Motivation + Habit= Powerful Coaching

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." 
~ Jim Rohn

We live in the age of constant change, even more constant desire, and to top it all off, short attention spans. 
One minute you are up and then next minute... you begin to read something and are then deluged with so many pop-ups, pop-downs, beepers and so on- by the time you get to the next paragraph you already forgot what it is all about...

Powerful coaching is not about "wow" all day long, it IS about finding that point of motivation in you, that point where inspiration comes in and THEN.... building a relationship that links the habit to the goal to the motivation. 
That is why great people have coaches next to them to do great things that are way out of the comfort zone. 
Add motivation to habit and you will see where it takes you!

There is Money. There is Life. Better know the difference between the two.

Tell me, when was it exactly that people began to forget that we make money to live and not live to make money?! 
Wherever I look, hear or read there is always some item about some millionaire who fell apart at the seams through reckless investments or behavior, some "ordinary guy" who traded his friends, family or trust of others to make a quick buck, or some unfortunate human being who worked himself sick about getting promoted, or getting more stock options, or making that deal which did not come around in the end. 
Doctors' offices, therapists clinics, coaching rooms, pubs and a whole bunch of other places are full of them, those people who somehow got the horse and the carriage mixed up, what comes first and what follows…

I don't blame them, just pity their souls because they seem to have suffered so much by the influence of culture which has totally gone berserk in living for and around material goods, status and "looking good". 
And there are so many of them, and you know what? This "philosophy of life", if you might call it that, is deeply engrained in most of us, because most of us are really trapped inside it. 
We don't always know it but we probably are.

It is not that material goods have anything wrong with them by nature, we all need and feel good with some of them at one level or another, but it's just that the cost of living, the competition, the globalization, the excessive lack of time has produced this "monster" and it is all about working for, amassing more, getting more of it…while the real limiting factor is not money at all. 
It is time. 
Time that passes, time that we never regain, time that forever slips away while we are busy with our "stuff". 
It seems like every other day I find myself hearing about young people coming down with brain cancer, being killed in accidents on the ground and in the air, contracting some type of disease that will forever change their lives. How sad…

I remember when I first started to visit and eventually come to Israel to live it was not like that. 
At least to me in my younger years, this was a country that had its ideals, values and way of life, sure there were always financial struggles and tons of other problems but rampant materialism did not define the culture, it was beside it. 
Not so anymore, I'm afraid, Israel has really become a "mini America", in this respect, I miss the "Israel of my youth". 
Was it Israel, was it my youth or was it really different at all? Perhaps I will never know.

But one thing I know for sure. Nobody came into this world with money, nobody left it with money and nobody in the world in fifty years from now will remember- let alone care- how much money you made or didn't make while you were here. 
So why in God's name are so many of us totally engulfed in the net of materialism that cuts away at our lives, our creativity and at the heart of the relationships that are so dear to us?

Let's welcome a return to voluntary simplicity, it will not make us worse business owners, entrepreneurs, managers, professionals, but will likely make us saner human beings, living better quality of lives for ourselves and whomever we touch around us.

See this article with a former Professor at Harvard Business School, David Corten, who has made quite a journey in this direction….

Replace the Gospel of Money: An Interview With David Korten

What if we measured wealth in terms of life, and how well we serve it?

Sharing takes courage and adds real value

I have often wondered why people DON'T share very much, you know it really is not that big a deal to share a contact, a resource and idea and make a little bit of an effort. When I read Seth Godin's post below it clicked with me that sharing really does take courage and a certain sense of openness that not everybody has.Too bad. When we share we strengthen, one another, ourselves, the framework or organization we are affiliate with and----if you want a get a bit spiritual about it- the neighborhood, the nation, the world and keep going...

And when we don't share? The opposite happens.

So, any ideas how we can share more?

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You are what you share (Seth Godin)

I have a friend who can always be counted on to have a great book recommendation handy. 
Another who can not only tell you the best available movie currently in theatres, but confidently stand behind his recommendations.

And some people are eager to share a link to an article or idea that's worth reading.

Most people, though, hesitate. "What if the other person doesn't like it..."

