Motivational Monday - February 6

Happy Monday one and all!!!  Welcome to our second February installment of Motivational Monday.  Hopefully your Monday wasn't as bad as you may have imagined it would be over the weekend.  For those of you who watched the Superbowl yesterday, it was a fun game...  No matter who you may have rooted for, both teams played hard and well.  I don't have any fingernails left after the game yesterday, but I am happy I got to watch it. 

Watching these two awesome football teams battle it out for that ultimate prize, you have to wonder how they stayed motivated.   Both teams had huge motivation to win, yet we all know there was to be only one winner. (In my book, both teams were winners, they both played to the absolute best of their abilities).   I read in the news today that Tom Brady was utterly dejected after the loss to the Giants.  It has to hurt, to be so close to winning the Superbowl for the fourth time in his career.  Heck, the Patriots were leading until the last 4 minutes.

From this loss, you have to wonder, how does the team get motivated to play again?  The most obvious is that you know they have to look at their past successes.  They know they can win, they know they have the talent to win.  Now, to stay motivated, they will have to remember the successes, but they must also look at what they did wrong and learn from those mistakes or missed opportunities. 

What the New England Patriots are going through after yesterday's Superbowl is nothing different than what we all go through on a daily basis.  The only real difference is that a lot more people saw them fail, whereas we may only have a handful of people watching us fail.  In this economy, many people are looking for work and having one heck of a time landing a job.  They may be interviewing like mad, but never getting that job offer they hoped for.  It is difficult to continue day after day to remain motivated, when you feel like you are continuously failing and not landing that job.

You need to stay motivated, remember that you did land jobs in the past.  Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses, remember why you were so good at your job.   Focus on your successes to help keep you motivated.  As we discussed last Monday, you do not want to dwell on those successes, but if you feel that your resolve may be slipping, remember your prior success and strive to remember how good you felt when you did get that job, or win that big contract. 

Use your successes to motivate you to move forward.  Even though Tom Brady was very depressed and despondent yesterday, you know that in a day or so, he will start focusing on what they need to do to win the next Superbowl...  He brought his team 3 prior wins, he will build on that and motivate not only himself, but his team to focus on winning so they can take the Superbowl podium next year.

Until Wednesday....

Motivational Monday - January 30

Happy Monday one and all!  Welcome to another edition of Motivational Monday.  I am willing to bet that not all of you are feeling too "chipper" today.  No surprise, today is Monday, and traditionally, Mondays are not all that much fun.  Granted, some of you do enjoy Mondays, but for the person who has a great weekend, going back to work on Monday is not always enjoyable.  Today we are going to review some more points on how to get through Mondays and how to not just survive the work-week.

One tip to remaining motivated is to let go of your past.  Before you all get angry, please let me explain.  There are a few ways you can let go of the past, but I am not suggesting that you let go and FORGET the past.  The key here is to not DWELL on the past.

History (the "past") provides many great lessons for us, but if continued to dwell on what happened in the past, you will never be able to more forward.  It is very important that we learn from both our past mistakes and our past failures.  How many people have you encountered that seem to live in the past?  They tell you how great things USED to be, and how much better their life was.  Or they may tell you about the time they made that mistake and nothing has ever gone right for them since?  It is that kind of thought processes that you need to get rid of.

If you continue to re-live the past, you will never find the motivation to make changes and improve your present.  I learned one very important piece of advice many, many years ago that has stuck with me...you cannot change the past, you can only change YOUR ATTITUDE towards the past.  This is extremely important if you want to keep your motivation for the future.

You need to acknowledge that the past occurred.  If you made mistakes, you need to accept that you made those mistakes and learn from what you did wrong.  By making mistakes, you are forcing yourself to learn.  If you didn't make any mistakes, you probably would not be where you are now.  Heck, the sticky note (that little yellow post-it note that 3M makes?) was actually a mistake by one of 3M's developers. They were trying to make a type of glue, only to make a glue that didn't stick very well.  You all now probably know how successful the 'sticky note' is for many of us, especially those of us in an office.

