Blog – Page 3 – Dutra Associates

Navigating a Complex World

November 20, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Our world is becoming increasingly complex and the ability to navigate ambiguity is now, more than ever, a critical leadership and life skill. We all have challenges we face throughout our life and work. Often, we react by focusing on finding someone or something to blame for our circumstances. Then, if we can move beyond that initial reaction, we bring our skills and knowledge to bear, look for ways to fix the problem, put a plan of action together, and execute on a solution. Our goal is to get the problem off our desks so that we can move on to the next item on our to-do list.

In some cases, this approach will work, at least for a little while. Yet, many times, the same circumstance will arise again a few weeks or months down the road. We find ourselves solving the same problem over and over again. Our complex world cries out for a new approach. Alan Seale, master teacher and mentor, and the founder of the Center for Transformational Presence, offers an approach to leadership that helps us to navigate this rapidly changing world in powerful ways.

According to Alan, “Transformational Presence is not a model or a formula. It’s a way of living, leading, and serving – an approach that provides a strong foundation for conscious living and conscious leadership. Transformational Presence is also a practical set of skills that, when developed together, build and expand our capacities for awareness, understanding, perception, and effective action – capacities that are essential for navigating today’s rapidly changing world.”

I have had the privilege of attending several of Alan’s workshops and programs over the last decade. Most recently, I attended the Transformational Presence Leadership in Action program in Connecticut. We explored the latest tools and frameworks from Alan’s most recent books, a two part set: Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference in a Rapidly Changing World and its companion, Transformational Presence – The Tools, Skills and Frameworks. During those days, we had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in applying the work to our own circumstances and challenges. I came away with a renewed commitment to fully integrate Transformational Presence approaches in my own life and in my work with individual clients and organizations.

When I was first introduced to this work, eight or so years ago, I have to admit that it felt a little foreign to me. After years of working in large corporations, I had developed a strong set of skills that allowed me to solve problems and execute on goals. While I longed for what the Transformational Presence approach offered, I wasn’t quite ready to take it on board. My logical mind was a little bit skeptical about whether I could actually see myself using the skills and tools with my clients. Yet, something has continued calling me to this work and in the last couple of years, there has been no denying that Transformational Presence will allow my clients and me to make the kind of difference in this world that we long to make.

To support Alan Seale in his mission to share this work, the next four blog posts will each focus on one tool or framework of Transformational Presence. As we start off the tool series in our next post, we will explore the three foundational questions of Transformational Presence:
1. What wants to happen?
2. Who is that asking me to be?
3. What is that asking me to do?

Please stay tuned over the next few months as we explore a few selected components of Transformational Presence. No matter what your role, if you are interested in helping to create a world that works, this will get you started.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

The Book Yourself Solid ® Six Keys to Creating Connection

September 19, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

If you want a perpetual stream of inspiring and energizing ideal clients clamoring for your services and products, then you must build relationships of trust. Without trust, then it doesn’t matter how well you’ve planned or what you’re offering. If a potential client doesn’t trust you, nothing else matters.

So how do we create connection and build trust? Let’s take a look at the Six Keys to Creating Connection. Knowing the answers to these questions will ensure that the offers you make to prospective clients are right on target.

Who – Who are you trying to create connection with? Who is your target client or customer? The more specific you can be, the better. Once you have done this, choose one person (or organization) within your target market to focus on. Identifying and gearing your marketing to a specific individual (or organization) allows you to make the important emotional connection that is the first step in developing a relationship with your potential client.
Action: Identify your target client or customer.
What – What do they want to buy when they look for you? What are the kinds of products and services they think will solve their problems or help them reach their goals? What’s going on in their life? If you don’t know, put yourself in the shoes of the client or ask your target market. This helps you to look at what is relevant to offer. Be clear on what it is they are looking for rather than what you might like to offer.
Action: What are your potential clients looking for?
Where – Where do they look for the products and services? Is it a referral from a service provider or a friend?; the Chamber of Commerce?; a bookstore?; the web?
Action: Where do your ideal clients look for you?
When – When do they look for what you are offering? What’s the trigger? What needs to happen in their personal or business life for them to purchase your services?
Action: Describe the situations that will likely drive potential clients to seek your products and services.
Why – Why you? How is it that you are the best choice for the people you are meant to serve? What is it that is unique and special about you or the solutions you offer?
Action: Why should your potential clients choose you?
How – How do you want them to engage with you when they find out about you? Sign up for your newsletter?; attend a teleseminar or webinar?; call?; email? What’s the first no barrier to entry thing you want them to do to sample your services?
Action: How do you want your potential clients to interact or engage with you?

Clearly defining these six keys will help you to determine what you want to offer your potential clients as you create your sales process and to build trust and credibility in an authentic way.

The Six Keys to Connection are excerpted from Book Yourself Solid® by Michael Port and is a registered trademark of Michael Port & Associates LLC. Used with permission. Sherry Dutra is a Certified Book Yourself Solid® Coach and Trainer.

