Lightening Online

As some of you know, during 2008 I undertook some personal life coaching sessions. The following is a guest post written by Danielle, the life coach I used. December is a busy month but I think it’s great if we can take a few moments to pause, look back and reflect on the year that we’ve had. Before we know it, 2009 will be upon us, along with the chance to look forward to a fresh start in a fresh year.

This is the first time I’ve published a guest post. I’d love to know what you think and whether you’d be interested in reading more from Danielle on life coaching. Feel free to share some of your answers to the questions below in the comments section if you’d like.

Happy Reading

Lightening

Celebrate and reward your achievements

Is it just me or did this year go by faster than a speeding bullet? Well, it’s not over so before 2008 does a great disappearing act let’s celebrate and reward our achievements. As mothers I am sure we have celebrated the achievements of others this year – those of our children, our husbands, our friends, our family – but what about our own achievements?

What better time than December to take the opportunity to spend some guilt-free and self-indulgent time to review the year that has been. I challenge you to take the time to reflect on your accomplishments and celebrate and reward yourself for them. This is something I can tell you from my experience as a coach working with women that we don’t do often enough, if at all.

One of the best things about being a coach is being privileged enough to bear witness to my clients’ successes and for me there are few things more beautiful. I often have to remind my clients to celebrate the progress they have made and reward themselves for it.

Often people forget what they have achieved – even in the space of one week. One client started off our session last week by making a statement about how hugely unsuccessful her week had been. As we began to explore further and delve deeper we found that she had achieved most of what she had committed to do. She was surprised as I kept asking questions and she started to remember the actions she had completed. She had even achieved things she hadn’t committed to.

Sometimes women don’t feel they deserve to be proud about what they’ve completed or that their results are insignificant. This week I asked a client, who has progressed towards her dreams in leaps and bounds since we started working together, if she had celebrated her success lately. Her answer was no. I questioned her a little further and she responded by saying she did not feel comfortable about her success. By the end of the conversation she committed to celebrating her success and came up with some great ideas about how she could own her success.

One of the key components of goal setting and attainment is celebration and reward for great courage and special effort. This so happens to be something we easily forget to do. My clients have me to remind them of how far they have come and since you may not have your own coach I thought it might be worthwhile to remind you too. Answer the questions below as a self-coaching exercise and if you want to share your thoughts with a coach and/or would like feedback email danielle@healthyandhappy.com.au.

Coaching questions

1. What were your top ten achievements for 2008?
2. Did you celebrate any of your achievements?
3. If you did celebrate, how did you celebrate and who did you celebrate with?
4. If you didn’t celebrate, what got in the way?
5. Come up with a solution for each obstacle you identified.
6. Brainstorm a list of ways you can celebrate and reward yourself for your achievements. Make sure at least a quarter of the items on your list are low-cost or no-cost options.
7. As a result of these questions, what are you committing to? What date do you commit to follow through with your commitments?
8. What would you like to achieve in 2009?

If you feel you may benefit from the support and motivation ShapeShifters can offer, we welcome you to take advantage of our FREE coaching consultation. In this one-hour telephone session you will find out more about coaching and walk away with three goals to focus on for 2009 plus a plan of action to implement immediately following the call.

For more info, head to www.healthyandhappy.com.au. To book a free session, call Danielle on 08 8447 7779 or 0433 877 130.