Is the Window of Opportunity Closing on Your Dream of Coach Certification?

Today I got a call from a coach I knew years ago. He was trying to access the IAC website to finish their online certification test on the old Proficiencies before it’s taken down on January 1st and wondered if he still had time to get certified.

Yes, there’s still time – three days... Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

North American Union: Is It Crazy to be Concerned?

Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Just read a New York Times article that says Former Vice President Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize along with a United Nations committee on climate change. (NYT pic above, Cornelius Poppe/European Pressphoto Agency)

Go Al!

This blog is mostly about coaching and coaches, so I shy away from my political opinions, but I revealed in my last post that Mr. Gore is still my first choice for President of the United States. No one who is officially running comes close to having his vision, experience, integrity and ability - and we know he can win!

I guess the real question is: Since, in the seven years since Al Gore won the popular vote for the American Presidency, he's made millions of dollars, won the Nobel Prize, as well as an Oscar and an Emmy; so does Mr. Gore even want the White House, anymore?

If he really wants it and has the courage to take it on, then he's the guy to lead us in the next eight years.

Mr. Gore is enjoying his Personal Greatness and perhaps the perfection in the 2000 campaign is that the intervening years of atrocious leadership have helped the world - and hopefully the US - to catch up with his vision. Maybe now's the time.

If you think so, go here http://www.draftgore.com/ and sign the petition.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007
All rights reserved.

Have You Seen My Country?

You may be seeing flyers like this in your local coffee shop or grocery store. More and more of us are wondering what happened to that great country we grew up in and we're looking for it.

Today we have Republican leaders that are either complete idiots or the Devil incarnate ~ or both. And we have Democrats who wimp out on any issue, if they think it will compromise their approval ratings. Some choice!

Some days I wonder if democracy even works, anymore. And no, I don't have a better alternative. But I'm fed up with politicians who just don't get it.

A few folks got together and created http://unity08.com
for Americans who have had it with devisiveness and want solutions that work. I heard about in on the Stephen Colbert show. Much as a love Stephen, he's not my first choice for President. (Are you listening, Mr. Gore??)

Today, Unity '08 launches its "Have You Seen My Country?" campaign. http://unity08.com/takeaction/mycountry
Hence, the flyer. They want members to spread them around. I spend more time on my computer than I do at the coffee shop (I bet you do, too). So here you go.

Hmm, what if we find our country, notice she's changed and discover leaders who get it? That would be something we could unite over!

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007
All rights reserved.
www.yourlifepart2.com

Pangea Day: Tell Your Story

Coaching Groundwork

Where do you go if you're curious about coaching? If you want to find out what coaching skills are about? If you want to discover if coaching is the profession for you? I designed Coaching Groundwork for people like you... 

Read entire blog post at the Coaching Blog.

Going Back in Time and Striking Gold

While researching "distinctions", an important coaching tool, for a recent class at the School of Coaching Mastery, I decided to go back in time and find the original Thomas Leonard Distinctionary. Most people don't know this version exists or think that it's gone, but there's a nifty little web archive known as... Read entire article at the Coaching Blog.

Thomas Leonard's Clarifiers

Great coaches know the value of a well-placed either/or question. I learned what a huge upgrade this type of question could be while studying with (the late) Thomas Leonard at his Graduate School of Coaching.

One evening, in a class called The Clarifiers, I volunteered to coach. (Always volunteer in class. You'll learn ten times more than everyone else.)

I was given five minutes to coach, using just five of the following list of 15 clarifying questions, nothing else. The "client" (another coaching student who had a genuine problem she wanted to solve) made a huge shift in her thinking and at the end of five minutes, her problem had been eliminated. Wow!

