Archive for Top Performers
Exciting News!
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We’re testing a new, 9-question version of the BoldMoves Readiness Index. We’d love you to try it and let us know about your experience. On your score page, you’ll see a link for leaving your comments.
Here you go: BoldMoves Readiness Index And thanks again, in advance.
I could give a hundred reasons why the BoldMoves Readiness Index is important right now, but I’ll keep it to these few:
- There’s a mood of optimism that’s come with the new year.
- The longer we wait, the more it begins to melt away.
- Lots of people are sick and tired of feeling stuck.
- It’s hard to know how to get going again.
- Some are tempted to just take a leap of faith.
- Leaping without looking isn’t a great idea.
- A truly bold move doesn’t ask for a jump off a cliff.
- It asks that we listen in a new way.
- You may be ready!
Check it out: BoldMoves Readiness Index
Do You Experience Emotional Take Outs?
Posted by: | CommentsIt happens to all of us – often times very subtly and without notice. You wake up in a good mood and you’re moving
through your day and all of a sudden it is as if a dark cloud comes over your mind and you realize you’re in a funk. As you reflect on what happened from going from happy to a more negative mood – you notice that you have fear and doubt swimming around. Welcome to the nasty “take-outs.” A take out is when negative internal self-talk creates a limiting belief that often times is corded to heavy emotions of fear, doubt, anxiety or feeling scared.
And – as subtle as clouds moving in to cover the sun, so do limiting beliefs darken our mood and move us to pessimistic thinking. Obviously, for most leaders and contributors, it does not offer our best work when we have been taken out.
In the 15 years I’ve been working with top performers around the world, I have noticed that if we can proactively manage and take responsibility for “mood management” – we are better able to be in our optimal operating state and enjoy life more and have better relationships with others.
Seven Steps to Mood Management and Minimizing the Impact of a Take Out:
1. Schedule regular mood checks throughout the day where you pause and ask yourself “how’s my mood?” (some clients set an alarm!)
2. If you notice you are in a funk and your mood has shifted from your more optimistic and happy self, ask, “what am I am feeling right now?”
3. Normally, feelings of fear, doubt, anxiousness, or sadness come in when we are in a funk and feeling down. Ask yourself, what limiting belief has been created in my mind that is corded to the negative emotions (i.e., I will fail at the presentation I am to deliver next week and I am flooded with fear and doubt.)
4. Ask yourself, “Is there any physical truth to justify the liming belief that has caused the take-out? Most likely, there is absolutely NO physical evidence to the belief that was created – thus the belief is made-up.
5. Reverse the limiting belief by creating a Powerful Assumption (a positive belief that is corded to positive feelings when you think about it). For example, if the limiting belief is “I’m afraid to take my entitled vacation for fear of losing my job” – a Powerful Assumption may read “With my talents, drive and achievements I have made at my work, I can enthusiastically take the vacation knowing I am a valuable and highly regarded team player.”
6. Notice if your body has a funny reaction (in a good way) to the Powerful Assumption (i.e., if the Powerful Assumption feels a little over the top – you have created a great powerful assumption – if it falls a bit flat when you read it – you have most likely created a “positive” assumption and it is recommend you fuel the assumption to make it more powerful.
7. Yes, the Powerful Assumption is also made up – but, imagine when you get into funk or you are starting your day by reading a list of Powerful Assumptions that have replaced limiting beliefs the impact it would have on your mood. It is a guaranteed mood changer that will allow you to get back on to your optimal operating state.
WHEN IS ENOUGH – ENOUGH?
Have you noticed how fast we are moving through the calendar of recent hearing comments like “can you believe the year is almost over?” – as if our world is speeding up (and research is indicating that it is)? And, have you witnessed friends feeling tremendous pressure to go for the proverbial American dream? As a result of the speed of life and the increased pressure of life – growing numbers of adults in America are experiencing increased anxiety, greater sleep deprivation with increased pressure to stay the course as if on a non-ending treadmill.
For many of my clients, they are operating on all cylinders continuing to make the climb up the corporate ladder and bring home more money to support ever-increasing life-styles, family goals and personal wants. For those that remember the days of keeping up with the proverbial Joneses – imagine that the Joneses are most likely in debt, fore-closing on their home with a strained marriage.
So a fair question to ask is “when is enough enough?” At what point, do we look to readjust our goals and ensure they are corded to who we truly are and examine what a winnable game related to our life and work goals looks like? For many of us, we are playing an intense game of life but – at what costs? What does it specifically look like for you to “win” in your life? For some, the quality of family life, robust personal relationships and personal health are at risk with current strategies. If you find you are filled with more worry and less joy – questioning if there is more to life than your current scenario – you might be ready for a move that allows for a significant detour integrating your personal values and desires without the heavy lifting towards a purposeful journey.