Making mistakes opens up new avenues for us to try new things.  Now that you know this doesn't work, you can try a different path.  But, if you constantly lived that same mistake, you will never have the desire or motivation to try anything new.

How many people have you talked to that constantly relived their greatest successes?  This is almost as bad, if not worse than reliving your mistakes.  Constantly reliving your success could prevent you from going out and becoming even more successful.  Like the mistakes of the past, if you learn from your successes, then you can become even more successful in the future.  Also, realistically, how many of you want to hear for the 100th time how Joe made that one awesome sale and brought home a six-digit paycheck the next month?   Wouldn't you rather hear about how Joe made that sale, and then has continued to make better sales up through today?  Then, you can learn from Joe's successes and possibly apply his techniques to your business.

So, in a nutshell, if you want to build a successful future and maintain your motivation, let go of the past, both the pain and the successes.  Use the past as a building block and a tool to motivate you to do even better in the future.

Have a wonderful Motivational Monday.  Until this Wednesday...

Motivational Monday

Well, this week we are going to mix it up a bit.  I have been posting the Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits on or around the first of the week for quite some time now.  I thought I would try Motivational Monday, (versus my Motivational Wednesday - rolls off the tongue easier...) for a week or two and see how it goes.  No, Fun Facts is not being preempted, it is just moving to Wednesdays.  Please feel free to let me know which you would ultimately prefer, fun on Mondays or motivation on Mondays....

On to the motivation....

Last week we covered more tips on how to either get motivated to accomplish a task or how to stay motivated to keep working towards a goal.  This week we are going to continue to explore how to remain motivated as you work towards your goals.

Many of you work for a living, you go to a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke), trade your time for their money, come home and just collapse.  Well, doing that day after day, year after year, will seriously wear you out.  Do you remember the first day you landed your first job?  You were MOTIVATED.  You had PLANS.  You were GOING PLACES and TAKING NO PRISONERS.  Now, most likely, you are just grateful to have a job, but it takes so much out of you that you have no more to give once you get home.

This is where the motivational tips I have been offering come into play.  No matter how tired you may be, in order to improve your circumstances or work towards financial freedom, you need to not only define your goals, but really believe in your goals.  Defining goals is relatively simple, the critical point it to not only believe in those defined goals, but to EMBRACE those same goals.  The goals you define should be what you wake up thinking about and should also be what you think about as you are falling asleep at night.

By embracing these goals, you will discover you are as motivated as you were when you got your first job.  But even with clearly defined goals, and you celebrating milestones towards those same goals, you will find over time that your motivation does begin to flag.  This does not mean that your goals are no longer worthy.  All it means is that you may need to find additional methods of motivation.  Every new idea creates excitement, but as you continue to work towards your long-term goals, you will find times where you are still lacking motivation.  This is natural and not a bad thing, all you have to do is to devise some additional motivational methods to keep moving through your 'slow' time.

One thing that will help keep your motivation fresh is to be sure that you ALWAYS make time for yourself.  If you do not take care of yourself, no matter how supportive your friends and family may be, nobody else will take care of you.  Remember to take time out for YOU.  Do not lose yourself in your goal, your goal may be a part of you, but you still need to take some time to rest.  Your mind and body do need this rest, even if you believe that you have to push through and continue to work.  Spend some quiet time each day with yourself.   This does not need to be hours at a time, it could only be 15 minutes to an hour, but remember to take time for yourself and keep in touch with who you are and why you are working for these goals.   You may not feel like you have to do this daily, and if so, at least make an effort once a week to take time out for you.  You don't have to sit in a tub with candles all over, it just means that you should do what YOU want to do for a little period of time.  It is amazing how rejuvenating it is to do something that YOU want instead of constantly working to do stuff for everyone else. 

After you have rejuvenated, do not forget to spend time with your friends and family.  After you have taken care of yourself, you may also find it is easier to help your friends and family with their desires.  It is critical to maintain a balance between work, goals, family and friends.  Without a good balance, you will lose motivation very quickly.   Strive to remember that your friends and family may not always be around for you to spend time with.  Hopefully your friends and family are also motivated and excited about the goals that you have set, and perhaps part of spending time with them includes you all working towards the same goal. 

