Perspectives in Brief

People spend more time planning their vacations each year than they spend on planning for their care and well-being the rest of the year.  Why is that exactly?

Because holidays are an escape from the reality of life and once we take them and spend money on them, we want them to be perfect in every way.  So why not create a life you love the rest of the 50 or so weeks of the year you’re not on holiday?

People tend to fall into a life of routine rather than design it from their personal passions. There is definitely a mind/body connection.  In order for us to stay healthy we need to stay happy and to stay happy we need to make choices that serve us.

One of my favorite distinctions is ‘Am doing vs. could do”.  We could do many things, plan to do many things but are we doing them?  Until we replace thought with deed, our lives stay the same.  People who take action on the choices they make will inevitably succeed.  Those who only talk about them will be unhappy with their lot in life and look to blame someone or something else.

What do you choose to act on?  Are you doing things automatically without thinking about them?  The first step in all of this is to pay attention to what you love, what you don’t and to make choices accordingly.

For July and August we’ll be posting our newsletter once a month rather than every other week and will be jumping back into the bi-weekly as of September.

Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com now with subscribers from 131 countries!

I’ll leave you with this:

“How you choose to respond each moment to the movie of life determines how you see the next frame, and the next, and eventually how you feel when the movie ends.” – Doc Childre.  We are often asked the question “If you could choose the actor to represent you in your life story, who would it be?”  How about writing a great life story one choice at a time?

With deepest respect,

Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com

ISSN 1913-6307
 

Change happens when the ‘hows’ meet the ‘whys’

Let’s face it, we’re all in the middle of change of some kind….change in career, in organizational structure, in how we live our lives, relationships.  The paradox of change is that it’s a constant.  Many however fight change tooth and nail as they are way too comfortable in the old ways even if they no longer serve them.

Nothing is easy when you’re not willing to look at it in any other way than as difficult.

“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created–created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.” - John Schaar

Are you creating your future or falling into it by someone else’s design? The gap between where you are and where you want to be is filled by what you choose to do in the time available to you; every conversation, thought, choice and decision. I printed that on the notebooks I give my clients.  Why?  Because their future is created now with every choice they make.  For some, just that one change in behaviour and perspective, and taking responsibility for their future is change in itself and a profound change it is!

Coaches are personal change agents.  We need to work with clients to move with organizational change as their role shifts, while making sense of their meaning-making systems. If it doesn’t make sense to them personally, they will fight it and not work within it.

“What’s really driving the boom in coaching, is this: as we move from 30 miles an hour to 70 to 120 to 180……as we go from driving straight down the road to making right turns and left turns to abandoning  cars and getting motorcycles…the whole game changes, and a lot of people are trying to keep up, learn how not to fall.”  — John Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School

How do you weave through the traffic of change with ease and panache?  In other words, what roadblocks do you have to eliminate?

Something to check out…  

One of the participants in my last School of Shadow Coaching class recommended a book and website called Beyond Bullet Points.  www.beyondbulletpoints.com   Check it out as an alternative to the usual PowerPoint presentations.  Super neat!

As always this newsletter will be posted here.  If you like this newsletter or think someone would benefit from it, please forward this web link to others as pricing specials are only available to subscribers.Summer is when we finish all sorts of interesting virtual programs.  Remember, the launch of these programs is first announced to newsletter subscribers. Price breaks are for subscribers only.For July and August we’ll be posting our newsletter once a month rather than every other week and will be jumping back into the bi-weekly as of September.Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com now with subscribers from 131 countries! I’ll leave you with this:“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.” - Anais Nin