Opportunity is all around us - from new careers, finding our work/life balance, or embracing our dreams and challenges and coming out strong, independent and secure. Whatever it is we want to change or create, we all have the ability within us, we have the know-how to define our path, and we just may need someone to guide us through.
I seek to inspire people to look into themselves and feel the joy and happiness of living, and to be in harmony with their dreams.
2012 New Year's Resolutions - are you looking for a new life or lifestyle perspective for 2012 but are not sure how to look holistically and make a positive plan? Email me and let me help you. Right now I am studying towards becoming a personal development coach and l am currently offering free life coaching .
Read on to find out more or email me here . You can also read the ABC's of Goal Setting series here to get started!
ABOUT ME
Recently I discovered something new and exciting about myself. For many years I have studied a never ending list of subjects from marketing to finance, from creative writing to photography. But it seemed that nothing was ever interesting or fulfilling enough to keep me engaged.
Then one day it came to me. I want to help people help themselves; the wealthy, the underprivileged, the professional, the confused. Everyday people just like me.
I am now studying towards a certification in life coaching and personal development, and once finished, I hope to start a brand new journey of a lifetime. Because of this, I am offering free life coaching to all kinds of people from a variety of backgrounds and situations to build the skills I need to further explore my areas of interest:
If you are here because you are looking for or considering engaging a life coach in any area of your life, I'd love to hear from you. In exchange for allowing me to work with you on an issue of your choice, I will provide free life coaching sessions via email and/or Skype.To find out more, get in contact! If you just want to know more about me, read My Journeyor take a look at my blog, Learning about Coaching.
MY JOURNEY
It was with stark horror one morning at the beginning of 2011 that I realised OMG, we only have one life to live! OK, so this shouldnt have been groundbreaking news to me, but it isnt something we (me) tends to think about regularly. Its something thats there flittering around in our subconscious but the reality usually only hits in extreme situations such as when youre about to plummet off the edge of a very high bridge at high speed into freezing cold water.
But every now and then something clicks and over our morning coffee, whilst staring drowsily out the office window, we wonder what well do in our next life time. Only to be rudely made aware that we have no other lifetime. And thats where it all started for me
Now I dont have a dream life as such, but its certainly a nice, happy and relatively cushy life. Sure I would rather stay in bed then go into the office sometimes, and I would find a two-story quaint cottage covered in ivy more appealing than my current 29th floor apartment. But things are most certainly not going bad for me by any stretch of the imagination. But I suddenly thought – hey, Id like to do that next time!
Looking at it more sensibly, what I was really thinking about was is this the way of life/career etc going to take my from this half-life into the next half-life? (I found it much more palatable to look at my life in two halves than dwell on the fact that I only have one).
After much reflection, I realised that I love learning and development (myself and my team) and this is a part of my job that is the most rewarding. So it was no surprise when I had suddenly found myself enrolling in a Diploma of Personal Development without a second thought. And I havent looked back since. Every book, article, website, and conversation I have on the life coaching topic keeps me captivated and coming back for more. I virtually have shares in Amazon.co.uk after all my life coaching book orders. I havent read a chick-lit since I started (and I used to read three at a time!) – this is quite simply whats been missing in my well-structured, non-creative and very corporate existence. This is my opening to the creative flow of intuition, the pleasure of helping others through difficult times and the freedom to take back control of my life (and lifestyle) and make my second half-life really count.
So here I am now, mid-way through my new studies, loving it and extremely excited (albeit a little scared at the same time). This website showcases me and my personal development dreams and passions. And in the future, hopefully this website will be my life.
If you are interested in receiving free life coaching while I train, be sure to get in touch via the Contact page.
EXPLORE ARTICLES
BLOG
I love a good chat about life coaching! A nice warm mug of coffee and a comfy couch, perhaps a thunderstorm outside. I hope you enjoy my writings on coaching and personal development, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic too! Don't forget that if you want some free life coaching, be sure to get in touch!
FORUM
Life coaching and personal development forum for those who seek help on personal development topics. Post your question and I'll answer back! As a life coach-in-training, you'll be helping me train and also benefit from some free coaching!
