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Self Coaching

28 September 2014

How good are you at lighting a pipe, sitting by a snug, crackling log fire, pulling a tartan blanket around your knees and pondering on where you are and what’s getting in your way of progress, whilst you puff contentedly in a Bilbo Baggins-esque way?

Brilliant?

Not so good?

Lacking a pipe?

Well, no problem because this week we are talking about self coaching – namely the art of asking ourselves reflective questions to help us out. It doesn’t matter that we don’t yet know the answers, because asking a question is half the battle. Questions jiggle the snow dome that we have for a brain and the little chaffs of snow then swirl around and settle back into a different pattern – and it’s this difference that spurs us onto new activity, new thoughts, or the release of a past blockage.

Here are a few hobbit-sized questions to shake our snow domes:

1)  What is it that I’m missing?

2) What do I really want to achieve?

3) What truth am I denying to myself?

4) What are my options? …List them all…No cheating!

5) What am I really frightened of?

6) If I was a client, what advice/support/permission would I offer myself?

7) What are the real facts of the situation? …Real facts, not assumptions dressed up as facts…

8) Who has already solved this issue before? …Who else could I talk to?

9) What am I really saying to myself? …Is this true? What am I distorting or ignoring?

10) What’s one new option that I could explore? …However silly/easy it might seem today!

11) What is one simple safe step that I can take? …I mean really small…Take a break? Get a drink?

12) How do I keep myself safe here? …Get help? Write a draft? Re-contract with my boss?

If we are stuck, it is likely that we really know what is going for us and we might be too frightened to think clearly, or to say the words. Perhaps the safest thing to do is to have a conversation with ourselves when we are driving in our car, safe in our own little bubble? Success can be as simple as letting ourselves hear the words which are locked in our head, or our heart.

If you would like a FREE TA-flavoured self coaching sheet, complete with helpful ‘touchstones’ then email me via www.richardmaun.com with the words ‘Self Coaching Please’ in the subject line.

Self coaching can bring great results, but sadly can’t help with your hairy hobbit feet! Sorry!

This week…take time to think. Help yourself out and give your snow dome a shake!

Next week: Spotting Agitated Kids In Meetings

PS Check out the NEW BLOG ARCHIVE at www.richardmaun.com over 250 posts to enjoy and share! I love it…!!!