Ladies, it's the holidays, and that means getting your new selves together with your families. But the mad dash to the end of the year - how did we get here so fast? Wasn't it just July 4th? Okay, so I've got lists to make, packages to send, presents to buy, lines to stand in, bargains to shop, tree to decorate, house to decorate... It's too much!
So how is it that the season of celebration, joy, giving and family gatherings has become the time of the year that is most stressful? Because of the pressure we put on ourselves to have such a magical wonderful time, when things don't always feel that magical.
Visiting the family can be especially tough. As family members, we know each other better than anyone else – foibles, flaws, failures and more. And the hope that maybe this year things will be different turns to anger, distance and resentment when that one button gets pushed and nothing has changed at all. Even in the closest of families – the least dysfunctional – expectations of unity, peace and holiday spirit can be instantly dashed at the moment a family member’s annoying habit poisons our perfect holiday scenario.
Here are the three things you can do this holiday season to hone your family relationship skills and make your holiday gatherings a more positive experience:
1. Limit your exposure: If you know that a certain amount of time spent with a family member gets your blood boiling, then simply plan to spend less time with them. Get in, get out and get on with your life.
2. Practice forgiveness: If you’re carrying any unresolved resentment into a particular situation, you’re planning to have a fight. You’re not going to fix or change this person – especially not during the holiday. So let it go, forgive their past offenses – and suspend your own judgment of them – and see if you can remember what you love about them. Focus on their good attributes. Let’s face it – who among us is perfect?
3. Visualize a great time: Before you spend time with your friends or relatives, take five minutes and visualize yourself driving or flying home from the visit feeling good about it and happy that you spent time with them. Take that peaceful energy into the situation and you will look for ways to create it while you’re there.
We can’t choose our families, but we can choose to accept them for who they are, and allow ourselves to be who we are at the same time. Your holiday is yours to create -- any way you choose. This year choose to be the change you want to see in the family. Be forgiveness, be joy… BE MERRY!
-Be your best!
Coach Steve
Monday, November 28, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Forgiveness. It starts with you.
I forgive you.
I forgive you for being harder on yourself than anyone else could ever be.
I forgive you for the lies you felt you had to tell to keep yourself safe from scrutiny.
I forgive you for being your own worst enemy.
I forgive you for fighting to be right, especially when you weren't sure if you were.
I forgive you for playing into the fear, and backing out of great opportunities.
I forgive you for the rage which consumed you, clouding your judgement and fueling the abuse to yourself and others.
I forgive you for hurting people, pushing them away, breaking their hearts.
I forgive you for doing your very best and still falling short of your goals.
I forgive you for the judgement you opposed on others who themselves struggle with their own shortcomings.
I forgive you for not saying anything or defending yourself when you were abused by others.
I forgive you for crying wolf when you weren't.
I forgive you for pushing away love while campaigning for it at the same time.
I forgive you for the mis-steps, the wrong turns, the dead ends, the misunderstandings, and the questionable choices.
I forgive you for falling down. Again and again and again and again and again.
And I thank you for getting back up every time.
I forgive you for being harder on yourself than anyone else could ever be.
I forgive you for the lies you felt you had to tell to keep yourself safe from scrutiny.
I forgive you for being your own worst enemy.
I forgive you for fighting to be right, especially when you weren't sure if you were.
I forgive you for playing into the fear, and backing out of great opportunities.
I forgive you for the rage which consumed you, clouding your judgement and fueling the abuse to yourself and others.
I forgive you for hurting people, pushing them away, breaking their hearts.
I forgive you for doing your very best and still falling short of your goals.
I forgive you for the judgement you opposed on others who themselves struggle with their own shortcomings.
I forgive you for not saying anything or defending yourself when you were abused by others.
I forgive you for crying wolf when you weren't.
I forgive you for pushing away love while campaigning for it at the same time.
I forgive you for the mis-steps, the wrong turns, the dead ends, the misunderstandings, and the questionable choices.
I forgive you for falling down. Again and again and again and again and again.
And I thank you for getting back up every time.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Friday Fun Fact
A little something to inspire you today, ladies.
Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers, among many other items. were invented by women
Have a great, empowering weekend!
-Coach Steve
Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers, among many other items. were invented by women
Have a great, empowering weekend!
