Investments that Matter

You work hard and are successful.

But what if the success you are truly capable of has barely been touched?

Do you have a support team? Do you have someone that expands on your thoughts, supports your ideas and holds you accountable for your action plans?

Why not?

The mind is a dark and dangerous place…don’t go there alone!

Clearly you have the drive it takes to achieve success, but what if you’ve barely touched upon what is possible? With the support of a Coach, you will experience success more efficiently and effectively. You will find yourself in constant motion, with fresh ideas and new perspectives. You will have two minds, working as one!

In order to be successful as a Business Owner, you will constantly need to assess whether something is an investment or an expense. Investments are critical to a successful future. Expenses can often wait. That’s what you need to decide: Is a successful business something you want to own and control? Or are you willing to take a gamble and see where it lands?

“Having a Coach is the difference between knowing what to do…and doing it.”

Cheryl Patnick, President of Capella Consultants

A Business Coach is perfect for:

· Helping successful business people exceed their expectations.

· Refining and building upon existing skills and talents.

· Increasing profitability, projecting confidence and organizing time better.

· Creating a successful system that fosters business now, while planting the necessary seeds for the future.

The value of having a Business Coach speaks for itself even in the very first session.

The time is now. It is later than you think.

The Road to Nowhere

Are you sure?

I am often asked how I am remain so positive no matter what seems to be going on around me. I am asked if I have some super human powers, or if I am simply a dreamer and it happens to work in my favor. My answer to that question doesn’t come as instinctively as my ability to think positively.

This morning the answer came to me clearly though, as I sat at my mac, and decided to change my screen saver. After scrolling through a few pictures, I found the perfect one. The photo actually made me stop and stare in almost a trance. It made me wonder, think and question. It silenced my ever-running mind that always thinks it has the answers. It stopped me in a place of question, yet in a place of comfort as well.

It was a black and white photo with a wooden pier that I guessed to be about 20-30 feet long. Surrounding it was a calm body of water that forced my eyes to stare into the distance and see nothing else but more and more water. The only land to be seen was a small area of sand near the beginning of the pier. An area so small, that my eyes had difficulty staying there.

I immediately could hear voices of worry from clients and friends looking at this same photo. I imagined them expressing feelings of concern about being alone or abandoned. I could hear their voices saying there was no reason to keep looking, since it was a road to nowhere. Yet as I continued to look, I could not see the picture of emptiness that most might see. I was not met with fears as I gazed down the pier. I was not engrossed with worry about what lurked in the open space. Instead, what I saw was very similar to how I see life.

It was not a road to nowhere, but rather, a road to anywhere. It was not a body of water that had nothing to offer, but rather a body of water that held opportunities that could not yet be seen. I was clear from this viewpoint, that all could not be seen, but that there was definitely more. I was confident that what lie in the unknown, had the potential to be great and felt comfort in the possibility of being able to create it any way that I wanted.

Check your road again. Is it really the road to nowhere? Or are the possibilities so endless, you are afraid to look?

Unemployment is a Full Time Job

The only way to turn around being unemployed is to work!

If only it were that easy, right? Wrong. While it may not be easy to find a job as quickly as you would like, the quickest way to turn it around, is to immediately treat the ‘search’…as your job!

There are many stages one enters (or sometimes settles into) after being laid off, and this process is often what keeps once successful working people on the unemployment line. Stages of depression and low self-esteem (I should have worked harder) often combined with an entitlement (I am sick of working so hard and not being appreciated anyway!) usually lead to a defeat of doing nothing or an acceptance of ‘time off’. Either way, you have already begin the job search a few steps behind.

This is not the time to wallow in your self-pity, nor start vacationing. Instead, this is the time to get motivated and/or get even and begin your search. You can’t change the current situation, but you can create a different perspective, which will ultimately design a new future. Assume that your job search is now your full time job, and your severance pay is what you are going to live on minimally, until you find the next place to land. While in this situation there will be no time to wallow, celebration and time off will be just around the corner, if you follow a few ground rules.

Just like when you were working, you will need to set up a daily and weekly schedule. You will need an especially strong system in place now, since there won’t be anyone to hold you accountable to your tasks and goals.

