My Essay Blog

Stories develop themes. The themes chosen to illustrate the possibility of stories are:

Relationships, Choice, Creativity, Making a Difference, Celebration.

Speakers are ordinarily people, from teachers to grandparents, from mountain climbers to cancer survivors. The platform provides them with a privilege and awesome responsibility to share their stories in a way that helps the audience to “wake up.” Good stories make people say, “Wait a minute. I can think or act differently about everything than I did before.” Stories are everywhere. Speakers learn to retrieve them and retell them to audiences as a way to show their humanness to show they care; to open people to possibility thinking and how making mistakes will lead to the courage to finally help them succeed. Because most of us delineate our thoughts visually, great stories help to enhance and even transform our lives.

Be unique. Think funny thoughts. Live and re-live your story when you are telling a story. Words are critical so be sure to pause when necessary and BE IN THE NOW. Your words need to create an image in the audience’s mind so that they can remember your story. They may be a step away from their own story. This will strengthen the connection between you and them.

It’s a good idea to use props to enhance your humor. Remember most people have an attention span of six to eight minutes.

The Coach asks… what is your story?

Why do so many self help, positive thinking and motivational seminars, books and audios not work, and what can I do that will work for me?

Some of the things that need to be considered in any realistic and effective life manifestation program are:

The person or people providing the training, mentoring, and/or coaching need to be masters of their own philosophies and living proof that the lessons being taught do actually work.

They need to be providing the information as part of their own ongoing self manifestation. If these important factors are covered then that’s a good place to start.

These things are obviously very important, but I’d like you to consider the following:

Below are my thoughts on the first thing to consider, and what can be done to help ensure successful life manifestation.

Does the program cater for the individual? We are all products of our genetic make up and social conditioning, that’s why we are where we are now, getting through life by reacting to our surroundings. There’s nothing wrong with that, if we react in the way we choose and don’t have someone or something else make that choice for us.

If a program isn’t available to us at a time and place that is truly convenient for us then chances are we will never be able to participate fully, or even complete the program. Therefore we’ll end up right where we started! And blame the course for not working! Because then, we can justify our failure, and continue along the same road we’ve been walking for years, we know this road and it’s familiar to us so we are comfortable here. We have just reinforced the behaviour that got us where we are now. That doesn’t help us does it?

Rewind! Why did we start the course in the first place? Answer because we aren’t comfortable where we are today! Right?

If we want to change this pattern we need to be careful in choosing something or someone to help us to help ourselves.

While it’s easy to understand, theoretically, that in order to make changes we have to take action and start changing the things we do, say, and think, this is akin to asking some of us to run before we can walk. It may be easy for some of us, but for others taking the suggested action in a particular book, program, or course might involve stepping too far out of our comfort zone.

Therefore, a program that is personal and convenient means that we will be able to succeed at a pace that we are comfortable with, help ourselves, and this will give us success.

As you probably know “success breeds success” every time we take a small action and have positive results from it we are able to realistically perceive ourselves achieving more and more. Therefore I truly believe that a program that offers convenience will always be more effective than one that is less convenient to the user.

In the quest towards achieving success and accomplishment in our lives, a systematic plan of action is needed. Without a plan even the greatest of efforts will be ineffective, eventually degenerating into frustration and wasted time. A guided plan allows one to utilize his/her talents and competencies to the fullest, by focusing them in a coordinated and strategic manner upon a specific outcome. The power of concentrated effort should never be underestimated. A strategy that one should immulate from the world of sports, is that in competition one should always seek to “play his/her game”. One should never be forced into the position of trying to be successful by operating under conditions strategically benificial to the opposing team. In other words, in seeking to achieve success in today’s competitive environment, a professional should design an action plan around his/her personal strengths and competencies. Play to your strengths and not to your weakness.

There is always more than one way to the mountain top; a striving professional should ensure that the path he/she chooses, is the one which utilizes his/her talents and skill sets to the fullest.

