The Mindful Rancher: Recent Episodes
Christina
Are you an agriculture professional who wants to find more fun in your career and life? This podcast will show you how as we combined the ideas of life coaching with the world of agriculture!
The S-curve of learning is one thing that we can use to help us understand disruption. When we decide to disrupt a typical pattern, we jump on to a new S-curve, and if we stick with it, we will go through each stage of inexperience, engagement, and mastery. What S-curve do you want to be on?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How often do you look at the things that are not working in your life? How often do you attempt to transform them into something that is working? How often do you evaluate that transformation attempt?
This is the work of a friction audit, finding the things that are not working and figuring out ways to change them into something that is working.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever accomplished a big goal and then felt so let down afterward? How did you feel about setting goals in the future? It's easy to focus all of our energy on one goal; we often need to do that to accomplish big things. But what can we do so we still feel motivated afterward? One option is to write our goals as master narratives or lifestyle visions and see what we can accomplish from that perspective.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Consistency really matters - it creates really good or really bad results but either way, it creates results. What do you want to be more consistent with this week?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Empathy. Understanding how someone else feels. Believing that they feel that way. Respecting their experience might be different from ours.
Learning empathy is an incredible skill. It expands our understanding of experience and helps build trust. Where can you be more empathetic this week?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How do you build trust? What are the things that contribute to more trusting relationships? One of the main elements of trust is transparency. When things are clear, easy to see, and unambiguous it is easier to have trust in them. How can we be more transparent to build more trusting relationships?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Where do you have empty space in your life? Is there empty time in your calendar? Is there any empty drawer in your kitchen? Is there an empty shelf in your garage?
We often have the tendency to fill space but could we find a way to value empty space?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We all see others react differently to situations. These reactions on often fueled by what each person is thinking or saying to themselves about each situation. Think about how you react to situations. What are the things that you need to hear to be able to respond to that situation?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What can we do when we find ourselves drawn toward suboptimal choices? Following some research on pigeons, we might consider choosing to do harder things, spend time outside, be more active, and eat natural food to help us be less drawn to ward these behaviors. Let's give it a try!
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Feedback. Do you get it? Do you want it? Do you give it? How is it received? We can all improve how we give and receive feedback. Doing a little work on ourselves before and after we receive tough feedback can help us bounce back and adjust as needed to make the most of that feedback.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
It's so easy to look back at who we were in the past and be critical or unkind but we have the option to write a story where we are kind to our past selves and they are kind to us. The same is true when we think of who we will be in the future. Think about having a conversation with your future self. What do you think they would say to you? Would it be words of criticism or encouragement?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We will often have experiences when we dream up big things and others tell us we cannot accomplish them. It's a big reason many of us never try to accomplish them. We sometimes even tell others that they cannot accomplish their dreams. Maybe it's fear, maybe it is a lack of capacity, and maybe it is true knowledge but what ever the reason I think we need to consider the things we have been told we cannot do. And maybe we need to start taking steps to accomplish those things.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever made a positive change in your life and it felt like your whole world fell apart? This is what positive disintegration feels like. We make changes that are positive but it takes a while for our brains and lives to catch up. And in that lag time, it feels horrible. Our brains need time to adjust to knew knowledge that we receive. Time to let those old mental patters break down and time for new mental patterns to build around the new knowledge. When you are going through changes or learning new things give yourself time for this process.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What is play?
What is work?
What is play work?
There are so many things that we do at work, for a break, for down time, for distraction, or to just feel busy. But when we do those things we are not always accomplishing the things that need to be completed. These play work tasks still exhaust us and they still take time but they don't accomplish the things that we need to get done. When we can switch in to play to provide an energetic boost and result work to get things done, magic can happen.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Feeling like we belong at work is so important. It allows us to get more done and to be happier. Finding ways to feel like we belong can be a struggle in some workplaces. If we can take the time to consider the stories we tell ourselves about our work, coworkers, and the company we work for, we can choose stories that create actions that allow us to build belonging. Another important aspect is to be social at work. If we can find time to connect with others we will often find that we have so much in common. Practice seeking out more belonging at work this week.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
It's fun to watch people work who feel their job is a calling. They seem to be able to go the extra mile effortlessly. If we want to be happier at work maybe we can learn a thing or two from them. What are the things you love doing at work? Is there a way for you to be able to do more of those things? The experiments that we run based on the answer to these questions are how we can all craft our jobs into callings.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Self-compassion is characterized by 3 parts - mindfulness, common humanity, and kindness. Can we notice our experiences and our feelings and then be willing to be in that experience or feeling? Can we see that mistakes, failure, and imperfection are part of the human experience? Can we be kind to ourselves?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What is your definition of productivity? Is it filled with tasks, minimum inputs and maximum outputs, busyness, and often rushed? Or do you feel like productivity is defined by calmness, completion, planning, and support?
How we define productivity can affect how we feel at work. Rethinking productivity allows us to create the workplace we want.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We all want to be happy at work but sometimes work can be a struggle. We know that we will experience some negative emotion at work and we should. How will use that negative emotion? In this episode we explore the practice of RAIN for helping ourselves use negative emotions better.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever tried to run new software on a really old computer? Can you imagine running software that you use today on the computer that you used in junior high?
For new software to run well, we have to upgrade our hardware. The same works for our life. If we think about hardware as the systems in our lives - our time management system, our planning system, or our mindset. If we take on new tasks or new opportunities and haven't upgraded our hardware sometimes things will not run well. What do you need to upgrade today?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
So often the way we think has built an invisible fence around the life that we have - keeping the things in that support that same way of being and keeping things out that would change it. Sometimes we have the right invisible fences in place and sometimes we need to change out our invisible fences. Take some time to discover the way your invisible fences are keeping you stuck and training new invisible fences to have the life you want.
Sand - it's simple and yet doesn't grow plants well.
Dirt - it's complex and supports so much growth.
Situations in our lives can be like sand or they can be like dirt. We often wish for simple straight forward situations but they don't support growth the way a complicated situation can. How can you find a little more acceptance for the growth promoting situations in your life?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What are ways we could live into our bucket lists more? We often will only put big things on our bucket lists but consider the idea of creating a little things bucket list. A list of your favorite moments that you would love to live over and over a again and then taking the time to create opportunity to do so. Our bucket lists can also limit our dreams to only the things on the list so leaving some empty space can create opportunity for the magic that we haven't been able to dream up yet.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
It's interesting to see how different animals interact with the world around them and then see what wisdom we can apply to ourselves. I had an opportunity to attend a horse wisdom group therapy session and this episode is just a few of my observations and lessons learned.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Why do you do things the way you do them? Is it because it's just always been done that way? Sometimes it's good for us to question the things that we do and the way that we do them. I was recently inspired by some dairy farmers who were running their farms differently than what would be considered the industry norm. What things do you need to do differently?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What would improve if you did less, excluded something, or got rid of something? We are often so focused on addition - having more, doing more, or being included in more that we forget that sometimes more isn't better. Less is.
How could we practice subtraction to improve our lives?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What are your values? What are the values of the company? How do you live those values? How do you not live into those values?
When we can provide concrete examples of how we live our values and how we do not live the values we want to. It can help us to not only say we have certain values but to actually practice them.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How can we build stress reducing and releasing practices into our every day life? Simple things like delegating tasks, going for a walk, or simply standing when you do a task, can help us have a little less stress. What do you want to try to reduce stress today?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What happens when a kid doesn't have the emotional skills to face a challenging experience? They will often react negatively - screaming, yelling, or crying. What happens when an adult doesn't have the emotional skills to face a challenging experience? They react.
Developing emotional skills is the key. First, we see that we react in situations in ways that we don't want to. Then we start practicing the emotional skills that might help us in the future.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We do 100's of things a day, but what are the things that make it easy to feel good? Do we feel good after a night out with friends? Do we feel good after going for a run? Do we feel good when we hit snooze and can sleep in a little? Do we feel good when we are running late?
It is easy to get caught doing things that pass the time or distract us but what would our lives be like if we did more of the things that help us to feel good?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What happens after you take the action you want to take as you create a habit? You may not think that what happens after matters but it does. When we take action and are punished for it, we are not likely to do it again. When we take action and we are rewarded for it, we are much more likely to do it again. If you want to create a new habit, make sure you create a reward.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
So often we are just not aware of the things we are thinking or the things we are doing. But once we become aware then we have the choice to change it. One simple practice to increase awareness is to write down a page of thoughts every day. This gives us perspective on the things we are thinking and ultimately allows us to choose to keep that pattern of thinking or to change it.
What will you choose?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What can help us create balance? Sometimes choosing to have less or do less can be the boundaries we need to bring control and balance back into our lives. Though many of our workplaces are quite resistant to boundaries there still may be ways to set limits that help us have the life we truly want.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What do you do when you just can't seem to stick with your goals consistently? What can we do when things just seem too big to actually do them?
One trick is to make them smaller and just do the small thing. When we lower our expectations, when we lower the time commitment, when we simply lower the bar we can get the success that fuels motivation for consistent action. Where do you need to just lower the bar?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What do you do when you send a message and no one responds? What do you make that mean about yourself and the other person?
It is easy to think that not responding caries a lot of meaning but it is also possible to think that it doesn't carry a lot of meaning - it just means they didn't respond. What meaning do you think you want to give to someone's lack of response?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We all recycle thoughts. Our grandparents thought it, our parents think it, and now so do we. This recycling often makes our thinking quite stable. It is efficient for our brains and creates the same results over and over again. But what we miss sometimes is that our thinking is also plastic. It can change with new information or it can change because we choose to change it. How would you like to change your thinking?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Reflecting back on situations of the past can help us decide if we want to create similar things in the future or if we want to respond differently in the future. Sometimes we can use reflection as a way to shame our past selves some how believing that we should have handled the situation differently but that is seldom useful as we cannot change the past. But consider reflection from the perspective of informing that future. See what we did in the past and make a decision to practice something different in the future.
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Some failure is blameworthy some failure is praiseworthy and some it is a little hard to tell which it is. But how we interpret failure will affect how we act toward ourselves and others when they fail. In this episode, we explore the spectrum of the causes of failure and our tendency to see failure as blameworthy.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Do we set big goals or do we set little ones? We know goals help us accomplish more but sometimes we need to adjust how we set goals to have the greatest impact and the most success. What kind of goals do you want to set this year or maybe just this week.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
At the end of the year it's fun to look back on all the things you have accomplished - this year, the past few years, and maybe even an over view of your life. This year as you think back on your accomplishments think about what a younger version of you would think about these things. We all have accomplished things that our younger self couldn't have even dreamed of. Let's be in awe of those things.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What if you believed that there was nothing wrong with you? Nothing wrong with where you are at? Nothing wrong with where you have been in the past?
We often think that we have to believe that there is something wrong to make a change. But what if we could believe that there was nothing wrong and still make changes?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
As you looked for blind spots after last week's episode or thought about people at their best, did you sometimes struggle to find a moment to share?
That might be because our brains are a bit biased toward the negative. But one concept that I love is that weaknesses are sometimes strengths overused. So in the negative moment or the weakness that you identified can you see the strength that was overused?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
When we drive we have blind spots and as we navigate our lives we will have blind spots. Most of us think we only have blind spots when it comes to our weaknesses but sometimes we are even blind to our strengths. Listen as we explore three exercises where others help us to see our strengths, we help others see their strengths or we explore the thoughts that create the most fun and have us perform at our best.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What roles have you taken on? What roles have some of your different parts taken on? Have we got the right person or the right part in the right role?
The roles that are assigned to us and the roles that we assign to ourselves or our parts sometimes are just not the right fit. Getting a good fit with the roles that you have or that your parts have can make all the difference.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We all have parts. Parts of us that get angry. Parts of us that are happy-go-lucky. Parts of us that are sad. Parts of us that are lonely. Some parts of ourselves we love and we believe that they are good. Other parts we might dislike or be ashamed of and believe that they are bad. What would happen if we listened to, embraced, and loved all the parts of ourselves?
Website:www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What are you practicing? I like to think of practicing as the things that I am doing over and over again whether I fail or succeed at them. It's interesting to see what we practice and then choose to practice the things that help us develop into the person we want to be.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How many decisions do you make in a day? If you feel like taking on an exhausting project you can count but if not you can believe me, it is a lot. Each task we do, we make a decision to do it. As a result of the number of decisions that we have to make we can fall into decision fatigue.
So what can you do. The simple practice of making decisions ahead of time can help reduce the decisions and open up space for us to think about other things. What decisions could you make ahead of time?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What are the things that you delight in? What are the things that bring you delight? How often do you feel delighted?
The world has many challenges and many delights. We sometimes forget to focus on the delights. Spend some time this week focusing on the things that bring you delight.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What are the things you need to figure out? What are the things you never need to figure out? I was recently given permission to not figure something out. It felt amazing. The freedom, the creativity, the fun, came back into my life. There are a lot of things we can and will figure out. But there are somethings that are just not our responsibility to understand nor figure out. Let's let those things go.
Meditation. There are many types of mediation. There are many ways to meditate. There are many benefits of meditation. Join me for one of my favorite meditations: Loving kindness.
Website:www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What would you do with an extra 3 hours? We spend approximately 3 hours every day thinking about past conversations. Our brains think this rumination will some how help us but so often it has us reliving hard experiences of the past or living through things that will actually never happen in the future.
Let's find a way to claim these 3 hours back to the present moment.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Do you like receiving feedback? Do you like giving feedback? Feedback is simply a point of view so let's take the time to consider the point of view. Looking back on the past can provide some powerful insights into changes that we want to make in the future. But a past-focused view sometimes gets us stuck in shame and regret. Consider the idea of reframing your feedback into feedforward and describe how you would like the future to be instead of dwelling on the past.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How often do you do the things that you tell others you will do?
How often do you do the things you tell yourself you will do?
Honoring our commitments to ourselves is a powerful tool for building self-trust.
Let's just start small and start doing the things we tell ourselves we will do.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Why do you do things? What is the explanation that you give to others when they object to your choices? Do you like the reason that you give? Sometimes we find ourselves giving reasons for our choices that will feel out of alignment. It's often fun to explore these situations and simply ask yourself - what is the real reason?
Website: www.christinawillamscoaching.com
What do you do when things feel out of alignment? Just like your wheel alignment on your car things are not going smoothly and things are starting to wear.
Normally we might try to just carry on, avoid the discomfort, or to try and make a massive change. But what we tried first was to do a little exploring. Simply feeling the emotions that come up with the situation and gaining a little understanding can work wonders for helping us create the change that will serve us best.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Shedding is just part of life. Our pets shed their winter coats so why shouldn't we be shedding old ideas to allow our lives to be better and move forward. Ideas have a powerful effect on our lives and if we are not constantly evaluating them, old ideas from our past can start to negatively effect our present and our future. What ideas are no longer serving you that you need to shed?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How much time do you spend dealing with things that go wrong?
How much time do you spend helping things go right?
We will all have to deal with things when they go wrong and there is often something that will go wrong. But what if we started spending more time helping things go right? Time training, preparing, building relationships, and getting things done early. What would be the impact for you if you carved out more time to help things go right?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Resources. We all have experienced times when it seems that we just don't have enough to do all the things that we would like to do. So how do you decide what to put your resources into: do you work on your strengths? do you work on your weaknesses? What if it depended on the game you were playing? In some cases, it might be more advantageous to put resources into your strengths, and in other cases, we must work on our weaknesses. Simply understanding the game or business we are in helps us utilize the resources that we have to get the greatest return.
When you are going through something hard what kind of support do you need?
Do you need someone to witness your struggle? Stay with you, support you, but still allow you to figure it out.
Do you need someone to help you? Step in, do some of the work, take something off your plate.
Do you need someone to offer you a distraction? Crack a joke, go for a walk with you, offer an alternative activity to take your mind off the problem.
In each situation, the thing that we need may be different and we can ask do you need a witness, help, or a distraction.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How can we make dreams come true? We all have dreams but sometimes when they start to come true we find out that they feel a little uncomfortable. One way to increase our chances of our dreams coming true is to start to become familiar with how they will feel when they come true. An easy way to do this is to visit your dreams or touch your dreams often. Create moments or days where you experience the life you would live if your dream came true.
Website: christinawilliamscoaching.com
There are always two conversations going on.
The one that is happening between you and another person.
And the one that is happening inside your brain.
Those two conversations don't always match. Usually, the one inside your brain is much more dramatic and sometimes even more interesting.
But the most important part is to become aware of both. See what conversations you want to participate in and see what conversations you no longer want part of your life.
You can choose.
Website: christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever noticed that sometimes we remember the same event in different ways? Have you ever noticed that at one time you remember something one way and later you seem to recall something different? This is just how our memories work. They are not like an instant replay in sports, they are much more fluid than that and therefore a bit more fallible. Recognizing this can feel make things feel very uncertain but it also can give us the freedom to let others recount past events differently and have confidence in ourselves that we don't need to prove our recollection is correct, we simply accept that memories are different and can be influenced by so many things. It may make it feel a bit uncomfortable at first but it also opens so many opportunities for curiosity.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
To continue our discussion from last week on a few more lessons I have learned from a funeral. It is so interesting that we only get to know a snapshot of each other's lives. This opens the door for us to learn from each other and be more curious instead of being judgmental when our reactions or actions are different. We also will each be faced with our own challenges and sometimes it helps me to simply consider that I am up for the challenge and only challenges that I can handle will come my way. Sometimes a simple change in perspective will help us through any challenge that comes our way.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
A recent funeral taught me a few lessons.
Lesson 1: We have a tendency of focusing on the bad that people do and forgetting to tell all the good stories. Yet our memories for the good are much better at a funeral so what if we tried to tell more of the good stories and let the negative ones not be told as often?
Lesson 2: Dreams come true. We all have dreams and some of them will come true. Don't forget to remember the ones that do and enjoy them.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever had a simple moment feel amazing? Have you ever had a grand moment feel horrible? What caused the difference? It's fun to explore what makes moments feel different. Once we can identify the moments that feel like gold, we can make sure we carve out time to create more of them to have a life that feels amazing. So often we chase the next promotion, the next grand adventure, or the next applause but really all we want are the simple moments that feel like gold. How can you create more of those moments in your life?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We know we need boundaries but why is setting them so hard? One thing that makes setting boundaries hard is the timing. When we are upset we have the motivation to set them but we also aren't thinking as clearly as we are when we are calm. So when setting boundaries, watch your timing and pay attention to your emotions. With a little bit of awareness, we can take the time to intentionally set boundaries that are loving for ourselves as well as loving for others.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever wondered if you needed to set a boundary? Have you ever had one friend telling you that you were taking on too much while another person kept expecting more? Sometimes it's tough to know when to set a boundary but there are a few things that we can use as cues. Feelings of resentment, taken advantage of, or desperation are some good indicators that we can use to know that we might need to set a boundary.
Website: christinawilliamscoaching.com
One simple way to think about boundaries. What is my responsibility? What are the things I need to take ownership of? What is not my responsibility? What is not mine to take ownership of? Defining ourselves helps us develop the identity that gives us the safe structure to consider things from another's perspective without getting lost in or having to agree. Considering another's experience allows us to act with empathy.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever struggled to make and keep a boundary with work, family, or friends? Boundaries are tough for many reasons. We often do not want to disappoint others or lose out on opportunities so we say yes to everything. But without boundaries, we are not taking care of ourselves and then we lose the ability to take care of others.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How much of your life is chaos? How much of your life is calm?
We watch a lot of perfect, edited, and performed things on TV and on social media and it is easy to think that our lives should work like a perfect performance. But most of the time our lives are not a performance, they are a raw, poorly timed, and real experience. Our thinking can affect how we embrace the chaos of real life. If we think thoughts that leave us with the expectation that things should be perfect then we will struggle with the realness of life. So just becoming aware of these can help us accept the chaos and not feel the need to perform all the time.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Our breathing automatically adjusts to our different emotional states. So if we are angry our breathing will often be different than when we are calm. But though many of these changes are automatic we also have the power to consciously change our breathing. There are many different breathing patterns that you can try including SHHH breath, soup breath, and box breath. Give them a try and see which ones bring you calmness.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
When you spill a cup of water - the water spills out. When you spill a cup of tea - the tea spills out. It's always whatever is in the cup that spills out. We too fill our minds with ideas, stories, and emotions. When a challenge comes our way, these are the things that spill out. What are you filling your life with? What is spilling out?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How often do you fail?
How often do you succeed?
Our brains love to remember our failures and so do our family, friends, and enemies. But we succeed far more than we fail. If you need encouragement this week, then simply write a list of all the things you did well. I bet the list for just one day could get very long if you include brushing your teeth, remembering your password, and driving on the correct side of the road.
If you are looking to uplevel your life and achieve your goals this week. Then it is time to lower your success rate and start doing things that you might fail at.
The choice is yours but remember your success rate is pretty high!
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
I was recently challenged by a coworker to load some cattle with my mind. As funny as this suggestion is, animals are extremely perceptive to our thoughts because our thoughts have such a powerful effect on how we show up and the actions that we take. As we become more aware of our thinking we can truly harness its power to create the results we want in our lives. What can you create with your mind?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We have all worked under pressure but have you ever been able to work without pressure? Or do you know how to release the pressure? We think that pressure is the only way to get things done but it also makes things more stressful and less enjoyable. What would happen if we learned to work without pressure?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
A mental health continuum: Healthy - Reacting - Injured - Ill. Where on this continuum do you find yourself today? Being able to identify the state of our mental health and make adjustments or changes as needed can help us live more in a healthy state of mind. We sometimes normalize reacting or injured behavior because we simply don't know what to do to move through the continuum to healthy.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Networking. Everyone says it's important and yet some love it, some hate it, and some just do it. Building a network is important for expanding possibilities and opportunities. What could you do to build your network today?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
How do we move from being a beginner to becoming an expert? There are no shortcuts, you simply have to practice. It's easy to get discouraged when we fail the first time but we have to be willing to be bad at things in front of a lot of people for us to put in the hours of practice to become an expert. What do you want to become better at? It's time to practice.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Today is the day! Try something new! Trying new things can be daunting but there lies the adventure and the growth. Where can you try something new this week? I recently took on the challenge of a large parkade and trying to find my car again. It was something new but allowed me the opportunity to learn what I didn't know and have a great adventure.
For more come visit me at: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Questions are magic. They let others know what we don't know or don't understand and they help us get the answers that we want. Yet we generally don't ask very many questions. Some don't ask questions because they are afraid or they really don't want to know the answer. But by not asking questions we slow down our growth and progress. So see where you can ask more questions today.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever noticed that our brains love to make everything personal? When phone calls are not returned, emails are not responded to, jobs are made harder, or mixed messages are sent - our brains love to make it very personal. But as we seek for calmness we can often see that is really isn't personal at all. What are you making personal?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Focus is a powerful tool we can use to get things done and to do them well. A few minutes or a few hours of focus time can create powerful results in your life. Time to say goodbye to multi-tasking and distractions and simply do one thing at a time.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We all love to be recognized! And we all love to be recognized in different ways. If we are to offer meaningful recognition to others then we need these 3 keys. The first is to recognize people in the way that they want to be recognized. Trust me - they will tell you. It might be a random comment or a joke but I promise they will tell you if you listen. You can also tell by how they respond to different offerings - some things will have them performing better and other things will get no response. Just pay attention to how they respond. The second key is to be specific. Specific praise allows us to give continual recognition. It also shows that we know all the different things that they do. The final key is to do it often. We all need recognition. We all need a lot of recognition. This will have an impact on well-being and productivity.
Website: christinawilliamscoaching.com
Do you love it when someone tells you that you did a good job, they appreciate your work, or love working with you? Appreciation is something that everyone needs and loves to receive. As an employee, we have an opportunity to see all the little bits of genius that our coworkers add to the world. And the art of being a good employee is to open your mouth or get your fingers typing and tell them the good that you see in them. It may feel awkward at first and they may not know how to receive it but you can make their day, their year, and your words will likely be remembered longer than that. Let someone know you appreciate them this week.
For more help visit my website at www.christinawillliamscoaching.com
Who is responsible when something goes wrong? It's easy to place blame and see the problems as someone else's responsibility but when we do this we limit our ability to solve the problem. We expect others to change and to correct problems but we fail to see how we could contribute to the solution. When we take responsibility we access more of our own creative genius and have the power to solve problems that previously we said were someone else responsibility.
Other people's business. It's our favorite type of business to be in but it's the place where we are clearly out of our own business. Taking the time to evaluate where you are in other people's business and then redirecting yourself back to your own business puts you in the driver's seat of your life. Our business is where we have all the power.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
As an employee and as a person it is pretty easy to get worried about what is happening in the world and what other people are doing. We then spend all of our time and energy worried about these things. In this episode, we explore the three types of business - God's business, Other people's business, and our own business.
How much time do you spend in each of these types of business?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What are the things worth working on when you don't see results right away? What are the goals that make you develop into a different person? Is slow growth worse than fast growth?
In a world of fast food and getting rich quickly sometimes it is hard to stick with goals when growth comes slowly. But there are so many advantages to slow growth. With time for development, we can truly become better, more skilled, and ultimately completely different versions of ourselves if we will invest in slow growth.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Our mindset is powerful. It determines our experience. It determines our productivity. It determines our speed. It determines our joy. But how do you influence, change, or actually create a mindset that helps you as an employee and helps the company you work for? Following 3 simple steps of becoming aware, challenging, and practicing something new, you have the power to create a mindset that will serve you and others in any position.
What are the most common things you say about your job? Why would these things be important? In this episode, we discuss questions you can ask that will help you uncover these mindset patterns as well as the effects these patterns have on your enjoyment and success at your job. If you want to find more success and joy in your position then looking at your mindset is the most effective tool you have for change.
How many books can you find on being a good leader or manager? How many can you find on being a good employee? Though many of us are employees far longer than we are managers the material is a bit hard to find sometimes. As a result, this podcast series will teach some basic ideas, techniques, and mindsets every good employee needs to have or develop. This week we will discuss the concept of adding value. This isn't about working harder or doing more. This is about offering the value that only you have to give and in a unique way that only you can. When we learn the skill of adding value, we become the most sought after employee.
For the past year, I have written an email each week that outlined one good thing that happened the week before. Some weeks were easy, and some weeks were hard but every week I found one good thing. 3 lessons this practice has taught me: 1. Our brains will find what they go look for, so be intentional about what you are looking for. 2. Our brains are better at remembering the negative than the positive so have a system to help you remember the good. 3. No matter what is going on, there is always something good happening too. Can you find one good thing?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What helps you stay emotionally regulated? What calms you down when you are emotionally dysregulated? Knowing these things can help us navigate the complex emotional challenges that often come our way. From grabbing a snack, going for a walk, or taking a deep breath we can utilize many different tools to help us emotionally regulate so we can show up as our highest selves.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever noticed how much we love to judge ourselves and others? Have you ever listened to others judge something that you thought was wonderful?
Though our judgments feel like they are facts, they are not so. They are just judgments. We can decide how we will judge ourselves and others.
How do you accomplish great things?
One tiny task at a time.
What do you do when you miss a day?
Don't miss twice.
Simple things. Profound effects.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We each have something amazing to offer the world. This offering will help and inspire others. Sometimes our offering seems so simple, like the opportunity I had to walk a neighbor across the icy patch on the pathway. Sometimes our offering will seem grand. Either way we each have something extraordinary to offer. What do you need to offer the world?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We continued our conversation about rest from last week with 5 more types of rest. Time to recharge, break from responsibility, stillness, safe space, and home are ways we can access rest.
Website www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Rest. How often do you rest? Is rest easy for you to get? Does rest seem impossible? Rest is something all of us need. There are many types of rest and in this episode, we will talk about 4 different ways to rest.
The Golden Rule of treating others how we want to be treated has a few pitfalls that catch us all. As we struggle to actually treat others how we want to be treated or deal with the different interpretations of what that treatment should be, what can we do?
One thing is to consider the Platinum rule, treating others how they want to be treated. Do we know how they want to be treated? Is it different then we want to be treated? We can uplevel our relationships by considering these questions.
It is easy in conflict to distill the narrative down to something extremely simple and right or wrong. But conflicts are so much more complicated than that. Humans are so much more complicated than that. If we will utilize the tool of curiosity - ask questions and embrace the complexity, we will be able to more gracefully navigate conflict and likely find better solutions.
Creating time and space in a conflict can allow us to calm our emotions, investigate the story, and approach from our highest intelligence. When we are approaching conflict from our highest intelligence instead of our survival brain we will often find more common ground and less need to escalate the situation.
Getting curious, asking questions, and really listening are great tools for creating time and space.
If you need some help applying what you learn on the podcast, book some time on my calendar at: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Awareness of conflict can help us set ourselves up for success. The binary is where we create a situation where there are two choices: winners and losers, us and them, good and bad. Just having the two groups creates a situation where our brains want to be right (even more than they want to be happy). This type of grouping can escalate conflict so we will discuss ways to reduce or avoid creating a binary.
Fire starters or conflict entrepreneurs are people who seem to have a need for increasing drama, creating all-or-nothing situations, spreading rumors, or simply enjoy creating more conflict. When we spend a lot of time with or take advice from these individuals, we may see that conflict in our lives increases. So, looking for ways to create game plans, distance, or reaction time may help us to avoid escalating conflicts.
How often in conflict are you really interested in what the other parties' viewpoints are? How often are you really curious about why they view the situation the way that they do? How often do you care about why this issue is so important to them? Learning, hearing, and understanding the understories are so important to conflicts. This story is often driving the escalation of conflict and if understood, adjustments and accommodations can be made.
Why is this issue important to you?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever found yourself trapped in a conflict? Have you ever wondered how this could have even gone this far? Conflict is a major change-maker. Conflicts can lead to so much progress. Conflicts can also escalate. Conflicts can also cause destruction. So, what is the difference between conflicts that create progress and conflicts that just turn destructive? In this episode, we explore some of the concepts that are taught in Amanda Ripley's book High Conflict: how we get trapped and how we get out. High or destructive conflicts are often characterized by specific ways of thinking and being. If we can recognize those differences, we can prevent conflict from escalating or from getting trapped in it.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Failure is not wasted if we learn from it. Learning isn't reliving the past but learning can be revisiting it and evaluating it to glean lessons that will help us create a plan for the future and ultimately lead us to success.
The success formula only works when we use it on repeat. One decision, one action, one failure, one lesson will seldom lead us to the success we seek but when we repeat the process we can find success.
If you need help applying these ideas, grab some time on my calendar and let's get you headed toward success. www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
It's crazy the connection between failure and success. All success will come after some type of failure. And the truth is, success is worth the price we pay in failure. Are you willing to pay the tuition?