To start your system:

1 – Get your planner ready and write in daily and weekly tasks. Be specific. If you simply write: call recruiter, most likely it won’t get done. Write their name and number, as well as the day and time you will call.

2 – Choose specific times for scanning the web to find the right recruiter for you, or job postings through the classified sections on the web and then stick to that plan.

3 – Include in your schedule when you will update your resume, make calls to friends that may have leads and even when you will check emails. (A simple task of checking emails can consume your whole day if you let it.)

4 – If you are overzealous about tasks and find some aren’t getting done, simply move them to the next day. Do not assume it will get done. If it isn’t done on Monday, rewrite it on Tuesday. Your brain will need the reminder and you will feel good about accomplishing it.

5 – Find other places to work besides your house. Sometimes the process of getting yourself up and out of the house is just what you need to get motivated. Most places that sell coffee also have free Wi-Fi so take advantage of it!

6 – Add breaks to your schedule, to keep yourself feeling fresh. Actually add to your calendar when you will meet with friends, take walks or hit the gym. If you see it written you will feel less guilty about doing it.

Perspective will make all the difference in your search. Treat the search like an opportunity to find what is truly next for you. Who knows, it may be better than you ever could have anticipated. Don’t give up. No matter how shut down you feel, remind yourself that there is no time for tired now, but there will be later. Do what you have to in order to land a new job. Then once you do, celebrate and even take some time off by telling your new employer when ‘you’ are able to begin.

Stay present in this moment and know that it will never again occur in just this way.

Be Productive Now.

It is later than you think.
Ever wonder why your energy level has so many peaks and valleys? Do you wish you could keep your level at the highest peak, or even somewhere in the middle, so you could be more productive all the time?

Typically as human beings, our weeks are filled with highs and lows of energy because we allow our emotions to dictate our productivity. If only we had no heart, right? Wrong. Actually, the fact that we do have great emotions can be very healthy and can help us be more productive on a daily basis, but only if we learn to regain the controls.

The key is to focus on what you feel when in the middle of an energy high. What occurred that gave you that energy in the first place? If it was something as simple as a well balanced meal and 8 hours of well needed sleep, then great! That will be simple to replicate and will be in your control. But usually it's not that simple.

Typically we get physically charged when we are emotionally charged, which often stems from a specific event. For example, the start of a new job, a new client signing on, or a promotion may provide just the energy you need to stay focused and excited all day long, allowing you to make those cold calls you have been putting off, or finally completing a days long list of tasks. The problem is that if outside stimulation is needed to create action, when it doesn't exist, you may feel unable to be productive. The solution lies in acknowledging your lack of control and the desire for change.

Before I give you back the well deserved controls, though, think about what goes through your mind when you are at your peak performance? Do you feel unstoppable and wish you could bottle the feeling? Perfect! Because you can...

In that moment, become aware of every sensation in your body. Be conscious of the smells, the sounds you hear, your thoughts and the adrenalin rush. Be acutely aware that these feelings continue, even though nothing around you is occuring. What began as a result of great news on the horizen, has now formed into sensations actually separate from that event. In fact, the burst of energy is an event all by itself and can be recreated again and again, without an outside event even happening.

Let's return to the idea that this excitement all began because you learned you were going to be signing on a new client. Perhaps nothing else has occurred beyond that point. Yet even without papers being signed, or money in hand, you feel energized based on what 'will' occur. Get it? That energy you were feeding off of was really just from the desire of great things to come!

Now you can own the controls! The next time you are feeling in a slump and can't get motivated, visualize exactly what you really want to happen. If you're in sales, imagine that today is the day you are finally going to get that large order. Create the visual in such detail that you can actually see it, taste it and feel it. Don't roll your eyes at the thought of it and say, 'yeah, I have seen this day before...it's not going to happen.' Everything lives in your speaking, so once you change the conversation in your head, you can change the way you act as well.

Be productive now. It is later than you think!

Race Day

Race day is an interesting day. Interesting, at least for me, because I am a late blooming athletes that believes the only way to complete a race with success, is to follow the training guide like your life depends on it. I mean, if there are training guides listed on the internet, surely they have been tested and approved, so why reinvent the wheel...or pretend that I know what to do to successfully complete a duathlon?

