Why Be More Optimistic?

Why should you learn to be optimistic? Optimism is a totally awesome way to be and optimism is a learn-able skill. It is state of mind and with a little practice; you too can learn to be even more optimistic. The word optimum means "best" so being optimistic means to expect the best possible outcome from any situation.


By being optimistic, you change your outlook on life, your state-of-mind, your attitude, your emotional state, financial and job opportunities and on and on and on. Being optimistic is exciting! People love to be around optimistic people. Optimistic people are freaking contagious. They uplift your energy, give you hope and help you to be even better at what you do.


As crazy as it sounds, start each day by standing in front of a mirror and practice saying out loud the best possible outcomes for all the situations you will be in that day. You have to be outrageous! If you want to be optimistic, you have to work for it! You have to be willing to do what it takes to ingrain optimism into your brain and being until it becomes a natural habit. 


It could sound something like this, “Today, I’m expecting the meeting at work this morning to go amazingly great!! I will be extra pleasant, super professional and offer my best ideas in an exciting way to the group for their feedback. Today, I will be open to all possibilities and implement the best ideas at work and in my life regardless of whose ideas they are.”


Tip: When you are talking aloud, add some gusto to your tonality. Don't sound like a monotone robot! Practice sounding alive, energetic and full of life, not like some dead person standing in front of the mirror feeling like an idiot.


I think the way we communicate is the key to a happy life and especially the way we communicate with ourselves. I've observed that most people practice communicating using a technique they learned in some class, read in a book or from some video they watched on the internet. I know that most people rarely practice “changing” the way they communicate with their self first. Make it your daily practice to first see the best in every situation and then verbalize that outcome to yourself and then with everyone around you.


Say it loud and say it proud and soon you will be more optimistic than you ever thought possible.

Be Your Own Coach: Self-Coaching Opportunities

To learn to be your own coach, you first need to notice opportunities for coaching. Simply practice noticing when things are going right, when things aren’t going right, when your inner voice tells you to be more authentic, or when there is something you need to learn. If you don’t pay attention, you will miss life changing opportunities for coaching yourself. Here are some ways you can easily miss an opportunity. Watch for these in your daily life.

Denial or Avoiding

Oftentimes people move rapidly from awareness into denial. For example, in a breakdown situation you might talk-to-yourself, “Oh no, this meeting isn’t going very well. We’re off on a tangent (awareness). But, it’s good to let people express their opinions. It’s okay (denial).” Things stay the way they are. You don’t make any changes in your behavior. Or, in the case of a promotion, you ignore the skills you don’t have and keep doing your “old” job with the new title.

Resignation

Most people resign themselves to living the same experiences again and again. They don’t think they have the power to change. They don’t see their potential and the possibilities before them. If this describes you, I highly recommend hiring a coach to help you see things differently.

Blame

Some people move from seeing an opportunity into blaming. If something goes wrong, it is the fault of a manager, a co-worker, the organization, the weather, their computer, etc., that the breakdown is occurring. As long as you find ways to blame, you are living as a victim in survival and you prevent yourself from accepting any responsibility or taking any action.

The result: No learning takes place. No personal growth. No development.

People struggling with new job responsibilities oftentimes find it easier to blame others for their moments of doubt than to coach themselves through it. Sometimes people blame others for being “difficult” instead of developing their own interpersonal skills.

Self-Recrimination

Some people beat themselves up with their self-talk. They say things to themselves like:

• “It’s always my fault.”
• “What’s wrong with me?”
• “Why can’t I get it right?”
• “Why don’t I know more?”
• “Why can’t I do this?”
• “Anybody could have done this. It’s no big deal.”

Antagonistic self-talk prevents you from seeing the opportunity for coaching. You get stuck inside your own mind and lose the opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Seize ANY opportunity for coaching! Don’t let it pass you by. If you act on your observations, you will turn your coachable moments into life changing learning opportunities.

Become Your Own Coach: Isn't that what you really want?

Traditional coaching offers thought-provoking ideas and important tools to help you create more of what you want in your life—your work, your relationships, the many roles that you play.

A coach will make it easier to commit to excellence, help make it is possible to devote yourself to learning, surround yourself with support systems, and excel in your favorite areas of life. But isn’t what you really want is to learn how to become your own self-improvement coach. I mean, how many more books and workshops are you going to spend money on until you become your own Guru?

