Feroce Coaching

Boost Your Success With Feroce Coaching

At Feroce, we believe that the 5 most common reasons people are unhappy in their jobs or careers are:

1. Lack of FIT: they end up in the job by default, without an understanding of whether their strengths actually match the position.

(by the way, most employers don’t understand this either!)

2. Lack of FIT: they end up in an environment that doesn’t suit them. (right job, wrong company culture)

3. Lack of CONFIDENCE…they lack the confidence that comes from having the opportunity to do what they do best.
(Only 1 in 5 people have the opportunity to do what they do best every day in their work, according to the Gallup Research study from 1.2 million respondents in 101 countries.)

4. Lack of VISION – for their life, for their career, for their business.

5. Lack of VALIDATION – they aren’t rewarded for their strengths. VALIDATION builds momentum, contributes to the sense of FLOW.

Top Ten Reasons To Hire A Feroce Coach to Boost Your Career or Your Business:

1.  It’s all focused on You!  Since it’s all about Fit, learn what best fits you.  (match your skills to your role or your business)

2. Work with your very own strategic partner to help you every step of the way to achieve your business or career goals.

3.  Use tried and tested tools to develop your brand and launch your new role or new business.  (Or give your current one a face-lift)

4.  Leverage your existing skills and resources to become more visible in the marketplace.  (Big confidence booster)

5.  Achieve results with creative and innovative techniques customized for you.

6.  Boost your productivity, performance, and above all, your bottom line by uncovering what’s been holding you back.

7.  Get the clarity you’ve always wanted about what to be when you grow up.  With clarity, the decisions are easy.  Without clarity, you end up on the nowhere road.

8.  Develop your personal strategic plan and map out your road map to be successful and happy.

9.  Get the competitive edge to navigate in today’s economy and market, including office politics.

10. Learn the secrets your competition isn’t sharing.

The most successful people hire coaches.

Is it worth investing in you?  At Feroce, you get two free coaching consultations (risk-free) to explore if coaching is for you.

Posted by Wanda Ropa, The Success Coach.

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Many attorneys think that lawyering and the media just don’t mix.  Some think just of advertising and find it distasteful (which I think, if done right isn’t).  Not the point though.  Utilizing the media effectively is a great way to market, and it is nearly free.

Three Lawyer Coaching Tips to PR That Will Get You In Front of New Clients

Before the tips, we must caution on two things.  First, before you expose yourself, you need to make sure your house is in order (not talking about your crazy antics back in the day).  You need to have an updated bio on your website, updated picture, etc.  If you are going to yell from the highest mountain, you probably don’t want to be naked.  (Most of us anyway.) 

Tip 1:  Issue a Press Release About Something You Are Doing

Of course, we are not talking about what we normally do – boring.  But, you will be surprised about how many of the things that you do are interesting.  And, you can always do something interesting.  Your coach can help you think of ideas (I have plenty), but a few are – give a seminar on some cutting edge material in your area (stuff that is already getting coverage) – might be changes to the inheritance tax, the Supreme Court’s ruling on the harassment case, etc.  If you really want to be creative, actually do something fun.  We created a fun television show for HR folks, Quid Pro Quo http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FaoCmck&h=b8820.  It was fun to do, and got a lot of attention.  And, attention equals clients.

Now, we write press releases all of the time and are happy to help with that.  But written the right way, you will attract attention to what you are doing.  And, of course, even if you don’t get clients from the media attention, you will forward that attention to your existing or target clients to make sure they see it.

Tip 2:  Become a Reporter’s Friend

Reporters are always on deadlines, and often looking for something to write about.  If you let the reporter know that you are available to comment on your practice area – or better yet, from a lawyer marketing perspective, you send them story ideas – you will create a best friend.  Soon, you’ll be on speed dial, and might grow tired of reading your name in the paper.  Again, successful marketing will depend on the follow through afterward, which your attorney coach can help you with.