Time is that commodity that once spent, cannot be taken back, so spend your time wisely.  Avoid those who may 'suck' time away from you, they don't have enough motivation of their own, and would rather use you and your energy to get them motivated.  This is personally draining, and you will find yourself losing that motivational drive again.   Try to align yourself with other motivated people, because their energy will help keep you going.  Then, if they start losing motivation, you are there to help them continue on.

Again, it is always very motivating to see your goals clearly written and posted in a public place.  That way, not only you, but your friends and family can continue to see what you are working towards.  As your motivation periodically lags, all you need to do is to catch a glimpse of your plans, and you will find that your motivation is rekindled.  

These are a few more tips to keep you driving toward your goals.  These tips may help keep you motivated even after a 10 hour work day, with dinner yet to be made and kids that still need help with their homework.  After getting all that done, you may still be able to keep that tiny little spark of motivation alive so that you can do one more thing that will bring you closer to your goals.  You will be amazed about how quickly you can get motivated when you can take tiny little steps toward your goal.  By doing just one little task before you call it a day, you can go to bed enthused because you are now one step closer to your goal.  It is a wonderful feeling to know that no matter how rough your day may have been, you still took one more step toward your dream.  That should always keep your spark of motivation alive.

Hopefully you found some of these tips and suggestions helpful to stay motivated.  Perhaps it will allow you to get through this week a little easier too.  Have a great Motivational Monday.  Wednesday we will pick it up and have some fun with the weekly installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits.

If you are looking for other income opportunities, please feel free to check out our website for ideas.  We are always available for questions and even for bouncing ideas for other ways to find financial freedom.  

Until Wednesday...

Procrastination -

Tonight is more a night for procrastination than for real work. We finally have another break from painful high temperatures, and I would rather be enjoying the cool evening air than sitting in front of the computer finding more obscure facts to entertain. You will get your Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits this week...just not tonight...perhaps...

• Horses
  
  Tonight I should be helping you all laugh by providing my weekly installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. Well, I am not entirely thrilled with that prospect tonight, and have been procrastinating writing this weekly article tonight. Granted, I have loads of silly bits of information to entertain you with, but for some reason, I do not feel that this weekly installment is going to be that much fun, I am not feeling inspiration.
  
  Let's discuss procrastination instead... one of my favorite ways to procrastinate is to decide it is time to organize my desk. My desk periodically looks like a bomb hit it, even though I know exactly (well, almost) where every piece of paper really is. But, when I am not in a very inspired mood to do what I should do, that is the best time for me to straighten my desk.
  
  I guess you could say that my desk usually doesn't look too bad, but if it is consistently neat, then you know I am procrastinating....kind of like tonight...
  
  My next best method of procrastinating is to decide it is time to mend shirts, re-apply buttons, and darn socks...now really, how many people really darn socks anymore...if you are into procrastination...well, count me in...
  
  Lastly my best method of procrastination is to play with all the animals around the house. That includes the two dogs that keep me company, but lately, I have been spending quality time with my neighbor's horses...not for any particular reason except that it has been pretty evenings, and I didn't want to go inside and get any work done...
  
  I know, for those of you who read last week's Motivational blog on Wednesday, I talked about ways to get things done even when you don't want to do it. Well, as you can see, even though I have been procrastinating, I do still get done what needs to be done...just later than usual. Procrastination can be fun, so don't dismiss it out-of-hand.
  
  Think of all the mischief you can get into by procrastinating, especially if others would RATHER you get your chores/tasks done... Procrastination does have it's benefits, heck, my desk does get regularly cleaned, the animals get played with, and over-all, I have fun. After I get the procrastination out of the way, I find I become more motivated to complete the tasks that I had been putting off.
  