The acronym A.I.D.E can be used as a tool for the striving professional, in the drafting of a personal action plan. A.I.D.E stands for: Analyze, Identify, Design and Evaluate. A professional should first analyze his/her situation. What are one’s professional aspirations and goals? What stage of his/her career is the professional currently in? What are the future prospects of current and prospective career paths? It is important to fully know the landscape before any journey can be undertaken. Before embarking upon the adventure of a lifetime one should take time to learn the terrain.

The next step in action planning is to identify those skill sets and core competencies one wishes to utilize. For example if a person possesses excellent analytical and mathematic skills one should seek opportunities which require these proficiencies, such as engineering or systems analyst. The identification stage involves much soul searching and should be undertaken in a deliberate and patient manner.

The design stage of the planning processes puts the “gears into the dream”. The design phase is the actual creation of one’s plan of action. During this period the professional determines the specific:

 Activities

 Time Frames

 Outcomes

 Methods

,that will be utilized in the action plan.

The final stage of the A.I.D.E process is the evaluation phase. During the evaluation phase the striving professional reviews and monitors the progress that has been made. This stage of the action plan is very important, for it allows for the rethinking of strategies and the ability to capitalize upon immediate opportunity.

The courage to boldly go, to undiscovered realms of your potential should be rewarded with that which your heart desires. Ensure success by effectively planning for it. Your plan will work, if you work your plan.

-Make it Happen!

On a recent trip to a conference, I sat next to a woman on the plane who had missed her last connecting flight due to some airline delays. As a result, Margaret was going to miss a bike tour of the Napa Wine Valley, which she had already paid for. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy about it, as she would not get her payment back, nor have the fun experience she was looking forward to since she had business meetings scheduled the following day. She had fretted about it a great deal the night before. Today, however, she had let go, having realized that much worse things could happen.

While on the plane, she was reading a book about college loans. It turned out that the person sitting on her right was an expert on college loans and he consulted with her for about an hour on how to find the best college loan for her daughter.

I was sitting on her left and coached her around her business and gave her a good idea that could potentially make her a lot of money.

After having both of these conversations, she said, “I guess the universe did me a favor by putting me on this flight and here I was kicking and screaming about it last night.”

We put out in the universe what we need and it will do what it takes to give us that. Often it will come in a form that is totally unexpected and not at all like you would have planned.

If Margaret had not let go and allowed herself to be in acceptance about the situation, she might not have engaged in either conversation or learned so much in such a short time.

While the bike trip was not refundable, she got her return in the form of complimentary consulting and coaching that was probably worth more than the cost of the bike tour of the Napa Valley.

Where are things not going like you planned or wanted? Let go and be open to the universe bringing you something you desire in a form that was even better than you imagined.

The unitive approach to coaching is not based on any pre-conceived theory or set of beliefs. It has evolved organically over a period of years as a result of my own long experience in the field of personal and professional development.

In 1971 I began working with Dr Jay Stattman, the director of the Institute of Unitive Psychology at Utrecht, The Netherlands, where I subsequently became an associate staff member, setting up human potential courses, seminars and training facilities all over Europe.

The unitive coaching process represents a comprehensive tutorial framework within which a valid individual authenticity can be built. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of personal and professional self-empowerment and the development of insight, true awareness and authentic interpersonal communication.

Basic principles of Unitive coaching

The unitive approach to the process of self-discovery is not only eminently practical but also covers every aspect of the whole person.

&ndash At the rational level, it works experientially to bring to awareness obsolete and redundant patterns of acquired behaviour

&ndash At the emotional level it seeks to reconcile spontaneous feelings with intellectual insight

&ndash At a psychological level, it aims to empower individuals with self-knowledge and the strength of their unique authenticity

&ndash At the higher, integrated level of intuition, its goal is to facilitate personal development on issues of imagination, spirit and creativity

Unitive coaching in practice

The first requirement for those who intend to communicate effectively in an honest and open dialogue with other people is that they are up to speed with their own developmental homework. To act authentically as an effective resource to others on their individual pathways through life, you first need to be thoroughly conversant with your own home territory. You can’t take anyone further than you’ve travelled yourself.

