1) reflect on the last three months of your life and/or business and

2) chart out your plans for the upcoming quarter.

Let’s get to it!

Let’s turn it over to you: What are you most proud of from Q1? And what do you have planned for the upcoming quarter? Looking forward to hear what you’re up to!

Are you a list-maker? Do you ever get stuck focusing on what’s left on the list rather than on what you’ve crossed off? Aren’t Post-It notes the bestest?

Remember – if you need an accountability buddy, let me know in the comments below and we’ll set something up.

Twelve Business Coach Tips

The New Year is right around the corner. And if you’re like many business owners, you’ve probably been procrastinating on doing your annual planning. Planning for a successful new year doesn’t have to be painful or dull.

Here are my 12 Simple Tips for Rocking Your Biz in 2012:

photo credit: aussiegall

1. Choose One – I’m sure we can all think of a million and one things that we want to change about ourselves. But the fastest way to fail at making significant changes is to try and change everything all at one time. Pick one new habit you’d like to form and focus on it. Once the new habit becomes a part of your regular behavior,  you can move on to the next big change on your list.
2. Start Small - In the same realm of focusing on one change at a time, it’s a lot easier to tackle a smaller change first than it is to completely overhaul your whole life. For example, I am working on developing a consistent and calming morning routine for myself that helps me get the day started right. Starting with changing my email habit is a lot easier than trying to completely introduce a brand new routine all at once.  Even if you have a larger end goal in mind, start with a small change first and then continue to move on to the bigger ones. Making that first tiny positive change will give you the motivation you need to keep going forward with new changes.
3. Be Kind to Yourself - Don’t beat yourself up if you backslide. It’s going to happen. There are mornings that I wake up just thinking about checking my email (I know, I have a problem!). And there have been mornings that I just gave into the temptation. That’s ok. Tomorrow is another day for me to keep working on this habit. Making lasting positive changes take time.
   
4. Celebrate – Create milestones for yourself and acknowledge them. If you’re trying to create an exercise routine, be sure to give yourself some acknowledgement when you are able to stick to it for a week.  Habit change is tough. Celebrate your accomplishments.
   
5. Think Positive – Think about how much better you will feel when you are able to successfully enact your change.  For my phone problem, I remember how calm I’ve felt when I didn’t immediately  check my phone and how that flowed throughout my day.
6. Or Think Negatively – Some people are driven more by moving away from pain than they are from moving towards pleasure. If this is you, think about how unhappy your current lifestyle is making you. Recall the times when your habit has made a negative impact on your life. Think about what you stand to lose if you don’t make the change.
7. Commit – Making a lasting change – whether big or small – is a difficult thing. Make a personal commitment to yourself that you are going to do it. You should also make a public commitment. Let other people know what you are working on so that they can help keep you accountable.

Making lasting positive changes to your lifestyle can be a difficult but extremely rewarding process. But remember, with a little hard work and determination you can change anything.

What’s the biggest change you’ve made in your life so far? Are you planning on making any changes in the upcoming year?

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My totally free Coaching Cocktail Hour is swinging back around on December 14th at 8pm EST. Since the Holiday season is in full effect, we’ll be talking about staying sane during this busy time. And everyone who registers will get a complimentary copy of my Quickie Guide to White Space. This is the perfect time to get some laser coaching around balance, time-management & stress. Register for the call here. (note – please register even if you have done so in the past. We are using a new conference line).

image credit: The 5th Ape

Once we calmed down a bit, my husband remembered that we had left the patio door unlocked from the night before. He was able to scale the wall to our patio and get into the house that way.

Oftentimes we make the thing in the way the way.

How many “locked doors” have you encountered that at first glance seemed impossible to open? How many opportunities have you walked away from because the barrier seemed too great? Where else are you allowing the thing in your way to become the only way?

When it comes to your dreams, it’s time to get gutsy.

My challenge for you is to think hard about your big goals. Is there an open patio door somewhere you can use? Your juicy dream might be closer than you think if you just allow yourself to think outside the traditional points of entry. Start getting scrappy about the ways in which you can work around obstacles and start living your dream. Don’t let those locked doors deter you.

What’s your big dream? What backdoor or open window are you going to use to get to it?

Need help kicking down those doors? No problem! Schedule a 30 minute coaching consultation with me for Free. Go ahead and schedule yours today and let’s rock it out together!

PS – If you were on my mailing list you would have read this delightful post plus other juicy tidbits 3 months ago! Sign up today - don’t keep missing out.

