Good coaching

We enjoyed the movie Bucket List last evening - you know the one with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson working through their 'things to do before we die' list - with two other couples. It was nice to get out socially and we stopped off for a visit at the first of our houses which was on the way and had some snacks, conversation and a glass of wine. For middle aged rural folks this is as exciting as it gets.

This afternoon I'm going to put together my application package in anticpation of being able to pick it the audition DVD on a trip to the district facility. If I get particularly ambitious I may even rough out the NS Duck Toller Retriever presentation. But my first priority is taking one of those for a walk.

I am offering this article out of the Chronicle Herald this weekend as a motivational boost in keeping with my plans for cruise speaking/retirement etc. although it's important NOT to think of the author as on speed and focus on the speaking points as it's a tad exhausting just to read it:


Good coaching will change your life
CULTURE SHIFT By BARB STEGEMANNSat. Feb 23 - 6:42 AM

IT IS NO WONDER life coaching is one of the hottest trends for people wanting to get the most out their lives, organizations and communities. The word "coach" in "life coach" comes from the sports coach who challenges the athlete to go for gold by consistently improving themselves every day.

The Power Within motivational event is coming to Halifax next week. If you are one of close to 7,000 people in attendance, promise yourself one thing before you go: Make a commitment to live out everything that moves you to action, and get past any fears that are preventing you from living your best life long after the event.

For if you do, I can guarantee that one year from Feb. 26 your life will be much richer, more directed and more successful than you dared imagine.
When I lived in British Columbia, I attended the Power Within conference. In between presenters, I met Mike Lipkin, the opening speaker. I recall how Mike heard me talking about the city with a colleague.

He walked up to me and said, "You are on fire!" At the time I was on contract with a municipality in B.C. Mike and I spoke at great length about motivating people inside bureaucracies to become engaged, present, excited, fearless, to demonstrate leadership and to muster the courage to do the right thing for the citizens at all times.

I channelled all that I learned from that experience and conference and exercised the philosophy of seeking the best from myself from that day forward. I got the discs and the books for every speaker that presented, and I read each book, listened to each CD in the car and then when I was finished I gave them to every manager at my city that had been frustrated with stalled progress.

My city went on to win the highly competitive Cultural Capitals Grant, garnered many national marketing awards for municipal economic development, and the model we created for revitalizing impoverished neighbourhoods and commercial areas was the only model in North America presented at the World Urban Forum.

The reason I was able to be the champion to spark all of this, was that I was able to excite my team and my leaders to stretch for excellence and to let go of their fears.
I got the chance to thank Mike Lipkin this past weekend as I interviewed him for this column. I found that he has stretched and grown significantly since that session several years ago. His new book, called One Life, One Meeting, in coming out in March.

It is about being present. It is about paying the fullest attention to the person or people you are interacting with at that moment. "The best leaders, the best friends, are fully inside the conversation, and giving all of themselves," he said. He defines that as integrity.

Lipkin is president of Environics/Lipkin, a motivation company. He has worked with over a million people in 22 countries and specializes in helping people leverage social values to boost their personal productivity and build strong teams around themselves.

As Nova Scotia universities face declining enrolments and businesses look for ways to attract and keep tradesmen and workers, it’s clear we can use some of Lipkin’s advice.
Lipkin says the size of your dragon (challenge) is directly proportional to your demons (fears). So the bigger the desired goal of achievement, the more work you have to do to achieve it. It begins with being accountable and facing your fears.

He suggests the worst thing that can happen when advancing towards any goal is backing off. When you set out to achieve something, go all the way. A start-and-stop pattern that indicates fear can become a pattern.

"We have an infinite ability to delude ourselves — rationally we get it, but fear stops us and at the end of the day, if we are not meeting our goals, if we are not passing our measures, we lack courage."

Lipkin has a fantastic quote, "If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, its entire success depends on the final step." Sometimes projects seem to be going 300 steps, 600 steps, but in the end it’s the final step, the 1,000th step that needs to occur. As we wrap up our two-hour invigorating conversation, Mike asked me what the saddest word in the English language is. I said, "Can’t?" He says worse, "Almost."

We need to know where to start. We need to know where we’re going. And we need to commit to the 1,000th step before we embark on any journey.

Barb Stegemann is an ex-pat back home from British Columbia. Her column, Culture Shift, appears regularly. Her book, The 7 Virtues of a Philosopher Queen, is scheduled for release in March.