There’s an old saying that goes, “We don’t see the world as it is; we see it as we are”. You’ll never be able to see what’s really going on in the present if your attitudes and patterns of behaviour remain stuck in the past, with your eyes staring at an unchanging inner landscape. If you want to become aware of who you really are &ndash to start feeling comfortable in your own skin &ndash you’ll need to examine your own habitual outlook on life; discover its hidden and negative function, and work to bring it up to date and relevant to present reality. It’s a demanding and often difficult task, but you’ll find the rewards are enormous.

Personal authenticity is all about experiencing each event in life in the light of present reality, instead of through the distorting mirrors of the past. This will necessarily involve you in what might at first appear to be a frightening thing to do. In order to access your innate sources of personal wisdom, you’ll need first to let go of those bits of your previously acquired stuff that’s now become useless &ndash to cast off your old protective clothing and immerse yourself completely in whatever new experience life may come up with.

Once you’ve become part of that experience, your entire being &ndash mind, body and spirit &ndash will become an instrument for opening up receptive channels of communication between your own true responses and those of the people who share your present environment. Instead of trying to influence events from the outside, you’ll find you’ve become an integral part of them. It’s a magical process: experiencing the power of the present instead of just observing it.

Within yourself you have the potential to integrate your internalised conflicts into a unitive whole, greater than the sum of its separate parts.

Unitive coaching provides a level playing field where coach and client face each other as equals. Instead of assuming a directive role, it identifies the true nature of the personal authenticity and power habitually surrendered to ‘experts’ and authority figures and brings it back home where it belongs.

The ultimate goal of unitive coaching is to facilitate this liberating insight. The true purpose of human existence is to accept and to commit to present reality and the inevitable imperfections of life and all who live it.

…and in that very imperfection, each individual can experience the truth and beauty of authentic being and the possibility of spontaneous change.

Assuming the Responsibilities that come with Being a Coach

Who can forget the famous line of Peter Parker (Spiderman’s grandfath0065r)? He said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Society expects Spiderman &ndash a comic book, TV and movie superhero with extraordinary powers &ndash to be responsible for saving his town and the world from the forces of Evil. And he never let us down. Despite the temptations of owning such powers, he uses his abilities only for the good of the people around him.

Being a coach has similar parallels. They don’t have superhuman powers such as x-ray vision or flying through the air with magic “sticky ropes”. But great coaches can have real power through their abilities to help others &ndash and with it, the responsibility &ndash to guide others towards success. This is REAL power that can be used to help real people in THIS world. Done well, coaches can help others turn around their lives. Done wrong, and a coach could guide a client down the wrong path.

So, with this power to coach your clients towards manifesting their personal and/or business vision comes responsibilities. Great coaches assume them all as part of the professional responsibility. This can include everything from making sure your client is moving in the right direction, getting them back on course when they are not, and developing and tracking their use of exercises to help them along the way.

There are a few things you can do to be a more responsible coach. Just as important, these same skills can be imparted to your clients to help them lead more responsible, integrity-filled lives.

How to Bring out the more Responsible “You” in Yourself and your Client

#1 - Develop self-awareness.

Learn and know your own strengths and weaknesses to be able to view your behavior objectively. Recognize your shortcomings, receive feedback, and make changes when necessary. The more self-aware you become of all your aspects, the more you will know what kind of clients you can coach best and &ndash just as important &ndash those best referred to others.

Dr. Gerard Bell, business consultant and professor at the University of North Carolina in

Chapel Hill, advises us on how to expand our self-knowledge. He said, “Study yourself closely and practice self-assessment techniques to learn how you behave, and the effects you have on others. As others for their option, feedback, and suggestions to become a better coach.”

