Acknowledgement is about stopping the action and recognizing how far you’ve come. This in turn provides encouragement to strive further. It’s about enjoying the fruits of achievement. Pausing to reflect and appreciate is powerful.
I support clients in loving the life they have while at the same time moving forward. Gratitude makes life feel more meaningful.
From my book Breathe:
I used to think gratitude was a magical feeling that somehow would come over me when something really great happened. I’ve since grown to see gratitude as an attitude – a stance toward life. Gratitude is a mental and emotional muscle that gets stronger the more I use it. With gratitude, I do more than survive this journey with autism. With gratitude, I thrive.
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Envision:
imagine as a future possibility; visualize
Envisioning gives the coaching session direction. Although the conversation will take many twists and turns and even go off on tangents, envisioning creates a target to aim for. The process of envisioning challenges the client to get clear on a desired outcome. It helps answer the question “Why are you here today?” It is a tool for creating powerful change.
Visualization exercises are a powerful envisioning tool. They engage the right brain, the creative and less logical part of the brain. They call upon imagination and intuition to access new insights and awareness. A single insight has the power to change everything.
The client’s vision connects the subconscious and conscious minds, creating and influencing the path forward. Visualizing has the power to take a purpose and turn it into specific images, ideas, and possibilities.
Questions:
Envision exactly where you want to be and learn how to close the gap between the two.~~Tony Robbins
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Action:
The process of doing something in order to achieve a purpose
Action is considered to be the heart of coaching.
Without consistent and persistent action the goal will not be achieved. It is extremely powerful and is the catalyst used in coaching to create change. Nothing happens without action. In order for us to achieve different results in our lives, we must DO different. By taking action we create the movement necessary for us to make things happen. (Action VS Delay Power Tool, ICA)
Action is what propels us forward. Awareness, desire, goals, and intentions begin to become tangible when action is taken. The act of acting is what creates change and ultimately transformation. Commitment to act and then action is where possibility merges with reality. Confidence is a result of taking action.
Action helps to rewire the brain to make a different choice, which leads to a different habit, which leads to a different behavior. Action is doing. Action can be huge, tiny, and everything in between.
Dusan Djukich told a room full of people recently, when he was asked what should we do when we are afraid:
Take DECISIVE ACTION and your fear won’t matter. Take that decisive action enough times and your fear won’t exist any more. ~Steve Chandler
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.~Thomas Jefferson
I can spend the whole day in a deep soft chair trying to decide who I really am, trying to decide what to do next, trying to decide why I do what I do, trying to decide all kinds of things. But I notice that I am now less effective and capable as a human, and my sense of trust in myself is disappearing. I call this Decision Misery. I used to be there a lot. It’s a flat, linear place. Then I learned about something called action. I learned I can solve all this worry and decision-making anxiety by taking action. By admiring action. By having action plans, by asking, whenever stuck, WHAT’S MY NEXT ACTION? And then, doing that action NOW. Action. Movement. Decisive energy. Solves most everything!~Steve Chandler
Questions:
- What is the next action you want to commit to taking?
- What is the tiniest baby step you are willing to commit to?
- With all of this understanding, what’s your next move?
- What structures do you need to support your action?
- What obstacles might get in your way and how will you conquer them?
Thinking generates a pledge to action, and that’s risky business. When you start to move on making anything actually happen, you confront a subtle but significant angst— the project and the actions involved in it might never be as wonderful, as perfect, as solid, and as safe as in the sanctity of your imagination. It’s like stepping off the end of the pier—and how deep is that water anyway?
But when you make that leap of faith and downshift into action, a weird thing happens. Real intelligence, creativity, and solidity show up—in a much greater way than they ever could, trying to be managed merely in your head. Putting the limitation of physicality onto what you’re thinking about does not constrain the mind—it actually galvanizes it.
The water’s deep, but it’s an ocean of possibility.~ David Allen
Action has magic, grace, and power in it.~Goethe
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transform:
make a thorough or dramatic change in form, appearance, or character
The process of coaching and being coached is transformational. As the client explores at the ‘feeling and being’ level, micro shifts in awareness and being begin to take place. A new level of self-knowledge and possibility begin to emerge. Transformation takes place in both mirco and macro chunks.
Clients kick fear in the rear by exploring the thoughts behind it, the beliefs that fuel it.
Clients reframe perspectives that no longer serve and empower themselves to live on purpose. Clients commit to action which yields confidence as a byproduct. Clients step to their edge and beyond to look at issues through new lenses. Change takes place from within going beyond performance and down to a deeper level.
Questions:
- What change to you want to create in your life?
- Who do you want to be?
- What is your fear really about?
- What message is your fear giving you?
- What obstacles are standing in the way of creating change?
- What would it look like to reframe this perspective?
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heart:
regarded as the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, esp. love or compassion
As the coaching conversation deepens, the coach supports the client in engaging from the heart. A new level of awareness emerges as the ego mind steps aside and the heart and gut are engaged in the discovery process. Heart vs ego mind. Engaging the heart means going deeper in a gentle and loving way.
The heart may have some things to say that the mind as a thinking (and judging) apparatus will not be able to access. The heart and gut reside close to each other and are connected. The gut is filled with more neurotransmitters per square inch than the brain. 90% of our serotonin is produced in the gut. Our gut has a lot to say when we take the time to listen. Coaching helps access the gut’s wisdom and intuition which can lead straight to the heart.
Consulting the heart is a powerful stepping stone on the path of transformation.
Questions:
- • Put your hand over your heart. Ask your heart what it wants to tell you about this?
- • Put your hand over your belly. Ask your gut what it wants to tell you about this?
- • What does this mean to you?
- • If your heart were in charge, what would you do, say, feel, be?
- • What does your heart know and say in this situation?
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Energy:
the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity
Energy is released within the coaching conversation. The act of articulating thoughts and feelings, and hearing them reflected back is a powerful tool for shifting energy. Confronting fears releases stagnant, sometimes negative energy and makes space for fresh, new, positive energy. Energy = Life Force.
The client receives positive energy from being listened to and enthused by the coach. Energy around a new commitment fuels enthusiasm about moving forward. Energy for the future enthuses action and accountability.
The coaching conversation is a safe place to shed tears, bump up against frustration and fear, and experience the freedom on the other side. At the end of a conversation, a shift in energy has often taken place. The client may also experience a powerful shift in awareness. There may be a lightness, a letting go. New positive energy is then created. When energy shifts, hopefulness emerges, and possibility shines bright.
Energy is the fuel for courage. Energy is the fuel for action. Energy propels the client forward to create change in the realm of doing and being. Energy allows the client to do the scary things and then receive the reward of courage on the other side. Energy creates transformation.
Questions:
- What has shifted for you since the beginning of the session?
- How are you feeling now?
- What is your Take Away?
- What is one insight you are leaving this conversation with?
As a life coach, I utilize the seven components of Breathe in a fluid and dynamic style to support the client in creating powerful change.