Masterful coaches have tools that eliminate the need to figure out, work hard, take responsibility for, or solve their clients problems. Their skills do the work for them. At the School of Coaching Mastery, coaches learn these tools and how to use them masterfully. We have our own list of either/or questions, but in case you're interested, here are Thomas':

1. Urgent or Important?

2. Addressed or Avoiding?

3. Accurate or Interpretation?

4. Open or Resistant?

5. Internal or External Reference Point?

6. Want or Could/Should/Need?

7. Opportunity or Possibility?

8. Source or Symptom?

9. Opening or Share?

10. Response or Reaction?

11. Create or Eliminate?

12. Problem or Concern?

13. Present or Past?

14. Acceptance or Resistance?

15. Toward or Away From?

Clarifiers Copyright, CoachVille, 2002 (Used with permission)

Another great source of enlightening either/or questions is Debbie Ford's book, The Right Questions.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007

http://www.yourlifepart2.com

Puppetji vs. The Secret

Top Ten Worst Reasons to Become a Coach and Ten Clean* Reasons

People ask me every week to help them become coaches. I always want to know their real reasons for joining this fantastic profession, because over the years, I’ve seen a lot of coaches who had a miserable time building their businesses. Very often those coaches had fallen prey to one of the following misconceptions about coaching (which are frequently perpetrated by coaching schools – even the ones that are accredited.)  

Read entire blog post at the Coaching Blog.

Encyclopedia of Life

A tool for saving the planet by sharing the information we have about every species with everyone via the world wide web. Visit here and watch the movie: http://www.eol.org/home.html

What could be more inspring than life on Earth?

5 Keys to Mastery

School of Coaching Mastery

Okay, there it is. The new School of Coaching Mastery logo. Putting it out here on my blog is an announcement of sorts. SCM has been a kind of brain child for several months. Maybe longer. I think it was gestating for a couple of years, while I was saying, "I don't want to start another coaching school, there are too many out there, already."

I didn't choose SCM though, it chose me... Read entire blog post at the Coaching Blog.

If It Is Broken, Please Fix It

Virginia Tech: A Dumb Question Might Have Saved Lives

An article in this morning's New York Times about the massacre earlier this week at Virginia Tech reminded me of the importance of not making assumptions.

Read entire blog post at the Coaching Blog.

New Ted.com = Social Networking for Thinkers

The new Ted.com membership site launches today. Same incredible content - still for free - only now you can talk back. This brings their famous conference to your desktop/laptop/PDA in web 2.0 fashion... 

Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

Are You Worth More Than a Latte?

I coach incredible people. Most of them don't know how great they are until they've coached with me, but all of them are amazing and once I've unleashed them, there's no stopping what they can accomplish!

We frequently have conversations about about money. How much should they charge their clients? How do they ask their boss for a raise? I have these conversations with my coach, too.

There's a big difference between how much you think you can get and how much you really want. And I'm not just talking about money... Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

Give Responsibility a Chance

Here's a moving blog post from Martin Dewherst's blog at Zaadz: http://penny-on.zaadz.com/blog/2007/2/give_responsibility_a_chance

It's about a program in development called the GSR Project, based on existing work going on with youth services in the UK, that will link with probation services and NGO's working in Africa and beyond.

Funding is being accepted via The Penny On Trust and the Saharawan Aid Trust, both of which are supportive of this project.

The solutions to our world's problems become very clear when we stop thinking in the old ways and begin seeing with new eyes.

This is an awesome example.

BUSTED!

Ah personal development can be soooo exhausting! And personal development pros (Like us: Coaches, no?) can be sooooo full of it! :-)

Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

Do you Get Paid to Plerk?

Cool new word: Plerk. The combo of play and work. Reminds me of my definition of work : Problems as playthings or Having fun playing with problems... Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

The Evolution of Certification

The Certification Preparation course at the University of Houston's Executive Coaching Institute last weekend was a transformative event - not just for the participants, but for Mattison and me! Twelve coaches spent 24 hours together over three days, teasing out the meaning of "great coaching" and courageously stepped up to the plate again and again. It takes heart to do that and when you bring together fearlessness, generocity and a love of coaching, you get magic...Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.

What's the Real Secret Behind Attraction?

Attraction is everywhere you look these days (must be because it's soooo attractive!) Oprah says she's been using it all her life. Larry King wants to know more. Bill Maher calls it 'quackery' and Roseanne Barr says: If Attraction is so effective, how come we can't make the war in Iraq go away?? (Oh, Roseanne, that's not the way it works!)

