Joyful Soaring Tips

By Coach Barbara Luther Of Wind Beneath Your Wings

Email: Barbara@coach2soar.com
Web Site: www.coach2soar.com
Phone: (314) 878-4044

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In This Issue:

1) Joy Juice
2) No One Is Coming
3) Let's Ponder
4) Soaring Free
5) Play Time
6) Joy Supplies
7) Class Offerings

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Good Morning! I hope you enjoy this issue of Joyful Soaring Tips and find something that helps you have a Joy-Filled week!

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~~ 1) Joy Juice ~~
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There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind, and there is nothing so obedient as a disciplined mind. - Buddha

For one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends. But for one who has failed to do so, his very mind will be the greatest enemy. - Bhagavad Gita

You can't learn anything from experiences you're not having. -- Louis L'Amour

Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind. - Leonardo da Vinci

Genius is the ability to put into effect what is in your mind. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

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~~ 2) No One Is Coming ~~
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Working with clients in psychotherapy, I often see that the most radical transformation occurs after the client's realization that no one is coming to the rescue. "No one is coming" is a constant theme of my work on every possible level. "When I finally allowed myself to face full responsibility for my life," more than one client has said to me, "I began to grow. I began to change. And my self-esteem began to rise." -- Nathaniel Branden in How to Raise Your Self-Esteem.

Every morning this week, put this sentence stem at the top of a page and quickly write six to ten responses, not looking at previous answers, and not stopping to think or self-censor or self-criticize. What discoveries you'll have!

Use this sentence stem:

No one is coming, and . . . .

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~~ 3) Let's Ponder ~~
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A colleague of mine shared an incredible story with me recently. She works with a company that would not normally be considered a particularly forward-thinking, progressive organization yet their actions certainly paint a different picture. The company is a concrete and rock company. In the past year, the organization had become concerned about keeping its employees, so it hired a Corporate Mom! They identified a woman who was the wife of a university president. In that role, she had listened to students and faculty and helped them through all sorts of challenges.

The concrete company asked her to be their Corporate Mom, working with employees as needed. For example, they had an employee who had been a dedicated, steady worker for years who suddenly stopped showing up for work and didn't come in for over a week without even contacting the company. They sent Corporate Mom to check out the situation. What had happened is that the employee's last pair of shoes had broken and he couldn't afford another pair, so he was too ashamed to come to work. Corporate Mom went out and bought him two pair, taught him to switch back and forth between them so they would last longer, then sent him back to work. Once he was back on the job, the company could offer the employee support and/or training around his financial challenges.

Because of the dangerous nature of the work, the concrete company had a policy that if an employee had a sick child or relative, they couldn't drive the big trucks until the relative was well. The company knew from long experience that if an employee had someone ill at home, they probably weren't getting enough rest themselves, and they were too distracted to be doing dangerous work. So, when an employee announced they had a family member ill, the company would assign Corporate Mom to explore the situation and identify other work within the company that the employee could do until the illness was resolved.

What do you think of this company? Would you like to work for them? Do you think they have a high employee turnover rate? I think this company is ahead of the curve today, but it's pointing in a direction that many companies are or will be heading. And I think we're seeing a new corporate position and title emerge. How exciting!

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~~ 4) Soaring Free ~~
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The other thing that struck me about the concrete company story above is that the company wasn't whining 'poor us, we're losing employees and don't know what to do about it!' Instead, they were problem-solving and identifying ways - before they even had problems - to honor their employees, display how they value them, and even identify how to support their continued performance while instilling loyalty as a by-product.

They were ahead of even potential challenges. They knew no one was coming to bail them out, so they acted to have a smoothly running company without turnover problems.

Can you find something in your life where you can apply a similar perspective? Give it a try!

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~~ 5) Play Time ~~
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Q: What do John the Baptist and Winnie the Pooh have in common?

A: They both have the same middle name.

