vicksburg was a strategic city on the Mississippi River during the Civil War. He who commanded Vicksburg commanded the Mississippi River and the supplies traveling up and down it. All of the Union generals before Grant had failed to take Vicksburg. The Grant came along. He was known for doing th...

How do you tell the difference between the voice of reason and the voice of excuse? So you know how when you have this big dream that you want to accomplish. In your heart, you want it so bad. You want it so bad you can taste it. But your head has other ideas. In your head, you start hearing what you think is the voice of reason telling you all of the reasons why now is not the time to pursue this...

Do you know, even with a map, you can still get lost.  Even after 20 years in the game, I still have moments of doubt and feel the cold hand of despair squeezing my heart. Fortunately, I'm prepared for these moments. You see, I hold this mindset, this belief, this confidence that I know what to do when I don't know what to do. I love the concept: of knowing what to do when you don't know what to d...

The sociologist Bernice Neugarten pointed out that members of society hold expectations of what people should have accomplished by certain points in their lives and if you meet these checkpoints, then you are considered to be living a successful life - you've "made good".  Sociologists call this the social clock pattern. Research has shown that those who live in time with the social clock have les...

I'll spare you the new year, new me talk. This is about crafting a clear vision of what you want in 2021 and then committing to yourself to make it happen regardless of any obstacles you might face. It's your Rubicon moment! No plan B. 

When in do-mode, I find it hard to make time to sit and reflect. My body gets agitated. My mind rebels and acts like a toddler, easily distracted, wandering off to chase the next shiny object. The best I can do is squeeze out a few sentences at a time. But really, the best thing for me to do is MOVE!  So that’s what I did. And I brought my audio recorder along to capture the flow of my thoughts.

In this episode of the Coach's Notes, I share 4 key questions to ask yourself when faced with uncertainty.

In this episode, Clay and Nicola talk about the Overextended Persona in the Lumina Spark Model and how the persona relates to stress. You can watch the video version here .

In this episode of the Coach's Notes, I get together with a couple of my friends, Jennifer Brown and Lynsey Weir, who are also leadership coaches, to talk about what they have been finding out in the field as they interact with leaders coming to grips with leading teams, many of them remotely, in a pandemic world.

The world is on fire and that's causing a lot of stress and anxiety. In today's Coach's Notes, I share an idea with you to help you relieve your stress and anxiety. As always, please pass this on to anyone you know who may need to hear the message.

In this episode, I catch with Coach Andy Chandler to talk about what it takes to be resilient and deal with uncertainty in a time of crisis.

For all my friends in the UK, welcome to Lockdown 2020, week number 6. I hope you had a fabulous weekend and managed to get some sun (in your back garden of course!). This week has started off quite reflective for me. During my morning reading period, I couldn’t concentrate. All of the stuff that has been percolating in my head this past week was now ready to surface. And so I got dressed and head...

Today I returned to a practice I haven't done in a while, a practice called morning pages. In this episode of the Coach's Notes, I recap on the practice and what led me back to it.

Audio podcast version here. For the video version go here. I'm a big fan of behavioral style profiles and personality tests. I think they're a great place for you to start your self-development journey. Tests like these give you a basic insight into your underlying motivations and behavioral style preferences. And this goes a long way in heightening your self-awareness. As the saying goes, that wh...

Day 8 of lockdown and I'm beginning to rethink my relationship with time and establishing a new rhythm that is not tied to the industrial revolution construct of time.

In today's 'cast, I share some thoughts on remote working for people who may be new to this way of working. You can follow this link and listen to the episode or find me on Apple Podcasts and subscribe and have The Coach's Notes delivered straight to you. Search: The Coach's Notes.

Musing over the state of affairs we find ourselves in with Coronavirus.

Many of us Gen X types are standing at a crossroads in life wondering which path we should choose next. Staying on the same path no longer seems a viable option. But which path should we choose?

We all have our dragons to slay.

Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what their core values are. Be honest…if I asked you right now what are your authentic core values, could you rattle them off without hesitation? Could you tell me how you arrived at the core values you hold? And could you tell me how you use them to navigate your daily decisions? The truth is, most people can’t. Sure, we have an intrinsic idea...

I went on my annual pilgrimage to London for the Learning Technologies Conference and exhibition. I met a number of characters from my past, including the dude responsible for getting me into the UK some 20 years ago.