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In LA? I just launched a new Women’s Networking Group called Spark! Forward with a friend of mine. Think Polka Dot Coaching but live and in person. Our goal is to bring together young, awesome, vibrant women for networking and workshops. We’re kicking things off May 18th at a snazzy bar in Silverlake and you totally need to be there. Check out the deats here and take a peek at our website

It’s super important to take a step back and review where you are from time to time. That way you’ll know exactly where you are and can decide what you need to do to keep moving forward. Doing an honest review of your Q1 will help you keep track of your accomplishments and will also help you determine where you need to change directions.

Image Credit: koalazymonkey

Let’s take a look at the corporation of You for a second – dare I say ‘You, Inc.’ What did your first quarter look like? Were you able to achieve the results you had outlined at the beginning of the year? Would your stockholders be pleased? Take 30 minutes and review the questions below:

• What have you accomplished during your Q1?
• Any disappointments or setbacks? What can you learn from those experiences?
  
• Are there any goals or projects that need to be adjusted? Any goals that just need to be axed?
  
• What goals have fallen off the radar? What can you do to get them jump started again?
• What are your priorities for Q2? How will you adjust your plan to meet your goals in the next few months?
• What resources or tools do you need to have a crazy successful Q2? How will you get those resources and tools?

Once you complete your review, you will have an excellent view of what worked and didn’t work in the past few months. You will have a list of your awesome accomplishments and an idea of what you want to focus on in the upcoming months. Breaking our big goals into smaller pieces makes them more manageable and will help keep us truckin’ along. Here are some other tips to keep in mind as you work towards your goal so that you can stay motivated and not get burned out:

• Create & Track Milestones -  Working towards a large goal can be overwhelming and it can be easy to get frustrated and give up when you don’t think you’re moving the needle. Acknowledge when you make it to smaller milestones. If there aren’t any small milestones – make them up. If one of your goals is to run a marathon, start keeping track of when you successfully complete each mile.  Running 1 more mile each week sounds a lot more manageable than running 26.2 miles.

• Stay Focused on Your Compelling Vision - It’s a lot easier to tackle tough goals if you know it all fits into your overarching compelling vision. What’s your big “why?” Losing 20 pounds doesn’t sound like fun but if you know that losing 20 pounds fits into your long term compelling vision of being healthy and feeling great about yourself, it makes it a bit easier.

• Be Realistic - Make sure that your ultimate goal is realistic. Maybe the reason you are facing burn-out is because you are trying to achieve the impossible. Make sure you’ve set appropriate timelines for yourself.  Setting a way too aggressive goal for yourself does nothing but bring disappointment.

• Give Yourself a Break – We’ve all done it – We set a goal up for ourselves that we’re so excited about, we never want to stop working on it. Make sure that you take a break from what you’re working on. Taking a step back from your project or goal from time to time will help you re-energize and you’ll feel much more refreshed when you pick it back up again.

• Get A Buddy – If you are repeatedly getting stuck, reach out to others who may be working on similar goals. Creating an accountability group can help get you through you’re burn-out phase. It’ll also give you the added bonus of having a built-in cheering section.

What were the results of your review? What were some of your accomplishments? Feel free to share any of your results in the comments section below. Have fun with the Quarterly Review!

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Need help with your Q2 planning? No problem! Schedule a 30 minute coaching consultation with me for Free. Go ahead and schedule yours today and let’s rock it out together!

Need clarity on what your true passion is? Check out my Quickie Guide to Finding Your Passion! It’s 15 pages of soul-searching, passion-delving worksheets to help you dig deep and figure out what makes you tick.

Why vs. What

When I first graduated from college and started working in the corporate world, I knew I didn’t like it and needed a change. I decided that I wanted to open a spa. I saw other people who were running successful spas and thought to myself ‘I want that. I want to run a spa.’ Luckily, I did more soul-searching before deciding to open my day spa and realized that while I wanted the independence and time freedom becoming an entrepreneur grants you,  running a day spa would have felt very much the same to me as working a corporate job but with even worse hours. I was much too concerned with the What – I want to be an entrepreneur – and not concerned with Why I wanted to become one. Once I tapped into my Why I was able to find and follow a path that was in line with my needs and my values. I’ve had clients come to me saying they want to quit their jobs and become full time artists but in reality what they really wanted was to incorporate more creativity into their daily lives. By just focusing on the What they might have made choices that would have left them much more unhappy in the long run.

