Published
by
Phyllis Sisenwine,
Master Certified Coach,
Motivational Speaker
and writer. She works with
clients to earn more money,
improve time management
and stay focused. To schedule
a powerful coaching
conversation send an email. Her
website is located at www.powerfulcoaching.com
Copyright 2006,
All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part
without permission is prohibited. Phyllis Sisenwine,
Master Certified Coach
POWERFUL SOLUTIONS, INC.
Ph: 215-968-2424
Inspiring Excellence...in You.
Mailing Address:
Phyllis Sisenwine
372 Shady Brook Drive
Langhorne, Pa. 19047
|
Welcome to POWERFUL
SOLUTIONS!
Our commitment is to produce a newsletter that is informative
and worthwhile.
I'd like to invite you to send in any stories or
quotes that you find inspirational and helpful.
_________________________________________________
In This Issue...
A Message from Phyllis
Upcoming Appearances
Feature Article: FOLLOW THROUGH
_________________________________________________
 A
Message from Phyllis
Dear Readers,
Welcome to Spring!! This is a great time of year. The days are longer
and the golf clubs, tennis racquets and bicycles are coming out of storage.
Spring is also a time of planting. We plant seeds now so that flowers
will grow in a few months. The plantings must be watered and nurtured
to get the results we want.
Let’s look at your business development goals.
Do you have a plan to grow your business this year? What seeds do you
need to plant now so that you can increase your business in the next
few months? Most of my coaching clients have the best intentions. They
tell me that every year they create a marketing plan. They’ve
made a few calls and maybe a few presentations and they call me for
coaching because they don’t follow through. They don’t take
the time to nurture their prospects.
It takes an average of seven contacts before you close
the sale. Most people give up after a few calls or meetings. They plant
the seed and walk away. We must follow through with all prospective
clients to get the results we want. Let’s make it your best year
ever! What do you need to do to make that happen? Who do you want to
call to set up a meeting? We all have the best intentions but lose focus
and don’t follow through. I’m going to re-print the article
from last year on Following Through. I think it is worthwhile.
Have a wonderful month,
Phyllis
_________________________________________________
Upcoming
Appearances
Private Law Firm 4/4/06
"How to get clients in record time"
Parkway Corporation 4/6/06
"Coaching for Results"
Private Law Firm 4/7/06
"Getting business in record time"
Philadelphia Bar Association 4/27/06
Minorities in the Profession
"How to get clients in record time"
Women's League Conference 5/7/06
"Make Time for Yourself"
MITRE Corporation 5/15/06
Coaching for Performance and Productivity
Women's Leadership Symposium 5/17/06
"Power Networking"
Hadassah Leaders Initiative 6/7/06
"How to be a successful Leader"
_________________________________________________
This
Month's article
FOLLOWING THROUGH
How to finish whatever you start
“Nothing is as fatiguing as the continued
hanging on of an uncompleted task.” ~ William James
How often do you promise yourself, you’re going
to exercise? You join a gym and make a plan to go three times a week.
You go a few times and then stop. You feel guilty and keep saying to
yourself, “I’ve got to get to the gym.”
What happened to your commitment to grow your business?
Perhaps you went to a great seminar. You took pages and pages of notes
on great business building ideas. You planned to make more cold calls
every day. You were motivated to be more pro-active. Did you keep it
up?
What about your vow to get organized, once and for
all. Did you start to clean up the mess in your office, but never finish?
Or is it that you simply can’t stay organized, no matter how many
times you say you will?
How many promises have you made to yourself that you
haven’t kept?
If you’ve made more promises than you’ve
kept, you’re not alone. We all have the best intentions, but what
stops us from doing what we promise ourselves? We intend to grow our
businesses, exercise, stick to a budget, get organized, and stop procrastinating.
We often know what we need to do, but we don’t do it. According
to authors Steve Levinson and Pete C. Greider, it’s not your fault.
Their excellent book, Following Through: A Revolutionary New Model
for Finishing Whatever You Start, tells us why and what to do about
it.
Levinson and Greider assert that poor follow through
is not caused primarily by a lack of willpower, insufficient motivations,
or fear of success. Their theory is that humans have poor follow through
because humans aren’t designed for it. For example, squirrels
collect and store acorns for the winter because they react to the environment.
They have an instinct-based guidance system that’s simple and
reliable. Squirrels don’t need motivation. They always follow
through.
We humans are the only living things that don’t
consistently do what we know is best. We do need motivations. We fill
our minds with good intentions – great ideas about how to improve
our lives. And we repeatedly keep counting on a mind that’s designed
for follow through, but isn’t.
Coach Michael Neill wrote a review of the book after
hearing the author’s speak. I’ll share some of his comments
with you to explain further.
Human’s problems with follow through
are due to the design of the human nervous system. The authors
divide this design into two systems.
- 1. The “Intelligence Based Guidance
System” examines, analyzes, and responds to a situation,
goal, or problem by planning a course of action and setting
positive intentions.
- 2. The “Primitive Guidance System”
reacts to whatever is happening in the moment, following the
guiding principle of “listening for squeaks and greasing
the squeakiest wheel.”
Because of the way our mind is designed, we
continually experience being pulled between our intention to
eat healthy and our lust for a chocolate chip cookie or between
the intention to make cold calls and the call of the coffee
machine down the hall. It’s not that we’re weak
or lack discipline; it’s that we think we “should”
be able to set an intention and follow-through when the reality
is that we’re simply not designed that way.
The intelligence-based guidance system uses
intelligence to figure out the best course of action, but the
primitive system is reactive and present-oriented. Each guidance
system does its own thing.
According to the authors, 50 percent of heart
attack victims intend to follow their doctors’ recommendations
for diet and exercise but don’t and 92 percent of enthusiastic
weight loss program participants drop out before they reach
their weight loss goal. Poor follow through takes a toll on
virtually every aspect of our lives. It prevents us from achieving
personal, financial, and career goals. It produces stress and
creates regrets.
The authors share seven strategies to help
you to follow through. While each strategy focuses on a different
technique to encourage and motivate follow-through, each follows
the same basic “master strategy”. First, decide
what you want to do and then set up an environment that ensures
the path of least resistance.
“Spotlighting” is the first strategy.
Spotlighting puts you in charge of what voices you listen to.
As a solution to poor follow-though, this strategy includes
arranging cues in your environment, which will shine a “spotlight”
and remind you to follow your intention. Cues are things that
make you pay attention and stimulate the voices that guide us.
Spotlighting is using cues on purpose. The spotlight keeps cues
in your conscious awareness long enough and often enough to
get things done. To spotlight, you have to identify the right
voices, create the right cues and find a way to expose yourself
to them frequently. To create your own cues, put notes or reminders
in obvious locations.
|
Next month we’ll look at other strategies for
follow-through. In the meantime, why not create an environment that
will make it easy to follow through on your intended action?
Have a great month!
Phyllis Sisenwine
Master Certified Coach
|