Tip 3:  Partner with a Charity or Client in a Charitable Cause

This is just a good thing to do, and we should do it because we like it.  But again, it never hurts to let people know what you’re doing.  Clients and prospective clients like to know that they are hiring good people.  You are; just show them.  We do a lot with our favorite charity, which has been inspired by our son, Henry’s Hope – www.henryshope.org.  And, we’re not shy about it – because we want to raise awareness about the charity, and clients love it too (and want to help).  It is a win-win.

We hope that the tips have helped you, and our attorney coaches would love to provide you direct and specific guidance for your successful lawyer marketing plan.  So, contact us today for your free consultation.

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It’s never too late to learn new tricks as this video reveals.

Yes, anyone can learn a new technique or trick for success.  Surf the Internet and it’s full of proven methods to become successful in business, your career, and your life.  Every day, a new guaranteed program is popping up in the field of self-help.  Many of my clients turn to coaching because they have repeatedly tried everything from A to Z and it works for a little while, then it’s back to their old ways.

What’s missing?  Why do old patterns keep showing up over and over?  Research demonstrates that it takes 28-30 days to change a habit, introduce a new way of conducting business, living life, etc.  Actually, what I’ve discovered is that it only takes 14 days because if you have repeated a new habit or technique consistently for 14 days, by the 15th day, it will seem strange without it.  So, you usually continue.  By the time you reach the end of the 30 days, you have successfully shifted.  Then all it takes is another couple months to reinforce it, and voila, you’ve sustained a change.

In theory, this sounds too easy.  You’re right.  There is one more piece to making this work.  It has to be in synch with who you are naturally.  Most of my clients have no idea who they really are and what makes them tick.  They have been too busy listening to everyone else and not truly taking time to find out.

Is this complicated?  No.  The first place to start is to ask 2 questions.  What energizes you and what drains you?  You always know what drains you and if you start to pay attention, you can easily identify what energizes you, as well.

The key is to start creating a custom navigation tool that will help you get back on course and stay on the road to success.  Only by doing the things that come naturally will you be able to stop resisting yourself and actually improve the quality of your life.

I am not recommending that you make any drastic changes.  I am only asking you to discover 2 things:
1. What energizes you?

2. What drains you?

Once you are clear with both questions, you can start coming up with a list of things that must happen in your life.  These will start to be included in your top priorities.  For example, one of my clients, a business owner, was trying to grow his business and heard from many sources that all he had to do was to attend business functions, network and follow-up on leads.  This appeared to be sound advice.  However, group socializing and general networking meetings actually totally drained him.  He did better with growing individual relationships that were meaningful.  So, he created a description of his ideal client and researched places they would attend.  Turns out, he was targeting individuals in the creative professions and he had a passion for the performing arts.  Instead of attending unfruitful business meetings, he attended plays and started becoming involved in Community Theater in his back yard.  His new approach energized him and satisfied his passion for the arts.  In just a couple of months, he was happier and had acquired a dozen new clients.  He was no longer resisting the traditional marketing program.  This client changed the physical location where he was conducting business.  Physical locations provide some of the most powerful cues to behavior.

The most important thing to remember about success is to give yourself permission to explore alternatives without being fixed on the outcome.  To change a pattern or habit that’s not working, identify where this usually happens.  Then …change the context, change the cues.   …This requires understanding the triggers to your own behavior.

In the business world, it’s all about ROI and value propositions from employees.  Performance reviews are all about metrics.  It’s not about abolishing the metrics; it’s about giving yourself permission to creatively look at new approaches that map to the way you operate best.  If you increase the activities that energize you and minimize the ones that drain you, you will already notice a difference.

Try a free coaching consultation with Wanda Ropa, your success coach to get you started and get clear about where you’re going with your career, or with your life so you can develop a strategic plan that really works for you.  With clarity, success becomes a natural outcome.
Posted by Wanda Ropa, The Success Coach.

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Do you feel trapped by your life?  Do you sense you are a product of the times finding it difficult to recognize your true self amidst the noise and stimulation of traffic, emails, work deadlines, and family?

Dan Pink acknowledges that we have left the Industrial Age and Entered a Conceptual Age.  What if instead we are entering a dark age?  The economy, the workplace, the political stage, your current state of mind all take its toll on your sense of self.