Can you benefit from coaching?

To get beyond lengthy and expensive self-improvement coaching, all you need is a commitment and willingness to experiment and learn from an experienced coach who will observe you and share their experience. You need a structure that will guide you and assist you to make the right observations about your responses to situations and individual performance. The commitment comes from you; the structure for the work comes from the coaching process itself.

So, if you…

• Want to be successful in fulfilling new responsibilities
• Wish to learn from your successes and past disappointments
• Wish to perform more effectively and develop excellence
• Feel stuck and unable to see a way out
• Would like to map a new path or want to create healthier relationships

or have the sense that there is something else, something more natural and more fulfilling, for you to bring your energy to, then find someone will provide you with the environment and tools you need to live your dreams.

Is it really possible to coach yourself?

Yes. We all know people who are excellent in many areas of life who do not have a coach. How do they create and maintain excellence? They read, work on being open-minded, ask for feedback, listen to feedback, take risks, and use every opportunity to learn about themselves in a deep and meaningful way. They are committed. They are purposeful about their quest for excellence. Most use a coach first and quickly get beyond their reliance for using a coach.

Choosing a Coach is a Way Better Solution

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At this very moment life has you right in the middle of all the commitments you’ve made—maybe a mortgage, kids, car payments, etc. You have made decisions that closed some doors and opened others. Some of the doors you closed can never be opened again. Other closed doors may be reopened in the future. If you are a 50-year-old woman who chose not to bear children, that door probably can’t be opened. However, if you didn’t get a college degree and now you are 55, you can still go back to school. Over the years you have entered into relationships that both deepened you and weaken you.


You have made wise and unwise financial decisions that impact how you now live your life. You have made choices about your health (smoking, drinking, lying in the sun, diet) and they may be affecting you now or will in the future. You may have taken jobs you loved and stayed in jobs that robbed you of your soul. You’ve felt the full range of human emotions at one time or another and decided to embrace them or cut them off. Events and experiences in your life have shaped your beliefs. Some of these beliefs have hardened into “truths” that limit you; some have solidified into “truths” that blind you. Some of your beliefs empower you; some weaken you.


If you are reading this, you have probably realized that you are not a blank slate anymore. Life has written all over you. Consequently, there are some things that don’t seem to be options for you. There are some things that you simply don’t see. However, there is another truth here. Options are flourishing all around you.


It is because you have already made so many commitments that you feel stuck at times. Your life has a momentum of its own that at times can run you right into a wall. Breakdowns can occur anytime, anywhere, but without creating a context for your breakdown, it is difficult, if not impossible, to see new possibilities.


Choosing a Coach is a Way to a Better Situation
When it comes to self-improvement, on our own, we avoid the new. Sometimes we avoid the new for a long time. Sometimes we avoid the new until we become desperate. Sometimes we avoid the new and a disaster happens. I finally came to the realization that coaches are the source of the nurturing that I needed to expand and grow at a faster pace than on my own. When I was on my own, it was like being in a desert and I was looking for water. I would see a tree and go sit under the tree to cool off. Then I would set out again looking for water until I saw another tree. Then I would sit under that tree to cool off. I continued doing the same thing until I decide there is no water in this desert, so I quit not knowing that all I needed to do was to dig down toward the roots and the water was there.


This is the value of a coaching, a coach has been down the road you want to travel and can show you where to go and what to avoid.

Are You Coach-able?

Are you:

❏ Committed to your personal and professional development?

❏ A lifelong learner?

❏ Willing to acknowledge where you are stuck in your life?

❏ Open to other ways of seeing the world?

❏ Able to accept feedback?

❏ Willing to test new behaviors?

❏ Willing to reflect on your experience and observe yourself in action?

❏ Willing to develop parts of yourself that may have been neglected?

❏ Willing to challenge your past and present beliefs?

❏ Willing to begin a relationship with the source of your dissatisfaction?

❏ Willing to consider new possibilities for yourself?

❏ Willing to ask yourself new questions?

❏ Willing to take risks and to change?

❏ Willing to reinvent yourself?

❏ Willing to not know?

❏ Open to ideas other than your own?

❏ Willing to be authentic in your life?

