Today I would love your help in deciding who I should give $400′s worth of free life coaching to.

As I said in my last post ‘Let’s See Some Commitment‘ I had 28 requests for one place (I’ve since added a runners up prize) and I was having a really hard job narrowing the field.

I eventually, and rather reluctantly, narrowed it down to six people. I contacted all six and gave them the opportunity to re-submit their story on commitment in 350 words or less. Below are the replies.

When you have read them all, please leave a comment telling me which one you think is best using just the title.

Please do not give an explanation of why you think it’s great. If you do I’ll edit it out.

A couple of the people have shown real guts in entering this and their desire for privacy has meant they have held information back. Go with your gut feel and read between the lines would be my advice.

If you have applied, feel free to vote for yourself,  but please do not identify yourself as a contestant or ask people to vote for you in the comments. If you do I’ll probably tut-tut very loudly and accidentally lose some of your votes.

EDIT: A couple of people asked me how they vote without people knowing their name. LIE! If you are logged into WordPress, log out, put a fake name in and leave the URL blank. Only I see the e-mail address. If you don’t have WordPress account, enter whatever you want in the fields as long as the e-mail address is valid.

What you do away from this blog is up to you, but if I’m being honest I’d prefer to work with the person that wrote the story that people really like. Rather than the one written by the person that knows the most people on Twitter or Facebook. But I wont go all anal over that.

If you are reading this via my e-mail feed, and you can’t be arsed to click through and vote, simply hit return and e-mail me back your answer and I will add it to the totals.

————————————————

I joined Big Corporate from university – interesting and fun.  Then a car accident, followed by neurosurgery to my neck.  I didn’t recover quickly from that.  I was still enjoying work … until I had another car accident.

As before, I braked, but the car behind me didn’t.  Lots more surgery, but I was left with extreme pain, weakness and fatigue.

I was in survival mode for many years, on substantial medication and struggling to manage.

Working 60%, chores ‘costing’ two hours in bed.  Life was restricted and lonely – work, resting, and hospitals, and I SO missed all the physical and social things I used to do – sport, rock-climbing, ballroom dancing.

I had a hard time over 20+ years of injury and illness, including 65+ inpatient admissions.  My consultant kept advising me to retire on ill-health grounds.  Then the National Health Service said there they could do nothing more for me

Panic and distress set in – but I couldn’t just quit!  So I took back control in June 2005, supported by a fantastic neuro-physio-hydrotherapy lady.

After a year of weekly sessions, there was a little improvement, so I kept going, and added weekly remedial massage and Tai Chi, alongside daily home exercise, still holding down my job.

I wept many, many times with the sheer frustration, pain and fatigue.  But I kept on, regardless.  That’s nearly 2000 days of tough, painful, emotionally demanding treatment.  I have been UBER-committed to my recovery, because I saw and see it as key to getting my life back.

And, at last, I am reclaiming my body and my life.  In August 2010, I walked to the top of a hill – so symbolic!!  I called my mum and we were both in tears for sheer joy.  (Tim’s note: There was a photo included in the post, but I wanted to keep submissions to text only)

Now I’ve left my blue chip employer to work for myself.  I want to make a real difference.  To make organizations into places with clear vision where people can give their best.  And I especially want to work with hospitals and healthcare organizations.

I would love to have Tim’s help to do that

————————————————

Coaching me would be fun.You want Tim to have fun?

Or you at least want him to have a challenge?

Myriad of reasons to try & convince you all to pick me, commitment is my middle name! I’m just too much of a privacy freak to detail here but please understand coaching would benefit me so much that I’d send you loving thoughts in return (What do you mean? LOA not in fashion on blogs anymore? You could miss out on some serious love here people! )

My life needs coaching, coached myself as far possible, (If we’re talking development material devoured, I should be a superhero by now or have a medal for trying).  Good on commitment, not so good on consistency, strangely not the same thing. Coach could sort that. Bingo! Digested self dev. material made concrete! I’d grow wings!

I have been stuck in a loop.