Do you have a minute to breathe or a few minutes each day to focus on yourself? Maggie Jackson discusses that the Erosion of Attention is heralding this new period in our civilization.

At the TED conference, Barry Schwartz discusses why too much choice is bad for us.
Too many choices cause:
1. Paralysis rather than liberation – people prefer to make no decision rather than make a complicated choice.
2. Less satisfaction with decisions as people have greater reason to regret the decisions they have made.
3. Unrealistic expectations.
4. Self-blame – when experiences are not perfect, people blame themselves.

Is it time to conduct an audit of your life?
A very wise manager once told me that every individual has a check for 24 hours and it is up to him or her how to choose to use it. Now, as you know, that is not necessarily true. We are all bound to our previous commitments. Yes, our commitment to our families and ourselves to maintain certain lifestyles. Have your true priorities been washed away by the current tides?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has been researching the subject of being in flow for many years.

He defines flow as the process of achieving happiness through control over one’s inner life.
When you are in flow, you are focused on your highest priorities and life becomes easy and effortless. You are leveraging your natural self.

Using the 80/20 Principle, 20% of your critical priorities will yield 80% of your results. The question is how to identify your highest priorities? If you haven’t developed a personal strategic plan, it will be challenging to start this process. To make this easy, let’s first remember it’s not about managing your time, but your energy levels. Begin by answering the next few questions:

When is my peak time of day?  Morning, afternoon, or evening?  Or somewhere in-between?

Am I using my peak times to focus on activities that are most important to me?

Do I know how much true discretionary time I have in a week?

To get you started, let’s look at a typical week: 24 hours x 7 days = 168 hours.
To calculate how much actual discretionary time you actually have in 1 week:
1. Total the number of hours you are actually at work, include your commute time, and work you bring home.
2. Tally the average number of hours you sleep, notice if there are any differences on the weekends, to get your subtotal for the week.
3. Estimate the time you take to eat each day, include meal preparation, grocery shopping, restaurant dining, notice if there are any changes on weekends, to estimate time spent in 1 week.
4. Identify your scheduled and weekly time commitments to other activities, including, but not limited to working out, trips to the gym, church attendance, regular weekly family obligations (does not include relaxation or ad hoc activities – only routine scheduled activities are recorded here)
5. Now, subtotal your hours for the week and subtract from 168 hours. This is your total discretionary time available each week. Any surprises? Yes, you didn’t factor in rest and relaxation. But how many hours of each day do you actually squander or do they just escape in mindless activities that do not move you forward on your goals?

One Quick Tip:
- 1% of your time is 1.68 hours. Let’s round up to 2 hours a week or about 15 minutes per day.
- This coming week, try scheduling 15-minute appointments each day to focus on yourself and your highest priorities.

Are you ready to take this first step? Try it and see.

If you would like a more detailed audit of your life, try a free coaching consultation with Wanda Ropa, your success coach to get you started. Coaching can help you get clear about where you’re going with your career, or with your life so you can develop a strategic plan that really works for you.  With clarity, success becomes a natural outcome.

Posted by Wanda Ropa, The Success Coach.

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Most people cringe at the thought of putting one together.  Attorney business development plans are nothing new.  Everyone has told us to do them – from marketing departments to business books.  Even when not told, it seems like a good idea to have a “plan” to get new clients and grow our existing books.  And, over the years, most of us have even created a lawyer marketing plan.  We might have even felt energized with our creative juices flowing when putting the ideas on paper.   I guarantee you that, when you wipe the dust off those marketing plans, they are filled with some great starting places for building a great book of business.  Another guarantee:  if you develop and implement an effective lawyer marketing plan, you will develop business.

 Most Attorney Marketing Plans Do Not Work

So if they can build our books and most every lawyer has been exposed to attorney development plans, why do they gather dust and never really implemented?  It is really simple – most attorney marketing plans do not work.  Don’t worry – it’s not your fault (mostly anyway).  Though we’re told to put them together, no one is really ever taught how to do it successfully – that is taught by someone who has successfully developed a large book of business because of their personal attorney marketing plan.  (That task, if you ever have gotten guidance, was probably left to a marketing staffer that is well intended, but missing the key experience of closing the deal.)

