5 Minute Coaching
This section contains 5 minute coaching exercises for you to use free of charge. These exercises are designed to help you look at your approach to life differently and to introduce small incremental changes you can make here and there. Individually, a coaching exercise may not significantly change your life. However, when it is practiced repeatedly and coupled with other exercises and techniques, it can increase your effectiveness in building a balanced life. Over time, these coaching exercises will boost your confidence and desire to work on bigger challenges.
These tips can be enhanced in coaching sessions with Mi-Best.
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Do you have a personal mission statement?
You’ve heard of a company mission statement, right? Well how about a personal mission statement? A personal mission statement is a brief narrative of your life ambitions and means for accomplishing them. Many people do not have their own mission statement. But if you are one of those people who lack direction, or if you are confused or unsure about what you want to do in life, a personal mission statement is a great place to start.Take 5 minutes out of your day today to craft one. Don’t worry about making it perfect but do take some time to visit it each day. You can refine it over time. Then see your ideas begin to take shape as you continue to give them more focus and attention.
How can you network better?
A key to making a lasting impression is by doing something that stands out. One way for people to remember you is by offering to give them a recommendation. Don’t wait to be asked! Deliver praise for something extraordinary and make sure it is genuine, appropriate, and contextual. Be detailed in your wording and back up your recommendation with specific examples. Last, be thoughtful and selective about when you do it. Recommendations are like autographs, they are only valuable when they are real and when given sparingly.
Can you articulate your core values?
Core values are the essence of our being and what keeps us grounded. They are the basis for how we think, act, and communicate. Some examples of core values are integrity, loyalty, and dedication. Having an awareness of our core values reminds us of what is important to us and why we make our decisions or act a certain way. Write down your top 3 core values and think back on how you have acted relative to your values, in the past year, past month, past week. Were your actions in line with your values? Were you happy with the results? Think about these questions before the next time you act, and then act in a way so that you can answer yes to both.
How can you make a failure work for you?
Didn’t get that account you were campaigning for? Couldn’t make a relationship work? If you can see the positive side of failure it can work to your benefit. Sometimes failure is life telling you to stop and think. Sometimes failure is an opportunity to do your decision over. It could also mean a second chance to look at something you passed up. So, view your failure as a gift for getting it right the second time around. Take these steps to help you: 1) Review the results you were aiming for and determine where you came up short. Did you have a way to measure your success? 2) Examine your tendencies and the role they played in the failure. Did you ignore warning signs? Did you have unrealistic expectations? 3) Revisit other options you passed on. Has the timing improved? Are they worthy of some minor effort just to see how far you can go? 4) Finally, prepare for the next round. Plan for how you will update your skills and be aware of your behavioral tendencies so you can achieve success in the future.
How can you get support from a critic?
Do you have a family member or co-worker who is very critical of you? Times are hard enough that you don’t need your own family members or friends to be your worst supporters. One thing to remember is that they too are feeling the stress of today’s tough economy. In fact, their criticisms are likely to be frustrations over their own shortcomings or their feelings of loss of control bubbling to the surface. Turn the criticism into something positive by asking them how they are feeling. Listen intently to what they are saying. Reaffirm their emotions and offer them comfort. Remind each other of the goals you are working towards in addition to those you have recently accomplished. By showing empathy and compassion to others they will be opt to give it in return.
How can you keep your vision alive?
Do you imagine yourself running your own business, or maybe you picture yourself the author of a children’s book? Your vision is a mental picture of how you see your future. Visualizing your future is essential to your growth and essential to helping you realize your potential. Once you have a clear vision of your future, here are steps you can take to keep your vision alive: 1) Share your vision with people whom you respect. Surround yourself with people who share in your ideas and who can support you. Get involved with individuals and organizations that have already achieved their success. Doing these things can and will energize you and make you feel empowered to work towards realizing your vision. 2) Start researching what it will take to get your vision off the ground. 3) Last, set goals that flow from your vision.