The lesson is simple: the more we grow, the more we can offer, and the more we can help others.

#2: Learn to Separate Responsibility from Worry

When we hear the word “responsibility”, we often think to ourselves, “Another task, another problem.” However, responsibility is not about worrying over things give to us to work out. Consider this story:

One night at the end of the second shift, the Head of Operations walked out of the plant he managed and passed a porter. A porter he passed said, “Mr. Smith, I sure wish I had your pay. But I wouldn’t want the worry that goes with it.”

Mr. Smith answered, “I give the best I can when I am here. But I drop the worry when I leave so I can be 100% with my family when I’m at home.”

You, too, can learn to give your best to challenging work, but then “leave it at the door” when you’re off-hours. Worrying accomplishes nothing except to eat away at us, and actually ends up making us less effective! Don’t let worry taint your clarity of judgment and ability to take decisive action. You can learn this as you grow.

Carrying the responsibility of coaching should not intimidate you. It is the ability to help others that coaching is all about. Embrace the responsibilities that come with it.

Nothing is gained by worrying about whether your clients achieve their goals or not. Focus on supporting and inspiring them. Be their partner in their growth. Brainstorm with them when it is called for. But ultimately, it is your client’s responsibility to assume responsibility for accomplishing their goals. You merely help them see and achieve this state.

#3: Take Calculated Risks and Learn from Your Mistakes

Effective coaches have the courage to ask their clients to take risks when results and success are uncertain. A willing ness to risk failure is a core attribute of all successful people.

As a coach you can help your clients work with risk and possible failure. Help them learn to analyze their situation and options. Work with them to list the pros and cons for each option, then assign each choice a risk factor rating from 1 to 5. Next, have them determine the likelihood of each occurring. This will help them quantify and manage the risk-taking process.

Also, lead them to a better paradigm regarding failure. What is failure other than great feedback that our current course of action isn’t the right path? Use this information for course correction. Failure doesn’t happen until we give up. If you don’t give up, then failure isn’t an option.

#4: Own and admit our mistakes

Our greatest lessons and growth come through our mistakes. Everyone makes them; it is part of life. Help your client understand this, and they will be able to draw the necessary lessons and take corrective action. If we do the “blame game”, we don’t even take the first step (ownership) in this process.

Not only does owning our mistakes and failures help us to be more truthful and powerful in our own lives. Owning and assuming responsibility for them lets others see the integrity and virtue within us, and hence further gain their respect.

For years we have been exposed to self help and motivational instruction that focuses heavily on the physical world.

For some this has been highly effective while for others this hasn’t always been the case.

Why is that? I believe that success comes to those who have the manifesting mindset.

What is the manifesting mindset? It’s simply thinking in a way that is in harmony with the universe.

I know that sounds spiritual, well it is. The reason some people seem to get everything they want and have abundant success is mainly due to their Manifesting Mindset.

If we have a subconscious belief that, for example: Wealth is good and rich people are happy, than your mind will allow you to manifest that wealth.

However, if you have subconscious thoughts that are negative towards the attainment of wealth, than you will vibrate an energy that will not attract wealth.

Have you or anyone you have known ever had a successful business or made a lot of money, and then after a period of time, lost it all or in part?

Or how about; if you have had some business success or other personal achievements and caught yourself say something like “I’m so lucky” or “I can’t believe I’m doing this”, and then had a turn around in your luck or your achievements?

Those are examples of subconscious thoughts that are sabotaging your chances of maintaining your success.

Another example of the Manifesting Mindset at work is trying to solve problems; Manifesting Mindset techniques teach you how to solve problems in your sleep.

It isn’t a new concept that if you focus too much on a problem with your conscious mind you will never find the best answer, but if you allow yourself to “sleep on it”

It will often come to you as an epiphany!