Here are three tips to develop your own lawyer marketing plan.

Tip 1:  Your Lawyer Marketing Plan Must Set Very Specific and Measurable Goals

As lawyers, we’re taught to think big picture.  Big picture is important and necessary, but successful  lawyer marketing plans require plotting out the details.  Somehow, most lawyer marketing plans are more theoretical than practical.  For example, a plan may be designed to “obtain new defense personal injury cases with injuries in restaurants – through insurance panels and direct contacts.”  That is a great start and the goal is pretty specific, but the plan doesn’t provide guidance.  The “how’s” and “when’s” are left unanswered. 

To answer those questions, a successful attorney development plan will:

Identify each step required to achieve the goal.  This makes us think through the practical steps.  Sometimes it will cause us to re-evaluate the goal (maybe it’s too aggressive or not aggressive enough) early on.  For the above example, our specifics might be:  1) make list of restaurant contacts; 2) research competition that has handled similar matters; 3) research and list insurance carriers; 4) identify adjusters and arrange meetings.

 Set alternative steps for accomplishing the goal.  There are always several paths to a goal, and many times we run into stumbling blocks.  But I have found that those that have a back-up plan or two keep at it and are successful.  If you only have one plan and it doesn’t pan out, you might just give up – feeling you did as much as you could.  In this example, while getting on the “panels” and arrange a meeting with the targets, you might also want to look to provide the adjusters (who make the decision to hire you) with something of value (a training or presentation) that they can pass along to their insureds and your future clients.  This is a win-win proposition and a great back up.

Set regular deadlines for each step – and meet them.  This is critical to success.  And a key that is often overlooked – you must set a task for at least every two weeks.  The key to lawyer marketing is to keep the ball rolling.  You have other deadlines and things going on, but this is a must.  (This is one of the reasons why attorneys hire coaches – we are good at setting productive tasks and following up; sometimes we’ll even help you with your homework!)

Regularly measure performance, and make adjustments.  Looking back at your plan, what you have accomplished, and what you need to do is another key step.  I suggest that you re-evaluate at least monthly or task by task, which should be every two weeks.  Adjust and fine tune as necessary.

Tip 2:  Effective Legal Marketing Must Have Short-Term Results

 Results matter.  To keep your attorney development plan effective and alive, I always suggest that one of your goals is to ensure a short-term success.  And, I don’t define “success” as some feel good; I mean real, bottom line, money in your pocket success.  This is what development is all about, and if you experience short-term success, you are more likely to continue working on lawyer marketing and achieve long-term successes too. 

 These are a couple of short-term goals that I suggest:

 Look at Your Numbers.  If you are like me, when you first heard the term “realization rate,” it triggers the eyelids to lower.  But, when in management, I learned the true definition –  getting paid for what you already do without doing more work.  What?  Yes.  As a development coach, I often set the short-term goal of raising an attorney’s realization rate (bottom line cash in door) by 4-5% within 30 days.  And, I do not take failure well – so, we accomplish that goal over and over.  Again, this is money in your pocket without doing any extra work.  (Call for a free consultation to get working on details.)

 Expand Work For Existing Client.  To be more specific, I work with attorneys in partnering with their existing clients to bring in two more matters (for that client or for one of the client’s contacts) in the first month.  Each relationship is unique and will require a specific game plan, but this is one of the easiest and most satisfying short term goals to accomplish.  (Of course, this short term goal should become a recurring monthly goal as well!)

 Real Accountability Required

Study after study has shown that if you are accountable to someone else, you are more likely to produce results.  More surprisingly, people are even more accountable to people they don’t know as well – maybe the excuses won’t work.  Of course, we believe that this is where coaching is key.  You have an objective, outsider that has built a large book of business that is willing to share these methods and keep you on track.  Well worth the money invested.  Even if we are not the right fit, we think hiring an experienced coach is essential.

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The times, they are a changing.  We all knew that, but who knew the extent of that change when it came to lawyer marketing?  In the good old days, as lawyers, we were able to get clients because they were loyal to us or our firm.  We really didn’t have to do much back then, but do good work. 

