Why I decided to become a coach.

I became a coach because I thought I had certain things figured out in my life.

I have learned how to achieve goals, optimize my personal productivity, how to remain consistent with healthy habits and get rid of my limiting beliefs.

I thought my sharing of experience would be helpful to the people I interact with.

My learning would make a difference in the life of the people with whom I partner with.

In the beginning, I got a lot of weird looks and the occasional comments like what extraordinary have you achieved in your life to impact other's lives.

The truth is, most of your friends and ex-co-workers just don’t see you as a coach.

I convinced myself that it is totally okay because most people only know you in your previous role and it’s difficult for them to see you differently.

Also, when people you surround with seeing you take such big leaps in your life attacks their ego and makes them feel inadequate about themselves and in defense, they put you down.

It happens with all kinds of business or startup you start with, coaching should not be an exception.

The world is waiting for you to unleash.

When you follow your own true North you create new opportunities to create the life you want and have a different experience of life thus created.

Just go for it. Make no mistake. Don't think too much. Take a plunge.
The world is waiting for you.
Waiting for you to stop seeking permission to be your true self.

The world is waiting for you to pick yourself up and do more of what makes you feel alive.

The world is waiting for you to stop questioning yourself.

Be your true self. Create your life the way you want.

Everything is figureoutable.

When you believe that everything is manageable, everything is figureoutable, opportunities open up for you, to do more, to achieve more.
Yes, figureoutable is the new word coined.
Something you can figure out, something you can handle, something you can manage.
Whether you believe that everything is doable, or everything is not — you are still right.

One cup coffee business.

In a coffee shop, on a cup of coffee, you can strike a great conversation.

Either you can listen to someone or he can listen to you.

Either you coach, or get coached.

Either you provide mentoring or get mentored.

You can inspire others or get inspired by others.

Either you bring a smile to others or you find a reason to smile.

You can notice someone or get noticed by someone.

Either you encourage someone or get encouraged by someone.

Either you impress or get impressed.

Either you feel connected from a distance or feel disconnected on the same table.

You can laugh over an issue or become a laughing issue.

You can resolve a complex issue or make an issue more complex.

Either you make the relationship or break the relation.

For a cup of coffee, either you prepare to gain something or you tend to lose everything.

This is how a deal goes on a cup of coffee.

Do you read the manual or write the manual?

There are two types of people. One who read the manual and others who write the manual.

There are those who tend to comply with what is being told to them and there are those who find their own way, innovate and discover the way.

·       There are those who are depending on others for their well-being and there are those who make their own future without depending upon anyone. 

·       There are those who do not get adapted to the change in the situation and feel happy to complain and there are those who love to drive the change and find happiness in the change.

·       There are those who always prefer to play safe and not ready to take the risk and there are those who think that playing safe is a risk and they believe risk-taking is part of life.

·       There are those who work only when they are being watched or monitored and there are those who aspire to greatness and do what they think is right.

·       There are those who follow the instruction given in manual word-to-word, finding solace in its black and white script and there are those who know that instructions are just guidelines and require intelligent interpretation and wisdom to navigate through.

·       There are those who think that their role as a manager is to make sure that everyone is working and remain busy and there are those who understand that leadership is about inspiring and developing others to rise to their true potential.

·       There are those who accept the religion and faith as what being taught to them and follow blindly the same and there are those who pursue truth and purpose to find an ultimate meaning to the religion.

·       There are those who reflect back on their life and wish, “I wish my life would have smooth …” and there are those who look back and feel happy, “I enjoyed the ups and downs of my life ..”

How about you? Do you read the manual or write it?

Even if you read the manual you are still not late to write it.

Get ready to grab it.

Get ready to grab it.

If you want something in your life, reach out and grab it.

If you’ve been praying a long for it, open your hands to receive it.

Don’t be scared. Don’t be hesitant.

Don’t think whether you deserve it or not.

Don’t feel discouraged if you are not progressing the way you like to.

Don’t let yourself down thinking if you are one of those fortunate few.

Don’t make rehearsal of past failures in your mind repeatedly.