When disaster happens in our lives, it offers a pause to reflect on the personal quality of life – to lower the mirror and reflect on what is working and what needs changing – allowing for a calibration of sorts towards a more purposeful, meaningful and engaged experience. So do we assume that the speed of life is not going to slow down but rather speed up? And, if we assume that many of the complexities that we have in front of us may have a long shelf life. What would it look like to have that meaningful conversation to evaluate lifestyle in your current roadmap. What defines your enough-being-enough for you?
Optimal You!
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Bold Moves Country is your unique, internal terrain, your inner world of imagination, intuition and individual insight. In Bold Moves Country, your key opportunity is to develop an Optimal Operating State––a sustained experience of being where your choices are exceptionally clear and your moves, both powerfully satisfying and accomplished in a mood of ease and grace.
Regardless of your primary challenge in the present moment––finding a job, increasing sales, losing weight, meeting the perfect mate, ending a bad relationship, etc––that challenge is most powerfully met by working from the inside-out and by exercising self-wisdom and self-honoring. For most of us, this requires developing new skills that are not taught in schools or business trainings. There are many such skills. Let’s look at three.
New Skill 1: Identifying who you truly are without all of the overlays provided by family, friends, school, work, and the many other external authorities you are exposed to everyday. Self-ignorance and self-denial are actually promoted by most educational institutions because their job since the start of the industrial age, has been to norm people into a standardized workforce. Don’t color outside the lines. Unique individuals need not apply. Drilling down through your normed version of self requires courage and commitment, but the reward of an Optimal Operating State makes it worth doing.
New Skill 2. Reconnect with your unique, creative spark. In today’s world, the value of a normed workforce is fading and the value of individual uniqueness is increasing rapidly. We are told that our greatest personal asset in the emerging paradigm will be our creativity! We’re hearing new messages. Start your own business, become your own brand! But many of us don’t know how because of societal preconditioning. That is why creative companies like Google have started providing their own creativity-based educational programs, but you don’t have to work for Google to develop the skill of reconnecting with your unique, creative spark.
New Skill 3: Accessing your authentic needs and desires. When asked what they want, most people will answer quite quickly with whatever fleeting desire has been most recently programmed into them by external influences such as media ads, peer pressure, family rules and scripts, etc. They want a million dollars, a new car, a new job, a new spouse, a new body. If you don’t really know who you are, and if you’re out of touch with your creative spark, it’s likely that you too, are relying on external voices to tell you what you need and want. After exploring Bold Moves Country for a time, your answers change to: a deeper sense of fulfillment, a greater ability to communicate, a more connected relationship, a job that has me excited to get going every morning.
We are in a potent time of cultural and economic transition that requires us to develop fresh opportunities and to do things differently. Never before have the innate drive for full, individual self-expression and the need for new societal solutions been more closely aligned. And, never before has it been easier to understand how an optimal world can only be created by individuals functioning in an Optimal Operating State.
How Well Are You Dancing in the Chaos at Work?
Posted by: | CommentsAs you are well aware of – we are working in unprecedented times. For the majority of leaders in the United States today, we are being asked to do more with less resources. Many of us are
operating with still moist blueprints to move us forward towards our business goals that have been redefined with Kinsu knives to adjust to the current economy.
Many of my top performing clients are having fresh fantasies hoping that this ever-escalating churn rate will slow down – hungry for moving through the day at a more relaxed pace; wanting a guarantee that the defined project will stay the course and be allowed to finish without noisy interruption and even the fantasy of securing a parental pat on the back with a voice of authority that their job is secure.
So how confident are you with the moves of your work today? How well do you dance in the chaos of uncertainty that so many of us are facing today? How change hardy are you in this current landscape of work? Simply put – how well do you dance in chaos?
While there are many external forces coming at us much like a fire hose turned full on, many of my clients sometimes believe that there are few things that we can control in this current landscape. And, from an external perspective that may be true. But you can control your thoughts, mood and actions. Top performers who are surviving and thriving in this current terrain are doing three things consistently:
- Build in “time outs” (taking breaks for themselves) a couple of times during the day to unplug and reflect
- Know when to slow down and access their intuition verses moving through the day as a reactionary (brash) move maker and,
- Manage and pay attention to their moods much like a master gardener tends to an awarding wining rose garden.
Some personality types are well wired to be able to dance in the current tornado-like conditions of work dealing in high interrupt, high stress environments. Others, who appreciate structure and control are being challenged with all of the uncertainty that is present.
How well are you managing your own mood day-to-day? How well are you managing your energy, emotions and mind daily? How often are you pushing the “pause” button to calibrate your mood, thoughts and energy before walking into the meeting?
There are many leaders right now being challenged to become more competent to dance in the chaos. As the leader of your career, what can you do internally to ensure you navigate successfully during these tumultuous times? Consider crafting a daily practice allowing you to reflect before you go to work on the most important two or three goals for the day, set an intention for how you want to move throughout the day and remember to take mood management breaks throughout the day allowing you to be in better precision toward your defined daily goals with energy left over for your life at the end of the day. Hold the perspective that dancing in the chaos is different but not necessarily difficult.
Those who take proactive care internally will be making bold moves externally allowing for a more graceful dance in the chaos of their careers.