  So, the upshot is, some procrastination is good, but too much of it will get you in trouble.  Since I don't feel like getting into too much trouble, I better start working on the weekly Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits segment for either tomorrow or Wednesday. Stay tuned to see which day I end up posting...
  
  Until tomorrow....

A Fortunate Failure

Many times we have tried and failed at projects. Some people view those failures as the end, but the majority of failures are actually blessings in disguise.

Webster's Dictionary defines Failure as an "omission of occurrence or performance; specifically: a failing to perform a duty or expected action." A second definition for Failure is "lack of success".

There have been many times in my lifetime that I have failed at something I hoped to do. Each time after the failure, when looking back at the entire specific situation, it was determined that the failure was actually a blessing in disguise. Failures are really just temporary. Depending on how you view "failures" each failure can be a blessing.

If you talk to a door-to-door salesman, every time someone says "No" to them, that can be construed as a failure, but the successful salesman looks at that 'failure' as a blessing, because now he can move onto the next person who will listen and possibly accept his offer. If you don't fail at something, then how are you going to learn to do it better in the future. We all didn't start walking the minute we put our minds to it. We all failed in our first attempts at walking. The blessing is that as we try and fail at something, we have learned not to do that particular thing again because it doesn't work...

So much for generalities, let's get specific. A very recent event for me was interviewing for a particular project. I did not get the project, so you could say that I failed at the interview. The failure was a major blessing for me though. What has come to light is that the project I would have been involved in would have only worked for a month or two at most before it imploded. If I had quit my current direction, I would have worked at another task, and essentially wasted a lot of my time working at something that was ultimately doomed to fail. The blessing is that I did not uproot and did not change what I was doing for this new project. If I had not failed at first, I would have lost momentum in my current set of projects and may not have been able to get back on track with everything else that I have been working on.

After watching others suffer in the project that I didn't get, I am very pleased that I failed to land the project in the first place. It was a major blessing to have failed at that.

Even business failures are usually blessings in disguise. I have met many business owners who attempted new product lines that ultimately failed. In the long run, these same business owners looked back over their failures and successes and actually believe that it was the failures they made that ultimately caused them to become the successful business people they are now. Even Thomas Alva refined the prior failures of the incandescent light to create the early commercial version of the light bulb. Those early failures became blessings for us.

In a nutshell, even if you fail at something you are currently working on, do not take that failure as the virtual 'end of the world'. It is my belief that the majority of the failures (both in business and in our personal life) we encounter turn out to be blessings in disguise. Each failure is one more step closer toward that success you continue to drive for.

Until tomorrow...

How is your 2011 going so far?

When people ask me how my 2011 is going so far, I pause and look at them hard before I answer. The answer to that question can different based on who is asking the question. At first you may think I am crazy to even consider providing different answers for different people, but in reality, don't we all provide different answers to the same question to different people?

If a casual friend asks you how your 2011 is going, you would not divulge your deepest darkest fears, but mainly give them the overview of how your year has progressed so far. A close friend would most likely never ask how your year is going so far, if they are a close friend, they would already know. If others are inquiring about how your new year is turning out, well, it really depends on their frame of reference before you can really give them an honest answer.

To answer the question though, my 2011 is going better than expected, but not as well as hoped. Is that vague enough for all of you? Allow me to explain. The great news is that I am still deeply embedded in the consulting work I started in September. This project has been an absolute blast and the deeper I get into it, the more work I find and the more willing the company is to have me around.

I love finding and resolving problems, issues and process flows. Granted I have been a Finance/Accounting person for many, many years, but I absolutely love finding and resolving issues. The new computer system that has been implemented has a few warts, but the good news is that we are identifying the warts and are in the process of removing them. With luck, but the end of my work, the new system will look wonderful and behave even better. The "ugly baby" will become beautiful and a dream to work with.

On the other side, I would have LIKED to have been on the road already, heading out to our new round of rallies all over this wonderful country. The good news to this is that the weather has been VERY uncooperative, and if I had been traveling as I would have desired, most likely I would be stuck somewhere, buried under way too much snow.

