Coaching Corner: Are you holding yourself back?

Have you ever envisioned a day or set a goal and it seemed to work out exactly as you imagined? Ever talk to yourself about the possibility of something going wrong and it does? I like to think that how we perceive things and the perspective we place on our actions each day will dictate the sail to of our ship.  Whether you think positively or think negatively usually you’re going to be correct. I’d say roughly nine times out of ten this true.

Time and time again, I have heard in coaching calls or said this to myself “I hope to do this” or “I may do that this week” and it never gets done. To be honest, that’s weak thinking, weak self-talk. Are you really going to commit to that? Does hope have anything to do with you getting up early and completing a workout? Does maybe preparing your food on Sunday for 2 hours set you up for success? What I am getting at is that how we think about things and even the words we use with our intentions each week will ultimately affect your behavior, your ability to achieve. Words create worlds.

Let’s think about this … It’s the beginning of your week you have all these plans in your head, but you only end up getting to one out of the three things you wanted to complete. Let’s look at the two you errands or action steps you didn’t make happen, this is how it went down:

I think I’ll get a haircut on Wednesday night. I am visiting my family in a couple weeks and it might be good to get cleaned up. Sunday rolls around again and no haircut, what did this person do wrong?

Well, number one they said “I think” when how should they have self-talked it? “I WILL” get my haircut on Wednesday night because “I NEED” to get cleaned up before I see my family. Do we see how much more power there is behind those words? When you need to pay the bills you do, when you NEED to fix breakfast for the kids it typically happens.

Now on to example number two: I’ll probably prepare my meals on Sunday and Wednesday. There will potentially be time after work.

Right away, ouch to my ears. How would we fix this one? I am going to prepare my meals on Sunday at 4pm and Wednesday night 8pm after dinner. I’ll focus on these two times to better set up my week. Starting to see the difference? In this example the person go more specific on their intentions. They placed specific times and though about the other things that would be going on during the course of that day. What also happened is that they threw in the benefit “better set up my week.”

What your take from this should be is that when you set a goal, an intention; make sure of three things or else it won’t get done:

#1 – Use words that have power: hope has nothing to do with a goal

#2 – Get specific: When is it going to happen? What factors are there to consider?

#3 – Think about the benefit: How does this action impact your week positively?

If you’ve been holding yourself back forget about it. Use my examples and get down to business. There is no reason now for you not to create change or better yet get your haircut!