“I feel stuck yet I’m trying to move.. need to earn some cash.. need to sort my life out, If I had the cash I’d hire a life coach”
“ ’Till then I’ll sort my life out then I’ll have cash and then I can hire a life coach!”
“that sorting life out thing’s not really working as well as it could.. if only I had a life coach! Then I could hire a life coach!”

To me commitment is not always good when commitment becomes a habit without a cause. Re-evaluate commitment? Paradox? Sensible?

Many people may think this entry is childish but it’s a way of being able to still enter this competition without becoming too personal, going against something I value, privacy. I’m not comfortable posting publically but COMMITTED TO THIS! I could have given up when the goal posts moved but I HAD to find a way.

Energy focusing is commitment. I have energy! Tim’d help me focus it. I’d be known as ‘Commitment Commitment!’

No is a positive word, enhancing the ‘Yes’ you have committed to by chiseling away what is not part of that ‘yes’.

Time to comment! Sending you all lots of love!

————————————————

Tim’s life coaching report states, “The client does the really hard work in life coaching.” [16]  I believe this is a key to living a healthy life.  I began thriving on dialysis when I realized that no matter how many people are on my team, I am the one that takes the hits.  You can bet your butt I am committed to getting the work done!

Background: I was given six months to live when diagnosed with kidney disease in 1981.  I am still here.

When preparing for a successful second kidney transplant I was given The News that I had a lot of anti-bodies, a rarer blood type, blah, blah!  I stopped listening.

After a couple of weeks of being angry and “why me, poor me…” I realized, “I am healthy!  My right match exists!  I need to be ready!”.  From my 1990 transplant attempt I knew a kidney transplant ain’t no mosquito bite and it takes considerably longer to heal.

Despite breaking a hip 1993 (repaired 1994, 1997), I safely learned to jog as a survival tactic for frustrations of many years of dialysis.  I ate to feel good and not have to work as hard to jog.

Fortifying my support system meant growing, culling and nurturing relationships.  Supporting my recovery meant saving enough money for nearly a year of unemployment.  While visualizing a healthy new life my focus was, “I am healthy!  My right match exists!  Be ready!”.

The call came September 11, 2004 (approximately two months after The News!  Fuck The News!!!  Fuck The News Two Times!!!).

Wow.  The Love.  Emotional deposits I had been making all along came back in floods!

Friends drove me to the hospital nearly 300 km away, friends harvested my community garden, friends prepared food, my home (huge Welcome Home sign included) and a visitation schedule for my post-surgery recovery!

It has now been over six years and most days are WAY better than the visualizations!

Thank you.

————————————————

About two and a half years ago and four months into my new relationship, I found out I was pregnant.  Four weeks later I was diagnosed with breast cancer and advised that to receive the treatment I required I would have to terminate my pregnancy.

On top of that, the recommended chemotherapy gave me a sixty percent chance of infertility or early menopause.  How could I terminate and maybe never have a child.?

I am someone who bought pregnancy books at age eighteen because it fascinated me.  I worked in childcare for ten years and then became a teacher.  I LOVE CHILDREN!  A panel was created to go over my unique situation.  Sadly, I miscarried ten days after my diagnosis.

A week later had a lumpectomy, followed by five months of chemo and thirty five days straight of radiation.  I completed my treatment January 5th 2009 ironically on what was to have been my “due date”.

Doctors told me it could take up to two years before we would find out the state of my fertility.  Well, five weeks after my last radiation appointment, and to everyone’s total surprise, I had become pregnant.  Cheers to giving it up on Valentine’s Day!

I now have a happy, healthy and beautiful daughter named Zoey who will turn one November 7th.

A couple of months after Zoey was born I found out that I tested positive for the BRCA1 “cancer gene”, and there is a 50% chance I may have genetically passed it on to Zoey.  Within the next year or two I will be having a double mastectomy and hysterectomy as precautionary measures.

I have chosen to stay at home to raise my family and with Tim’s coaching I will somehow add “Rich” to my “Happy Life”.

I will show everyone that life really can be lived on your own terms and you can overcome anything.  I will inspire and be a strong, positive example to survivors of cancer, moms, dads, women, men, and most importantly to Zoey.