The real question is: How DOES it work??

The Secret has a brilliant marketing strategy that has helped it reached critical mass in a matter of months AND it doesn't tell the whole story. Not surprisingly, the makers of The Secret are planning to produce more books and films later, which will reveal more details, a little at a time. More power to them! I believe this is the leading edge of a major paradigm shift in the West.

One of the reasons the Law of Attraction doesn't work for some folks is that there are other Laws that work in concert with it. Most people have way too little information to put it all to work effectively.

Wise men from Saint Mark, to Norman Vincent Peale, to Thomas J. Leonard, have been telling us about these laws for years, but most of us weren't ready to hear.

Maybe you are ready, because you're reading this post!

Have you noticed yet, how Attraction works in your life? It's not magic. I've been using it in my own life, with my clients and recently, in a teleclass program with my colleague, Donna Steinhorn and the stories that I hear from clients and participants are extraordinary! Relationships, opportunities and even money seem to show up like magic - only it's not magic - it's Attraction!

One thing I know about Attraction is that its power is multiplied when people get together and use it. Something about sharing and communicating helps us process out the old ways and fully 'get' the new - and something else happens: A momentum picks up and each person starts experiencing synchronicities that we could never have predicted!

The interesting thing about Thomas Leonard's Principles of Attraction is that they bring together those other Laws that I mentioned, like the Law of Cause and Effect, the Law of Right Action and the Law of Circulation, into a living structure that helps you shape your life naturally in the direction you really want. That's their power and there's nothing 'woo woo' about it.

For a long time now, I've wanted to put together an Advanced Attraction Coaching Group for people who've already studied the Law of Attraction and the Principles of Attraction, so they can synthesize what they know into a powerful strategy for creating what they really want in life, business, relationships and themselves. I can help people get more out of Attraction!

For instance, one thing the Principles of Attraction lack is focus. They are a brilliant evolutionary habitat, but until you've mastered them, you may not understand how to use them to get what YOU really want. And the problem with most Law of Attraction programs is they are TOO focused on managing thoughts and feelings and most people get frustrated and discouraged long before they attract what they want - and quit.

That's where I come in. I've learned how to take the clarity and focus of the Law of Attraction and support it with the powerful systems of the Principles of Attraction and I then I coach people to co-create amazing new realities.

If you're interested in this new way of coaching, email me about it.

I already have clients who are interested in the new group that I mentioned, but I have room for more. If you're curious, let's talk and find out whether the group program is a fit for you. (I'm not going to try to 'sell' you on this program. I'll just help you find out if it's right for you.)

If you're not a 'group person', but are curious about one-to-one Attraction Coaching, we can set up a complimentary session and see if we 'click'. I'm confident you'll get value from it.

Here's a comment I got recently from someone who tried a complimentary session with me:

'As a result of my coaching session with Julia I saw with an extremely empowering clarity what I need to do to have the career and life that I want. Thank you Julia!'
- Tom Robinson, Life Coach for People Living with Chronic Illnesses

If you're open to it, I'd love for you to fill out a feedback form after trying my coaching, to help me continue growing as a coach.

And even if you're not looking for any coaching right now, please do drop a line and tell me what you're experiencing with Attraction. I'm always thrilled to hear from my Fellow Attractors! ;-)

By the way, if you're new to Thomas Leonard's Principles of Attraction, click here to receive the free ecourse, "The 28 Principles of Attraction by Thomas Leonard". You'll get one inspiring and helpful article per week for 10 weeks.

Email me here for more information on Attraction Coaching.

Keep Being Great!

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007
www.yourlifepart2.com

Coaching 2007: The Industry Is Headed In Completely the Wrong Direction

OK, my coach put me up to this. But it's true.

The Coaching Industry is headed the wrong way. Not coaching, mind you, the industry.

It blows my mind that coaches who should know better don't get this. Maybe it's time I let you in on it!

Coaches like to think they're all on the leading edge, that they know stuff the rest of the world doesn't get, yet. We're oh, so precious about what we do.

Don't get me wrong. Great coaching is incredible. That's why it's so surprising that so many coaches don't see what has happened...Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.