How can a consultant or coach help us adjust our mindset for more positive outcomes? it is the half-full or half-empty glass kind of metaphor…
Negativity can discourage us:
add to our stress,
put a strain on our relationship,
make us less productive, and
reduce our overall happiness.
A positive mindset, on the other hand, has many benefits across our lives regarding our health, relationships, and careers.
But, how do you become more positive? Is it that simple? Take a moment to listen to this brief audio reminder:
Five steps to developing a more positive mindset:
1. Keep a thought journal
If you have a negative internal dialogue continually keeping you down, you need to take action to banish these thoughts. If you have difficulty identifying this negativity a simple first action can be keeping a thought journal. Write down a random sample of ideas in your mind about yourself, events, people around you, and other events that happen throughout your day.
Then analyze these thoughts by reviewing the journal every night and establishing your thought patterns towards a positive mindset.
Do specific events trigger your negative thoughts? Take note of these and the next time you face a triggering situation, review carefully how you are approaching it.
2. Banish negative self-talk
After keeping track of your thoughts for a week or two, you will notice how consuming your negative thoughts can be. The next step is to banish these all together. Next time you write down negative thoughts in your journal, rephrase the wording so that it becomes a neutral statement.
Example:
“Bob forgot to take out the trash again so I had to do it and it ruined my evening.”
“Bob forgot to take out the trash. I did it. instead.”
This step is a small but effective way to train yourself. Don’t do this exercise only on paper or in your journal. Begin to rephrase your negative thoughts into neutral phrases in your mind. The practice will become automatic and significantly reduces your anxiety.
3. See the positive side
To jump straight from negative into positive thoughts is a challenge and the reason why the neutral-thought stage is crucial. By banishing negative self-talk, you are in an excellent position to see different, genuine positivity in situations.
Refer back to your thought journal and examine again the negative thoughts you have had. For each negative view, can you transform it into at least one positive, upbeat equivalent?
For example, if you dislike a person because they speak poorly to you, think about how you are developing more resilience. What is the positive from that contrary position?
It can be hard to find benefits within challenging circumstances, but there is always a way to see something good.
As the Dalai Lama once said, “See the positive side, the potential, and make an effort.” Sometime, a lot of effort might be required, but it’s worth it!
4. Keep a gratitude journal
A gratitude journal is an incredible way to take stock of all of the beautiful things around you. Every evening you write down the sound, positive aspects of your day. In general, what are you grateful for and why?
Perhaps you are grateful to your friends for their support, for the warm bed where you sleep well, or for the great weather you had that day. Write down all the positives.
When I started a gratitude journal, I found my mind arguing with me and contradicting my positive statements. What I learned from exploring this is when I don’t sleep well, the mind complains the next day without fail. Further research indicated that this is a typical pattern, but few people recognize the link between lack of sleep and mental angst or complaints.
5. Learn your sleep habits
This is a sure-fire way to re-ground you, make you gain perspective and make you realize how insignificant that particular trigger may be in the larger scheme of things. Context is essential, so keep shifting your mind towards the positive.
Stay grateful.
Final Conclusion
Practicing these four simple thoughts can help you transform how you perceive the world around you. Positive perception has the power to change your life, improving your attitudes and the ways that you respond to stress triggers.[Be patient and keep working at positivity, as it has so many benefits for your life, so make the most of it!
Your passion skills set is best recalled from enjoyable childhood moments. Do you remember moments in your childhood that felt freeing and fun? One that I remember was bike riding on a Saturday afternoon. The freedom to explore and wind around different neighborhoods cleared my mind and rejuvenated my body. The passion skills set of exploring neighborhoods and enjoying the outdoors is now my walking daily to clear my head and get a fresh perspective on business or a project.
Such childhood memories that we’re passionate about aren’t really the most practical things to do when we grow up and become “responsible.” So we often put off when more pressing “responsible” concerns arise like taking the kids to extracurricular activities.
Truths About Passion Skills and Temperaments
If your passion feels obscure or far away, you may not think that the practical skills are worth exploring. However they are, and if you identify with even one of these three reasons, then do explore how to make your passion skills set practical.
Fifty percent of our motivation to pursue a passion stems from our core temperament(s). From temperaments comes what we value, and our innate drive keeps pushing us toward using our strengths and putting talents to use. If you don’t use your innate talents, you don’t lose them. Quite the contrary happens. They rise up and get in your face!
Thus you cannot squash your passion. It keeps nudging you, reminding you, trying to motivate you to a course of action.
You will always feel out of sync when not aligned with values and using passion skills set. The best examples I can provide are the men and women who have pursued the careers of their parents or went for what they “thought” was the right thing, only to be disappointed later.
The solution to staying motivated is to bring your passion skills set into practical living and practical projects. It is possible to find the practical skills behind your passion. My passion has always been writing, and, eventually in my adult years, I followed these steps to embrace my passion. If I didn’t, it hounded me.
“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
—Nelson Mandela
Writing Short Stories
Let’ start with the more common one. There are many secret writers, who love to create poetry or prose, but we all know that most authors don’t end up on the best seller list. In fact, most writers never make a dime from their writings. They write and narrate because they feel the calling to do so. They enjoy writing because it motivates them and makes them happy. They are using their core strengths, which is a natural thing to do. The are building a skill set and making it better each time
The Creative Magic Sparks
When someone is following a normal talent or motivation or nudge, a spark of magic happens, and the door of creativity opens. Ideas pour into the writer’s mind. A strange character for the novel introduces herself. The ending of the story took a new turn and recreated a new ending.
Like the old writer’s joke says: How can I start writing? Answer: Sit down and start start writing. In the literal sense, when you practice your passion, even for fun and just for yourself, you are honing the creative skills.