Instead, get ready.

Expect good things to happen.

Expect opportunities walking your way.

Bow down and embrace them.

Acknowledge the happenings.

Something good is just around the corner, sense it, smell it, feel it, experience it.

Get ready, something great is going to happen!

Is it possible to have too many good people in your life?

Is it possible to have too many good people in your life?

What I mean, people who bring out the best in you.

People who crack a joke and make you laugh when you are sad.

People who guide you to remain focused and motivated.

People who selflessly provide you with guidance and time to time mentoring.

People who stand by your side during difficult times.

People whom you call as close ones who display character and remain genuine at all times.

People who truly see the good in you and want to bring the best out of you.

I guess, we all know the answer.

So when you really find good people like this, hang on to them, and let them feel they are important for you.

And then, make sure that you become a good person in return for them.

Then we can say it is possible to have too many good people in our life.

Why not leave the place better than you found it !!!!

It is obvious that you will not work forever where you are now.

Because, One day you may resign, or your company may not find you good enough anymore or you may retire and then you will have the opportunity to look back at your past, the months or years that you have spent there.

It will time for you to list out how good you were for that company.

Think about your contribution to the develop others working with you.

Think about what kind of positive impact you have created in an organization.

Think about any kind of calmness you have brought in the moments of crisis.

Think about the kind of mutually beneficial relationships you have forged with your colleagues.

Think about your contribution to building a strong reputation for your organization.

You are no more there with them, you won’t be there forever, then why not to leave the place better than you found it when you entered.

And believe me, in doing so, you will become better than when you first began as well.

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take

There is a nice quote by Wayne Gretzky- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.

It’s true in sports and true in our life as well.

You will not make a sale if you don’t make a sales call.

You will not get anything to get published if you don’t write anything.

You will not build your house if you don’t make a building plan and hire an architect.

You will not find a suitable girl if you don’t take someone on a date out.

You will not get any customer walk-in to your restaurant unless you don’t put an “Open” sign right on the entrance door.

You will not reach your destination unless you begin your journey.

You will not get your Degree unless you enroll in the university.

You will not overcome your stage fear unless you walk on to the stage.

You will not get your dream job if you don’t search and apply for it.

There is no guarantee of whether your recruiter would meet your dreams and aspirations on this job.

There is all possibility that you will be disappointed, you may hear a ‘NO’ from them.

But if you don’t try you stand no chance to get your dream job.

It is true for everything if you don’t try you lose 100%. If you try you still stand a chance to get it.

It's the action behind the scene.

It is the action behind the scene

When you’re watching high drama, high pot sporting events, whether it is for football or for basketball or for cricket while comparing the expertise and talent of each contesting team, we are almost forced to believe that the pre-game words or comments of the respective team coaches or sports experts that the coach of the side who had the best motivational speech would win.

It is no longer the case these days.

The team that wins is the one that is best prepared for the contest.

It’s the team that has worked hard to get trained, to get conditioned.

It’s the team where the team players play for each other and every player fully understands the importance of their role in the team.

It’s the team that learned how best they can utilize each other’s strengths and cover up the weaknesses.

A great leader, don’t spend much time preparing rosy words or fancy speeches would be anyway will be forgotten in the heat of game battles.

A great leader is direct, to the point more of action than of words.

A great leader understands that it’s the actions behind the scenes, will deliver the desired results.

Do you show a Yellow Card to yourself?

Do you show a ’Yellow Card’ to yourself as a football referee, when you waste time in between two tasks or don’t deliver the things on time or you don’t go to your workplace immediately after the break?

There is no referee watching to give you a warning or a yellow card.

There is only you and your conscience.

You know what needs to be done.

You know what is most important right now despite you don’t do it.

Make a habit to show ‘Yellow Card’ to Yourself.

Before you take a winning shot

Before you take the winning shot!

Before you take the winning shot, you’ve got to feel the winning shot.

Before you feel the winning shot, you’ve got to visualize the winning shot.

Before you visualize the winning shot, you’ve got to have the confidence to take it.

Before you generate confidence, you’ve got to develop the belief that you can do it.