RESOURCES
Some useful about life coaching and personal development:
Anthony Robbins
www.tonyrobbins.com
Richard Bandler Founder of NLP
www.richardbandler.com
NLP and Hypnosis
www.paulmckenna.com
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Author)
www.stephencovey.com
Personal Growth from SelfGrowth.com
SelfGrowth.com is the most complete guide to information about Self -Improvement, Personal Growth and Self Help on the Internet. It is designed to be an organized directory, with articles and references to thousands of other Web Sites on the World Wide Web
www.selfgrowth.com
BANISH SELF-LIMITING BELIEFS!
Back to Articles
Sometimes were our own worst enemy. We have oodles of passion, motivation and drive to reach our highest goals, but for some reason were just not reaching them! We quit before the finish line or we quit before weve even started trying. One of the major blockages to achieving any goal (whether its getting that project at work off the ground or buying that doer-upper to get into the property market) is our belief about whether or not we can achieve it . Perhaps we start off thinking that we can achieve anything we put our minds too, but gradually our positive beliefs are eroded by our engrained negative self-talk: my boss always has to step in to get the project back on track, Ive never been able to save enough money in the past, everything I do turns to dust, I always make such lousy decisions. Interesting, isnt it, how we are ever intent on sabotaging exactly that which we are so desperate to have!
Where do these unproductive negative self-beliefs come from? Well, from a load of places really. A belief is made up of building blocks that gave gathered over time and provide all the evidence you need to believe them. Let me give you an example. I work in the marketing/advertising industry and I have always suffered a little from a lack of confidence in certain areas of my job. One area is knowledge I am not always confident that I have the expertise that my clients are expecting. I feel as if I may say the wrong thing in a meeting or make a mess of a presentation. This lack of confidence really used to hold me back and to some extent still does. Not only does it impact my current position, but I may also shy away from great opportunities elsewhere. I must have gotten this lack of confidence from somewhere, there has to be a reason why I believe all of these things about myself.
Negative beliefs are formed by the evidence that we collect and store in our minds, proof that this belief has to be true. For me, it was an old boss of mine who made numerous comments about things I had said being wrong and mocking me after a particularly difficult and last minute presentation in front of 50 people, among other things of course. For me, breaking a negative belief seems to be twice as hard as creating it in the first place! I now need to go about finding all the evidence to support why I can do all of these things. If I can see the proof that I will not say something wrong or mess up a presentation, then perhaps I will start to truly believe it. And I will know when I truly believe it, not when I am able to force myself to step out of my comfort zone, but when I jump out of it without a second thought.
So how can we all take a step closer to breaking down our limiting beliefs? Pretend for a moment that you have a fear of delivering presentations because you get so stressed about messing it up and fumbling through it.
This is a really simple model for understanding and overcoming your limiting beliefs. But you might still struggle. Thats OK. In fact, if you need a hand or someone to help step you through this, do send me an e-mail. Im currently studying towards my life coaching and personal development qualifications and Id love some guinea pigs to explore with all free of charge of course. If youre interested in taking on this fabulous opportunity for any area of your personal develop (not just limiting beliefs), send me an e-mail too kerrie.hawkins_gmail.com or visit www.kerriehawkins.com .
WHAT IS PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT?
If there was ever a broad topic of conversation, this is surely one - "what is personal development"!
There's been so much hype in recent decades about self-help, self-improvement, personal development, and more recently, life coaching. But exactly what is personal development? At its core, personal development is about awareness and understanding our behaviours, skills, identity, values, beliefs, dreams and aspirations (to name but a few!), and working to improve them and our quality of life.
And it's not as hard as it sounds, but does require some commitment and passion towards making it happen. Improving our awareness, for me, is the first step towards increasing our understanding of ourselves. How do we view our self? What values drive us? Are we living up to these values? How do we react in certain situations and is our response appropriate or are we carrying baggage from the past? Once we have spent some time understanding how we as a person interact with ourselves, with others and with the environment we can start to see the path to self-improvement.
If you're curious about where to start, I believe the ideal place is your "story" - what has made and shaped you into the person that you are today. This will give you a nice, well-rounded view from which to expand into other areas. Below you'll find a series of questions that guide you through a quick process of understanding your story, so grab a pen and some paper, create a relaxing space around you and start exploring:
This is only the start, creating awareness of ourselves is a life-long journey. If you found the above valuable, perhaps you're ready to take this to the next level and finally take that step you've always wanted to - getting serious about personal development. I'm currently training towards my personal development qualification and looking for people who are ready to make some changes in their life. Right now my coaching is free of charge and I'd love to hear from anyone willing to take the plunge and see what you can achieve when you set your mind to it.