So, the good news is that divine intervention has kept me closer to home so far this year and kept me from the worst that could happen. So in answer the the question, "How is my 2011 going so far?", upon further thought, my 2011 is going GREAT!

Hopefully your 2011 is going well so far too.

Until tomorrow...

Three most important intangibles that you never want to lose

There are many things I do not want to lose. I don't want to lose my car keys, I don't want to lose my wallet, but there are three very important intangibles that I never want to lose. The three most important intangibles that you never want to lose are your friendships, your time and your health.

Me In Time

These are some very important intangibles that I never want to lose. One of the most important intangible items is Friendship. You can't put your finger on the intangible concept of friendship, except to poke your friends. No matter how busy or stressed you may become, you do not want to lose the friendship of the people you really care about. This intangible can be very difficult to hang onto, especially if you are in the traditional job environment. Many people are worried about losing their jobs and unfortunately the stress involved with that worry can easily flow into your personal life and affect your friendships. Losing friendships due to overwork and stress can and will make your life even more unhappy and stressful.

The key here is to trust your friends. if you are feeling stressed, let them know, and if they are really good friends, they will let you know if you are becoming difficult to deal with. True friends will understand your stresses, and will work with you to help mitigate them. These are the friendships that you definitely do not want to lose.

Another intangible that you never want to lose is time. I realize that this sounds trite, but how much more time are we all working? Because of our stresses at work and the companies are downsizing people but not tasks, we tend to get sucked into the idea that we must spend more of our valuable time at the office in order to maintain the status quo of a job. The problem with that theory is that you may be able to retain your job, but you lose your most precious resource, time. You have now limited your personal time even more and that could easily affect your friendships. Time is an intangible that once lost, you can never regain.

When working at a traditional job, you are trading your time for their money. If your company requests, or even demands that you give more of your most valuable resource, time, to them without an equivalent return of money, then you need to start making some hard decisions. Your time is very valuable. If you give it to your current company, then there is that much less time for you to spend with your family and friends. Despite all the jokes, time is finite, once gone, you cannot retrieve any time.

The last very important intangible item I never want to lose is my health. If you lose your health, then you won't have the time to spend working on your friendships. Health can be affected by stress and overwork. All three of these intangibles tie together, if you are having problems maintaining your friendships because you don't have the time to spend with friends and family, you can get so stressed out that your health is adversely affected. You have to learn how to balance your finite amount of time with your health, friendships and work. This is not an easy balancing act, but is critical to your overall personal success.

Of the three intangibles that have been covered tonight, I believe that time is the most valuable intangible that you really cannot afford to lose. It is important to learn efficient ways to manage your time so that you continue to spend quality time with your family and friends. Quality time does not mean sleeping at your friend's house, but being awake to honestly listen to their troubles. You need the time to spend with your spouse or significant other so that they do not feel like you take them for granted. You also need time to spend with your children, because once they are grown (time again...) you cannot regain or repeat their childhood.

If you feel that your current job is sucking your time dry and not leaving any quality time for you to spend with the important people in your life, you may want to consider finding alternate sources of income. Again, at first blush, you will think that if you don't have time now, how can you spend what little time is left on an additional income stream. In actuality, if you do not invest a little extra time up front, then you will never have the ability to spend more time with your loved ones. Even more importantly, if possible, try to find an additional source of income that the whole family can participate in. You will then be all working together and most likely having fun doing it. You are now spending your time doing two very important things at once; earning an extra income and spending quality time with your friends, family and loved ones.

If you need ideas for additional income streams, check out our website at www.hawgwash.net. We offer several different types of income streams. If what we have to offer does not "float your boat" we may know where else you can look so that you can find that perfect second income which will ultimately allow you to spend more quality time in pursuit of other intangible things that are very important to you. All you have to do is to ask, we will be more than willing to assist you in your search.

Until tomorrow...

How do you stay Motivated?

Tonight's topic is partly for you guys, but mainly for me. Tonight I have been struggling with motivation....a LOT... I have been busy getting all kinds of tasks, projects and business completed, but there are days where I completely lose motivation to do anything. It is days, or evenings, like that that cause me to ask the question, how do you stay motivated?

