Archive for October, 2009

Have you ever wished you could just stand out above the crowd? Wished that you could be someone extraordinary or do something extraordinary, which will inspire others? Yearning for something that will give you the edge in your performance, something that will help you to be recognised by your peers as well as your superiors, something that will help you to really LEAP forward and upwards in life?

All of us do, at least at some point in our lives.

In order to find the essence of what it is that makes people stand out, we need to look at those individuals who give the impression that they have something special, an unnamed quality, a certain “X-factor”. We all know people like that, those who appear to stand out above the crowd, individuals who take everything in their stride and always seem to have loads of energy – The Obama’s, Oprah’s, Richard Brandson’s, Mandela’s and Steve Job’s of this world. When the odds are against them, they seem to rise to the occasion and thrive under enormous pressure. There is a lot that we can learn from them. One of their biggest success / performance characteristics is that they Live with Energy And Passion. It is this attitude, drive and commitment that makes them LEAP in life and rise above the rest. They believe in what they are doing and they go for it 100% without holding anything back.

Realise that it is possible for you to do and have the same. If they can do it, so can you! Here are two suggestions how you could develop this winning attitude of these extraordinary individuals.

The first suggestion is that you need to understand that there are two very important sides to living with high levels of energy. On the one hand, you need to constantly push yourself just outside of your comfort zone. This means that you must always strive to improve yourself in every area of your life and not be afraid to try something new.

You have to consciously decide to challenge yourself. At first this is a very difficult choice to make. It’s not easy to deliberately move outside of your comfort zone. The uncertainty will increase the fear inside you. Expect this, but know that in the bigger picture you are increasing your capacity and performance, which is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary.

On the other hand you also need to allow yourself time to recover your expended energy. You were not made to constantly push ourselves without taking time to recover. If you do, you will eventually have no energy left and just fade away or burn out. Recovery time is essential! Regain your spent energy and give your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual muscles time to grow. The key to high energy levels is to find the right balance between pushing yourself and then taking time to recover. In our “Energy to Perform” seminar we give specific suggestions on how to do this in order to increase your performance immediately.

The second suggestion is that it is just as important to live with passion as it is to live with energy. Your level of passion or enthusiasm is a direct consequence of how much you believe in what you are doing. If you know what your purpose in life is, if you truly believe in it and bought into it whole-heartedly, you will be overflowing with energy, passion and drive. If you are passionate about what you are doing, you will go the extra mile effortlessly. You will not do anything half heartedly. Passionate people are those who’ve incorporated their vision and their purpose into every area of their lives. They live their passion – and this inspires others to also take action.

To live with such passion, ask yourself what you truly believe your mission and life purpose is. Write and rewrite it until you have it in a single sentence. Put this “statement of purpose” somewhere where you can see it on a daily basis and read it every day until it becomes part of who you are. Make it your ultimate mission in life to fulfil this purpose. You’ll find that your passion will increase the more you commit to this purpose.

If you want to stand out above the rest and be an extraordinary person, you need to be passionate about what you are doing. If you want to be able to carry on fulfilling your life purpose when others around you are quitting, you need to make sure that you have made the expending and renewal of energy a daily habit in your life.

Live with Energy And Passion in everything you do and you will truly be outstanding – you will LEAP in Life!

We all want to grow in life. We want to develop our potential and become the best that we can be. Sport stars all have personal coaches and trainers to help them with this. Over the last 5 years people realised that we need the same for our personal-, career- and business development. In this article we’ll focus on a model to help you:

• Assess your current situation
• Set goals, and
• Draft an action plan to achieve those goals.

Graham Alexander developed a coaching model that not only reminds us of our overall goal, but also give us four practical steps toward tackling any immediate stumbling blocks that may be blocking our growth. To help with this he created the GROW model.

It is used by coaches all over the world to help people take control of their personal development and goals. Obviously this model, like other coaching models was specifically designed to be used within a coaching relationship.

However, after you’ve read this article, you can use and apply the GROW model. You can also use online tools such as Habit Tool.com to easily record and track your goals and progress.

The G-R-O-W model explained:

G – Goal: What do you really want? If you are not 100% sure, begin by writing down everything that is bothering you at the moment or use the “Gears of Life” self assessment. Then decide on one goal to work with first. The clearer you are about what your specific goal is the bigger the chances that you will achieve it. A coach is invaluable in this first step. He / she will guide you by asking questions that will help you to become really clear about what you truly want.