If you're not ready yet take a look at my blog learning about coaching and perhaps inspiration will strike!
THE ABC'S OF REACHING
YOUR GOALS PART 1
No matter how determined we are at planning, resourcing and achieving all those wondering things we want for ourselves, or even others, sometimes we need a little nudge in the right direction. Or maybe its a framework to guide our thought process. Just something to help you get from A to B. You may be super organised and have your life planned out for you but just not reaching your goals, perhaps your life is flying past you and youre wondering why youre still doing what youve always been doing, despite your well thought-out plan. Or you might be flying by the seat of your pants from day to day but are now looking for more structure to your life and achieving your goals.
Its not always as complicated as it may feel to get yourself back on track, or onto a track to start with. Sometimes its just a moment you have when you suddenly feel ah, of course! and thats what this article is about. A very important yet simple tool for achieving all those big and little things is already in your brain, so dont for one second feel that its out of your reach. Read on to find out how to take the first step in achieving anything you put your mind too.
This little model is so simply yet so effective. It is used by many coaches and individuals around the world. Its so simple, it will be your aha moment! Ill take you through step-by-step, so go and grab a note book and pen before reading on.
What does GROW stand for?
G = Goals
R = Reality
O = Options
W = Way forward/Will power
Part One Identifying your Goals
Step One:
Get comfy, sit back and relax. Close your eyes if you can. Think of your life as it is right now, what you love about it and those around you, what youre not so happy with and what youd really like in your life but dont have yet. Make three headings at the top of a sheet of paper:
Love a lot Not so much love Would love
Under each heading, jot down the thoughts you had about it. See the following example:
Love a lot
My friends
My family
My car
My educationMy job
Not so much love
My weight
My health
Relationship with Mum
Would love
Nicer apartment
To do a masters
More savings
Whiter teeth
Now say a quiet thanks for the items listed in Love a lot. Many people forgot to be thankful for what is going well in their lives. What is going well can so very easily get overshadowed by whats going bad, and this isnt healthy. Make sure you always remind yourself how special you are and others are to you, and be grateful for all the wonderful things in your life. This positive attitude is just one small thing you can do each day to make you feel more positive and alive.
Step Two:
Take a look at your Not so much and Would love columns and ask yourself which three of these goals would you like to begin your journey with. When considering goals, theres a couple of things you need to be mindful of:
Do you have your three top goals in mind? Put a nice big tick next to them. for this example, i have chosen the following:
My Goals:
Keep this handy for the second stage article that will follow very shortly!
Meanwhile, if youre interested in online coaching to help you define and reach your goals following the GROW model, send me an e-mail to get the process started. Im working pro-bono at the moment, so I am offering all my coaching encounters at no charge for the greater good of the community!
The Grow Model was developed by Graham Alexander of Alexander Corporation:
http://www.alexandercorporation.com/graham_alexander.php
YOUR GOALS PART 2
In the first section of this article we identified several areas that we wanted to work on and develop a plan for achieving success in this area.
In the previous example, I had chosen: My Job; My Health; Whiter Teeth.
Lets go to the next step in the GROW process now.
Part Two - What is your current Reality?
R is for Reality. We now know our goals, but where are we now? What gap is there between where we are now and our goals? So grab a pen and paper and lets get started.
On your sheet of paper, draw up three columns:
Goal Reality Ideal
Make "Reality" and "Ideal" columns wider than "goals" so you have plenty of space to write your answers.
In the left column, jot down the goals that you chose in the previous part of this exercise. Now think about the following questions and put you answers in the respective spaces provided:
Below are my goals so you can see an example of how to complete the exercise.
Goal 1: My Job
Overview of your current situation:
Specifically, what is not right about your current situation what is it that you want to change?
Describe where you would like to be:
Goal 2: My Health
Goal 3: Whiter Teeth
Once youve completed the above, do a quick reality check to ensure that your dreams are still in line with your values, and what impact achieving these goals would have on the people or environment around you. If you are happy with these, then you are ready to move to the next step, which is to brainstorm all the options available to you so you can start to build your plan.
Part Three Options will follow soon.
For free life coaching, contact me on the below e-mail or use the contact form below:
kerrie_kerriehawkins.com
YOUR GOALS PART 3
In the first part of this article series, we identified several areas of our life that we wanted to work on using the GROW model of goal setting and action planning. At the end of that article, I had chosen three areas of my life where I wanted to make changes: My Job; My Health; Whiter Teeth.