❏ Willing to experience purpose and fulfillment?

❏ Willing to let go of behaviors or beliefs that no longer serve you?

❏ Willing to live with uncertainty and ambiguity?

❏ Willing to engage in a process of introspection?

❏ Willing to consider new strategies for success?

Curious?

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If it is to be, It's up to me

One of the first things most people realize is the old adage, "If it is to be, it is up to me."That is, for you, the fact that your success, happiness and your journey is up to you. This doesn't mean that you do it all alone. It simply means that you take responsibility(response ability...the ability to respond) for your life and your career.

You see, no matter how you put it together, you are always in charge. Too many people today look at opportunity and figure it is up to someone else to make sure they get it. They think about doing something about their health yet they continue the same unhealthy lifestyle thinking that they will change it soon. They wait and wait, figuring that they have time or some other external motivating factor. And then the wait is over, and it is too late to do anything. Their life is over and they are filled with regret.

This isn't true for you however. You know that you must take responsibility for your life. It is up to you.
The fact is that nobody else is going to do it for you; you must do it yourself.

Now, some people may say, "That's a lot of responsibility." Friends, that is the best news you can ever hear. You get to choose your life. Hundreds of millions of people all around this world would give anything to live in the situation you do, just for the chance to have the opportunity to take control of their destiny. "It is up to you" is a great blessing!

Here's why:

1. You get to chart your own destiny. Maybe you want to start a small business. That's great because you can choose that. Maybe you want to travel. Maybe you want to live to be 100. That's okay too. The idea is that you get to choose. You can do whatever you like. Different people have different dreams and they should live them accordingly.
2. You can reap what you sow. Sleep in and go to work late and reap the return. Or get up early, outwork the others and earn a greater return. Place your capital at risk and earn a return or place it at greater risk and perhaps reap a greater return. You decide what you will sow and, thus, what you will reap.
3. No one else can stop you from getting your dream. Yes, there will always be things that come up and people who may not like what you are doing, but you can just move on and chart your own course. There is great freedom in that.
4. You experience the joy of self-determination. There is no greater pride than knowing you set your mind on something and accomplished it. Those who live with a victim mentality never get to experience the joy of accomplishment because they are always waiting for someone else to come to the rescue. Those who take responsibility get to live the joy of seeing a job well done.

Let me ask you a question: Where will you be in 5 years? 10 years? 25 years? Do you know? Do you have an idea? Have you ever dreamed about it or set a written goal for it? Are you willing to take responsibility and recognize that, "It is up to you?"

In the Achievement Seminar, you are giving yourself the opportunity to spend the time necessary to define your future.

You choose. It is up to you. Now, that is very exciting!

One Choice at a Time

While it's easy to be busy and crank out tasks on our to-do list, it's a bit more difficult to live by choosing what we want for our self in terms of health, happiness, career, money and relationships. It requires inner strength, consciousness, alignment and to have a clear understanding of what we want.

Making conscious choices is one of the best ways to become much more effective.

This allows us to make the most of our time and to reach our goals with less effort.

We can walk boldly in the right direction and be more powerful in what we do, instead of running around in a fog,

It starts with knowing what you want and knowing only you are in charge of making it happen.

The truth is that, in every moment, we have the ability to make a choice; and that’s all we have to do in any moment…make a choice.

The Doubt That Nags at You

So what are you really going to do in 2010? Are you really going to stop an unhealthy habit? Are you really going to learn to play an instrument? Get out of debt? Are you just telling people these things to sound good or to pump yourself up?

Are you hearing that voice like so many other people this week? Starting January 1st…. I’m going to do it, No…Monday, January 4th.… I’m going to start. Yet you know yourself so well. The doubt is there and it nags at you; deep down you feel the doubt is going to win. The year 2012 will come and go and you will end up as unchanged as you were the year before. How sad. And, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Goal vs. Agreement

At The Achievement Seminar, I teach people the difference between a goal and an agreement, understanding this difference is the critical link between temporary and permanent change. This gives them the opportunity to get up on their feet and take a few steps. When you make an agreement that supports your goal and keep it no matter what, you are on your way to a happier, healthier, conscious and aligned lifestyle. In the beginning, when you are not so sure of this new method, support is the ingredient that we add to get you through your first fumbling steps.