Make a game of finding unlikely pairs that have been brought together. For example:

Movies and airplanes (in-flight movies)
Trucks and satellite dishes (mobile uplink stations)

Once you've noticed this melding of unlikely pairs, set yourself a challenge of creating a couple of your own. (Idea adapted from Roger von Oech's A Whack on the Side of the Head.)

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~~ 6) Joy Supplies ~~~
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Do you have your own personal Joy Box? You know, a box containing things that make you smile. Photos of you and friends; letters of appreciation, thanks, and love; an old party invitation; a name tag from a great workshop you attended; a cartoon some friend sent you; a favorite stone; maybe a plastic toy or a wrapper of some sort, an old watch; or a napkin a friend doodled on for you. Each item holds a happy memory and experience for you.

If you have a Joy Box, great! Make a point of adding some new treasures to it, and spend a bit of time exploring some items at the bottom again. If you don't have a Joy Box, now is a perfect time. Trust me, the time you spend putting together your Joy Box will have a long-term, huge return on investment.

NOTE: Barbara offers links to many of the resources referenced here from her web site, www.coach2soar.com. If you cannot find some resource mentioned, contact Barbara for help at Barbara@coach2soar.com.

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~~ 7) Class Offerings ~~
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Due to my teleclass load for CoachU and Corporate CoachU in May and the Coaching 2000 conference in June, new classes won't be available until July. I do have an ongoing Practice Building Workshop for mentees. If you're interested in joining our group, please contact me for details.

YOU'RE INVITED! Come join me on Thursday, May 25th at 5pm EST for a free Happy Hour Telebration for anyone who wants to come celebrate the miracles, shifts, wins, and overall happy things they've experienced during the past month. It's an open, drop-in time to visit and share life's good news with new and old friends. Put it on your calendar now! It's the last Thursday of every month at 5pm EST. The bridge number is 702-257-2699.

Copyright (C) 2000 by Barbara Luther. All rights reserved.

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To contact Wind Beneath Your Wings
Coach Barbara Luther:
Email: Barbara@coach2soar.com
Web Site: www.coach2soar.com
Phone: (314) 878-4044
(Central Time Zone)
Fax: (208) 988-2142
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o o o o o o o o Tired of Winging It Alone? o o o o o o o o

Call Barbara to discuss a coaching partnership today. Barbara Luther is a Master Certified Coach and a Certified Mentor Coach who specializes in working with successful professionals, tenure-track faculty, coaches, business owners, career types, creatives, and adults with Attention Deficit Disorder. She coaches via telephone and the internet, and in person for corporate teams.

Barbara is a graduate of Coach University, a virtual training organization, and the Optimal Functioning Institute, a virtual training organization for ADD coaches. She is also a member of the International Coach Federation and an ICF chapter host. She leads teleclasses for CoachU and Corporate CoachU, as well as teleclasses of her own. Prior to coaching, Barbara ran her own consulting business for 8 years, designing and developing online help and performance support systems for companies such as American Express, AAA of California, Bank One, Los Angeles County Employee Retirement Association, Wendy's, Pioneer, Utilicorp, Gap, and Bank of America. With a Master's in English, she has also taught college-level writing and worked in the corporate world as a technical writer, trainer, and project manager.

Along with Dr. Francena T. Hancock, Barbara is co-founder of the ADD Coach Group, an organization created to provide knowledge about the business-oriented positive qualities of adults with ADD, ways to identify employees who have ADD traits that impact their performance, and strategies and techniques to support to their specific needs. (Web site www.addcoachgroup.com coming soon.)

Barbara also hosts a coaching special interest group -- the GLBTQ SIG (Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender/Questioning), and she writes articles for their newsletter, Reaching for the Rainbow (To subscribe: send an email to: ReachingfortheRainbow-On@lists.webvalence.com)

Barbara says: My passion is assisting people in recognizing and embracing their power. My vision is a world where every person embraces their special talents and enjoys a life built around their passions. My mission is to assist people in identifying their special gifts and designing their lives to enjoy and share them. My life purpose is to provide a loving, safe space for self discovery.

Email: Barbara@coach2soar.com -=*=- Phone: (314) 878-4044