Pivotal Choices Coaching

The Practice of Gratitude Can Make You Healthier—Hear Author Explain How

The new book Thanks!  How the new science of gratitude can make you happier has brought gratitude to the public consciousness.

For ages, gratitude has been so much a part of most cultures that the interest that this book has generated is quite amazing.   

It has been reviewed in many, many newspapers and referred to by columnists. Interviews with the author, Robert A. Emmons, have been published in several places.

What makes the book intriguing is that, based on extensive studies, author Robert A. Emmons shows that if we practice gratitude, we can actually become healthier!

The practice of gratitude can improve our physical health and also our mental health.  It can help us eliminate feelings of resentment and hatred.

Robert A. Emmons is well-known as a serious researcher and psychologist..  Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, he has published close to 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
   
You can hear Professor Emmons live Friday, Dec. 14 from 4:00 - 5:20 pm Eastern Time at a free teleconference.   Register at www.mentorcoach.com, and you will be sent the telephone bridge number for the call.  You pay only your usual long-distance charges.
 
I’ll be there—hope you can come, too.

And please visit my website (www.nwcoaching.com) to sign up for my newsletter.  As a sign-up bonus, you’ll receive a really great gift--something that you can use.
 
See you at the Gratitude interview!

Until next time,
Nancy
www.nwcoaching.com

What Is the Most Important Choice You Can Make in Preparing a Presentation?

Unless you’re a natural-born extrovert or super salesperson, what comes to most people’s mind at the thought of giving a presentation is fear.

The clients I have worked with as they prepare for these events feel as if they are going to face a firing squad. 

The most important thing to remember is ….

This isn’t about you!

Of course you have to have expertise in an area and have information that you want to deliver.  You’ve brought all of that to the table. 

You have many anecdotes, factoids, helpful information to share, but all of that information has to be focused on one perspective.  And until you make the choice to shift the focus to your audience, your project will never get off the ground.

Once you make this choice, then you’re ready to get to work.

In my next posting, read about what is the most important thing that you need to know about your audience.

If you are preparing for a presentation, I’d love to hear from you.  What is the challenge you’re facing?

I have something that will be of help.  Go to www.nwcoaching.com and get a free sign-up bonus when you subscribe to my Smart Tips for Writers e-newsletter.

Until next time,
Nancy
www.nwcoaching.com

Choosing to View Life through a Lens of Gratitude

I’ve always thought that I knew a lot about gratitude. Gratitude is one of my top five signature strengths.  I routinely send thank you notes for presents, and I feel grateful for what I have and for what I have accomplished in my life.

What else is there to know?

But a few nights ago I listened to a teleconference about gratitude, given by Deb Levy, an educator and a teaching assistant to Tal Ben-Shahar at Harvard.  Deb’s talk started me thinking how gratitude could play an even larger role in my life. 

Since the teleconference I have read more on the emerging research on gratitude and am amazed at the role gratitude can play in changing people’s lives.

What I have read tells me that gratitude is a choice.  And it’s not always easy to choose gratitude.  It demands that we acknowledge the gifts from others. That we view life through a lens of gratitude.

It’s easy to be grateful for the food we eat and the sun that shines, but to view life through gratitude means that being grateful replaces the feeling that we deserve all that life can give us. It replaces the feeling that we have suffered for everything that we’ve achieved. Or that we’re still a victim of some kind.

What choosing gratitude means is that we see ourselves as incomplete and in need of the help others have given us. 

So even though the number of people around my dining room table will be smaller than the number of guests my grandmother would have had at her Thanksgiving table when I was a child, I can choose a to be part of a very large community.

This Thanksgiving Day I will thank my husband and my children for all they have given me.  I am gladly and gratefully dependent upon them.

And I will thank the members of that community that I see in my mind’s eye for all of the gifts I have received—that community includes people from long ago in my life as well as people that I saw Friday at the office.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nancy
www.nwcoaching.com

Life Comes at You Fast, But What to Do When It Doesn't?, or, Where Is Change Possible?

Life comes at you fast, or so says the commercial.  But for many people, life may have lost some of that zip.

Perhaps you feel the need for change, but you’re not sure where that change should be. 

Taking an overview of your life can be helpful. 

Try this exercise:  Draw a pie and divide it into several slices, each slice denoting an important area of your life, such as career, income, family, learning, fun, exercise, food.  Then rate each of those areas on a basis of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest level of life satisfaction.   

If you are ambivalent about change, this exercise can be a good place to start. 

Are there any surprises here for you? You might choose one of the slices and think about what was behind the score you gave it. 

Looking at your life one aspect at a time can give you
1) clarity to see where change would be helpful and also
2) strength to set goals and take action.

I'd love to hear how this exercise works for you. 

If you would, take a minute to visit my website at www.nwcoaching.com and sign up for my newsletter.  I would like to hear your thoughts on what I should include--what would be helpful to you?

How Would Your Current Job Look if You Viewed It through a Prism of Gratitude?

Let’s say you’re not content in your current job, and you’re actively seeking another job.  But you haven’t landed a new job yet.

What is one step you can take to help yourself feel better, even happier, while you are at your current job?

You can probably make a long list of what you’re not grateful for in terms of this job, so do that.

But follow that list up with what you are grateful for.  Most jobs have one or two elements about which you can be grateful. 

Look at your list and decide what on your list you could strengthen.  How could you increase your feeling of gratitude in one or two areas?  How could you go beyond what you’re doing now in order to help yourself feel more grateful? 

When we increase the practice of gratitude, life satisfaction and work satisfaction increase in major ways. The result is worth the effort.

The change in how you feel can be quite amazing.

Three Steps for Making-Do with a Job Even If Change Is on the Horizon

Sometimes we are so eager to move on from our current job to what is coming next that we burn our bridges.

If you haven’t landed the next job beyond a doubt, then you probably want to make sure there’s a paycheck coming in.  You also may need references from your supervisor or employer at some point in the future.

If you have to remain at your current job for the foreseeable future, how can you make this time of uncertainty or transition easy on yourself?  Even better, how can you make this time count for something?

What opportunities are there for learning?

Here are three ways to use this time to your advantage:

1.  How can you increase your social intelligence?  Without engaging in office gossip, what can you learn about how others act wisely in office relationships and how they use social information to get others to cooperate?  What can you learn about leadership by observing how others use their social intelligence?

2.  What can you learn about your character strengths?  How are you using your top strengths and where could you have been using them more on this job?

3.  What would you do if you were the CEO of this organization? What changes would you make?  How would you change the corporate or office culture?

I'd love to hear what you might add to this list.

If you're interested in hearing more about using your strengths, please sign up for my free newsletter at my website:  www.nwcoaching.com.