And so, while my boyfriend and 17 year old son, both supposedly training for the race, are hardly even glancing at the training schedule, I had printed it out, posted multiple copies and checked it several times a day. In addition, I checked each workout off as I went, to make sure I didn't miss anything. All the while, I didn't say much because I knew that what they lacked in "rule-following", they would make up for in race-day gusto. Or was that male-ego?

I wasn't wired with race-day gusto, or ego. No matter how hard I trained, nor how hard I wanted to reach a specific finishing time, the race would ultimately decide my fate. I wouldn't.

We wake up before the sun on race day to recheck our gear and equipment and fill our bellies with warm oatmeal and a banana. My stomach is in knots, making the oatmeal difficult to swallow, but I keep breathing and begin my positive self-talk: You're ready for this. You have trained. It is cold and windy, but it is just weather. Just...weather. I then say a silent prayer that the two days on my road bike was enough to keep me fast and upright on the hills, and try not to cave into my fears that 'taper week' had successfully sucked all the strength from me.


I lose myself in preparing to leave and pretend that this is just about packing, not really racing. My mind seems to be sold on that until we actually arrive at the race, which is when I am certain that I don't even know how to run. That fear, though, gets completely lost in the next worry, as we head to transitions to set up our stuff and I begin to tremble. Not from fear at all, but from cold. The winds had picked up and while the temps were at a mere 40 degrees, it felt about 30.

I worried about frozen toes and being able to run on feet that I might not be able to feel.

I then asked myself again why I chose to race, when really what I prefered was the training. It was structured, gave my workouts a purpose and made me feel strong. I wondered why that wasn't enough. I wondered why I tortured myself through all the worry of racing, when the training really seemed to serve its purpose. I mean, wasn't this all about being strong and fit? What was the race going to prove that the training hadn't already?



When it was finally time to listen to last minute race directions, I thanked the weather gods for holding off on the rain, which might have been snow by now and stayed grateful that this was a duathlon and not a triathlon. That was all I could muster up in the way of being grateful, but hoped that would be enough to make my race an easy one.

That last wish was probably part of the problem, since my desire for race-ease, always takes over my desire to win once the gun goes off. It's not that I don't play full out. I do! It's just that when I start to feel winded, and am only five minutes into a 90 minute race, it seems appropriate to back off a little. It's at that moment when my goal becomes a strong finish, not so much a strong race.



I did begin the race wanting to place in my age category, but when I heard that there were only 150 participants, battled the winds and cold and unbelievably steep hills on the bike and by foot, and then saw my boyfriend right behind me and walking...I had a new goal.



"You don't have to slow down for me," he said.



"I'm not," I added, "but what's the hurry?" I said putting my arm in his while we took a walk break and then thought, I already got my trophy.



And at that, we proceeded to bring in the last leg of the race together, posing for each photographer, laughing as we went and pushing each other to the finish.



"Kick it in girl," he said to me when the finish line was in sight. "I'm right behind you..."



As I rolled up on the balls of my feet, and my legs pushed me across the finish, the meaning of race day became again all too clear. It wasn't about the training, my 17 year old eating up that race with no practice at all, nor my boyfriend finishing with me because he missed a turn. Race day was about showing up, facing some of life's greatest fears and then kicking in it to the finish...merely because I said I would.

Family Tradition

Twas the night before my son's triathlon and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, just my worried little voice. I thought it was unnerving to prepare for my own triathlon but had no idea how unnerving it was going to be to prepare for my son's. The mere thought of being held responsible for forgetting some important item for his race was more burden than any mother should have to bear. I crawled into bed that night early praying that nothing was left behind and that I would still hold the title of 'very prepared mom'.