Those are the days that are over, for the most part.  Clients, like lawyers, are mobile – and many use the services of several firms.  To get in the door and stay on a client’s calling card, we have to do so much more than the old “dog and pony shows” of the past.  (You remember those days when a junior lawyer put together materials, and a senior lawyer sat before the decision-maker and just talked, and talked, and talked about nothing related to the materials.  And usually never listened to the client.  Oddly, this was the method for awhile.  Let us be thankful for the passing of some things.) 

Now, we have to be on the cutting edge in our legal marketing strategies.  The competition is fierce, and we have seen lawyers turning to attorney marketing coaches to get a significant leg up on the competition.  Marketing Departments are great and serve a terrific purpose.  But they generally have to serve the firm’s entire attorney base and cannot provide the individualized coaching and development that a lawyer marketing coach (that has been a successful practitioner with a great book of business) can provide.  Practical insight – not theory – is what attorney coaches provide.  To really build your book, you need someone that will critically assess where you need assistance, set very specific goals, and actually help you in executing – to get the results you desire.  And the return on investment (which everyone wants to know about) is huge. 

Hire a Lawyer Marketing Coach

So, my first tip to any lawyer – whether just starting out, trying to build your book to attain equity status, or a successful equity partner that wants to remain ahead of the game – is to hire a coach.  It sounds a little like the “Match.com” for attorneys’ professional lives, I know.  Before I became a coach, I hired one.  But getting there for me took a nudge or two.  I was chugging along, an equity partner, and making a good living.  Why would I need a coach?  Now, looking back, it is easy to say why – because I was losing my mind.  Not literally (at least, I don’t think so).  But, as we all do, I was juggling a lot and it just seemed that I needed to get it all organized (kind of like when you dread the summary judgment motion or plaintiff’s deposition for weeks), but when you sit down and write it or take it, you realize the worry was much more troubling than the actual motion or depo). 

The same is true of lawyer marketing.  After I hired my coach, my book doubled from almost two million to almost four in a year.  And, I spent less time on marketing.  My legal marketing became almost mechanical.  My attorney coach helped me put a system in place so that marketing was ongoing (not the “when I get a chance I’ll get to that” list), effortless, and fun.  Of course, I happen to think we provide the best practical results, but please take my tip – whether it is us or not – hire a coach!

The List:  Secret Weapon for Legal Marketing Success

My second tip is at the core to any legal marketing success and what I tell every single coaching client.  “The List” is crucial to building your book of business.  Now, though it probably doesn’t seem like rocket science, you would be surprised how many lawyers do not keep (and maintain) an active contact list – that contains your clients, targets, professional relationships on boards, friends, etc.  If you have one, that’s great, but remember, The List doesn’t bring you clients – it is what you do with it.  The List will contain contact information, of course, but much, much more.  You’ll include important dates (birthdays, anniversaries), children’s and spouses’ names, and personal information about the client/target (where they like to vacation, what their hobbies are, where they go to church, etc.).  Of course, you’re not going to have them fill out a questionnaire, but these are the details that you’ll pick up in your conversations (or I’ll teach you to pick up) – and you’ll note it.  And when you send them an article on the Caribbean that you found online (or your Marketing Coach found for you), it tells them so much about you.  It tells the client that you listen, you truly care about them, not just their business – that you value their relationship.  That’s what it is all about.  Isn’t that exactly the type of person you would want to hire?

There are so many things to do with The List – that take little time and give you huge bang for your buck.  We’ll share more of those in other posts.  When you are ready to get started with your successful legal marketing success, drop us a line for your complimentary session.  Test us out; we are passionate about your individual success.

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Everyone knows what winning looks like.  Today the New York Times published a photo of Spain’s Andres Iniesta as he made the winning goal in the 2010 World Cup Soccer Championship and beat the Netherlands by 1 point.

As you listen below to the lyrics of the theme song from the World Cup Soccer Championship, it’s all about the love of the game.  No matter the outcome, we will be victorious. This is a great metaphor for life and the marketplace.

