This has been an eventful week for me and my business – a key turning point. This is the week I moved from planning to doing.
It’s scary, but it’s so wonderful to be doing what feels to be such useful activity.
It’s interesting how this switch happened inside my head. Before Christmas, I had all kinds of great excuses for not making the leap:
- “I’m still investing in my professional development.”
- “My plans aren’t clear yet.”
- “People are going to be off on vacation.”
All true, of course, but I knew that the fundamental issue was that they were stalling techniques to give myself an “out” for not moving to action.
What changed since New Year’s is that I decided to announce to my supporters and coaches (so wonderful to be able to call upon several!) that I wanted to work on switching from planning into action. After each conversation, I came away with some concrete actions to take – that I was motivated to work on. That last part is key, because it’s what helps me to get over my fears and inertia.
This is part of the magic of coaching – that the client creates and owns the action items, it’s not about the coach giving the client things to do. Therefore, the client is motivated to follow through, and the coach can help close the loop of accountability and celebration.
I might also mention that I had my first evaluation as a coach this week – an expert listened in while I coached a colleague for half an hour, then gave a verbal and written evaluation of what I had done.
Boy, that was scary.
But in the end, my fears were much larger than the reality. I got some wonderful and supportive feedback, and had the chance to really jump in and coach at my absolute best. I’m much less scared about the second evaluation in a couple of weeks.
Are you scared to jump in and actually do what you know you need to do? Have courage, my friend!