2012: Refresh, renew, refocus, re-energise

‘A day away acts as a spring tonic. It can dispel rancour, transform indecision, and renew the spirit.'

 Maya Angelou

Horizontal and vertical coaching Every week I receive Michael Neil's online coaching tips and a couple of months ago he wrote about horizontal and vertical coaching, and I realised that this concept nicely sums up the work that I do with clients.

Horizontal coaching is about getting from A to B. It might be that you want to be more assertive, want to lose weight, or want to develop your presentation skills. Or you want to get this promotion or want to set up a new business or you are retiring/being made redundant and are wondering where to go next.

Vertical coaching is about going within you and exploring the thoughts and beliefs you have, the emotions you are experiencing related to what you want to achieve or the current situation that you are in. These thoughts, beliefs and emotions will either help or hinder your progress.

I realised that what I do with coaching clients, and to some extent on my workshops, is to help people to be clear about the A to B, while doing the vertical coaching to enable them to overcome any blocks and ease their journey from A to B.

‘Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.'

Brian Tracy

What is your A to B for 2012? Here are some of the changes that recent clients have faced:

• Wanting to stop fire fighting and take a more strategic role in their business.
• Wanting to control their anger and frustration in order to be more assertive with others.
• Dealing with redundancy, exploring the options as to what to do next.
• Changing the direction of their business, and exploring exactly what they want to do next.
• Wanting their team to take on more responsibility for solving problems.
• Wanting support in finding and applying for their next role.
• Wanting to spend more time ‘being' versus always ‘doing' the whole time.
• Wanting to have more creativity in their lives through taking up new hobbies and interests.

What is it that you want to achieve or do differently in 2012 both in and out of work? Think about your health, wealth, contentment, satisfaction, enjoyment in life.

‘If you leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition, what you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.'

Alan Alda

What are you experiencing where you are now? With a number of recent clients who are experiencing big changes in their lives (not all of them of their own choosing), the first thing they need to do is to process what is going on within them. Think about yourself and your current situation in relation to where you want to go and what you want to do in 2012:

• Do you feel energised when you think about the future? Or is your energy sapped by the changes and challenges that you are facing?
• Do you need to regroup, renew yourself in order to move on?
• Are there negative emotions that need to be acknowledged and processed so that they don't infect the future or stop you moving on? This could be anger, frustration, sadness, anxiety, fear? Click here for a mood map to assist you in analysing your moods.
• Are you suppressing emotions or putting on a ‘brave face' versus facing the reality of your situation and processing any negative emotions.

‘Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus.'

Oprah Winfrey

Are your thoughts, beliefs, feelings helping or hindering you? Once you have identified where you are going, and have dealt with the here and now, it is then important to make sure that your thoughts and feelings help rather than hinder your journey forward. Think about the following questions in relation to what you want to achieve or have in 2012:

• What are your thoughts and beliefs about yourself?
• What are your thoughts and beliefs about the situation as a whole?
• What are your thoughts and beliefs about others connected to this situation?
• How do these thoughts and beliefs impact on you taking action?
• How does your mood impact on you taking action?
• What about your energy levels? Are you feeling energised or lethargic? What energy do you need to move things forward?

Vertical coaching is about assisting you in working through this and creating the mindset, the thoughts, beliefs that will support your endeavour. While ensuring that you have the energy, focus and mood to keep on going.

‘A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.'

Arthur Golden

Refresh, renew, refocus, re-energise yourself If you live in the Northern hemisphere January is not a good month to start with our new year resolutions, determinations or goals, when all you want to do is hibernate and you might be feeling rather worse for wear after the festive season, both physically and financially. But it is possible to refresh, renew, refocus and re-energise yourself if you do it from your wise self not your inner critic!

• What do you find refreshes you? Is it exercise, being with the right people, being in nature (even the wintery kind), singing, dancing, being on your own?
• Do you need to let some things go and start afresh? Perhaps old goals, old habits that are no longer relevant or people and situations which are sapping your energy?
• What is your focus for today, this week, this month, which will move you forward one step at a time towards your goals?
• How can you re-energise yourself or maintain your energy levels throughout the day, week and year?

We all have times when things get out of balance, when we lose focus or our energy wanes, but if we spot this quickly we can refresh, renew, refocus, re-energise ourselves to get us back on track.

‘Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.'

 Corita Kent