Winners, not losers, leave legacies.  It feels great to be a winner.  So, is it just about winning?  Or is it about really being satisfied with what you’re doing?  Is it about giving it your best?

Let’s look for a moment at what really happens when you’re fully engaged at work, at home, or at play.  In that moment, you are in flow.  In this place, you are laser focused, not distracted, and truly experiencing life.  You may have an end goal, but you’re not second-guessing yourself, procrastinating, or timid about proceeding.   To achieve this state of fulfillment, you must first understand what it is that truly brings you happiness.  Clues come from your past experiences.

Right now, take a moment to remember the last time you were on top of your game; everything was just going well, you were energized and motivated.  Who was involved?  What was it about this time that excited or pleased you?  It might be that you were learning something new or took on a challenge that just gently stretched you.  Or you were free to be creative once the expectations and guidelines were in place.  Whatever the reason, this is the first place to look.

Stay tuned for more tips to achieve success and get into flow.

Try a free coaching consultation with Wanda Ropa, your success coach to get you started and get clear about where you’re going with your career, or with your life so you can develop a strategic plan that really works for you.  With clarity, success becomes a natural outcome.
Posted by Wanda Ropa, The Success Coach.

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Many of my clients decline opportunities for networking simply because they dread the piercing question:  “So what do you do?”  -As if, your sum worth can be captured by your day job or lack of it.  Take a look at the video below for a different perspective:

Brain Surgeon – That Mitchell & Webb Look, Series 3 – BBC Two

Remember that life is a mirror that reflects back what you feel inside.  So, if your last performance review eroded your self-confidence, or you are dissatisfied with your job, or are restless and searching for more, all of this will come across as you answer.

When you are in the driver’s seat, you have a road map, navigate with a personal strategic plan, have a clear vision and clearly understand how you can leverage your natural strengths and talents to support you to thrive or be successful and happy.  Ask yourself, when you take a road trip, what do you use to help you navigate:  GPS, an online road map, or a travel directory from AAA?  Why do you take more time and planning to design your travel experiences but fall short with designing a road map for your career and your life?

Right now is the perfect time to take a look under the hood and see if you’re in shape for success.  It is perfectly natural to come to the fork in the road and question if you’re on the right career path.  To help you evaluate if you’re on track or have lost your way, take a look at the top ten pitfalls and see if this describes you.

Top Ten Pitfalls: (You’ve lost or never had a career road map)

1.  When you wake up in the morning, do you hit the snooze button 20 times, thinking you can delay the inevitable?

2.  You are comfortable in your misery….so does misery make you comfortable?

3.  You are repeating the same career strategies and expecting different results:  this is Einstein’s definition of crazy.

4.  Your self-help book budget exceeds your paycheck.

5.  If you view your job as only a paycheck, who’s the slave and who’s the master?

6.  Your current job is sucking the life right out of you – like a human vacuum cleaner.

7.  You are calling in sick, hoping that when you come back, the players and the field has changed.

8.  You think “presence” on the job means surprise presents under your desk.

9.  You dread Sunday nights because Mondays keep showing up.

10. You are coming into work later and later, hoping that the job changes when you get there.

Does any of this sound familiar?

For years, the staff at Investor’s Business Daily has been studying people from all walks of life.  They have identified 10 common traits for success:

1. How you think is everything.
2. Decide upon your true dreams and goals.
3. Take action.
4. Never stop learning.
5. Be persistent and work hard.
6. Learn to analyze details.
7. Focus your time and money.
8. Don’t be afraid to innovate; be different.
9. Deal and communicate with people effectively.
10. Be honest and dependable; take responsibility.
    

Before you can use these 10 traits to become successful, you will need to create your personal strategic plan.

Identifying your strengths and creating your ideal work and home environment is the first step.

Strengths

1.    What key strengths are you currently using at work?  Have you completed an assessment or instrument to measure your strengths or styles?  Which ones?  What did they measure?  How do your current strengths coincide with your assessment results?

2.    Remember one specific peak period in your life.  Now focus on this specific time when you were incredibly successful:  you felt you were at an all time high in your career, you were truly on top of your game and everything was just working well.  What was going on at that time?  Was it a period of rapid learning?  What skills were you using?  Who was involved?  What made this possible?

