Today was the perfect Coaching and Real Estate day in Long Beach, it was raining!

Why? It all started at 8 am I realized we needed some groceries. Trader Joe’s opens at 8:30. I slipped into my jeans and sweater, and I went out into the rain. I had to uncover my beautiful Milano, fresh from a superb two week old detailing job from The Clean Freaks. More on that later. And off I went into the rain. I got back home just in time for my 9 am call.

I put away the groceries and slipped into my fleece pants and my Alfa Romeo sweatshirt. Slid into my comfy slippers and I had my first client call. At 10, I was ready for my second session and ended up at 11 with my last one. It was great listening to my clients while the rain tapped against the windows. I felt comfy, cozy, dry, warm. All I needed was a fire place with crackling noise. It was the perfect sessions.

One of my client is a Realtor. It was interesting to see the motivation of this person in the face of this market. And what was even better was to see how well my client is doing with a little positive attitude and thinking outside the box.

Just a great day.

Wow, it is here, the last month of the year. A what a year it has been!

Coaching Tip:
A good thing to do at this stage is start scanning the last 11 months and pick out what you can appreciate from it, what you have learned but mostly what you are taking from it with you to pave the way for 2008.

Like most full moons, the last month of the calendar year is a great place to start the great year clean up. What have you learned? What are you grateful for? What are you taking into 2008 to pave the way to even greater success?

This is where I take off my coaching hat and talk about what I have learned so far this year. Hey, after all, it is my blog.

This year marks the end of a very tough and painful lesson; How to turn failure into success or the Art of Successful Failure.

This year I rekindled with my typical constant flow of enthusiasm and energy. I not only acknowledge it but respect it as an ally and a great strength.

This year also marks the official launch of my coaching practice but from an angle of truly wanting to provide people the chance and space to sort out their thoughts, dreams and goals.

So start you list of acknowledgments and appreciations. See what has worked and leave what didn’t behind. After al, what is right with you is the point. What is not is besides the point…

Avoiding distraction seems easy until you have to do it, like not answering the telephone.

And at times, we don’t even know what is a distraction. One pet peeve of mine is the phone ringing. And if you are like 99% of people out there, most of the time you’ll either get telemarketers or calls you could have waited for.

These calls drag you out of your productive mood, break the flow of your work, forces you to focus on other things and then you are left to yourself to gather up the energy and go back to what you were doing before. Of course, you are highly susceptible to indulge in a little break at that stage or just downright become lazy.

One answer is to not answer the phone. Yes, even you Business Owner. Sounds crazy but you’ll thank me. One thing I have started to do is if the phone number isn’t recognized or one of the “unknown caller” types, I don’t answer. I give myself a break every two hours, I will check voicemail then. And by the way, the same is true, even more so for emails.

Little things like that sound trivial but they help in many ways. I am less stressed about having to answer calls. I keep my productive moods much longer, sometimes for a whole day. I avoid temptations when friends call and ask to go out. It’s little things like that pave way for a greater tomorrow.

There is one generation of women that really touch me, the late fifties to late seventies year olds.

I have always been more sensitive to women than man because, lucky them, their emotions are easier to sense. What is not always easy to grasp is the torment that generation of women went through and still endures. I guess seeing my Mother and women of her age still looking for approvals from their own Mothers makes me think they should be at an age when they need to congratulate themselves for the amazing job they have done. They should enjoy and reap their rewards. Instead, too many of them have low self-esteem.

My Mother raised us very well. My Father was working most of the time and we rarely spent time with us, except on weekends. My world growing up was my Mom’s. Virginia’s Mother raised her and her sister on her own. I can honestly say that both are exceptional women in today’s workforce, ethical, honest and just very wonderful people to be with. I have some pretty amazing ants, one of them is a Nurse in the O.R. of some hospital in Florida. All these women have achieved amazing feasts, raised great children, overcame obstacles my generations and the younger ones would break down in front, yet they have very little esteem for themselves. So what gives?

If you look at the relationship with their parents, you will quickly know why. Is it a generation problem? Probably. Those late eighty year old parents still function with different concepts of life that was once more or less adapted but have little to do with the current world. They were taught that a man was a man and women stayed in the kitchen and raised kids.

A man is a man. That always made me smile. What else can a man be? And obviously women have held positions with power and prestige in these last few decades, so this way of living is no longer relevant.

So what does it take to break the mold? It takes an honest look at yourself. It takes honest self-awareness. It takes a lot of courage in seeing what you have accomplished, and that you have accomplished a lot. You raised incredible children who mostly see the war of the sexes as a thing of the past. Yes, there are some dinausoraus that still linger, after all, we need a point of reference.

I feel it is high time our Mother’s generations realize what a fantastic job they have. It’s high time they establish themselves. It’s high time they tell us what they want, what they would like. It’s high time we get to know the real you, Mothers, not just the pleasers. Above all, it’s high time to tell your parents you are not children anymore. You can do it, you’ve achieved far bigger tasks and we are here to help you. And if you don’t know how to so this, give me a jingle