-Coach Steve
Thursday, November 10, 2011
New Coaching Video
Hello ladies! I've posted a new coaching video and would love it if you would take a look. I need as many views as I can get! Pass it on! Thanks!!!!
-Coach Steve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gswr56fhHe0
-Coach Steve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gswr56fhHe0
Sunday, November 6, 2011
The Blame Game - "I Get To Be Right!"
Blame. It's an easy thing to assign, but takes a lot of work to avoid. And yet, placing blame or ignoring culpability is what we do best, isn't it?
Not too long ago I found myself living in the past. I was recalling a life transition I had made years earlier: leaving television completely and focusing fully on my coaching services (which ironically is Transitional Strategies!) I caught myself putting aside the excitement of my new path in favor of dwelling on choices I had made in the past which may have steered me away from a growing career as TV host and news personality. And I was reconnecting with the anger I felt years earlier.
As a younger man I loved my TV career. When I started in the business, I was determined to be the top host in the world - landing the best show on TV and giving it my all every week. I landed several big shows on big networks like HGTV, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Channel, and to keep stability and make more money along the way I worked for a local TV news station doing traffic and weather. I had my goals firmly set, I had a plan for my life and my career, and I saw my finish line.
But all of that changed several years ago when an unusual set of circumstances came together in the perfect storm and I lost all 3 television projects I was working on within weeks of each other. In that one month span my entire plan was wiped out, and I was faced with a blank slate, and no other viable plan to replace it.
But I actually did have a back up plan, and I was already working it, I just didn't give it the credit it was due.
Since childhood I have been a student of enlightenment, motivation and serving others. When I was 10 I helped my grandfather deliver meals on wheels to his friends who were house-bound prompting one of our recipients to remark about me: "That kid has the heart of a volunteer." In grade school I found myself advising all my friends about their home lives, love lives, personal struggles and more. I just came naturally to me, and I had great results with it. I attended my first open AA meeting with my mother at the age of 13, and continued to go on my own for years after.
In college I studied the workshops and teachings of Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Wayne Dyer, Leo Buscaglia, and many others. In my early 30's I completed the Landmark Education Curriculum for excellence, eventually becoming a head coach for Landmark programs in Los Angeles. In my late 30's, after hiring a coach to help me remove a serious personality block, I was so impressed with the techniques he used, I earned my own certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Hypnotherapy and Timeline Therapy. All this work I treated as a hobby as I built my TV career.
But with my chosen career at a sudden standstill, I was faced with a choice - one that I had not considered previously because of my earlier success: Do I continue to pursue the elusive TV deal, or do I do what I've always done so well... help others? I chose the later and never looked back.
Until recently. Which brings me back to my point: Blame.
At the time of my great transition, I was filled with anger and blame for the people I held responsible for my circumstances. I blamed my parents, my brother, the TV executives, the business itself, and anyone else I could think of to fuel my anger and ultimately be right! By being angry at others, I got to be right about my position, and not focus any of the culpability where it belonged. With me.
And that's what blame does - it gives you the freedom to avoid personal responsibility, and be right about your anger. But hanging on to your anger and justifying it with blame only perpetuates the issue and its resolution can remain painfully at bay.
Take my example: As my TV career ended I was absolutely sure that the business and everyone in it was out to stop me from having what I wanted. I blamed everyone for the downfall I experienced and cursed the ones who were successful. I lived in that blame, being right, and staying stuck with no direction to turn.
Then one day, not too long after, I got an email from someone that I had helped when going through my NLP certification. As training, I took on someone (at no charge) who wanted to quit drinking. I had plenty of experience with alcoholism, and with my new NLP tools was able to get her to stop drinking completely. She had just reached her 1 year sobriety milestone and was writing to thank me for changing her life.
The letter floored me.
I realized by the time I was done reading it that from early on in my life I was a major success. My volunteer heart, my love for enlightenment, motivation, and helping others along with my personal experiences all added up to who I have become now. But to get here, I needed to stop blaming others for what were ultimately my choices.
It was my choice to pursue a life in television where very few people achieve lasting success. It was my choice to stay in a career which was so dramatically up and down. It was my choice to try to prove to myself and others that I could achieve the goals I set despite the odds. I chose the life, but I didn't choose it powerfully - which means the bad with the good - and ultimately discovered we just weren't meant for each other. At least not right now.