The fear of being judged is palpable, and the digital trail we leave behind makes it feel more real and more permanent. 
We live in an ever-changing culture, and that culture is changed precisely by the ideas we engage with and the ones we choose to share. 

Sharing an idea you care about is a generous way to change your world for the better.

The culture we will live in next month is a direct result of what people like us share today. 
The things we share and don't share determine what happens next.

As we move away from the top-down regime of promoted movies, well-shelved books and all sorts of hype, the recommendation from person to person is now the most powerful way we have to change things.

It takes guts to say, "I read this and you should too." 
The guts to care enough about our culture (and your friends) to move it forward and to stand for something.

We'll judge you most on whether you care enough to change things.

Santa is Coming to Town!

Kind of hard to believe it now but 28 years ago, more or less on this day, I dressed up as Santa Claus for a room full of 3-5 year old Taiwanese children in Tainan, Taiwan. 
It was Christmas eve and I, as the "English teacher" was there to show the kids how Santa looks in Western countries. 
Pretty funny since I never got anywhere near Santa Claus in my New York-Israel Jewish upbringing, but who's counting anyway...in fact, Santa Claus is a pretty cool concept wherever you go, since we are all human beings who were once children and who does not love a "good-doing Grandpa" who is there to make us smile, give us gifts and excitement.

So Happy Santa and Merry Christmas to all of you good people out there wherever you are! Let's remember that if we did not have Santa we would have to invent him...kindness is not a parochial, narrow and sectarian thing but a common human theme so essential to our lives. As the Dalai Lama once said: "Kindness is my religion."

You Have a Choice

Pema Chodron, a great teacher and superb writer for Western audiences:

”YOU HAVE A CHOICE

If you have embarked on this journey of self-reflection, you may be at a place that everyone, sooner or later, experiences on the spiritual path. After a while it seems like almost every moment of your life you’re there, where you realize you have a choice. You have a choice whether to open or close, whether to hold on or let go, whether to harden or soften, whether to hold your seat or strike out. That choice is presented to you again and again and again."

I think one of the biggest blocks people have is that they often forget that THEY HAVE A CHOICE! It may be hard to see, difficult to extricate ourselves from fear, sadness or even tragedy, but the bottom is, and will always be, that WE HAVE A CHOICE!

Are we going to make that choice?

Making more by Doing Less

One of the things I find more and more of is that people are having a hard time figuring out what it is that they really need to do and what can be left aside. In other words, how to figure out what is effectiveness, what is efficiency, but it is really mostly about finding out what is ESSENTIAL- is it not?

I loved the title of this book "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less",Greg Mckeown,Crown Business/Imprint of Crown Publishing Group. In our age of too much information, too much to do and too little time to do it in, there is this message which says, "make more by doing less", give yourself a life instead of being just a "do-er". People who are feeling stretched too thin, finding themselves saying "yes" where they really should be saying "no", seeing that their "To- Do Lists" keep moving from one day to the next…it is these people (and are we not all of us at least a little bit like this?) that need this message urgently!

However, I don't think it just goes like that, you read a book, get this cool buzzword, "less is more" and then life gets back in stride, no, I don't think it goes that way, unfortunately. The "essentialist process" is one of constant focusing, asking what is really important, remembering to honor the essential balance of life even when others want your time and energy. It starts with a commitment to oneself that life is going to be managed according to principles and priorities, without become robotic and feeling-less- that is what I find in this word "essentialist"… I like it!

Coaching's Differentiating Factor: Action!

Coaching shares many qualities with other modalities of therapy, assistance and consulting, mostly in developing new ways of seeing things, understanding things and providing a secure way to communicate with the outside party. 
However, if there is one clear differentiating factor that is what I admire most about coaching it is that of "action". 
No matter what you are talking about and aiming for, a good coach will not only settle for being "someone to talk to" but he will be wary of the client leaving the session without action items to DO. 
It is mind and body, body and action, goals that help focus the mind and the action. 
It is one main differentiating and....the reason that is works so well and is so popular.

"Words may show a man's wit, but actions his meaning."  
Benjamin Franklin