Then there’s daydreaming, how many great ideas have come to you when you relax your mind and allow your thoughts to wonder around the universe, and suddenly you realize that you have just solved a problem that has been bugging you for years?

Now that’s being in harmony with the universe.

Here’s one of my favorite thoughts:

It’s about great inventions.

Do people invent things, or just understand the powers of energy in the universe?

Thomas Edison; light bulb, Alexander Graham Bell; telephone

It was always POSSIBLE to have a light bulb even before Edison UNDERSTOOD how to make one!

After he made one, it soon became one of the most common items in the world!

Now everyone uses the light bulb. Imagine trying to explain a light bulb and convince someone that it works before Edison made one.

The same is true with the Manifesting Mindset; we are only now beginning to understand and harness the energy that makes up our universe, and while there is undoubtedly much more for us to learn, one thing is for sure, knowledge is power and understanding the Manifesting Mindset will allow you to achieve all that you truly deserve.

Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to grow your coaching business. It’s free, or at most costs very little, yet very few coaches use it to anywhere near it’s potential!

Consider this: if you got just one referral from each one of your clients, over the next 60 days you’d double your client base! What would that mean to your potential income and how many more people would you be helping in supportive and uplifting ways?

So, how do you maximize word of mouth? Here are 5 Steps you can take now…

1. Really appreciate your clients and let them know consistently you value them

This is the most important, yet overlooked element of creating endless referrals. Many businesses focus more on profits than on people. Focusing on profits alone can be detrimental to success and ‘Word of Mouth’ success comes from looking beyond just profit into how you can enrich your customer’s lives.

Action: At least once a month, take the time to communicate to each of your clients and show them you appreciate them. Send them something of value, something unexpected, a bonus report, a special piece of news you just found. Make it relevant to them and do it regularly.

2. Create an exceptional experience each time they deal with you or your company

If you can make doing business with you an exceptional experience, your clients will want to tell a lot of people. People want amazing experiences!

Here is an example: There is a Life Coach in Brisbane who has a special relationship with a city coffee shop. Once every 8 weeks he invites his clients to a ‘brains trust’ meeting and the coffee and cake is on the house. Every client that attends gets a card and a voucher from the coffee shop owner to say ‘Thank you for joining us today, we would love to see you again soon’. The voucher is a ‘buy one get one free’ coffee voucher. So they are encouraged to come back again. And because the coffee shop owner is exposing his business to potential new clients the coach pays just cost price on the coffee and cake his clients eat. Normally about 8 clients attend and the cost is around $30. Just a little extra touch can make dealing with your business that much more of an exceptional experience!

Action: What can you do now to add little things that make an exceptional experience? Perhaps you can use the above example or something similar. Remember, start creating exceptional experiences today.

3. Give your customers incentives for giving you referrals

If you’re being passive about referrals then you’re sitting on a gold-mine. Come up with ways of rewarding your clients for referring business to you. They could receive free gifts, such as a 30 minute back massage voucher for referring a friend or a free Style Cut from an award winning beauty salon. The businesses involved would welcome the opportunity to have new clients come their way and would be happy to give that first style cut or treatment for free if they understand the potential value of a new customer.

Action: Reward your clients for referring people to you. Come up with rewards that will be beneficial to your clients. If you worked with executive clients perhaps a free 30 minute health check at a trusted health centre would be valuable or a voucher to use at an upmarket clothing boutique.

4. Make it easy for clients to give you referrals

If you want to get lots of referrals, you must make it incredibly easy for your clients to tell their friends. Don’t expect them to go way out of the way to help you grow your business. Make it as simple as possible.

Action: Develop a ‘referral package’ that you give to your clients. Ask your clients to be an ambassador for your business as you wish to work with people similar to them. The package would include a letter explaining why referrals are important to you, and a series of referral cards that your client can give out to others. Present it professionally and it will hold more value, more worth.