Accountability set me free from the trap of blind persistence and I, my clients, andyou are all the beneficiaries of that change. I am living my destiny and its effortless.
So what does accountability mean for you? When was the last time you challenged yourself to release blame and take responsibility for your own choices? Pick one time in your life where you blamed others for something that could have been easily your responsibility and revisit the issue. Close your eyes, focus on the whole issue, and see if you can see your part in it.
Look at something differently, and that thing changes.
Be your best,
-Steve
Not too long ago I found myself living in the past. I was recalling a life transition I had made years earlier: leaving television completely and focusing fully on my coaching services (which ironically is Transitional Strategies!) I caught myself putting aside the excitement of my new path in favor of dwelling on choices I had made in the past which may have steered me away from a growing career as TV host and news personality. And I was reconnecting with the anger I felt years earlier.
As a younger man I loved my TV career. When I started in the business, I was determined to be the top host in the world - landing the best show on TV and giving it my all every week. I landed several big shows on big networks like HGTV, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Channel, and to keep stability and make more money along the way I worked for a local TV news station doing traffic and weather. I had my goals firmly set, I had a plan for my life and my career, and I saw my finish line.
But all of that changed several years ago when an unusual set of circumstances came together in the perfect storm and I lost all 3 television projects I was working on within weeks of each other. In that one month span my entire plan was wiped out, and I was faced with a blank slate, and no other viable plan to replace it.
But I actually did have a back up plan, and I was already working it, I just didn't give it the credit it was due.
Since childhood I have been a student of enlightenment, motivation and serving others. When I was 10 I helped my grandfather deliver meals on wheels to his friends who were house-bound prompting one of our recipients to remark about me: "That kid has the heart of a volunteer." In grade school I found myself advising all my friends about their home lives, love lives, personal struggles and more. I just came naturally to me, and I had great results with it. I attended my first open AA meeting with my mother at the age of 13, and continued to go on my own for years after.
In college I studied the workshops and teachings of Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Wayne Dyer, Leo Buscaglia, and many others. In my early 30's I completed the Landmark Education Curriculum for excellence, eventually becoming a head coach for Landmark programs in Los Angeles. In my late 30's, after hiring a coach to help me remove a serious personality block, I was so impressed with the techniques he used, I earned my own certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Hypnotherapy and Timeline Therapy. All this work I treated as a hobby as I built my TV career.
But with my chosen career at a sudden standstill, I was faced with a choice - one that I had not considered previously because of my earlier success: Do I continue to pursue the elusive TV deal, or do I do what I've always done so well... help others? I chose the later and never looked back.
Until recently. Which brings me back to my point: Blame.
At the time of my great transition, I was filled with anger and blame for the people I held responsible for my circumstances. I blamed my parents, my brother, the TV executives, the business itself, and anyone else I could think of to fuel my anger and ultimately be right! By being angry at others, I got to be right about my position, and not focus any of the culpability where it belonged. With me.
And that's what blame does - it gives you the freedom to avoid personal responsibility, and be right about your anger. But hanging on to your anger and justifying it with blame only perpetuates the issue and its resolution can remain painfully at bay.
Take my example: As my TV career ended I was absolutely sure that the business and everyone in it was out to stop me from having what I wanted. I blamed everyone for the downfall I experienced and cursed the ones who were successful. I lived in that blame, being right, and staying stuck with no direction to turn.
Then one day, not too long after, I got an email from someone that I had helped when going through my NLP certification. As training, I took on someone (at no charge) who wanted to quit drinking. I had plenty of experience with alcoholism, and with my new NLP tools was able to get her to stop drinking completely. She had just reached her 1 year sobriety milestone and was writing to thank me for changing her life.
The letter floored me.
I realized by the time I was done reading it that from early on in my life I was a major success. My volunteer heart, my love for enlightenment, motivation, and helping others along with my personal experiences all added up to who I have become now. But to get here, I needed to stop blaming others for what were ultimately my choices.
It was my choice to pursue a life in television where very few people achieve lasting success. It was my choice to stay in a career which was so dramatically up and down. It was my choice to try to prove to myself and others that I could achieve the goals I set despite the odds. I chose the life, but I didn't choose it powerfully - which means the bad with the good - and ultimately discovered we just weren't meant for each other. At least not right now.