An opportunity happens when the conditions seem right.  The right place at the right time with the right action equals the right results.  So, the key to success is leveraging your opportunities or being prepared before they arise.  Here’s an example of how this worked for one of my clients.

One of my clients was stuck waiting on companies to decide her fate.  She only had applied to companies with posted positions in human resources and the training field.  Working in the coaching relationship for 90 days, she identified her strengths and created her ideal job description.  While interviewing for a lesser role as a recruiter at a company she really admired, she did something completely different.   She took out her copy of her ideal job description and handed it to the VP.  She acknowledged that working as a recruiter would not take advantage of her true talents and the company would be wasting an asset.  Yes, they were surprised and told her their first priority was filling the posted position but they would consider her offer and be in touch.  Two weeks later she began the negotiating process with this same company and even picked her job title and salary range.  It was a match made in heaven.  She agreed that life isn’t about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself! And your perfect job!

Are you ready to jump-start your road to success?  Try a free coaching consultation with Wanda Ropa, your success coach to get you started and get clear about where you’re going with your career, or with your life so you can develop a strategic plan that really works for you.  With clarity, success becomes a natural outcome.

Posted by Wanda Ropa, The Success Coach.

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There are a variety of reasons to meditate.  Some meditate for stress reduction. Others do it to improve their sleep; while others strive for more mystical benefits. But another good reason to meditate is that it is a great tool for anyone who is seeking to make a transformation.  And this is why I use it in my work as a coach and wellness teacher. With all of my coaching clients, whether they are seeking life coaching, spiritual coaching, or career change coaching, I teach them a basic, five-minute meditation practice that they can do once a day and that fits into the busiest of lifestyles. This meditation practice complements the other standard coaching techniques that I use in my work.

Meditation as a tool for career change along with other types of coaching serves dual purposes:

• It expands the horizon of our self awareness so we become aware of beliefs and thought patterns that may be blocking us from moving forward;
• It provides a vehicle for communicating to the subconscious mind where deeply ingrained beliefs and thought patterns are embedded.

When clients come to me for coaching – whether it’s life, spiritual, or career change coaching – they are trying to get from point A to point B.  But for some reason, they aren’t getting to point B. Though they may be 100% committed to getting to point B, they just can’t seem to get there. This is because another part of them, or another part of their consciousness, is going to point C or point D. And in some cases, it’s going nowhere at all. This subversive part of them is their subconscious mind.

As a coach, I’ll spend some time talking with my clients about why their subconscious mind is running a different program. It’s usually due to an underlying fear of some kind and a corresponding commitment. In coaching parlance, we call this a “UAC” – an Underlying Automatic Commitment. A UAC is a commitment to something that we haven’t consciously chosen. That’s why it’s underlying.  And it’s happening involuntarily, which is why it’s automatic. Furthermore, it’s overriding the conscious commitment because it’s stronger.

For instance, if a career change coaching client comes to me and says he wants to leave his corporate job and become a writer. He has a conscious commitment to becoming a writer. But he hasn’t taken the necessary step(s) to become one.  In this case, a common UAC is that he is more committed to staying safe.  A less common UAC is that he is committed to proving something about himself to be true.  For example, he may be reinforcing a belief that was instilled in him as a child which told him he wasn’t creative enough to succeed or some variation of that theme.

UACs can be tricky to uncover. Some are deeply embedded. This is where meditation serves a very useful purpose.  It expands the horizon of our self awareness – not during the meditation – but throughout the day.  As we go about our day, we become increasingly aware of the subtler streams of consciousness (our thoughts and emotions) that are flowing through us. And as a result, we uncover these UACs.

Once we discover these Underlying Automatic Commitments, it’s just a matter of shining the light of our awareness on them and then balancing them. In order to balance them, you need to speak the language of the subconscious.  This is where meditation plays a pivotal role because the subconscious is most receptive when the conscious mind is most calm.  It’s like the lines of communication are open for business.