I had purposely not watched the weather report, knowing that a chance of extreme heat and thunderstorms were always a possiblility in the summer. It would be what it would be and we would make the best of it. But I was quick to offer the bright side of the rain that was already falling by 6am, knowing that light rain was a better option than extreme heat. Unfortunately, once I helped him set up in Transitions, the light rain turned to a terrential downpour. My son, Shane, was quiet but said he wasn't nervous. I, on the other hand, was very nervous. It was pouring and all I knew for sure that while he was prepared for the race, he had never trained in the rain, and neither had I. I had no experience that was going to help him in this rainy race, except to say, "avoid the white lines on the road while riding and be careful around the turns."

At 8am exactly, they began to herd all of the racers into the water. The rain would not let up and I began to feel sick as I watched my baby, now standing at 5'10", waiting for his wave to be called. I began to recount all the things about him that made his life so precious to me. I began listing them one at a time. My eyes welled with tears at the thought of putting one of my most precious life items in possible harm's way. What had I done?

His girlfriend and I waited on a deck above the lake, praying to see him in the mass of swimmers and were relieved when we spotted his white shirt heading for shore. He ran from the muddy lake, and headed for his bike just as a crack of thunder rumbled above us. It was then that the worry of him spilling out on his rented road bike took second to my fear of the lightening. Fortunately it was the only crack of thunder we heard and I checked my watch to keep an eye on how soon we would see him gearing up for the run. As we continued standing in the down pour under a tree offering nearly any shelter, I wondered if I really had to support him on his run. Did he want me to run with him? Or did I just want to run with him? I didn't have the answer to either question, but knew I was already soaked to the bone even with my two jackets and was not looking forward to stripping down and running at all. Training in the rain was definitely not my idea of fun.

About 30 minutes later we saw him round the corner on his bike and my mother instincts took over. Of course I was going to go out there with him! I pulled off my jackets, handed my cell and umbrella to his girlfriend and took off around the corner. My dad jumped onto the course just then too. The 'Home Team' was back!

Shane looked full of energy, even though it was the last leg of the race. He was talking and laughing like we were out for a jog, while I was clear that this was the 'get your legs back' part of the run and that at any moment, his pace was going to be too much for me. After a 1/4 of a mile, the race volunteers were leading us to some remote path that appeared to be in the woods. Did I mention I don't do trail running either?

Suddenly this race became about me as I tried to make sense of this path we were running on. At one time, I was sure it was a trail, but at this time, after 4 hours of heavy rain, it was nothing more than mud puddles. Mud puddles that I wouldn't even consider walking through, no less be forced to run through. How could that be safe? Luckily for me, I noticed quickly that I wasn't able to keep Shane's pace.

'Okay, I am now slowing you down, so you keep running and I will stay here and catch you on the way back!'

He seemed okay with that and I couldn't have been happier. Even standing in the rain at that point seemed enjoyable compared to running through the mud. I spent the next several minutes cheering everyone else on until he was back...without my dad.

Where's Poppy? I asked.

He's back there somewhere, Shane said, not rattled at all by any of his surroundings and still seemingly full of energy.

The support was now back to me and we headed through the muddy puddles as I prayed we would get to land quickly and safely. My prayers came true, though once we got on the pavement, Shane began to pick up his pace, as I barely held on.

You go baby! I don't want to hold you back! Run it to the finish...

And he took off, leaving me to find my dad and us sprinting in the best we could, way behind our teammate.

It was a great story to tell about the Home Team being there more in spirit than anything else, but mostly about how in that moment of him crossing the finish, a tradition had carried on. With my parents crossing many marathon finish lines, and my own running races as well as triathlons, it was now being passed down to a new generation.

You have the bug, don't you? I asked Shane noticing the pride he had in his eyes.

Yea, he said smiling. Definitely.

And I knew that meant he would be back for more. Just like the rest of us.

www.LesleyGeller.com

The Sprint Triathlon - "The Team"

The first triathlon of the season is really just a warm up for the Olympic Triathlon coming up. It is to confirm I am doing what I'm supposed to, practice transitions, learn how to pace, yet go full out and to make sure my head is truly in the game.

I knew all of this last weekend when it was time for my the supposed 'practice' triathlon, yet the butterflies still flew, and the panic set in. I looked at my log book and was clear that I was more than ready for this sprint event, yet still was feeling overwhelmed. That is, until the Home Team stepped in.