That is why I am more committed than ever before.

————————————————

Well this is a doozy.  I can’t think of a single reason I “deserve” to be coached for free.

For me reward is about effort and the more effort you put in, generally, the greater your reward.  Ok so I wrote the original pitch but it was to you, a life coach, who has heard lots of bs and managed to weed through it and create some positive outcome.  Convincing someone who doesn’t necessarily have that insight I find harder.

All I know is that I am desperately in need of change and have no idea where to start.  I can find lots of good reasons why I’m continuing to do what I’m doing, despite the damage I know it’s causing.  It feels like I’m running to stand still.

I’ve spent lots of time this year trying to sort out physical and emotional issues.  In a fit of desperation I spent some savings on a trip to Australia in order to “escape” hoping that being as far as I could physically be from work and people I know would help alter my perspective and I would see things differently on my return (not been yet).

Then the “free life coaching offer” appeared I thought it would be silly not to apply as thinking alone (lets face it I’ve done lots of that over the years) may not help as it would be unfocused and the fact that it was being thunk (?*) on the escape would give  a false sense of everything being alright and I know I still have to come back and face reality.

I have felt when reading your posts that you’ve been where I’m at and your honesty is brutal – also your sense of humor is even dryer than mine.  I also got the sense that you would be able to kick my ass and get me to some “big grin” goals that I haven’t even thought of yet.

No more looking back – time to go forward!!

————————————————

Commitment. It’s a big, weighty word often accompanied by negative connotations. Responsibility. Duty. Being Tied Down. Having to.

Think about gravity. It provides structure. Boundaries. Predicability. We put our furniture in place and it stays there, providing security. That structure allows us to run our lives with a certain level of expectation. We’re not going to float away. Our things will be there when we get home.

It’s an underlying force of nature that allows us to live our lives in comfort and peace.

Commitment is very much like gravity. It provides stability, routine and a certain level of expectation from all parties involved. We can choose to think of commitment as a burden. Something we have to do.

Or we can look at it a little differently.

If we think about the weight of commitment as providing substance; of being the heart of a promise; when it’s thought of as the action required to actually make things happen, that’s when commitment becomes freeing. It becomes the vehicle we take toward our dreams.

We have confidence that we can do what we say we’re going to do. We trust ourselves. And when we trust ourselves, we tend to listen to ourselves. We pay attention to what we want to commit to, and what we don’t. And we stand strong with the weight of our decision—our commitment—feeling light and free and able to move forward.

Like gravity, it becomes woven into how we live our lives. We choose what we commit to. From flossing our teeth every night, to showing up to coaching sessions every week. Our choice is just that—ours.

So today I choose to commit to Tim and his coaching, to myself, and to the future. In the past year I’ve undergone significant transformation (marriage, home, career, business). Next month I embark on a year-long road trip as I build my dream business. I’m excited and terrified, yet know that when I am strong, I can inspire and empower others to live their own dreams. And I’m committed to moving forward and making that happen.

————————————————

I told you it was tough, right? So what do you think?

Let me know in the comments and you have until approximately 7.00pm on Monday evening. I say approximately as I will turn off comments manually so no whining if it’s an hour or so earlier or later because I want to go to the gym or sit and have a beer with our friends on the last night of their vacation.

I’ll announce the winner and runner up in my newsletter before the end of next week.

————————————————

View the original article here

The CD includes a twenty page companion e-book accessible from your computer, which is designed to give you additional background and context that will help you get the most from the CD and meditation process. Detailed written and audio instructions are included. No prior meditation experience is required.

You will find this meditation to be a powerful step in your process. The easiest way to know how effective this method will be for you is to try it. Your purpose journey begins now!

Price: $27.00

Click here to buy from Amazon

De-stress your Success by Sacha Crouch

Here is a book that is both inspiring and practical. It gives you some great real-life examples how people have overcome their own obstacles in managing their stress levels. The real bonus in my opinion is that the author shares with you her learnings, tips and offers suggestions to get your life back on track.