So after clients get acclimated with the basic, five-minute practice that I teach them, and once I get to know them better and what may be blocking them, I give them a technique for speaking to their subconscious that is tailored to address their particular UAC.

This is deeply transformative work but it doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it isn’t. When the conscious and subconscious minds are on the same page, transformation can happen quickly and more importantly, it will be sustained. It’s actually pretty effortless once you unlock the keys to your subconscious mind and communicate to it in a language it understands. Meditation is a great tool for doing both.

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Are the numbers driving you?  Even when your metrics shout success, are you winning?  Are you making impact or just managing metrics?

In our current world, numbers seem to rule.  Take a moment and observe the power that certain numbers have in assigning our value as individuals, value to the company, and value in the marketplace.  Examine how attached we are to these numbers.

If you’re in sales or running your own business, you measure your success by the number of prospects you close.  But are you sacrificing your long term sustainability and marketability as a business, as a top producer, when you only focus on the immediate return?  Whether you are in sales, or not, as an individual, manager, or senior leader you are sized up and measured against your peers and your competitors in your industry.  In many organizations, you are competing against your peers just to drive up your numbers on your annual reviews.

Yes, your livelihood depends on your quantitative performance.  However, what price are you paying?

There are a few individuals in the world who seem to be the lucky ones.  They are living the life of their dreams without fear of the numbers.  Instead, they are driven by their inner desire to follow their passions and naturally attract success.  Do they know something you don’t?

Over the past 25 years, I have been investigating, researching, and testing multiple diverse theories of success and happiness.  What emerged was that you couldn’t engage in just following someone else’s goals or force yourself to act, be, or live opposite your natural self, without discomfort, pain, or struggle.  Experiencing this angst first hand fueled my quest to discover the fundamental process for finding true success and happiness.  If you are trying to convince yourself and everyone around you that you are working hard at success, you may be actually experiencing the opposite of true success and just be focusing on the extrinsic goals others have set for you.  It may feel like you’re a hamster on a wheel, in a cage, getting nowhere fast as you work against your natural self.

In his recent and timely book, “Drive:  The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” Dan Pink describes: “Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining mastery are usually healthy.  But goals imposed by others-sales targets, quarterly returns, standardized test scores, and so on-can sometimes have dangerous side effects.”

Remember, success is relative.  For some, success might be living in a beach house in the Caribbean, painting, and selling your artwork in your own local art gallery.  For others, it’s being a popular best selling author and motivational speaker.  The key is to discover and get clear about your ideal scenario.  If you’re not clear about your long-term vision or where you’re headed, then odds are that you’re on the nowhere road.  On this road, it’s easy to just succumb to someone else’s vision, or just comply with the world’s expectations instead of creating your own.

Before they begin coaching, many of my clients have never taken the time or given themselves permission to find out what they really want out of life.  They seem to fall into their jobs, or their careers, and never pause to question if this is the career or life they truly want.  If this describes you, it is easy to see how you could easily be run by the numbers and how they could actually define you, your status, and your worth.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you didn’t follow what everybody expected you to do?  If you have spent your life trying to please everybody in your life, have you ever really figured out what will please you?  If your scorecard reflects all wins, you have lost if these are not your dreams, just goals imposed on by others.

So, start with a first step.  Decide today that you will not make any big changes immediately until you have all the facts and information and you are perfectly clear about what you truly want.  As Scarlett O’Hara proclaims in “Gone With the Wind: “…After all, tomorrow is another day.“

With clarity, the decisions become easy.  When things are clear, you know what makes sense.

Your mission if you choose to accept it, is to set a goal to discover what you truly want out of your job, your career, your relationships, and your life.  It is too easy to blame everybody but yourself for your experiences.  But a lot of it is really up to you.  A few of us can do this on our own.

However, if you need support to gain clarity and separate the numbers from your true goals, then choose coaching.

Are you ready to step aboard and discover how you might live and start to thrive?  Try out a free coaching consultation with Wanda Ropa, your success coach to get clear about where you’re going with your career, or with your life so you can develop a strategic plan that really works for you.  With clarity, success becomes a natural outcome.

Posted by Wanda Ropa, The Success Coach.

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