I broke down first to my significant other and admitted that I really could use the support of him driving me to the race in the morning, even though it was an unreasonable hour. I admitted that I was having a silent panic attack.

"Truth is, I'm actually really nervous and if I could take you up on your offer to drive me, I would be forever indebted."

The astounding part was not that he was ready and willing at 4:30am with a smile on his face, but that just knowing someone else was taking over, relieved so much of the stress. It was the first time on record that I didn't feel sick for a race. I was thinking perhaps my brain knew that I was well-prepared.

We arrive at the very crowded parking lot at 6am and I am only fixated on how easy everything was going. The parking, getting the bags, getting the numbers written on my body and even setting up in transitions. Every time I looked up, there he was with the camera photographing the moment. I just kept smiling and worried slightly that at some point I might need to 'get' nervous in order to perform. Yet as the morning progressed, with runs to the porta potty, warm up swims in the lake and a bit of clearing my head, mostly what I was excited about was the support from my Home Team. The typical Home Team consists of my immediate family, but on this particular day, the Home Team consisted of: my girlfriend, significant other, parents and my oldest son.

Besides all of them just being great fans of mine, they all had their own cheering investment as well. My parents are currently training for the NYC marathon. It will be my dad's 13th time and my mothers 10th. They are both in their 70's, but that has not deterred my dad from setting the bar high this year as he has been training to complete it in less than 4 hours. Whether he does it or not is beside the fact, we are all just impressed that a 73 year old continues to hit the track each week and put himself through speed work. Yes, I said SPEED WORK! So, not new to races, and happy to be on the side lines, they are perfect candidates for being cheerleaders. My girlfriend is hoping to compete in her first triathlon next year, so she wants to see how the whole thing works, and my significant other comes from a family of marathoners and triathletes, so he's a regular out there as well. Then there is my son, who got himself out of bed at 6am to cheer me on, to support me and to see how it all works, since he has his own triathlon to compete in soon also. I was thrilled by their presence, but the excitement and enthusiasm they had for my race was amazing and kept my fears at bay the whole time.

By the time I finally got in the water, the nerve bug had reappeared, but I clung to the last words of my "Team": Have fun! Those words stuck with me for the whole race. Fun. Right, this was supposed to be fun. I didn't have a specific time to complete the race in and no one to impress. My team was just impressed I dared the challenge in the first place.

When I got out of the water, my Home Team was right there with cameras in hand and all the right things to say. On to transitions to hop on my bike with the have fun mantra humming in my head. I'm working, but am anxious to get off my bike and have my home team join me on the run. As I pop off my bike, and pull off my shoes (to make running easier into transitions) I hear my team yelling again in the distance. I can't see them, but I hear them! It makes me keep running, even though my head is telling me to use the walk through transitions as a break. I quickly rack the bike and throw on my sneakers. Where is my team? I think to myself as I round the corner.

"Will meet you on the path!" I hear my son yell.

And that's where the fun begins. While my legs are having a whole discussion about being tired and saving something for the end, my head grips on to the support of my dad on one side of me and my son on the other.

"You look great mom!" My son cheers into my ear.
"Let's go girl!" yells my dad.

The last three miles was long as anticipated, but I didn't need to stop like I had the previous year. The energy of them beside me gave me this false sense auto-pilot. I envisioned that they were really doing the running, and I was just staying with them. It didn't seem that there was another option.

As we hit the last corner, there was the rest of my Team screaming again for me. Now I was on a mission, even though I knew for sure that my running crew was about to leave me alone in the chute. Or maybe not.

"Come on girl!" My dad yelled at me. "We are taking number 1177 down."

And by that, I knew he meant I had better pick it up and pass this girl and I also knew that my crew was not leaving me at all. In fact they crossed the finish with me...blocking me only slightly as the camera tried to capture my finish line crossing.

It was the best experience ever, but was so much more than another triathlon being under my belt. It was about my Team showing up for me and celebrating in my accomplishments, and my overcoming so many fears. It was in the aftermath of the race as I lied happily on my couch, that I felt so lucky to have a Team that was that committed to my success. Actually it was in that moment that I realized how lucky I was to have a Home Team at all!

www.LesleyGeller.com