R – Reality: What is happening in your life right now? It is really important to establish exactly what is going on – on the surface as well as deep down. Ask yourself what your reality is and what makes you think about it in that way. Do you make assumptions or quick judgements in situations? Is it really the reality or just your perception of it? Keep on asking yourself these questions until you are very clear about what the specific stumbling block is that is preventing you from having what you really want.

O – Options: What options do you have available that will help you reach your goal? List as many options as you can think of, in and outside of the box. Don’t judge your options, yet! At this stage you don’t have to decide what to do, you just need to generate many possibilities on how to overcome the obstacles that are standing in the way of your goal.

W – Wrap-up: This is the ACTION phase. It is now time to look at all your options and ask yourself what the implications of each action step would be. Would it create any other possible barriers? What could you do to overcome these? Which option do you consider the best? Once you’ve decided on this, you need to decide on your action plan. What are the specific actions that you will take? When will you take them? How will you take them? Who will support you in this? When will you review what happened? And how will you measure if you’ve achieved your goal?

As you can see, the GROW model assists you in setting goals, thinking through your current situation and coming up with an action plan.

In turn, this will help you move forward towards fulfilling your potential. Although you can use this model on yourself or even with friends, you will receive the most benefit from it if you have a personal coach to guide you through it.

Which ever way you decide to use this method, may it help you to continually grow and fulfil your amazing potential!

Have you ever felt that you could be so much more, achieve so much more? That if you really commit to your dreams and gave it your all, it could actually become reality? Maybe you feel this deep down, but with all the pressures and daily demands, you seem unable to find time to work on yourself and the things you really want in life. And that leaves you with the distinct feeling that you are not fulfilling your potential – not progressing or developing yourself.

Webster’s dictionary defines growth as progressive development – and that sometimes seem like the missing link in our lives. We know we could be so much more, but we no longer experience “progressive development” or growth in our personal lives. Fortunately life coaching can help in our endeavour to develop and become the best we can be. Coaching aims to help you build on your inherent potential and strive towards making your goals reality.

When we think about growth we often assume that it is a natural process that will occur instinctively. We look at nature and see that everything seem to “just grow” or we see how babies appear to develop overnight – and we falsely conclude that growth, including personal growth, will happen automatically. Unfortunately this is not true. Although growth is a natural process, it will not happen naturally, unless two factors are present. These two factors are just as important for mental, emotional and spiritual development and growth as they are for physical growth.

Firstly, the right type of nutrition is essential. Nutrition is a crucial ingredient to any formula for growth. When it comes to physical development, it is easy to know what is important and good for growth: we know a tree needs soil, sunlight and water. However, when it comes to the development of our inherent potential, we are not always so sure about the right nutrition – and unless we get it, we will not reach our full potential. Fortunately life coaching can help a great deal, since a personal coach can assist us in determining what is really important to us, help us to develop our potential in those areas and thus grow towards greater fulfilment.

Secondly, growth can only take place if the nutrition is acquired in the right quantities. For instance, an oak tree that was planted in very shallow soil and got great amounts of sunlight, but almost no water would look a lot different from the oak that was planted in fertile ground and got just the right amount of water and sunlight. Although both acorns had the potential to grow into big oak trees and although they both received nutrition, both did not grow to their full capability. Unless nutrition is given in the right amounts and the right order, it could actually prevent growth from taking place. The same is true when it comes to our own personal development – although we may have inherent potential and although we may have discovered what is important to us and how to develop this through coaching, we will not grow to our full potential, unless we also prioritise and take action steps to get there.

In summary, what can we learn from nature that can help us to take control of our lives and grow again? What could we do to fulfil our enormous potential?

1) Although growth is a natural process, it will not happen naturally, unless you invest in it. Therefore get yourself a personal development book, get a coach or subscribe to habittool.com’s continuing education program.

2) Even if we know what is important for us to grow, we still need to consciously prioritise our growth requirements – it will make it easier to reach our goals. Start by writing a list of what you really value in life and then put them in order of importance. You will find that it does not only simplify decision-making, but will indeed help you to be more fulfilled in life when you live according to these principles. For a technique to help you discover what to focus on, read the article: “GROWth Coaching”, at http://leapinlife-coaching.com/blog/

So what will you do to reach your full potential and make your dreams reality?

Author: Jaco Beukes – Personal Performance and Life Coach – LEAP in Life Coaching and a HabitTool.com associate