You have heard the story of how in 1953 at Yale University a study was conducted on all graduating students and it was found that only 3% of those graduates had actually set goals and wrote them down? About 20 years later it was discovered that those 3% were in fact financially better off,  healthier and happier than the other 97%. Do you have an annual holiday coming up? Do you know of someone who [...]

Are you familiar with the Law of Requisite Variety? The Law of Requisite Variety provides that the person (or system) with most flexibility of behaviour will end up controlling the system. Unless you have heard of this law before, this definition probably does not mean much to you. You are probably saying “What does this mean?” The law is all about ensuring that your behaviour is flexible when and as needed each and every day. In [...]

Who is responsible for change in your life – personally, relationships, hobbies or work? The responsibility for any change rests with you and with me and my life it is myself. No one can change your life, it is up to you to make that commitment, to set the goals, to develop an action plan and move forward towards what you want.  Okay, you are in currently a job you do not like, well it’s up [...]

Last week I conducted a workshop Manager’s Planning Day for a group of managers at a Government Department in Perth. The workshop involved using Extended DISC to understand behavioural styles and the later half the elicitation of values for the team. Since conducting the workshop I have been thinking more and more about values. We all have values, we have values in our personal life, we have values for our business or company that we [...]

In 1985 a rock song written by Michael Chapman and Holly Knight was used for the Divinyls second studio album, What a Life!. The song was called “Pleasure and Pain” and became one of the most popular songs in Australia at the time. A key lyric to the song mentioned “It’s a fine line between pleasure and pain”. Sometimes, people may say to you, “love hurts” or “love is painful” or “you have to be [...]

How is your goal setting going for 2011? So far we have discussed in the Blog the following: 1. Goals must be well-formed (7 steps required) 2. Goals must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable/as if now, realistic/rewarding, and timed) 3. Goals must have an evidence procedure, so that you know the very last thing to occur for you to have achieved your goal 4. Goals must have a number of steps or keys to achieve [...]

We all did various types of equations at high school. I am sure you are like me and unable to remember their names, unless of course you are currently working as a mathematician. A common equation in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and coaching is C > E. This means that C must greater than the E. What does this mean? C represents cause and E is the effect. Therefore, in coaching and NLP to get [...]

As you are setting your goals or outcomes for 2011, you must ensure that they are well formed. For a goal or outcome to be well formed it must meet the following criteria: 1. The goal or outcome must be stated in positive terms. State specifically what you want to achieve rather than what you don’t want. 2. The goal must be initiated and maintained by you. Remember, if your goal depends on others then [...]

In achieving any goal you must know the outcome. In knowing the outcome there are a number of steps that should be followed. These are known as the keys to an achievable outcome. 1. The outcome (goal) must be stated in the positive and you must state what you actually want rather than what you do not want. E.g. What you do not want – I do not want to be overweight versus what you [...]

With the beginning of 2011 fast approaching now is a great time to start thinking about your goals for next year. What is it that you want? What would you like to achieve? Where would you like to be? Remember your questions should be based on what you want rather what you do not want! A goal is an aim or an end in mind. The aim of the goal is related to the direction [...]