Accomplishment Coaching

One of the guys in my Thursday morning men’s group asked the following question today:

“What will be different for you in 2010?”

I immediately became present to the difference this group has made for me – what a gift it has truly been.  For the past 18 months, I’ve been showing up every Thursday morning to explore my relationships, my faith and myself.  Our weekly conversations always invite me to make a difference rather than just accomplish something.

The New Year is a common time of reflection and promise for accomplishment.  Did you reach your goal(s) for 2009?  What do you want to accomplish for 2010?  As customary this process is, perhaps what’s more familiar is realizing the majority of us don’t reach many of our goals.

So what if following this habitual process strategizing accomplishment was actually the thing holding you back?  What if focusing on what you want to accomplish is actually the Achilles Heel you’re fervently seeking to overcome?

What if this year, rather than asking “what do I want to accomplish”, you ask “what difference will I make?”

What difference will you make if you:

• Took more risk?
• Embrace dangerous authenticity?
• Refuse to stop when confronted with obstacles?
• Create a deliberate and intimate relationship with God / Spirit?
• Forgive those who have caused you pain?
• Give up your insistence in looking good and got messy?
• Give up being separate, right and alone in exchange for creating relationships that make a difference?
• Replace 50% of your busy-ness with reading, walking, laughing, or just sitting still?

Consider taking some of these on.  2010 will be a new year of possibility, relationship and connection.  It will be a year of you making a difference.

Are you willing to accept you actually can and do make a difference?

What a gift that will be to us all.

Happy New Year,

- Coach Preston

Notice is guaranteed

Expert marketer (and dare I say philosopher), Seth Godin, offered one of the most powerful ideas I’ve heard in years:

“The reason they want you to join them is, that once you do, then they can ignore you.”

How frequently do we want to fit in?  Isn’t that the lifeblood of most all communities?  So what could Seth Godin mean?

Perhaps leadership is what he’s inviting us to consider.

Leadership means:

• Being different when all others want you to be just like them
• Being outrageous when all others want to be safe
• Being loud when all others want to be quiet
• Being creative when all others choose to react
• Being responsible when all others prefer the familiarity of victimization
• Being on the margin when all others race for the middle

Communities, businesses, families and organizations require us to join them so they can thrive.  But joining them doesn’t have to mean subscribing to “sheepdom”.  Be willing to bring your crazy ideas, your over-the-top energy, your unrelenting pursuit of integrity, and your quest for excellence.

Leadership Practices:

1. Notice where you complain and don’t act in your business, family or community
2. Make a list of 20 things you’d like to change in your business or life
3. Starting today, make one of those changes – then make one change per day for the next 20 days
4. Practice asking “For what?” about and in all meetings and conversations – (Is the meeting and conversation truly in service to what you’re trying to create?)
5. Practice embracing and having compassion for criticism, upset and funny looks – avoiding those means you’ve moved to the middle
6. Make a list of your three favorite leaders and ask “What status quo are they unwilling to join?”

A bumper sticker on a neighbor’s car reads, “Women who behave will never make history.”

I love it.

Happy Attention-getting,

- Coach Preston