This topic was touched upon in a prior blog, but after re-reading that blog, I found there there was a lot missing. Actually, there are tons of books on motivation, so how do I think a brief blog on motivation will cover all aspects? Silly me... But, since I have been lacking in motivation this evening, it is a good time to re-visit the topic. I suspect that everyone wrestles with motivation, or lack thereof, at some point in their life. There are motivation seminars, there are also books and audio all covering motivation. I am by no means an expert on motivation, but I will freely admit that I struggle with motivation. Motivation, or lack of motivation can be the bane of the home-based business entrepreneur. If you want to grow your business, you have to remain motivated the majority of the time. But, due to human nature, motivation will come and go. The key is to harness that energy when you have it and use it to the best of your ability.

In order to remain motivated, one trick you can do is to determine the time of day when you feel you are the most productive. Some people tend to get a lot of work done in a short period of time first thing in the morning. There are also those who do their best work late at night. You know what time of the day you are most productive. Choose to do some of your more challenging tasks during that time of day. That way, when you are most motivated, you will have fewer challenges, distractions (or excuses) when completing those tasks. After that, when your energy level starts waning, you will be more motivated to get the easier tasks done because you are relieved at having finished a big, challenging task. Haven't you noticed that once you finish a task you have been dreading, you have more energy? Same concept. Get the hard stuff done when you are feeling your strongest. Then when you are on the "high" at having a big task completed you will be more motivated to complete other tasks.

Another item to help retain motivation is to learn to say "NO". It is critical to learn how to say 'no' to distractions or to small tasks that crop up during the day. I am not suggesting that you don't do those tasks, but learn to put the unimportant tasks off until you complete the bigger task that you are currently working on. By saying 'no' to distractions, you are beginning the prioritization process. You will find that those distractions will then either go away because they resolved themselves, or once you finish the project at hand, the smaller task is much easier to deal with. It is also a major kick to be able to put a small task on your 'To Do' list and then cross it off later in the day.

"To Do" lists can also be a great motivator, as long as you don't make the list impossibly long. When you create your list, be sure that you have identified things that can be completed in a reasonable day. If you make your list pages long, that can become a major demotivator. If you have a lot of tasks that must get completed, write your "To Do" list in a manner that some projects are completed in one day, and then assign other, less urgent, tasks to another day. By spreading all the things that must be done over days, it makes all that you have to do much more manageable and again, you get a great motivational boost when you can cross tasks off your list. Be sure when you create you list that you do not carry "To Do's" from one day to the next. If you do that, you will again have the problem of too many things to do in too short a period of time. If you cannot finish a particular task in one day, look to see when you can complete it, assign it to that day, then move other tasks appropriately. Do not assume that you can complete 28 hours worth of work in a 24 hour day. It is not possible, or if it is possible, it is not reasonable to expect. Doing that on more than an exception basis is also extremely demotivating.

Lastly (for tonight), when you are feeling a distinct lack of motivation, go out and get some exercise. Exercising outside may not be possible all the time, but be sure to find some physical outlet that can allow you to take a mental and physical break. You can do a brisk walk outside, or do some push ups or jumping jacks inside. Exercising will help you to de-clutter your physical body and release endorphins into your blood stream. Endorphins are what make you feel good, and by releasing them, you are allowing your body to relax a little bit. You may even find that if you were facing a challenging problem prior to exercising, when you are done, you may have found a simple solution to the challenge. Exercising is great not just for clearing your physical body, but can help to clear your mind of unintended obstacles.

Hopefully these ideas on how to stay motivated were helpful and heck, ....even motivating...

If you find that you are stressed out because of financial concerns, you may want to explore second income opportunities. We specialize in second income coaching and consultation and have a wide array of business opportunities that you can review. One of these opportunities may be just the thing you were looking for and may be what keeps you motivated. You can also just e-mail us with any questions or concerns you may have, we would love to help you.

Until tomorrow...