View the original article here

It is only The Drunk Monkey’s option about life that is causing you to suffer and causing you to stop. There are no good results or bad results. Good or bad is just your opinion. Because you are Being Unstoppable, you are realizing that success is nothing more than a series of well managed breakdowns, failures, and mistakes! And what are breakdowns, failures, and mistakes in reality? Outcomes. Hmm…Very interesting…I didn’t think that was going to happen! I wonder what would happen if I did this next!

That’s Being Unstoppable! So go for it today! Do something totally outrageous that will catapult your life forward. Approach it like a scientist…interested in what the results might be! And when the result happens, accept the situation as it is and move forward from there. Don’t let The Drunk Monkey suck you into the drama “See…You are a loser! You can’t do it! You are no good! You are stupid!” At some point consider working with our powerful coaching staff to resolve some of those underlying issues The Drunk Monkey is using to make you feel bad…

In the mean time, just accept the situation as it is and declare it perfect. Are you having any results that you feel are victories? Remember that I don’t judge your victories, I just honor them with you, and the really inspiring ones I post on my site. So click the link.

Matthew Ferry is an Author and a coach for conscious business people and executives who are committed to feeling bliss and happiness and using that energy to create a successful life. Life Coaching and being a life coach is his main course.

Ten years ago, coaching was considered the new “fad” in personal and business development but now everyone from Fortune 500 executives to homemakers and small-business owners are taking advantage of the power in having someone on your team, in your corner…so you don’t sit on the bench.

A Coach is not a therapist. Although many Coaches are consultants, a true Coach is more than a consultant…a Coach is also a friend who can give you the “tough love” you need to make the hard decisions in your personal or business life. A Coach helps you focus on both the big picture and the task at hand so you can reach your end goals in a manageable, organized and methodical way.

A Coach is committed to your success ALMOST as much as you are (Hint: your Coach should NEVER be more committed to your goal than you are!). Your Coach is your personal expert, consultant, motivator, mastermind partner and cheerleader, all wrapped up in one powerful package, to help you realize your highest potential!

Most Coaches specialize but many are skilled in a number of areas. For example, a Life Coach may be focused on people in transition in their lives, whether career changes, divorce, loss of a loved one, etc. Business Coaches may be specialists too, perhaps focused on a specific area of business or a specific type of business.

Wherever you are in your life right now, if you are committed to success, whether personal or business, a Coach can help you get to where you want to go, faster, more efficiently, more profitably and with a greater degree of satisfaction.

While there are many ways Coaches work, there are also typically common areas of focus, particularly in setting and achieving goals. Depending on the structure, your Coach may give you homework to complete before the next session. A good Coach will “MasterMind” with you to help come up with ideas that you might not have considered working on your own.

There are entire books written about coaching, so I’m not going to try to cover the entire global subject of coaching in this short article, but I do want to share with you a little bit about how I coach my clients.

Life Design Coaching (personal or business or both)

Because I have a broad and varied background and have studied and worked in a number of areas throughout my life, I have a somewhat unique approach to coaching. I can bring insight into many areas, both on a personal, spiritual and business level and because I enjoy variety, I split my coaching time between business and life coaching, with a focus on what I call MasterMind Life Design Coaching.

My typical client is an entrepreneur, or wants to be. This could be a small business or home-based business person (or both). He or she is interested in personal development and improvement. My clients typically have an open mind to new ideas and experiences and are willing to look at ways of creating success that might initially be a bit foreign to them.

Because the entrepreneur typically is in a constant state of balancing their personal and business lives, we spend time together co-creating a program to promote that balance of work and play that is so important in the lives of busy entrepreneurs. A large part of our coaching program is the MasterMind process, which essentially is idea development and execution. When two great minds get together working on solving the same problem, magical things can (and do) happen.