“It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.” —Mae Jemison
Here are more steps to discover these skills.
Take an objective look at what you do as a writer.
When you sit down to write something, take a moment and jot down all of the things that you’re doing or are about to do. For example:
Create a story
Organize the idea
Create characters
Research/describe the setting of the story
Commit to a project from start to finish
Research the job descriptions of writer. Do a web search for “writer job description.” This will give you some great insight into the skills built through writing.
Make a list of the skills you find in a few of the job.
Go through the list and pull out skills that you feel apply best to you and add them to the first
Research writers’ websites and look at the services they provide to give you some insight into skills you hadn’t considered. Add them to your list.
Now you ave created a real-life practical skills list for a passion that motivates your path. If you decide to take the next steps, they are mix, mingle, and learn.
Writers are often solitary souls who need a writer’s group for support. Join one or start one.
Go to writing events and talk to other writers who love what they do as much as you do. There are conferences, festivals and networking events for a wide variety of topics.
Find local writing events by doing a web search. Not only will you learn about the skills that you have developed, you might meet some cool new writing friends to support you in following your passion..
You can use these same steps to find passion skills sets in any area, and start using them to follow the natural course of your motivating strengths.
Are you a type of person who is looking to get out of this rat race and work for yourself from home by being your own boss?
Have a look at our courses and get one step closer to your dream life.
Does Parent Coaching interest you as a profession or an extra source of income? This series about coaching parents provides all you need to know about what is involved in the real profession of coaching. You have a story to tell which defines your interest and happiness in helping people.
People pay coaches to help them reach their goals by encouraging, celebrating, and listening to them on a regularly scheduled basis. Sessions might be for individuals or for groups.. A coach is an empowerment expert who challenges, stimulates, questions, and holds the client in positive regard. A coach takes the side of the clients and helps them set long and short-term goals, and holds them accountable to take necessary steps to achieve the goals from week to week. The coaching process enables people to lead more effective lives, and to achieve what they want more quickly. Here is what two top coaches say about their field:
“You have to have a plan and it has to be a plan that works. You should not settle for the mediocre in life. Coaching helps you set goals. I collaborate with my clients. I am on their side. As a coach, I help and strategize with my clients so they can achieve their goals. [bctt tweet=”Coaching is about personal evolution, vision, what’s next, what’s now, and moving forward. It’s about having standards, not settling for the mediocre in life, but looking and feeling your best.” …Annemarie Brown” username=”parent_coach”]
“Coaching is about listening, empathizing, asking questions and sharing love. It is very personal, very individual and case-by-case. People can turn their problems around. They can be whatever they want. They can have whatever they want. Coaching is about that process. You help them and it is an incredible job.” …Peggy Alvarado
Coaching Started In Business
Coaching as a profession started in corporate businesses, but also takes its models from counseling and psychotherapy. Business managers have always been “coaches” in that they helped people clarify their goals and choose roles in the corporation that best suited their talents and strengths. Many life coaches, if they do not come from a background in psychotherapy or counseling, originally worked in business.
I worked in management for thirteen years in a Fortune 500 company. Human resource management is very similar to coaching. I didn’t know I was coaching back then, but I was! … Peggy Alvarado
Businesses paid the first coaches to guide new hires as they climbed the corporate ladder. A coach could be internal, someone who works for the same business as the client; or external like someone who is hired by the business as an outside consultant. These first coaches were called business mentors. A coach or mentor is an older person with a lot of experience in the same field of the beginner. The coach guides the new hire to set career goals, interact with other people, and choose the right projects to advance themselves. In the 1980s, businesses started routinely to hire and pay for more outside coaches.
Today, a business coach at the top of his field can earn as much as $700 tp $1000 per hour, or well into six figures per year. Some large corporations keep coaches on retainer, paying them so much a month to mentor a constant stream of new hires. A new trend is to hire a coach for a specific job, such as “Improve morale in the accounting department within a three- month-time period.”
Because business coaches work with each person on a one-to-one basis and take into consideration each individual’s personality and style, they are very successful in helping people achieve goals and move up in their careers quickly. A coach expert listens within, has only the best interest of that particular client in mind. The relationship is confidential and trustworthy.
The coaching model was so successful on a business level that a demand arose for personal “life coaches” as well. A life coach or personal coach is a person who helps a client set goals for his or her future, determine steps to reach each goal, and cheer the person as he or she moved toward his or her definition of success. The goals do not have to be about money or career, but can be goals like “To become closer to my husband,” “To make time for painting,” or simply “To have more fun.”
Unlike business coaches, a life coach for parents could work over the telephone instead of face-to-face in an office setting.
The average personal coach charges above $100 per hour, but the range of fees is from a low of $25 to a high of $300 or more. A personal coach at the top of the field can make in the range of six to seven figures per year range, but the vast majority of coaches earn about $40,000 to $80,000 annually, depending on their part-time or full-time focus in the coaching field.
Coaching Moved away From The Medical Model
In 1992, Thomas Leonard started the first training institute for coaches. His “Coach University” trained people through teleconferences. In the same year, Laura Whitworth founded The Coaches Training Institute in San Francisco, which provided training through weekend universities. Whitworth’s association, the Personal and Professional Coaches Association, merged with Leonard’s International Coach Federation (ICF) in 1997. The ICF organization developed standards of ethics and practices for the profession.
Yet from the beginning of the coaching profession, there was a lot of overlap between psychotherapy and coaching. For one thing, many people entering the new field of coaching had backgrounds as therapists or business. Yet in time, coaching has moved away from the medical model.
Isn’t it great that you don’t have to be a psychologist or a medical professional to be a parent coach? Let’s take a look at our parent coaching certifications and get going on the way to success:
