Success

By Action Coach Dave Beam

The Webster definition of success is: “a favorable result.”

Success is the sixth point of culture in Action Coach, defined as follows:

SuccessI totally focus my thoughts, energy and attention on the successful outcome of whatever I am doing. I am willing to win and allow others to win: Win/Win. At all times, I display my inner pride, prosperity, competence and personal confidence. I am a successful person.

Intention and Attention

By Action Coach Dave Beam

Here are two powerful words that sound much alike, and they are related.

INTENTION: It’s my stated purpose. It’s what I affirm I want. It includes my goals and my aspirations. Intention come from INside and it is created. It doesn’t just happen, but it is a choice.

ATTENTION: It’s where I put my focus. It’s what has my presence and my energy in a given moment. It’s where I invest my activity. Attention is outside. It is where I am and what I am with. It is what I do.

An Attitude of Gratitude

By Action Coach Dave Beam

Have you ever woke up and felt a little blah! Maybe there are some unresolved aggravations, or even some major ongoing challenges that are just bringing you down. I have noticed that when I start to give way to these thoughts and feelings, it is like a downward spiral. I start to think about what’s not pleasant, or of good report, and this negative focus produces further down feelings. Those negative feelings feed my negative thinking, which leads to even more bad feelings. I’m sure you get the picture and can likely relate.

Proactivity – Living Life Inside-Out

By Action Coach Dave Beam

People engage my coaching services because they want change.  They typically want a change in their cash flow, a change in their customers, a change in their employees, or a change in their discretionary time.  The good news is that all of this is possible.  The interesting news is you really can’t directly change any of those things.  To affect sustainable change, you must accept the fact that you can really only change yourself.  When you change, you become more effective in influencing your environment.  It is an inside-out process.

The Power of Routine

By Action Coach Dave Beam

I would like to address an issue that used to make me groan – discipline.  The picture that comes to my mind when I think of that word is sweat, toil, deprivation, and pain.  No pain, no gain, as the saying goes.  If you have similar feelings and pictures when the word discipline is mentioned, it may be why you avoid or resist any changes in your life associated with the concept.

Well, you can lower your resistance to making positive changes by dropping the word “discipline” from your mind and replacing it with a milder, friendlier concept and term – routine.

Do You Have a Happy Business?

By Action Coach Dave Beam

I was referred to an oral surgeon a couple of years ago to address some issues beyond the scope of my regular dentist.  As with many people, going to doctors and dentists is not one of my favorite things to do.  As a business coach, I often observe business attitudes and practices as a part of my practical education.  I learn so much just by watching what others do.

A Simple Personal Organization System

(adapted from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”)By Certified Action Coach Dave Beam

One of my greatest “mentors” when it comes to Self-Management and Personal Organization has been David Allen. Based upon his widely read book, “Getting Things Done,” I have put together a simple system for personal organization that I use for myself and I share with my clients. What follows is an “A-La-Carte” set of straightforward instructions on what to do with ALL of the “stuff” that comes into your life on a daily basis. If you put a system like this in place and use it religiously, it quite literally will change your life.

How to Deal With a Bad Habit - What You Resist Persists!

By Certified Action Coach Dave Beam

All of us have successfully (or unsuccessfully) tried to rid ourselves of a bad habit.  People often ask me why it is so difficult to change a bad habit.  There are probably as many answers and theories to answer that question as there are bad habits!  Often folks hide behind the story or excuse that “if I just knew why I did this, then I could quit”.  Not true!

The Identity Iceberg

Today I want to share one of the most powerful concepts in the Action Coach toolbox, the Identity Iceberg.  Understanding this concept will help you achieve the results you want from yourself and your team.

The Identity Iceberg…

(this is not the traditional flipchart, I had to format it for the newsletter –ed.)

                       R E S U L T S<-------------HAVE

                                   DO-------------->ACTIONS & DECISIONS

BEHAVIOUR

(water line)-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-(water line)

SKILLS

BELIEFS

VALUES

                                                                          IDENTITY<-----------BE

E N V I R O N M E N T

Take a look at the flipchart and note that it is a picture of an iceberg.  How much of an iceberg is above the water or visible?  Probably only around 10%.  That is the portion of the iceberg that you normally see.  What is it that is normally visible in a person?  It is their BEHAVIOR, ACTIONS, and DECISIONS – or what they DO.  What I DO produces RESULTS, or what I HAVE.  But if I want to produce a sustained, long term change in what I DO (my BEHAVIOR, ACTIONS, and DECISIONS), I really need to look below the surface at what produces and drives what I do.

Time to Take Out the Head Trash!

By Certified Action Coach Dave Beam

Has there ever been a time in your life when you lived somewhere and let the trash accumulate?  I’m not just talking about garbage, but also clutter – old newspapers, broken devices, expired coupons, stuff, junk, and debris.  And did you finally clean it all out, and create some clean new space?  How did that make you feel?  Probably energized and ready to work.

In business today, if you want to be your best, you need to learn to regularly remove the trash not only from your workplace, but from your head!  The mind is like a garden.  We plant seeds, cultivate those seeds as they grow and eventually reap a harvest.  Your mind is a field ready to produce a harvest.  Your creative ideas are the seeds that are sewn that can produce a crop.  And then come the weeds – the head trash – the worries, and fears, and doubts, and overwhelm, and frustration, and discouragements.  What must you do with this garden clutter if you want to reap a healthy crop?  You must relentlessly pull it up and throw it out!

Emotion – Friend or Foe?

By Certified Action Coach Dave Beam

Elation, sadness, frustration, anger, contentment, humor; human emotions.  Are they your friends, and welcomed and encouraged, or are they your enemies, lurking to bring you trouble?

They can be both!  Human emotion is not the problem or the answer.  It is what it is, and it is definitely a part of the human experience.  In my coaching and counseling experience, emotion is wonderful when it is in its place!  Emotion enables us to connect with life and other people. 

FEAR – It’s not real, but you think it is!

By Certified Action Coach Dave Beam

One of the great joys that I experience as a business coach is helping people unravel and dispel their fears.  Today, I will help you do that as you read and understand.

We have a simple flip chart concerning fear.  False Expectations Appearing Real.  Here is an astonishing reality.  You can be a fearless person.  Being fearless is not being some kind of super hero.  It is in reality just being who you really are.  I hope I have your attention.

The Joy of Discipline

By Certified Action Coach Dave Beam

I hope the title of this article caught your attention.  My guess is that many readers don’t typically put joy and discipline together.  I really think all of us could use a shift of thinking so that these two concepts are joined in our minds.

When you hear or read the word “discipline”, what comes to mind?  For many, it’s forcing yourself do all of the stuff that you really hate because you “should” do it, or “shouldn’t” do that; it is motivated by the feelings of guilt, compulsion, and condemnation.  Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t jump out of bed in the morning ready to jump into a lot of activity that I “have to do”, and that “I’d better do” and “shame on me if I don’t do”.  Who among us pursues such misery and pain consistently?

Using Your Reticular Activating System (RAS)

Using Your Reticular Activating System (RAS)
By ActionCOACH Dave Beam

Your brain is amazing; and setting and focusing on goals is a powerful way to harness its massive energy and power.

There is a network of nerves in the brain that control the state of awareness and attention. This system functions as a filter or doorway to accept and reject the overwhelming stimuli that we all encounter when we are awake.