Before you get your belief right, you’ve got to develop the skills required to support your belief.

Before you develop the skills, you’ve got to get trained again and again until you condition your body and mind to take a winning shot.

It’s easy to imagine ourselves in place of the guy who is taking a winning shot.

The guy who makes it happen, we wish, if we were that lucky guy.

No, it wasn’t luck. It was the preparation that made it possible.

If you prepare you too can do it !!

CEOs should be essentially a storyteller.

CEOs must embrace storytelling and should be essentially a storyteller.

The reason is- as the company is a story by itself, the man at the top – the CEO has to be the one who tells the story. A story about a company, its values, its culture, the human asset they have, its belief systems, its challenges and the company’s vision from ‘Here’ to ‘There’. Who else other than CEO would be able to visualize hence essentially a CEO of a company is a storyteller.

In today's competitive world the personality plays a major
role and the world like to see the face behind the company.

CEOs who spread the company's story, both internally and externally, will generate extra authenticity and credibility. He becomes the most acceptable personality for the internal and external world and he is able to deliver the essential deliverables which would enhance the company’s branding.

After all, he or she, as a CEO of a company, is one of the key people who have laid the foundations and objectives of a company by defining and formulating the mission, vision, and ambition.

By performing this a CEO makes this 'ambassador's function' an essential piece of the puzzle called ‘Company' – here it goes like this!!

Stories help shape our perspective of the world.

Stories help shape our perspective of the world.

Everyone has his part of a story to tell. You have yours, I have mine too, and if we pay close attention to our stories, we will realize that our stories are collections of our experiences.

It is your perspective that defines and shapes the meaning of your stories. Similarly, when you hear stories, you come to know that you share the same fundamental experiences that others also have, and still, your experiences differ from others because everyone has a different outlook and different perspectives.

Stories enable us to explain everything in terms of our experiences from science to technologies, from friendships to relationships, from feelings to memories, from denial to affirmation, from joy to sorrow, from comfort to discomfort, and from questions to
objections.

And with every story we hear, read or listen, our mind makes cognitive and emotional connections and this connection, in turn, shapes our perspective of the world around us.

The stories you tell, the character you describe, your narration shape your perception of the world, and your perception of the world shapes the stories you tell.

Stories create a world around you and you make others tour your beautiful creation.

Life coaches are those professionals who can help you achieve your goals.

Life Coach Myth #1: Life coaches are those professionals who can help you achieve your goals.

Reality: Only some Life coaches, but not all life coaches who can help you reach your goals. One of the obvious reality in the coaching industry is that anyone can call themselves as a professional coach, life coach, personal coach, wellness coach, happiness coach, etc.

Technically, anyone can hang up a banner as a Coach outside their premise as coaching is not a regulated profession yet. Many people who identify themselves as a Coach and perform  'coaching' have no idea what coaching is. Because they haven't been trained or haven't been coached by a professionally trained and credentialed coach or by an ICF approved institutes.

There are 'brief schools' that will offer a credential or a certification after three hours of the training program and think 'I have become a coach!’. As a result, the quality of coaches and the coaching itself vary dramatically.

To overcome any confusion or doubt that arises in mind ‘which Coach’ and “which Coaching’, working with someone who has been accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF) would be a right ‘Coach’  for you.

The ICF certification is the benchmark for the professional Coach and a Coaching industry.

When failure is a known outcome

I was very much impressed with Brene Brown, who has shed great light on the feelings of shame and vulnerability. She wrote ‘if we choose to live a life of courage and vulnerability, we will fail. Not we may fail. We will fail.'

To me, this perspective is quite empowering. 

I derive immense energy to fight back, to try and fail and try again until I overcome my failure.

It’s very interesting to understand that when we accept failure as a known outcome, as a certainty in a life we are presently living, we will learn to work with it and not around it. 

Success and growth arise from curiosity and curiosity allow us to take risks; despite knowing the potential for failure. 

We can unfold our greatest potential if and only when, we grant ourselves the freedom to fail. 