Accountability set me free from the trap of blind persistence and I, my clients, andyou are all the beneficiaries of that change. I am living my destiny and its effortless.
So what does accountability mean for you? When was the last time you challenged yourself to release blame and take responsibility for your own choices? Pick one time in your life where you blamed others for something that could have been easily your responsibility and revisit the issue. Close your eyes, focus on the whole issue, and see if you can see your part in it.
Look at something differently, and that thing changes.
Be your best,
-Steve
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
My 'Life as a House'
In 2001, Kevin Kline starred in a movie about George, a divorced father in the final stages of his losing battle with cancer, trying to reconnect with his estranged 16-year-old son, while also rebuilding the broken pieces of his own past by tearing down the dilapidated house left to him by his abusive father, and building a new one in its place. If you haven't seen this amazing movie its worth a watch - mainly for the poignant final words spoken in the film as it fades to black.
The thrust of the tome serves as a window into the core of our struggle as humans - we're all doing our best with what we've been given, despite often appearing to be doing much less in the eyes of those who love and need us the most.
When George demands that his son join him for the summer to help finish building the house, he is met with huge resistance. George's son spends most of the summer trying to get out of the sun-up to sun-down work his father asks of him. By the end of the film, however, George reveals he is battling cancer and he needs his son to finish the house he won't be able to complete on his own. His son, struck by opposing feelings of rage, concern, and needful love, releases his final anger towards his father and becomes the caretaker his father could never be. The two reunite in a final effort to end the cycle of misunderstanding, rage, and abuse, and George's son comes to love his father in a way George's father never earned.
For me the film was the catalyst for my improved relationship with my dad; I was able to see my father as George, the tormented workaholic who was harder on himself than any member of his family, and as a result nearly lost everyone close to him because of his behavior. But my dad, like George, is really a good guy - talented and smart, funny and loving. It was his circumstances (demanding job, impossible home life growing up, demons of his own past behavior haunting him constantly) that kept him from enjoying a life free from the scorn of others he may have hurt. I came to know my father as a person, not an unreachable entity, and I realized that he - like all of us - is doing his best with what he was given to make it in this world.
He's a good man and a really good grandfather, and I'm so happy to have him in my life and in the lives of my children.
For my own story, I was determined to tear away the rotting wood, weak foundations, and leaky plumbing in my 'house' before it became an expensive tear-down. Part of that personal remodel for me was the understanding that while doing my best I am going to stumble, make mistakes with my children and wife, and not always be perfect... and that's okay. I'm doing my best with what I've been given, while seeking wisdom and growth - and that's enough.
What parts of your house need remodeling? Is your foundation strong enough to take on some renovations? Who will benefit from the new you? Wouldn't it be wonderful if at the end of your movie, when your house is complete, you've left a warm hearth in which your loved ones can find comfort?
Be your best!
-Steve
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
FAITH
Persistence is the key to success. Never giving up, never giving in, never giving out - but persevering despite every muscle in your body, every voice in your head screaming "STOP! Go back to when you were comfortable! Life was easier, even though you were miserable knowing you were meant for something better!"
When that voice enters my head I choose to acknowledge it. After all, it is a living thing just like we are and it wants to live! So I simply say "Thank you for sharing, I hear you, now GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
We're getting close to the finish line, ladies. I'm sorry I haven't been around to give you more in-person encouragement, but it doesn't mean I don't think about you ever day, send my thoughts and prayers, and smile at the thought of what you are doing.
It's always near the end when we start to truly test our limits - or more accurately, our limits are truly tested. It's time now to have faith in this process and keep going! See yourself at the finish line and you will make it there.
I'll see you there. I'm so proud of all of you!
Know yourself, don't NO yourself
-Coach Steve
When that voice enters my head I choose to acknowledge it. After all, it is a living thing just like we are and it wants to live! So I simply say "Thank you for sharing, I hear you, now GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
We're getting close to the finish line, ladies. I'm sorry I haven't been around to give you more in-person encouragement, but it doesn't mean I don't think about you ever day, send my thoughts and prayers, and smile at the thought of what you are doing.
It's always near the end when we start to truly test our limits - or more accurately, our limits are truly tested. It's time now to have faith in this process and keep going! See yourself at the finish line and you will make it there.
I'll see you there. I'm so proud of all of you!
Know yourself, don't NO yourself
-Coach Steve
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