STRESS JUDO COACHING

Anyone can walk down a path with people following behind.  That is one way to be a leader.  Another way is to cut a path through the woods and have people follow.  Both of these are pretty brute forces methods, however.  A true leadership characteristic is not only to lead others down the path but to anticipate the correct path to follow.

Anticipation as a leader can come in the planning stages, when you have the courage to ask what if things go wrong.   Or it can come in the implementation,...

At one of those company retreat things, we were broken up into several groups and given “team building” tasks.   The last one involved the facilitator saying that we, as a group, had to get some spongy balls from one end of the room to the other, without throwing them.  So one person jumped out and immediately lined everyone up and told use how we were going to pass the balls, etc.  One person (okay, it was me!) looked at one of the tables and saw a vase.  I asked if we could put the ball...

I told my daughter once that the secret to success is to focus and to finish.   Most people know this.  But too many people simply don’t have the energy to actually do this.  Pain is simply gassing out or losing focus because you just don’t have the energy to stay on task.  Few people equate "how can I better myself?" with managing your energy.  Focus and finish equals success. Wanting to focus and finish equals mediocrity.

Energy is not the rush you get by throwing lighter fluid on char...

Pain is that being out of shape is painful.  If you don’t believe me, try this experiment.  Pick something off the floor and put it on the shelf above your head.  If you can do this without any discomfort, twisting or grunting, then congratulations.   You are not out of shape.  Yet.  

The physical pain of being out of shape will come later, and it will be really painful.  The heart attack. The diabetes.   The pulled hamstring.  And there’s the pain right now.  The loss of breath when you...

Someone said that time is nature’s way of making sure that everything doesn’t happen at the same time.  Unfortunately, some of us are impatient and want everything to happen right now.  But there is pain associated with this attitude. That pain is that you feel all the weight of every possible perspective on your shoulders, all at one time.  Having a coach to give you perspective on the question “how can I better myself?” is one of the best ways to avoid this pain.

The greatest athle...

Pain for you is drifting and wandering on someone else’s course.  Pain is letting other people determine not only what you will do, but exactly how you will do it.  This pain is personal to you.  You are probably baffled by seeing people around you accept this as the normal course of life.   For you, this is an abnormality that cannot be tolerated.  You can – and must – set your goals, along your own path to answering "how can I better myself?"

The goals you set individually do not hav...

“The best way to predict the future is to make it.”  If this is your attitude – and it is an exceedingly fine attitude to have – then the most painful thing to do to you is to put you in a situation where your future is murky and unclear and not under your control.  The best way to relieve your pain is for you to anticipate your future, even the parts that are intentionally hidden from you.

For most of us, the next step in anything we do is decided by someone else, who doesn’t feel...

Meditation is one of the most effective weapons for managing workplace stress.  There are so many different types of meditation. How many? Who knows, but enough so that you can find the one that's right for you. How can I better myself?  Meditation helps. To get your search started, here are six types of meditation you can try.

1. Breath watching. Can meditating be as simple as paying attention to your breath for a few minutes? You bet. Relax in whatever position works best for you, close yo...