It’s not necessary that every journey should end in amazing success. And if it happens, that's perfectly OK. Maybe then we will be better positioned to take on next great adventure knowing well, we are capable of dare to try. 

Try and fail and try once again to rise above failure.

Recycling Thoughts

We all are getting thousands of thoughts every day and many of them must be repeating over and over again.

Some thoughts are really worth considering, some calls for action and some need to be put to trash.

Thoughts which we wish to consider, we recycling them. However, often we recycle wrong thoughts.

Unknowingly we replay thoughts like:

I am unlucky.

I am not beautiful like so and so.

I can’t do it.

I am inadequate.

I can’t take risk.

I don’t have good physique like so and so.

I can’t solve this problem.

I don’t look pretty in photograph.

It’s better to recycle these thoughts instead with:

I am Lucky

I am good looking.

I am just enough.

I am able to achieve without risk.

It’s more important for me that I am healthy.

I am logical to tackle any problem.

I like the way I look in photograph.

Which thoughts are you recycling?

Those that keep you in unhappy state and hold you back from reaching your full potential or those that push you forward during challenging times and motivate you to perform at your best?

 

Don't get complacent

Life is a kind of race or competition.

You haven’t won until you’ve overcome the last hurdle, the last obstacle.

You may get a feeling that you have almost got the job that you were desperate for, but you still have not cleared the last interview to get through.

Don’t get complacent.

You may think that you have clicked a big deal and won the contract, but you don’t have the signature on the contract yet.

Don’t get complacent.

After clearing the first round of competition, you have more rounds to clear.

Don’t get complacent.

Playing good and winning the game are two different things.

You should never get complacent because the loss would be around the corner.

Make sure that you clear the last hurdle and push through to the finish line because familiarity breeds complacency.

Don’t become accidentally Mediocre.

I have not met a person who wants to become mediocre, willingly.

We don’t get there on purpose or we don’t plan to be mediocre. It happens slowly or it happens by an accident.

It happens especially when we search for reasons to do the bare minimum or just enough to get going.

It happens when we feel from inside that we don’t require to get educated anymore. Whatever we have is good enough.

It happens when our primary focus is to please others.

It happens when we adopt the easiest way of conforming.

It certainly happens when we just float through life, going through the routine day after day, month after month, year after year. We just spend our living.

Don’t just allow it to happen to you.

Don’t become accidentally mediocre. Don’t fall into mediocracy out of choice.

Instead, try to become great on purpose. Be true to your motive. Feel the objective, feel the intend.

Act accordingly.

It's ok if we are not born with some skills.

We’re not born with the ability to lead and influence.

Or the capacity to build strong relationships with a wide range of people.

Or do not have the resilience to bounce back from disappointments.

Or we lack enthusiasm and passion.

Or having problem-solving skills.

Or something else similar to this.

We sometimes think that others were born with these skills, and why we don’t.

But we can learn them. skills can be acquired.

We should learn them.

The skills are if not inborn can be learned, can be acquired.

Plans are fluid.

It’s true, not every plan works.


Loved ones leave us.


Our family members get sick.


Our Job gets lost.


A new hire proves to be a great misfit.


Our vacation plan flops.


Our book launch goes wrong.


Our post didn’t receive as many likes.


We lose a promotion.


Businesses suffer losses.


Relationships flounder.


We don’t become what we dreamt for.


We don’t get married to our choice.


Our kids don’t fulfill our dream.


Our goals don’t meet our plans.


So what should you do when life doesn’t go as per the plan?


Should you just give up?


Plans are fluids. They morph with the environment and your perseverance and attitude you exhibit.


Should you pout and feel sorry for yourself?


Should you just shrug your shoulders and protect yourself by not ever having aspirations again?


Or should you make a new plan?


Things don’t go as per plan is also a plan.


Set a new goal.


Set a new challenge.


There’s no guarantee that Plan B will work either, but let’s give it a go!


Accept and move on. Mistakes and situations going wrong are merely lessons to be learned, and nothing more.


When things don’t go as per plan, you get information. Use this information to create a new plan.

Where is your masterpiece?

Where is your masterpiece?

