Above the line or below the line? Which are you?

Above the line, or below the line…where do you spend most of your time? It can be easy to let yourself sink, or to feel like you are being dragged, below the line. Life throws up challenges and change everyday ( like death and taxes they are both certainties and we can rely on the fact that they will continue)

I had a bit of a sucky day today and felt myself begin to drift below the line, sometimes it might be nice to wallow there for a bit ( but usually not helpful so I don’t like to stay long!)

The good news is that if you sink below the line, you don’t have to stay there. I shared this image with colleagues and one of them sent me an email back that said, ” Thank you. I just felt myself slipping below the line and this timely reminder helped me pull myself back up!”

Raising your awareness is the first step in pulling yourself up, looking above the line and knowing that you don’t need to stay stuck. Once you have raised your awareness you can change your thoughts- if you want to…

I ask the people I work with, ” What does being below the line get you?” as you might expect the answers are as varied and different as the people I ask, although most of them say that being below the line is usually an unresourceful state. It holds them back.

This image has proved to be a valuable tool- especially when they start to look at the opposites. Procrastination seems to be a favourite, “below the line” state. When I asked, ” What would the impact be for you personally if you moved towards action and away from procrastination?” One very enthusiastic response was, “That would be EPIC! I would be unstoppable!” That opened the door for further thought and discussion, which lead to different, more resourceful choices…

* Raise your awareness of where you spend most of your time…
* What does it get you?
* Are you happy to stay there or is it time to move?
* Are you willing to be 100% responsible for changing your thoughts and creating the shift?
* Where do you want to shift to?

Have fun playing with this colourful, thought-provoking image, and use it to remind you to shift, from time to time, if you want too.

A day of firsts

This morning I made a decision, different to the usual ones of what to have for breakfast? What to wear? Tea or coffee? I made a decision about what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be whilst I was doing it.

Decisions about what to do this week:
* be focused on solutions (rather than problems)
* be proactive (take action)
* look for the positives (you get more of what you focus on so it might as well be good!)
* find what makes my heart sing
* set a goal
* make a plan to move towards that goal ( blundering around has served me well, it’s time for
focus)
* enjoy the journey ( take time to be in the moment)

Having made that decision, in a timely fashion, I was asked the question,” Who are you going to be whilst doing?”

Decisions about who I am being whilst I am doing:
* I am an “above the line thinker”
* I am being proactive, exploring, having new experiences
* I am going where the energy is
* I am enjoying different perspectives

This approach has led me to the firsts:
* first time using ” we buy any car.com” (and getting more than the dealer offered!)
* first time selling a car and leaving on foot
* first time getting an umbrella thrown into a sale
* first time at Bletchly train station (didn’t even know there was one- 6 platforms as well!)
* first time on a London Midland train (much like any other, although enjoying the green colour scheme)
* first time blogging on a train
* first time taking really decisive action with something that I would have procrastinated over in the past.

While enjoying my journey home, I am also looking forward to seeing what else this decisive, positive, proactive approach attracts this week. 🙂

Positive Goals: Dream; Believe; Act; Achieve

Positive Goals: dream, believe, act, achieve. Four simple steps to achieving your goals and the basis of my coaching business.

“If you can conceive it and believe it,  you can achieve it.” Napoleon Hill wrote this in 1930,and hundreds of years before him the great writers and philosophers were saying and writing similar things. As my friend, colleague  and creator of Goal Mapping, Bryan Mayne says, ” there is nothing new here, these ideas have been around for many years”

If we apply these principals, employ the steps and take action which moves us towards our goals, we invariably achieve them; the most successful people do this consistently and they get repeatedly get good, great, outstanding results. This is no accident.

The great thing is that we as human beings all have the capacity to set goals, and if the reasons ‘why’ we want them are compelling enough, we will get there. How fast we do that depends on our focus and the energy we put into getting there.

I thought it might be good to start a blog, to share ideas,strategies and thoughts. It took me a while to believe that I had  things to say that other people might be interested in reading. Now I have finally taken action, and I have achieved the writing of my first blog entry 🙂

What are your dreams?

What will it take to make them a compelling goal?

“All men of action are dreamers” James Huneker