In honor of Spring our theme this month is New Beginnings.  As I was thinking to myself what personal experience or advice can I share on the topic, it occurred to me that this might be a good place for a plug for coaching.  All of us have had the experience of having a great idea, lots of good intentions, getting a really good start on something and then petering out.

Getting support and an accountability partner can really change that outcome and set you up for success.  The modern use of the term “coach” is often not well understood.  It conjures up images of a high school football coach standing on the sidelines yelling at the team.  Why would you hire someone to yell at you?  Or that you didn’t understand?

This article describes well in a general way what coaches do. “We help clients identify the areas in their lives that they want to change or improve and help them create a plan to get there. We then provide structure, accountability, expertise and inspiration to enable clients to grow, increase self-awareness, commitment and confidence beyond what they can achieve on their own.”

As an example, I am a certified holistic health coach.  Part of what I do is help people identify a diet that works best for their body and lifestyle, to create really great physical, mental, and emotional health.  Many people think that because I work with diet I am a dietician.  In fact, there’s a big difference.   Most of us already know what we should and shouldn’t be eating but we can’t seem to get started or stick to it.  A health coach works with you to identify and explore what’s holding you back and what motivates you to move forward.  So when your doctor says you need to lose weight or your nutritionist says you need to eat more vegetables, but neither has the time to help you figure out how to actually do that, you might want to hire a coach.

“Usually when clients come to me "stuck," it's because they haven't explored the mental, emotional or spiritual factors that affect their health. It's often here where fears, resistance, self-sabotaging behaviors and self-deprecating thoughts must be healed.” says Dr. Deborah Caldwell, naturopathic physician and health coach.

If you’ve already tried to solve a problem on your own and not been able to achieve the goals you set for yourself, you might consider hiring a coach to help.  At HPG we have experience and expertise in health and fitness coaching, spirituality, leadership and career issues, and more.  Check out this list  of coaching topics and let us know if it inspires you to work with us to create a customized program to empower you to reach achievable and sustainable goals.

Coaching works in just about every area of life, not just health and diet. “Good coaches identify gaps between where the client is and where the client needs or wants to be; ask for more intentional thought, action and behavior changes than the client might have asked of him or herself; and guide the building of the structure, accountability, and support necessary to ensure sustained commitment.”  This article talks more about the benefits of coaching for both employees and companies.

Whether in your personal life or your career, if you want more energy, less stress, more self-confidence, and more effectiveness in all your endeavors drop us a line. 

May all your new beginnings be blessed with the resources needed to make your dreams come true.

​Groundhog Day. Just last week, remember? 

We were reminded of Bill Murray’s TV weatherman, Phil Connors, who ventures out to Punxsutawney, PA for that yearly event. At one point in “Groundhog Day”, Murray’s character realizes, “I’m living the same day over, and over, and…”
 
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Once awakened to that fact, he changes his responses, his behavior, and his routines in the subsequent iterations of Groundhog Day. As he starts to discover the possibilities, he realizes, “We could do whatever we want.”
 
What’s Murray’s big motivation for change? He wants a date with Andie MacDowell, his TV station counterpart on this crazy assignment.
 
So, what lessons are in this wacky movie for us regular folks? A few, we think…

1. Motivation – start by articulating a goal. What’s your brass ring? Ok, so it might not be a date with Andie MacDowell. :-)
2. Awareness – what’s not working? What resources are we NOT leveraging?
3. Acceptance – acknowledge that “my best thinking got me here”, but it may not bring me forward. As Einstein famously cautioned, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
4. Action – What’s the first step? And, the next? Incremental change is most successful.
5. Accountability – Who will give us feedback? Who will we check in with, to keep us honest - a coach, a mentor, colleague, or trusted friend?

 
Habitual behaviors are powerful – they are, literally, neural ruts in the brain. Thank goodness. If we they weren’t hard-wired into our thinking, we would have to relearn all the simple daily tasks, EVERY day – brushing our teeth, driving the car, making coffee. That’s why the 5 elements, above, are so crucial for change. We are, after all, re-programming our circuits.
 
We are particularly fond of practices and instruments that build awareness. Mindfulness is simple, and very effective. You can listen to our audio meditations right on our webpage. http://www.holisticperformancegroup.com/mindfulness-resources.html
 
Instruments, such as MBTI, DiSC, and others, help us reveal and frame our behaviors, so we can leverage what’s working, and flex where necessary. We’ve seen so many folks get powerful “a-ha’s” after such an assessment.
 
We’ll close with more wisdom from Einstein:
 
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
 
Here’s to going beyond your personal “Groundhog Day”!