Seven Ways MasterMind Life Design Coaching Can Propel Your Personal or Business Life Forward Faster:

1. Help you to set realistic and achievable goals (Hint: Virtually EVERYTHING is achievable) in your business or personal life

2. Provide an organized structure to get you from where you are to where you want to be

3. MasterMind with you (and your business team, if necessary) to generate new ideas, and organized plans for executing on those ideas

4. Help you develop and automate your marketing and sales efforts for your business

5. Plug you into the MasterMind Network (yours and mine) to expand your contact base and the resources available to you

6. Hold you accountable for your own success

7. Teach you how the Law of Attraction and MasterMind process REALLY works so you can super turbo-charge your life or business by using it properly

I would like to invite you to explore coaching for yourself to determine if it is a structure that can help propel you forward in your own life.

Without a doubt, Coaching can be a major positive force in your life, but coaching is a relationship, so finding the right coach for you. Explore the options. There are a lot of great coaches whose primary goal is to assist you in creating the life that you want to live. Finding the right one will be a step for which you will thank yourself (and your coach) as you develop your greatest potential in life and business.

Jeffrey Howard is the CEO of MasterMindMentor.com, and an author, speaker, life and business success coach, teacher, musician, entrepreneur and MasterMind Visioneer. He is currently based in the heart of Sonoma County, California?s beautiful wine country region.

Learn more about MasterMind Life Design Life or Business Coaching, find your own MasterMind Alliance and the Law of Attraction by visiting http://www.MasterMindMentor.com

Discover other powerful tools and receive FREE empowering personal development library access by subscribing to the MasterMindMentor Network at http://www.EnterTheMasterMind.com

There are many benefits to being a member of a coaching program.

How does coaching impact business results? Having a coach gives you someone to be accountable to. The more accountable you are the more likely you are to have it done.

If you are doing anything by yourself and establishing an internal coaching program, it is too easy to fall into the trap of “I will do it later” or “I am too busy today” and just not do, after all, no one but yourself is going to mind. And you already told yourself that it is not that important.

If you know that your coach going to be expecting you to have the task done by a certain date you had better get it done by then or be prepared to face the consequences.

A good coach will not insult or belittle you but help you learn more about yourself and why you did or did not get the task done on time. If you are working with a good coaching company they will have multiple coaches available, you can always ask for a different coach if you are not getting along of if you feel they are insulting you in any way.

Good coaches will also be personable and open so that you can feel safe opening up to them and sharing your desires, whatever they might be.

There is a way of measuring ROI on coaching based on the sales before or your weight before and looking at the results after a set time with the program.

Having a coach in any field is a great way to reach your goals and to change you life.

If you need a coach for your internet marketing business but don’t know where to start, 6 Figures With Chris Freville will give you 1-on-1 coaching from one of the most successful intermet marketers active today. He will show you step-by-step how to go from nothing to marketing superstar.

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller

A compelling look inside the mind and powerful leadership methods of America’s coaching legend, John Wooden

“Team spirit, loyalty, enthusiasm, determination. . . . Acquire and keep these traits and success should follow.”
–Coach John Wooden

John Wooden’s goal in 41 years of coaching never changed; namely, to get maximum effort and peak performance from each of his players in the manner that best served the team. Wooden on Leadership explains step-by-step how he pursued and accomplished this goal. Focusing on Wooden’s 12 Lessons in Leadership and his acclaimed Pyramid of Success, it outlines the mental, emotional, and physical qualities essential to building a winning organization, and shows you how to develop the skill, confidence, and competitive fire to “be at your best when your best is needed”–and teach your organization to do the same.

Praise for Wooden on Leadership:

“What an all-encompassing Pyramid of Success for leadership! Coach Wooden’s moral authority and brilliant definition of success encompass all of life. How I admire his life’s work and concept of what it really means to win!”
–Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People and The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

“Wooden On Leadership offers valuable lessons no matter what your endeavor. ‘Competitive Greatness’ is our goal and that of any successful organization. Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success is where it all starts.”
–Jim Sinegal, president & CEO, Costco

Price: $24.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

In this book, Bowden will reveal never-before-published details of the moments and events that have defined his life, including:

* The tragic death of his grandson and son-in-law in a 2004 automobile accident.

* The details of his retirement as FSU’s coach at the end of the 2009 season.

Price: $25.00

Click here to buy from Amazon

Price: $24.98

Click here to buy from Amazon