Failure doesn't have to be a road block but can be a navigation sign, showing us the way not to go and ultimately helping us choose the way that will work. Don't give up just yet. Failure is the way to success.
After we decide what we are going to do, the next step is actually doing it. For us to find what works we have to try things until they do work. You never really know if you can ride a bike until you ride the bike. Let's take some action and try some things out. New actions lead to new opportunities.
How can we set ourselves up for success? For the next 4 episodes, we will work our way through a very simple formula for success. This episode is focused on deciding. We have to make decisions.
What are some of the reasons we don't want to decide?
We don't know what is best.
Fear of failure
Fear of consequences
These things keep us suck. Some simple mindset shifts can help us overcome the indecision and choose our way to success.
Why do so many of our goals are never achieved?
We quit on them.
It's time to stop quitting on ourselves. Yes, things get hard. Yes, we sometimes fail. Yes, it might get boring. Yes, you might need more training. Yes, you might have to work. But quitting is optional.
Let's learn. Let's take action till we figure it out. Let's achieve those goals.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Do you think that you have too much to do and that there is no use in planning? Do you think that things are so unpredictable that planning wouldn't work? Do you think that your to-do list is so long and looking at it one more time will send you running for the hills?
These are beliefs that keep us stuck and scrambling. It is time to take up planning.
Planning your day, your week, and your year can lead to a life that is so much more fun and less stressful.
It's time to plan.
If you need more help with planning, book some time on my schedule at www.christinawilliamscoaching.com.
Has your gratitude practice become a little bit stale? Is it not as effective as it once was or are you seeming to forget more often than you remember? Sounds like it is time to switch it up a bit.
We know gratitude is a powerful practice but writing, videoing, or pictures are all good options. So often we can get stuck in a trap of using our gratitude practice against us; saying we are grateful but really wishing things were different. How could you be grateful for how things are right now?
Website:www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
"You must realize, not everything you think is true" The lyrics from 1000 Arms by Blue Rodeo. This statement is so true. The work of realizing that we don't have to believe all our thoughts and we don't have to react to them. We have options in our thinking and our thinking isn't always right. What thought do you need to realize isn't true?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Weasels are the cutest, shiftiest, ferocious little animals. So many of our thoughts have these same characteristics. They sound nice. They sound good. They sound like we are a good person or we are striving to be so. But they are wreaking havoc on our lives. Can you spot a weasel-like thought?
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
We will all find ourselves in situations where we react. All of those reactions make sense when we understand what we are thinking but what can we do if we want to change our reaction. This episode presents a couple of options for approaching those types of situations.
Can you put words to your experiences? Can you describe what it is like to be you in those experiences? Sometimes we think if we hide from our experiences that they will just go away but what if leaning into those experiences and putting words to our stories could actually give us more power over them.
We have this great opportunity to see that our way of interpreting our experiences affects how we react in the world. So let's get curious about those interpretations so we understand them well and have the option to choose something different if that interpretation is not serving us or those around us.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Have you ever caught yourself looking back wondering why you reacted the way you did to a specific situation? Have you ever seen someone react and wonder what caused that?
I always say, if you understand what the person was thinking or what story they were telling themselves about what happened, then the reaction always makes sense.
We react because of how we interpret the situation. Our reactions are how we play out our interpretations of what is going on.
Website: www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
What determines if something is impossible? Why don't we try to do impossible things? What could we accomplish if we did try to do impossible things? I first learned impossible things from Brooke Castillo at The Life Coach School and have been making them ever since. It is possible to create the impossible we just have to dream it up and not give up till we create it. Let's give it a try.
Get the show notes and more information at www.christinawilliamscoaching.com.
My Apple watch is programmed to encourage me to move, exercise, and stand every day. Just like my watch is programmed with what's important, we can decide what things are important that we do and start making them part of our lives. It reminds me relentlessly to do these things and celebrates them just as relentlessly. It tracks my progress and encourages me to expand my goals when consistency is commonplace and keeps track of all my activities. We can do the same for any goal we want to achieve.
If you would like more help applying these concepts, check out my website and grab some time on my calendar for a consultation call to see if we can get you to achieve your dreams faster. www.christinawilliamscoaching.com
Most businesses have a tradition of exit interviews, where they might find out some of the reasons that an employee has decided to move on and if they have any parting words of wisdom. But how effective are these interviews? This episode discusses the idea of stay interviews which I was introduced to on a webinar by Mary-Ann Baynton which was hosted by the Canadian Veterinarian Medical Association. In just 4 questions you can explore the things you love about your job, the things you want to change, what you are willing to do about and how you would like to be held accountable.
The link to the whole webinar is below - and trust me it is worth a listen.
Webinar: How to Reduce Unnecessary Veterinary Workplace Stress with Mary Ann Baynton - YouTube
Living a balanced life. What are the things you are trying to balance? How do you talk to yourself about your to-do list? What is your definition of balance? What are the things that get you out of balance?
This episode is a live talk I gave at a singles conference providing one perspective of balance.
