I get people to think outside the box.

I get people to a place where they can stop, raise their heads outside their framework and see other alternatives they might not take into consideration. Have you ever called a friend or someone when you have a problem or a dilemma to bounce ideas off of? That’s what a coach does to a certain extent, coaches like me are professionally trained to be neutral and only concentrate on your highest aspirations, not the goals themselves. It sounds tricky and subtle but it is really all about you being the best you can be, not the achievement itself.

I had to explain to someone in less than a second what I do. I help people think outside their boxes. I get them to stretch their boundaries and look at their situations from a different perspective. I listen to business owners and their problems. Then, I ask questions and together we find solutions. After that, creating strategies are easy.

That’s what I do, I stimulate people to think outside the box.

It’s funny how that word elicits different feelings for different people.

When it comes to accountability, people come in two flavors, those who want it and those who fear it. Yet, accountability is a normal part of life and a healthy function of any society.

Many of my clients come to me in order to be pushed and be held accountable. They don’t have the time to push themselves. They turn to a professional like to me to nudge them forward, to push them, to ask more of them. Accountability is part of any session with a coach. I will ask you do something big in the coming week. And the best part is that you do the work, not someone else. It’s your private triumph!

For some, accountability is a scary word. Yet, once you look at it, it really is about being yourself, doing the “right thing” and moving forward. We all chose, one way or another. We make mistakes and learn. Being accountable helps us gage our motives, our reasoning and mostly our integrity. How together are you really when you make a business decision? How aligned are you with your aspirations and integrity are you when you commit to something?

Working with a coach can be a gentle way to get over the fear of commitment and accountability. A while back, I was stuck and frozen. I couldn’t go forward for fear of making more mistakes and taken on consequences I didn’t want. I had backed myself to a wall and was gripped by fear. I couldn’t stand to have yet another failure and have to own up to it. With my first Coach Donna Schilder, we worked on this in a gentle way. I soon began to build my confidence up and accepted again that life is a learning experience. I just started to dive in again and it was the best thing I could have ever done.

There is a saying: “When at a crossroad, just take it!”. Accountability gets better and better when you are aligned with yourself, your principles and are in integrity. Accountability then becomes reward.

When do you put your foot down without going overboard? When do you let things happen? When do you let things go and others not?

These are good questions to work on with a Coach. As I am going through my advanced classes, we not only learn how to incorporate these questions in our sessions with clients but to also go through them. After all, if you have resolved these things, it becomes easier to work on them with others.

I had two great classes this month, a personal questioning and a business oriented one. The personal was about understanding your boundaries, defining them and setting standards. It’s not only interesting to learn this but also to learn how to use them in my sessions. Best yet is I actually have to work on it myself. It is a great insight into yourself. The business class is very interesting because we look at live cases.

So we find ourselves in front of this tricky question, when is enough enough? When do you say stop to a person or a situation? What is your toleration limit? What great questions to work with a coach.

So I ask you, why is my title called the middle road, the one less traveled? The first one who gives me the correct answer will have a month of coaching on me.

So is California doing everything it can to avoid what many people are hushing… the R word?

According to Calculated Risk the Governor is doing something. He ordered additional cuts across the state bureaucracy that will slow down state hiring and nonessential service contracts. This could save $100 million by June 30.

Hum, what I would do with $100 million…

It’s good to see some politicians acting up. The last thing I care to see are unprepared officials.