Many of us would like to create something called a masterpiece at least once in our lifetime.

May be Writing a book like R K Narayan.

Paint a picture like M F Husain

Write poetry like Gulzar.

Cook a delicious dish like Chef Sanjeev Kapoor.

If you are a sportsman play a memorable inning or if you are a Football player hit a memorable goal which people remember for a long.

If you are an artist give a memorable performance.

If you are a musician compose a tune that mesmerizes all ages of people.

Something you are good at it, do it in your best possible way, create a masterpiece of yours.

As I considered this thought of creating a masterpiece; I am sure all creators of masterpieces didn’t get lucky enough and have everything that they created to become a classic piece.

Similarly, all great composers and artists created many tunes or performance that we don’t even remember.

All of them, might have had different training, different inspirations, different backgrounds, different abilities, and different skills but they had one thing in common - How do I create a masterpiece?

Don’t worry to create a lot of crap because someday you’ll get it right!

Keep trying, keep making mistakes, keep learning and keep improvising.

Just don’t sit tight waiting for the perfect idea or the perfect moment to create your masterpiece.

There would be a time R K Narayan wrote a lot of pages that went straight in the trash, M F Husain might have a lot of paintings that he couldn’t sell and Gulzar wrote many songs that never published and Sanjeev Kapoor might have cooked the dishes which might have seen the dust bin, directly.

The world is always waiting for your masterpiece and it is quite understandable that you won’t get it right every time.

So don’t wait, start today, take action, take a plunge, dive in and create some genuine crap that will take you closer to your masterpiece one day.

Why I become a Coach

I became a coach because I thought I had certain things figured out in my life. 



I have learned how to achieve goals, optimize my personal productivity, how to remain consistent with healthy habits and get rid of my limiting beliefs.



I thought my sharing of experience would be helpful to the people I interact with.



My learning would make a difference in the life of the people with whom I partner with.



In the beginning, I got a lot of weird looks and the occasional comments like what extraordinary have I achieved in my life to impact other's lives.



The truth is, most of your friends and ex-co-workers just don’t see you as a coach.



I convinced myself that it is totally okay because most people only know you in your previous role and it’s difficult for them to see you differently. 



Also, when people you surround with seeing you take such big leaps in your life attacks their ego and makes them feel inadequate about themselves and in defense, they put you down.



It happens with all kinds of business or startup you start with, coaching should not be an exception.

Living life on your terms

When you live life on your own terms, it means that you live life in a way that is meaningful and fulfilling to you.

It means being able to enjoy the time you spend with yourself as much as the time you spend with others. It means having a purposeful career while also having the freedom and flexibility to pursue the passions and interests that add color to your life.

A life lived on your own terms can include travel, volunteering, fitness or any other number of activities, tangible and intangible, real and imagined. When you’re living your life on your own terms, you get inspired to do more — be more. Things come easy and you do them well because you’re living a life that’s aligned with your authentic self…the most beautiful kind of life there is.

Coaching challenges in work culture

In our day to day work culture, every organization is facing the following challenges which can prevent a positive coaching culture being developed and nurtured.

Some of the common reason we would hear from the leaders/managers:

·        “I have my things to do, don’t expect me to have time to coach.”

    Well, Coaching doesn’t have to take hours or days. Coaching can be just one new idea, one new concept or one new learning which can be shared with the team and work upon.

·        “My team is good enough, doesn’t need coaching.”

    Most of the time, Leaders or mangers do not allow their team members to get an opportunity to improve themselves, thinking that it would involve their time and efforts.

·        “Coaching is basically about ‘soft-skills’ and that is HR Job .”

There is a wrong perception prevailing that coaching is related to HR’s role. Many managers or leaders believe that send your troublesome employees to HR and they will be “fixed.” They ignore the fact that Coaching is both a skill and a mindset and it is very critical for their role as a manager.

·        “Why should I coach my team? I learned all of my own, my boss didn’t coach me.”

·        “I don’t know how to coach. Pl. choose someone else.”

    Most leaders or Managers give this simplest excuse to escape from responsibility.