|
|
| 
About the Author:
Sherry Lowry is a Austin-based business coach who works nationally and
internationally with executives, manages, business owners other coaches,
psychologists and therapists. She brings experience to her clients as a
founder and developer of 7 businesses, including one non-profit organization,
as a consultant and trainer, and professional mentor. Co-leading group
telecalls (via regular telephone connection) and telegroup series is a
speciality....with other field experts on corporate marketing, using public
speaking as a marketing took, marketing with heart, and offers with Diane
Menendez special teleclasses for mental health professionals transitioning as
coaches. In 1996, Sherry founded and continues to host The Coaches’ Showcase,
a free theme-based telegroup exchange with some of the industry’s most
experienced coaches. Also useful is her online collection of The Lowry Notes -
free to the public at her WWW site. She holds two traditional graduate degrees
and has completed the Coach University curriculum. She is on the Board of
International Coach Federation and is a member of Professional Coaches’ and
Mentor’s Association and Texas Executive Women.
Contact info:
Sherry Lowry, MCC
Austin, Texas, USA
Ph: 512-527-0097
Email: sherry@sherrylowry.com
Web site: www.sherrylowry.com.
|
Live Your Values - Part 2:
Redesign Your Life
In Part 1, we said that when you are living
The SeamLess Life™, you know your Core Values and you've designed your life so that what you do is
aligned with your values. That is, you do those things which let you
express your values daily. Living your values isn't a thing you save for
weekends or vacations. That's because when your life is aligned with your
values, you are intensely creative, and you experience immense satisfaction
and well-being.
Interested in getting that for yourself?
Here's how.
1. First, get clear about your top
3-5 values.
(See Part 1 for help.)
Write them down and hang them on your bathroom mirror. Your values are the
"habits of your heart." You can't live through them if you're not clear
about what they are and conscious of them every day. Your heart needs to
be in this. So get yourself clear. When you are, you'll feel an immense
sense of relief at articulating what's most important to you.
2. Pick one goal that lets you
demonstrate one of your values.
Create a goal that will allow you to measure and observe how well you
demonstrate this value through acting on it. Identify what you'll need
to eliminate or get rid of so that the blocks to fulfilling the goal and
living out of your values are eliminated. So that you can release yourself
to live the value.
A client of ours, for example, has core values of (a) living with passion
and (b) creativity. When she looked at her life, she saw that her needs
for structure and detail were getting in the way of her living out these two
values. She set a goal for herself of turning to her intuition first when
she was making decisions. So, before she did any analysis and put a
structure in place for solving a problem, she asked herself, "What do I
intuitively believe is the right answer or approach here?" She held
herself accountable for doing this every time she had a business or
personal problem to solve during a 30 day period. She wrote down her
intuitive insights to make them concrete. Then she let herself use her
other analytical skills.
What she found was that her decision making was easier - more efficient. Her
answers were more creative because she was living her values out as she worked. She let herself thrive.
3. Create new opportunities for living out
your values. Look to yourself, not to
the outside world, for satisfaction.
Not all opportunities are created equal! Sometimes current projects or
clients aren't the ones who will let you fully live out of your Core
Values. You will thrive when you're living out your values, but don't do
it because you expect to be rewarded by others. The reward is your thriving.
|
About the Author:
Diane Menendez, Ph.D., is a business and personal success coach. She has been
coaching since 1983 when she began the High Performance Coaching process as an
internal staff coach at AT&T. Since 1988 she has coached more than 250
business executives in Fortune 100 companies and has provided leadership for
company-wide efforts in executive and leadership development. Menendez’s
special niche in executive coaching is providing support to leaders of rapidly
changing industries who are committed to transforming their personal
leadership styles. She has successfully also transferred her skills to work
with entrepreneurs, other business owners, family owned business leadership,
and non-profit executives and their organizations. She created Results-Focused
Leadership Development, an intensive, creative and empowering process that
influences and inspires client to fully develop their leadership potential
while supporting their company’s mission and goals. Her passions are inspiring
the success of family business members, entrepreneurs and therapists and other
professionals in transition. Her www domain name, HeartDance.com, is an
expression of her belief that, "Our work can bring us joy as well as financial
rewards." Yes, that’s what she means -- real joy, enough to make your heart
dance.
Contact info: HeartDance, Cincinnati, Ohio USA, 513-474-1137
1-800-882-9383;
Email: diane@heartdance.com
Web Site:
www.heartdance.com.
|
An advertising client who had a Core Value of Creativity was frustrated
because he would create and present 8 terrific ad options to his clients. Yet
the clients consistently chose the least creative options. What he learned was
that the real joy for him was in the creation itself. So, he quit
"over-delivering" to clients who couldn't appreciate this aspect of his
creativity AND eliminated his own disappointment in their lack of
discrimination. Then he created a portfolio of all these extra jewels they didn't select to market
conceptually outside of his current client base to new and more creative
companies.
4. Align your life and work goals with your Core Values.
Make a list of your short-term goals - for the next 60 to 90 days. Now, make
a list of your long term goals - 2 to 5 years out. Examine these lists closely.
For each of the goals listed, assess if you can really live out your Core
Values as you meet these goals. You may need to change the goal itself.
Or, you may need to change your plan for getting there.
Say you're building a business which requires lots of "solo" work. Yet you
have a Core Value of being a close friend. You may need to change the time
frame by which your business plan works, to allow you to stay connected
with your close friends. Or, you could get your friends involved with you
in creating the business by creating a Master Mind Group for yourself.
5. For each of your 3-5 Core Values, create a list of ways you can live
them
out regularly.
We suggest you brainstorm 8-10 ways, both small and large, that you can get
each of your values met daily, weekly, and monthly. It's not enough to
have only a few opportunities to live out your values each month. A life
that lets your thrive is one where you live out your Core Values daily.
When this happens, you'll see the result: your energy is higher. Your
creativity flows. Your work and life feels almost effortless.
6. Examine your current week. Where are each of your values being
expressed?
Go back and look at your last several weekly calendars. Circle the places
where you found you were living out a value. Find ways to do more of those
activities during your week.
For the value of creativity, for example, you could do the following:
a) Get outside every day. Connect with nature. Notice what's around you.
b) Keep a daily journal. Write 20 minutes every morning.
c) Keep flowers and greenery, and other living things, around you.
d) Change the things around your desk so that you are stimulated by what you look
at as you work. Get a fountain in the proximity of your desk.
7. Eliminate what blocks you from living out of a Core Value.
Go back to your weekly planner again. Draw a square around the activities
that are "blockers" for you. You may need to learn to delegate these. Or
let them go.
8. Keep your values list in front of you at all times.
Put it on a "post it" and post it on each day of your planner. Look for
opportunities for fulfilling your values as you get calls, consider
projects, and do your work.
Remember, a life where you thrive is one where you live out of your values.
Redesigning your life to make that possible is well worth it!
Join us next week for another installment of Tips in Leading the Seamless Life™
Come back July 20 for Issue # 6 in this bi-weekly series!
E-Mail us with questions or suggestions. Diane can be reached at diane@heartdance.com, and Sherry can be reached at sherry@sherrylowry.com.
Diane and Sherry's book, Discovering Your Best Self Through the Art of Coaching, can be ordered at http://www.sherrylowry.com/book.htm.
Back to the Top / Previous Issues
|
|