Are you experiencing goal overload?
Do you have a professional goal? How about a fitness or relationship goal? In fact, do you have a goal for every facet of your life? Well, you could be suffering from goal overload. It’s important to recognize that focusing on one personal goal will do more to improve your life than trying to accomplish multiple goals simultaneously. Here’s how to avoid goal overload. Pick one area to improve that will make the biggest impact. Then focus your effort entirely on that. If you target the right area, a positive change in that behavior will affect many other aspects of your life. As an example, let’s say you wanted to work on keeping your promises. Being successful at keeping your commitments can lead to more satisfying relationships, improved cooperation and teamwork, predictable results, increased trust and respect, reliable communication, better time management, and the list goes on.
How can you overcome negative chatter?
Do you listen to the negative chatter in your head? Does it cause you to abandon your ideas for things that feel safe? Negative chatter or mind chatter is that overpowering voice inside you that crushes your dreams and makes excuses for why they cannot happen. Negative chatter is when negative thoughts get in a loop and repeat themselves over and over. Negative chatter can be your internal critic telling you that it’s too hard, that you screwed up, that you made another mistake, that you are worthless, that you aren’t good enough, or that you can never do anything right. It can also be negative thoughts about others. The negative conversations that you hear playing in your head usually come from emotions like doubt, fear, guilt, shame, worry, blame, frustration, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, pessimism, resentment, or jealousy. Negative chatter can prevent you from moving forward or taking chances and eventually results in predictable failure. Replace the negative chatter with positive thinking and positive steps. Try to see the positive intention behind the negative message so that your mind can accept it and move forward. Use meditation and other focusing exercises to regularly invite positive thoughts. Explore how education, mentoring, or training can change the veracity of the negative chatter and reinforce them with action to instill confidence. Become aware of how and when the negative thoughts are triggered, then change your routine to disrupt the pattern of the negative chatter. Doing these things will get you one step further away from the chatter, and one step closer to change.
Are you unknowingly rewarding bad behaviors?
I think we can all agree that it’s important to reward good behavior. We all start with the best of intentions. But has your best of intentions ever unwittingly rewarded the wrong behavior? Rewarding the desired behavior is crucial for enabling change. However, if you’re not careful, that incentive may have unintended consequences. For instance, you might focus on rewarding your child for completing his homework promptly, and in the process inadvertently reward more errors. So, how can you steer clear of unsuspectingly rewarding bad behavior? To start, when creating your reward system, be sure to think through all the possible outcomes, positive, negative, and neutral. Then, remind everyone of your core values. Set the expectation that all incentives must align with those values and that they must not contradict standards that already exist and are important to the unit. Monitor all incentives, old and new, to make sure you are seeing the whole picture and make adjustments as needed. Creating a system of checks and balances will help you to avoid rewarding the wrong kind of behavior. This tip can be used in work situations as well as personal relationships.
How can you practice self awareness?
Self awareness is the conscious acceptance of one’s own actions. Meaningful self awareness involves paying attention to a behavior and making adjustments as it is happening. Self awareness must be present for change to happen. Mastering self awareness can prevent a bad habit or unwanted behavior from forming or becoming extreme. To practice self awareness, begin by identifying one behavior or attitude that you want to change. Let’s say you want to work on your tendency to interrupt or talk over people. Start by thinking about the behavior pattern and how it is surfacing in your interactions. Device or create a reminder or signal (cue or prompt) to yourself to monitor for the behavior. This could be as simple and subtle as a colorful rubber band around your wrist or as obvious as a wall poster in your office. It’s very important to recognize the behavior as it is occurring so that you can do something about it. When you do notice yourself interrupting, stay focused and pay attention to your action so you can stop or change the pattern. Self awareness is a powerful enabler for lasting change. It can be very challenging to practice, but once you’ve conquered it, it is also rewarding.