We all need Coaching

Tonight is a continuation from last night's discussion on who needs coaching? The answer to that question is we all need coaching. At some point or other in our lives we all really need to have a coach. Actually, we may feel that we don't NEED a coach, but, if we were entirely honest with ourselves, we could all use a coach from time to time. We all could use someone in our corner, not just rooting for us to succeed, but someone who is honestly there to help you to become a better person overall. A good coach will work with you to identify your strengths and weaknesses and then help you to discover ways to become better in whatever aspect of your life you are looking to improve.

We all need coaching at some point or other. There will be times when we feel that our current situation or problems are insurmountable. That is when we are really in need of a coach. That coach will help you to take a step back from your current circumstances and explore alternative solutions. In recent years, the concept of a Life Coach has become very popular. Life Coaches strive to bring out the best in your personal and professional life. A coach uses their skills to help you to navigate life's turbulent waters. They can act as a guidance system, you choose the course, that is not the job of a coach. Again, the coach is the person who can help you step away from an issue and take a more objective look to see other options or solutions.

Coaching can also help people improve their personal lives, providing them a fresh start in more ways than one. The concept of coaching is to not just resolve one issue, but to find a blended solution that will help in many aspects of your life. A good coach will provide you with the space you need to let your own process of discover flourish. They will not walk in front of you to lead you, they will not walk behind you to push you, coaches walk beside you and work with you. They will help you to possibly identify underlying problems so you can effectively work through solutions.

So, as you can see, we all need coaching at some point in our lives. We at Hawgwash, LLC offer second income coaching, helping you to discover what you can do to improve your financial situation, and to help you work toward achieving those financial goals. If you have questions regarding what we may be able to assist with, please feel free to contact us confidentially at hawgwash1@yahoo.com. We would love to hear from you.

Until tomorrow...

Who needs Coaching?

Ha!! Coaching. That is the newest catchword in the Internet world right now. At least Coaching is one of the really hot topics I have seen bandied about on the Internet. I receive a lot of e-mails about becoming a personal coach, I get people suggesting that I sign up with them to be coached. As you watch, more and more people are talking about coaching, heck we at Hawgwash, LLC are "Second Income Coaches". That begs the question, exactly what is coaching and who needs coaching?

Traditionally, the first use of the term coaching was meant as an instructor or trainer. The term showed up around 1830 in Oxford University. The act of coaching refers to someone developing abilities and skills in another person, originally related to sports. Your coach in sports was the person who observed what you did, and helped you to improve your game. There are different coaching techniques, some coaches yell and scream at their players (as you may have witnessed at various professional football and basketball games) and other coaches take a much quieter approach. No matter the approach, coaches are there to identify your strengths and weaknesses and then to help guide you to improve your strengths and reduce your weaknesses.

Coaching is helping to identify the skills and capabilities that are within the person and enabling them to use those skills and capabilities to the best of their ability. This then increases the independence within the individual. The modern version of coaching uses skills to help clients to shift their perspectives on issues or problems and then possibly discover alternative solutions to those issues or problems. Coaching in the modern sense is a method to help others discover what is already inside, and to help the client develop those abilities. A coach is not a manager or a trainer.

• Managers make sure people do what they know how to do.
• Trainers teach people to do things they don't know how to do.
• Mentors show people how others do something well and help them to do the same.
• Coaching helps identify the skills and capabilities that are within that person, enabling them to use the best of their abilities.

Then that begs the next question, who needs coaching? Actually we all need coaching at some time or another. How can we improve ourselves, better our ability to do business, if we don't have a coach observing and helping us to identify additional skills and abilities to continue to develop. We cannot improve ourselves without outside influences, and sometimes we can get all tangled up in specific problems and not be able to find a viable solution out of those problems or concerns. A coach would be someone who has the ability to stand back and observe the situation and help you to discover alternate solutions that you may not have realized were there.

We will continue this discussion on who needs coaching tomorrow. If you would like to see what we have to offer in second income coaching, please feel free to visit our website at http://www.hawgwash.net/.

Until tomorrow...