5. Ask at the right time!

When is the best time to ask for referrals? Any time! If you have followed the steps listed above…you’ve let clients know they are appreciated, you’ve made dealing with you an exceptional experience, you give them an incentive to share your message with friends and you make it easy for them to do so…you can ask for referrals at any time.

Action: The key is to do something now. Draft up a letter or e-mail today and just send it off to your clients letting them know how much you value them, who much you have enjoyed working with them in the past and include something that is going to be helpful, useful for them to use, read or understand. Then over the next 4 to 6 weeks develop your ‘referral package’ and start to use it. Take yourself out of your comfort zone and take action….because if you don’t someone will and what will that mean to your business in the years to come.

The Seventh Biggest Mistake &ndash Having “Lone Ranger” Mentality.

If you think that the best way, or the only way for you to achieve your goals is to do it by yourself then you have Lone Ranger Mentality. Do you believe that reaching out to someone, and a professional someone for that matter, somehow indicates that you aren’t “something” enough? That it somehow means you’re incapable and not smart enough, strong enough or good enough?

Well let me assure you, the people who come to coaching are all of those things, extremely capable, smart, strong and a whole lot more. They choose coaching because they are ready to accelerate their personal or professional lives and work with a professional who will enable them to achieve their goals faster, easier and with better results than they could on their own.

A coach will facilitate your self discovery, the identification of your goals and the prioritization of those goals. Your coach will help you create your action plan as well as prepare for and overcome any challenges you encounter along the way.

Your coach will hold you accountable for taking consistent action toward the realization of your goals. Accountability is one of the greatest payoffs of coaching. It is so powerful because it can make all the difference in terms of you being a Goal Achiever instead of just a Goal Setter and someone who walks the walk instead of just talking the talk.

Think of your coach as your success partner, whose reason for being is to help you get what you want quicker, easier and with better results than you could on your own.

The Sixth Biggest Mistake &ndash Settling for Good Instead of Going for Great.

If you’re thinking your life is good and you’re relatively satisfied, congratulations! That did not happen on its own. You have obviously done some fabulous work.

You’ve already proven you’re the kind of person who proactively goes after what you want and you get it. So why would you settle for anything less than great? Why would you settle for living in black and white when you could be living in technicolour? Do you really want to play it safe and stay comfortable? Playing it safe and staying comfortable can take you no further than good.

Most of our clients are people who are already very successful. Now that they’ve personally experienced the power of coaching they tell us that they realize just how much less they were settling for, for themselves and their lives. They were settling for good when they could have been experiencing great.

These clients also tell us that coaching has dramatically increased the quality of their lives in all areas, from increased sales to enhanced relationships and from better health to increased productivity. They feel, many for the very first time, that they are fully and vibrantly alive.

So we challenge those of you who are settling. We challenge you to stop settling for good. We challenge you to go for GREAT and beyond with coaching.

The Fifth Biggest Mistake &ndash Believing that You Have to Work Harder in Order to Achieve Your Goals

Do you have dreams or desires that you’ve left unfulfilled because you can’t imagine bringing them to life without adding a lot more to your already jam packed schedule?

It may surprise you to know that coaching can enable you to be more, do more and have more by working smarter instead of harder.

Your coach will lead you through an efficient process. You’ll begin by getting crystal clear about what you do and do not want in your life. What’s great about that is that when you figure out the things in your life that you’re tolerating or doing just because you feel like you should you can create a lot of extra space in your schedule to tackle the things that are truly meaningful to you. Next, you will develop an action plan that details what it’s going to take, the what by when, for you to reach your goals. Finally, you will stay focused and on track by being accountable to your coach for taking consistent action and you will learn how to overcome any challenges that come up along the way.

If you want to learn how to work smarter instead of harder, coaching is a wise investment of your time and money.

The Fourth Biggest Mistake &ndash Blaming external factors for what’s not working in your life and waiting for them to change so you can have the life you dream of.