In Part 2 of the series, we looked at R for Reality - the second stage of GROW. Here, we took our areas that we wanted to work on, (or goals) and looked at our current situation. We identified gaps between our ideal situation and where we are today (our current reality).
Part Three What Options are there for achieving your goals?
Using my examples again, I came to the following reality conclusions in Part 2, when I described where I would like to be: In this article, we will develop a list of options that I can possibly take in order to reach these goals.
My Goals and where I would like to be:
1. My Job:
2.My Health
3. Whiter Teeth
On a sheet of paper, you need to create a template for yourself. Mark out the columns like this:
Goals Where would I like to be How might I achieve this How feasible is this?
In this example, I will focus on only one of my goals My Health. But please do use this exercise on as many goals as you want to. But keep in mind that too many goals all at once can be daunting! So keep it manageable to avoid losing motivation.
Step 1 Brainstorm your Options.
When you are completing your Options (How might I achieve this), be free and crazy! Dont limit yourself here; some of the craziest ideas just may turn out to be the best. The idea is to brainstorm everything you can think of. I have used the above template to populate with my example:
Goals:Where would I like to be:How might I achieve this:How feasible is this?
My HealthI want to feel naturally motivated to exercise.
•I enjoy walking rather than running can walk around the lakes near home
•I like Yoga/Pilates such as body balance
•Exercise in my lounge room (less effort to get changed and go out)
•I can do this will little effort, just need to get changed and walk down stairs
•10/10
•This takes more effort as I have to buy gym membership, gym gear, go after work etc. In the past I have not done very well with this at the gym. Possible to do it at home, however have little space.
•6/10.
•I can use Kettle Bell in lounge room and require little room, plus already have kettle bell
•I can do sit ups stretching on lounge room floor and already have equipment.
I would like to be able to cook a wide choice of healthy meals.
•Enrol in evening or weekend cooking classes
•Buy cooking books of cuisine that interests me and work my way through it
•Invite friends over for dinner to practice my new skills
I want my younger figure back!
•Regular exercise to keep it toned
•Healthy eating low carbs, especially at night time to stop bloating
•Keep skin buffed and moisturized (always makes skin youthfully shine!)
•Wear more body flattering clothing body-shaping underwear, more loose fitting tops to cover muffin top
Id like to lose 4 kgs
•Regular exercise see above
•Healthy eating see above
•Plastic surgery
•Diet pills/procedures
•Fat dissolving procedures/equipment
Id like to have lots of energy and be able to bounce out of bed in the mornings.
•Eating and exercising better
•Vitamins to keep energy up
•Vitamin C to keep immune system healthy so not always fighting small bugs
•Meditation have heard it improves sleep and clears the mind
•Ensure am getting correct amount of sleep
•Improve quality of sleep
•Reduce stress so stress isnt weighing me down.
What I find helps is to follow the GROW model for two to three goals in total, all the way through to the end. However, when I come to putting timelines to my goals I will ensure that I am being realistic. There is no point in disappointing yourself by setting time limits that are not realistic for you.
Step 2 what is realistic and what is not?
Now - question and validate the potential of each of the ideas or strategies. In your template that youve drawn, you will have a column for adding How feasible is this? I have also ranked them out of 10 (10 being the most feasible) so I can easily record it later. Note that this ranking is NOT for motivation levels! We are only concerned with how feasible it is to do given your current situation and environment.
For this example, I have taken only I want to feel naturally motivated to exercise (in other words: enjoy exercise) and the options that I wrote down in the table above under How might I achieve this?
When you have completed the template, you can now rank your options:
1.Walking about the lake/parks near homes - 10/10
2.Exercise in lounge room 10/10
3.Yoga/Pilates classes 6/10
Based on my current situation and what I know will work for me, it looks like I will be walking around the lake and doing exercise in my own home. Doing Pilates at a gym isnt a feasible option for me right now, or at least not AS feasible as my other options.
Do this with all your options. The ones that you consider to be the most feasible for you will be carried forward to the next article which will look at Way Forward and Will Power so putting these into a plan of action and assessing your motivation levels for each one.
Sources:
Home About Me My Journey Blog Resouces Articles Contact
Currently offering free life coaching and personal development