Weeds and crops are similar to our thoughts in many ways. There are the thoughts that serve us well, have a purpose and that need a little more nourishment to help them flourish. Then there are the thoughts that will take hold in any situation and cause so much pain and discomfort. Once we realize the difference we know we will have to remove the weed-like thoughts over and over again and replant the crop-like thoughts every season but it's totally worth it to create the life we want.
Do you work and live from a place of efficiency or possibility? It's so easy to get caught in a trap of doing things the same way and not being willing to explore new options or consider possibilities. This is living from efficiency. Though we all love efficiency sometimes it limits us from seeing possibilities. Where do you need to give up efficiency and explore possibilities?
People are sometimes a total mess. What do we do with the mess? So often we try to change the mess, hide the mess, avoid the mess, or simply make the mess go away. But what if you loved the mess? Loved the mess in others. Loved the mess in yourself.
It is so easy to want to manage other people. We think we know better than they do about what they need to be doing and how they need to be doing it but when we spend all our time worrying about them we forget to take a look at ourselves. Where can we let go of controlling other people and start simply managing ourselves.
We live in a world of social media, where it seems that everyone's life is picture-perfect except ours. But is that even true? What if we could see the good and bad in our own life as well as recognize that everyone else got some good and some bad too? This is the power of telling the whole truth. Seeing that lives are not edited photos. They are sometimes a struggle and sometimes a joy.
How often do you hear others say or hear yourself say: "I don't get paid enough"? It's a pretty common sentiment with the way we compare our wages to others’ wages and the way that we generally view how we are paid. When we think we are paid for our time, it's pretty easy to believe we don't get paid enough but would you think the same thing if you thought you were paid for the value you added or the result you created?
Resentment. Most of us have felt it at one time or another. Is resentment good or bad? As with most "negative" emotions, resentment can provide some very important information to us. When we understand that information, then we can make the necessary changes. Whether we use resentment as a catalyst for change or an indicator it can help us to make the necessary adjustments to have the life we truly want.
Who are you becoming? Who will you be in the future? When you have overcome your current challenge who will you be?
Our future selves can be a wealth of knowledge for us. Simply becoming familiar with the person we want to become actually helps us become that person.
What future do you want? We spend so much time dreaming up futures that are our worst nightmare or a fantasy but what if we just decide the future we wanted and decide we could create it. Listen this week to learn how just a bit of planning and some small steps can get you the future you want.
Have you ever felt like the stories from your past are like a fish story? They just get bigger every time they are told. The stories from our past don't have to be like that. We have so much more power in deciding what we think of the past then we often think we have.
How do you think about your past self? The person you were yesterday, last week or a year ago. Are you accepting and loving or judgmental and harsh or indifferent and apathetic? These thoughts about ourselves can affect our current actions. Listen for three thoughts that can help you love, accept, and grow from your past self.
There is power in looking back and seeing what has gone right, gone wrong and making a plan for what to change in the future. The simple process of a post mortem can provide so much valuable information!
How do you describe ice cream? Does it make you want it more or does it make you want something else? The way we describe things creates motivation and desire or creates other emotions which lead us to take different actions. What actions do you want to take?
Rules - you love them and you hate them. Have you ever caught yourself using information as a rule, when it wasn't a rule at all. Let's explore the difference between rules and tools and how we can use coaching to our advantage.
What do you want? It's a pretty interesting question. Now how often do you ask for what you want? The skill of asking for what you want is essential in getting what you want.
Ruts. We have all been in them but are they a good thing or a bad thing? Let's explore why our brains may love the stability of a good rut and where that rut is serving our greatest good and creating excellent results as well as where it might be time to step out and try something new.
In this episode we dig into one of the fundamental concepts of mind management. What creates your feelings and who is responsible for them.
Certainty can lead us to accomplish great thing but it can also make us miss out on some of the greatest ideas. Is your certainty serving you?
The idea for this episode was inspired by the West-Central Forage Association's Leveling Up Leadership Workshop in January 2022. If you have the time check out the replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQA6HBHQG2k&t=6037s
Have you ever noticed that professionals see so many more details so much faster than any beginner? For the professional they know the time and the training that has gone into developing that skill yet the beginner just wants it to come easy. What would you like to develop the eye of the professional in?
Change is hard or is it really? We all face change on a regular basis. What are some ways we could face change and truly discover how it is all happening for us.
Are you ever amazed a how some athletes can bounce back from penalties and plays gone wrong to make some of the most spectacular plays of their lives? Do you wish that you could develop you ability to adapt to set backs and change? Listen to this episode for a few ideas on how to keep your head in the game.
Let's take a deeper dive into the emotion of regret. Does regret help us or serve us in our lives? Or does it keep us suck? Yet so often we look at our lives and feel regret. Why do we live in regret instead of making the changes we want to have a different life?
This isn't your typical rearview mirror episode.... you know the one where we look back! This how the struggle of fixing a rearview mirror can be used as a guide to looking at your thoughts and uncovering emotions.
A Gratitude Practice - the simplest way to see what you really have in life. Give it a try. Just a few minutes a day might change your life forever.
Let's explore a couple of quick practices for exploring and questioning the stories our brains make up. We can just look at the facts of the stories or utilize The Work of Byron Katie to question and look for evidence of where the our stories just might not be true.
We are all story tellers! Do you know what type of stories you tell? Join me on this episode to explore how we tell stories to help us make sense of the world we live in and how important those stories really are.