Do you find yourself wishing other people were different; easier to get along with, more positive, more successful, trustworthy or kind? Or, do you find yourself thinking about how your life would be better if your circumstances were different if only you had a better job, more money, more time or more opportunity?

Are you telling yourself that these external factors are responsible for what’s not working in your life or for preventing you from having what you want?

It can be very tempting to get caught up in this paradigm. But the reality is that if you are looking for or waiting for something outside of yourself to change and give you what you want, you will be waiting, and frustrated, for a very long time.

The reason for this is that you do not have control over anything outside of you. What you do have, though, is total control over yourself. You have total control over your thoughts, your actions and your results.

It is a fact that your circumstances will change when you make a committed decision to do the things that will move you in the direction of what you want to experience in your life, and then do them. Hiring a coach is one of the smartest things you can do to ensure you take control and create the reality you want to experience.

The Third Biggest Mistake - Wasting your time and money on stuff that doesn’t get you the results you want and is not ultimately fulfilling.

Let’s face it; there are an infinite number of things that you can spend your hard earned money and valuable time on these days. When you know you want things to be different or better it’s easy for you to waste your time and your money in one of two ways.

The first one is spending your time and money collecting information that comes in the form of books, software, seminars, reports or programs. You are collecting information that you believe can help you get what you want.

Now don’t get the wrong idea here, information is a great thing. We are big believers in books and programs being critical tools in helping you get where you want to go, but we want to make something very clear here.

Information alone will not get you results. You cannot expect that your sales will automatically increase just because you read the Guru of Sales’ latest book and you can’t assume that your monthly expenses will automatically organize themselves just because you purchased the newest expenses tracking software. You will get fulfilling results only by taking consistent action toward achieving your goals based on what you’ve learned from the information you’ve collected.

The second way you may be wasting your time and money is by acquiring and participating in things that have nothing to do with, and even go against, you having what you really want.

Have you ever allowed a month to go by where you indulged every food craving you had and did not exercise regularly, even though your deepest desire is to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight and lifestyle? Have you ever gone out and bought an expensive gadget you don’t really need or can’t really afford when what you truly desire is to feel successful and experience financial freedom?

If this sounds like you then you know what it’s like to be running on the hamster wheel of short term gain, in the form of immediate gratification, leading you to long term pain because your life experiences don’t match up with what you really want?

It’s very important to realize that spending your time or money on things that give you immediate gratification but have nothing to do with your goals and values will always leave you feeling empty. Completely and totally empty and looking for the next quick fix.

Instead of wasting your time and money, why not invest in yourself in a way that will accelerate your personal and professional development? Working with a coach on an ongoing basis is the most time and cost effective investment you can make in yourself and your quality of life.

Your coach can teach you how to make the most of what you’ve got and how to do more with less. Your coach will hold you accountable for taking consistent purposeful action towards achieving your goals.

By working with a coach, you will get crystal clear on what you really want, why you want it and how to get it. Having clarity takes the guess work out of things. That way, you will be able to evaluate all future investment opportunities, and by that we mean any and all opportunities for you to spend your time or money, according to their ability to enable you to fulfill your purpose, your vision, your values and your goals.

The Second Biggest Mistake - Waiting for a “good” time to make a change or go after the things you really want in life.

Guess what, there is no good time. Life will always be busy. There will always be family and business obligations to attend to, errands to run, chores to do, TV programs to watch and people and projects that want your time, energy and money. Your life will always be busy and it will always get in the way of what you really want, if you let it.

Wondering what you can do about it? You can stop kidding yourself. Today. Stop kidding yourself that the perfect time is just around the corner or sometime off in the future. Instead, decide to join forces with a professional who can teach you how to make the most of every moment starting right now.

Your coach will hold you accountable while keeping you focused and on track to achieving your goals no matter what life throws at you.

The Biggest Mistake &ndash Telling yourself you can’t afford a coach.

