Brenda Abdilla, Certified Coach, Denver CO

Surpass your limitations and break through to an entirely new realm? Is there an area where you are not okay with merely taking it to the next level? An area where you want to blow the doors off past successes and crush your numbers, develop completely new markets, end a nasty habit or succeed in spite of impossible odds?

If you want to rocket, you gotta be light!

We all have a list of stories that we tell ourselves and others, and some of those stories are blocking our success without our knowledge or permission-they are weighing us down. Companies across America tell stories about being the underdog, being the number two in the market, the limits of their industry, etc. Teams tell stories about being undermined by other departments and the tough, tough, competition. And we as individuals tell our own stories of injustice and woe. Much of the time we don’t even realize that there is a list of stories we tell because we think of them as fact. Rarely do we realize how much power they have over us.

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Dr. Marilyn Atkinson

What Are Your Inner Gremlins?
Do You Know Your Inner Gremlins?

You’ve probably already guessed: We’re not talking about real mischievous gremlins here. Instead, our definition of a gremlin is more of a what than a who.

A gremlin, in coaching terms is a habit that stops people from achieving their goals in business or life. A gremlin is an internal habit or a feeling that seems to run on its own accord-something that rises up and then stops you from taking action on, or completing, a particular phase of a project.

However, gremlin-thinking doesn’t have to win out. When you confront a gremlin and question its validity, you gain the wisdom and learn the lessons needed to bypass it. To start, try asking yourself gremlin-busting questions, like: Where in my life do I suffer from self-sabotaging mechanisms? How will my life change as I learn to let go of these gremlins? Self-sabotaging behavior is one example of a gremlin. Let’s look in details at what the four key gremlins are.

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Brenda Abdilla

Having way too much to do has become a universal truth in the business world. A 40-hour work-week is practically considered part-time and most people are handling a workload that used to be managed by two or even three people just a few years ago. Many people are simply overwhelmed by it all. As easy as it would be to blame the employers and companies it’s not really their fault, and fixing it may not even be in their power. For the most part, companies are doing their best to survive and thrive using the resources they have while they deal with rising costs, tough competition and global uncertainty. Since the current level of overwhelm is pretty much the new normal, thinking way outside of the box, aligning priorities, cultivating ideas and finding ways to energize people in spite of it all is the only way to manage and grow without letting stress get the best of us. Enter professional coaching.

While training and development budgets sadly were slashed during the economic downturn, executive and business coaching is on the rise globally. The $2.4 billion business coaching industry is growing at about 18% per year according to a recent study by the National Post, and business coaching is being reported as one of the fastest growing industries in the world, following the IT industry.
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Dr. Marilyn Atkinson

How do we develop the risk taking habit? We need to promise it and practice it. We need to promise courage and promise action. The viral seeding of the risk-taking promise is an interesting feature of effective coaching. If I were to tell you that developing this one habit — to promise to risk taking action — could move you towards your goal very fast, would that interest you?

It makes me wonder if re-engaging the risk-taking vision is a key part of re-energizing all personal power. To be risk averse means more and more habituated focus on roles and rules with the result that creative promising dies. When creative promising dies, excitement dies. As Bob Dylan, the 20th Century songwriter once twanged, “He who isn’t busy being born is busy dying!”

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Brenda Abdilla, Executive Coach & Recruiter, Denver., CO

Everyone has a blind spot.

A blind spot is a habit or way of behaving that everyone knows about you-except perhaps YOU. Identifying your blind spot will help you recognize when your behavior is being dictated by it and can help you overcome it.

Pick only ONE description from the bulleted list below and then, for the next week, follow the corresponding numbered exercise to better “see” that blind spot.

• I am rarely on time. Somehow I am nearly always running late. (1)
• I do not stand up for myself. I hate conflict and avoid it with regularity. (2)
• I have little patience. Nothing moves fast enough for me and my impatience probably shows. (3)
• I talk a lot. I notice that I interrupt people, but often I cannot help it. I have a lot to say. (4)
• I have trouble making up my mind. I need to take time to ponder, but often the pondering leads to more indecisiveness. (5)
• I do not like change. I may come around to it eventually, but I am always resistant initially. (6)

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