A few years back I wrote a blog admitting my guilty secret. As a long-term Leadership Coach and Trainer, I wasn’t a great role model. My guilty secret? I was a serial procrastinator, and I must say, I was exceedingly good at it. If gold medals were to be had for procrastination, I’d be there on the podium, albeit with a face downcast, full of shame.
Waiting for the petrol gauge to show empty, pushing deadlines to the limits or, more seriously, delaying restructuring my business model and promoting our services until I almost ran out of money – I had done them all. I wrote the blog because, over the previous 12 months, I’d noticed a difference. That difference kicked in after training in the Five-Minute Coach, a simple, powerful and versatile tool which I found incredibly useful with my clients: it helped them get clarity about what they really wanted,
‘snap’ them out of their story, and empower them to take the first steps to resolving their issue or achieving their goal.
A new pattern
It took me a while, however, to connect my increasingly orderly workspace, improved broadband connection, and growing bank balance with the Five-Minute Coach. It happened when I came across a quote which re-emerged from the piles of paper when organising my office: “Miracles start to happen when you give as much energy to your dreams as you do your fears.”
I realised in that moment that this is what the Five-Minute Coach had been helping me do. It wasn’t just my clients that were benefitting, but I had been using one of its artfully worded questions:
“And what would you like to have happen?”
That is what I’d done differently: I asked myself that question with increasing regularity. Whether getting organised for a holiday (no more arriving at the hotel after the dinner reservation had passed!),
prioritising workload or arranging my social life, I was thinking about what I’d like to have happen. I focused on the end result, my ‘dream’, giving a clear picture of what to move towards, with very positive results!
Since writing that blog in 2022, I’ve continued to use this strategy. It’s no coincidence that my husband and I are now in the process of building our dream house, or that I now have a super fun little horse that
take out regularly for adventures, and that my business has had its best year since established 17 years ago. Now I am not perfect, old habits do sometimes show their face, but they are no longer paralysing. It is easier to recognise what’s happening and ask myself that simple, but powerful, question. Once I know what I want I then use the Five-Minute Coach process and work out what actions to take. And I’m fascinated by all the things I no longer give myself a hard time about as, when I ask “what would I like to have happen?“, the answer helps me let go of other people’s expectations, or what I tell myself I ‘should’ do, and focus on what is right for me.
If you are ready for a reboot after weeks of gloom and rain,needing to make things happen as you step into spring, come and experience the Five-Minute Coach for yourself. We have an amazong spring offer: a Five-Minute Coach coaching session for only £80+ VAT, saving £35!