The truth is that you can’t afford not to have one. Coaches are highly in demand these days because coaching has proven itself to be an extremely effective method for facilitating personal and professional development and fulfillment.

The word is out everywhere, it’s in the media, it’s in corporations and it’s in the community. The word is out that coaching makes sense and it really works. In studies that have been done on the impact of coaching, the results have consistently shown a return on investment of more than 100%.

Coaching clients from all walks and areas of life consistently report that it is the best money they ever spent because their investment in an ongoing coaching partnership enables them to achieve their goals. What’s even better is coaching enables them to achieve their goals quicker, easier and with better results. Now think about that for a moment. Think about what that means for you. Anything you want is available to you quicker, easier and with better results through the vehicle of coaching.

If you are still unsure consider this, it’s not enough for you to say you want things to be different. Just wanting something doesn’t make it so. You must make a decision and then take purposeful action toward what you want. When you put your money where your mouth is and invest in a coaching program you demonstrate your commitment to achieving the thing that you want and at the same time you cut yourself off from any possibility other than total success.

As a former owner of a National Speakers Bureau, I have learned from several thousand professional speakers “How to Give a Great Speech.” Here are some techniques that I share with my coaching clients who want to become paid professional speakers or business professionals who want todeliver masterful presentations.

1. Speak from the heart.

Believe in what you have to say, or don’t say it. If your passionate about your subject the words will come. Speak about the fundamental beliefs you have about life, the simple truths that you believe in with all your heart.

2. Write down two or three specific objectives you have for this speech.

Ask yourself, ‘What do you want the audience to do as a result of your speech? ‘Think differently? Act differently? Do something differently?

3. Write it out.

When you give a speech be sure that people need to hear what you have to say. Than you need to understand it so well that you could explain it to an eight-year-old You know, if you write it down enough times, than you will become familiar with it. Don’t read your speech if necessary, just read the lead sentences that you write ona three by five card.

4. Be present.

Connect with your audience in the first 60 seconds and than engage them throughout your speech. Once you get the audience rolling, be sure to embellish certain comments that you know are being well-received.

5. Know your audience.

Interview the program chair in advance to know who will be sitting in your audience and what they expect to hear fromyou. Are they men or women? What is the theme of the meeting or conference? What is their purpose in being there? Because that then becomes your purpose. Be sure to give your audiences not just what they want, but also what they need to hear.

6. Room Setup.

Be sure to check out the room where you will present your speech in advance. The worst thing that can happen to you is when they put the bright lights in your eyes and blackout the audience. If you go early to do your room check, you can tell them that you can’t give a speech with the audience in darkness. As a speaker, it is important that you see the faces in your audience.

7. Is there a technique?

Try to be as natural as possible just speak conversationally. Talk to your smaller audiences as if youwere in their living room. Don’t look over their heads or beyond them. Speak directly to them. If you are addressing a crowd of several hundred or more people, look at one person, than another, than a third. But really look at them.

8. “Ums” and “Ahs.”

“Ums” and “ahs” come from uncertainty. The key is to know your subject and what you want to say. And than practice, practice, practice. Use your mirror or give your speech to your friends and family. And above all, don’t try to remember exactly the same words.

9. Personal Stories

Be sure to share your personal stories with the audience. People will learn from your vulnerability and your mishaps and will be only a step away from their own story. We delineate our thoughts visually and so your audience needs to see what they hear. You don’t have to be clever, just share your life with your audience. Remember you are looking for their trust and trying to help them. So just consider them to be your friends and inject humor wherever possible.

10. Closing your speech

Develop an action plan. What do you want your audience to do now that they’ve heard your speech? Go around the room, and ask them to share one nugget they got. Ask them for one idea that they can use NOW. In two weeks. In one month. Be sure to summarize your speech and than give them a call to action.

To find out How to Become a Highly Paid Professional Speaker, go to .schrift.com/ProfessionalSpeaker/