Your Monumental Why

In order for you to keep moving forward on your big dreams you must have a substantial compelling vision. Your Why must be monumental. It must be something you care about so deeply in your gut that it will continue to propel you forward during your darkest hours. Your Why should keep you up at night (but don’t let it, get your 8 hours in!) Following through on your big vision will be hard. It will require you to do things that the average person wouldn’t consider. It might mean missing out on happy hours or working more than 1 job. It will mean pushing forward after a failure and continuing to have hope in the bleakest moments. It is in these extra tough moments that you will need to call on your Why to keep you motivated to keep going.

With any big goal, it’s important to really zero in on your Why rather than just focusing on the What. You’ll be much more successful in completing your goals if you have a compelling vision as your guiding force. Think about your current goals and big dreams – do you have a Monumental Why in place to help propel you across the finish line? If you don’t, it’s time to get one.

Need help with finding your Why? Join us for my Goal-Setting workshop: From Goal Setting to Goal Completion! Or set up some time for us to chat.

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In LA? Join us for my Goal-Setting workshop: From Goal Setting to Goal Completion!

Image Credit: svv

On the one hand, everyone is ready and willing to wipe the slate clean, to start anew. There’s a lot of talk about resolutions and goals and getting started on the right foot. But on the other hand, you’ve just come off of a long and often indulgent holiday and now all of of a sudden you’re supposed to snap your fingers and everything is supposed to be different and fresh and new? It can leave even those of us with the best of intentions feeling seriously overwhelmed. And the last thing you need to feel when embarking on a new year is overwhelm. Alaia proposed a more even-keeled approach to resolutions: use January as a planning month to assess how you feel and develop your goals, then get started. I thought this was a great idea. This way you can really develop effective plans to get you to your goals instead of getting swept up in the frenzy that sometimes accompanies the beginning of the year.

So if you’ve been feeling a bit inundated with all the resolution talk from the past week, it’s ok. Take your time and develop you plan. At your own pace.

How about you – how was the first week of the year for you? Do you like the idea of using January as a planning month?

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There’s still time to sign up for my FREE coaching call this Wednesday 1/12 at 9pm EST. Come get some quick laser coaching on any issue you’ve been experiencing lately. Sign up here!

In LA? Join me on Saturday 1/15 for our monthly accountability group meeting. It’s a perfect way to keep the momentum going on your current goal. Sign up here.

And so, as I watched Conan’s return to tv on Monday night I was quite pleased. But it also made me think about our plans and how easily they shift. How many times have you started something only to find out that life had other plans for you? You may have had the best intentions when you took on your new role or began a new project. You may have been totally gung ho and poured all of your heart and soul into it. And then for whatever reason it just didn’t work out. Maybe you were lacking resources or knowledge. Maybe the role changed or the program was canceled or you (gulp!) got laid off. Whatever the reason is, it always stings when something doesn’t work out as planned. You’ve probably blamed yourself for the failure or tortured yourself by replaying every moment in your mind.  And you know what, it’s okay to feel bummed when something doesn’t go your way. It’s fine to pout and whine and cry. Get all of your ‘why me’s’ and curse words out in the open. You might even need to punch a pillow or kick a wall. It’s fine to wallow – for a bit. But then you have to suck it up. You have to get up, change out of your sweats, shake yourself off and start on a new plan.

Conan could have packed up his jokes and disappeared but instead he kept pushing forward. I’m sure he went through his own ‘woe is me’ phase but he powered through it. And he came out on the other side a stronger person. That’s precisely what makes the difference. We all get shot down and rejected, hell some of us get shot down quite a bit. But the difference lays in if you are able to pick yourself back up again and get back out there. So what if the old plan failed. That’s all the more reason to figure out a newer and shinier plan.

Look at the people you admire. They’re not awesome because they’ve never failed. No – they’ve been rejected and stepped on just like the rest of us. They’re rock stars because they dusted themselves off and kept pushing ahead.

Be Awesome. Keep pushing forward.

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Enjoy this post? There’s more where that came from – Sign up for the newsletter or join the Facebook Fan Page!

In So Cal? Then join our brand, spanking new Meet-up group: The Polka Dot Connection. Being a 20-something in LA is hard. Add a quarter life crisis to the mix and you’re likely to be on the edge. The Polka Dot Connection is here to help by providing a way for 20-something women to connect, learn and grow so you can kick that quarter life crisis to the curb. Check us out!

It’s so true. Knowing and thinking and willing and hoping is not enough. You must take action. Go out and do something.

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