Trust: A Foundational Element to Leadership Success

August 8, 2017 By Sherry Dutra 1 Comment

Trust Fosters Engagement and Motivation

Consider your career for a moment. Like me, you have probably had the joyful experience of working with people you trusted as well as the dreaded experience of working with those you had to guard against at every turn. Now, put yourself in each of those situations. When did you feel most engaged and motivated? I can place a pretty strong bet that working with and for people you trusted elicited the greatest engagement and motivation. Now, let’s turn the tables. How well have you built trust with your team and colleagues? Imagine the impact of creating a trust based workplace on your quality of life as well as on your organization’s success.

The importance of trust seems to be showing up more often, especially recently, with leadership clients as well as in publications. In July’s Success magazine, there was an article by Melissa Balmain that I particularly enjoyed. I’ve summarized her 8 Steps of Trust-Building below. You can read the full article here.

8 Steps of Trust-Building

Be open
Set clear and realistic expectations with your team. Help them to see the alignment between their goals and the impact on the organization.
Walk Your Talk
Reflect on your most important values and principles and whether you are actually living by them. Tie the actions you are taking with the values and principles that drive them. Even when you make difficult decisions that not everyone agrees with, you will be respected for staying true to your beliefs.
Listen First
Stay present with what the other person is saying. Ask powerful, open-ended questions that elicit insight and are thought-provoking. Acknowledge that you’ve heard the other’s message by paraphrasing what they’ve said to check for understanding. Then, share your own thoughts, openly, honestly and without defensiveness.
Say What You’ll Do, Do What You Say
As the article states, “Nothing boosts others’ faith in you like doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it”. Therefore, don’t overcommit. Be realistic when you make a promise to someone. This not only reduces your overwhelm because you won’t be working all hours to deliver on time, but also allows you to build trust, through actually following through on your commitments.
Admit Your Mistakes
If something goes wrong, the worst thing to do is to try and hide it. Instead, share what happened and identify a solution to resolve the situation. By doing this, you encourage others to be open when things go awry and to use those situations as opportunities to learn and grow.
Be Sincere
If you are talking about someone else, pretend that they are present to the conversation. Nothing destroys trust faster than wondering whether someone is going to say bad things about you behind your back.
Avoid Stereotypes
Stereotypes exist for just about everything from gender, to race, to generational differences, etc. Ignore them. The reality is that we all have more in common than we think. Treat each person as an individual and trust will grow.
Dive in
This is not about blind trust but what is referred to as “smart trust”. Stephen M. R. Covey states that “smart trust means weighing your impulse to trust against other people’s credibility and the opportunity and risks at hand”. Overall, the chances are pretty good that your smart trust in others will be worth it.

Your Trust Building Tips

What trust building tips have worked for you? Please feel free to share, in the comment section, both those that you’ve observed as well as ones that you have implemented yourself.

7 Keys to Enhancing Entrepreneurial Resilience

July 22, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Entrepreneurship can be an exciting and rewarding experience. Yet, building any kind of business is not without its ups and downs. There is no question that you will encounter situations where the outcome isn’t quite what you expected or you’ll experience what you might view as a “failure”. To weather the inevitable challenges you’ll face, resilience will be a muscle you’ll want to enhance. Resilience will allow you to ride the roller coaster of entrepreneurship and to continue to offer your gifts to the world when you might otherwise give up.

What is Resilience?

The dictionary.com definition of resilience is, in part, “the ability to recover readily from adversity or the like; buoyancy”. The word buoyancy brought a childhood memory to mind. I grew up near the ocean and used to play for hours in Cape Cod Bay. I can remember tossing around a beach ball with my friends while we splashed in the water. No matter what any of us did to push that ball under the water, it always popped right back up to the surface – ready for the next game. Resilience is very much like that beach ball. No matter what you face, if your resilience is strong, you can learn from your experience, reset your course, and be ready for what’s next.

7 Keys to Enhancing Resilience

Here are some practical keys that you can incorporate into your life that will support you in enhancing your resilience. These keys will not only positively impact your entrepreneurial life but also your personal life. So what are you waiting for? Let’s explore.

Stay aligned with your purpose: I believe that we all have a purpose and that discovering yours will keep you on track no matter what circumstances arise. What are you uniquely equipped to offer to the world? What brings you the most joy and passion? The answers to these questions will give you some clues to your purpose. With a defined purpose, that you are aligned with, you naturally attract people, resources, ideas, and opportunities that support you.
Practice gratitude: Take a few moments each day, throughout the day, to appreciate and express gratitude for the people and things in your life. Stopping to notice what you are grateful for on a regular basis develops a habit of looking for good things and releases dopamine that supports a positive outlook.
Set clear goals: Research has shown that the brain loves a good goal. It will work tirelessly to give you what you focus on. The most successful and resilient people set specific, measurable and time based goals and consistently take action with the certainty that they will achieve them.
Be present while working on those goals: A 2010 Harvard study found that people spend 47% of their waking time thinking about things other than what they are working on. When you are focused on the past or focused on the future, you are taking your energy away from what’s going on right in front of you. Mindfulness, or being focused on the moment, has been shown to modify brain processes that support resilience. And, experiencing and enjoying the moment is part of the journey.
Act “as if”: Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a robust vision and reality. Don’t believe that? Then, take a moment and imagine that you have a beautiful, fragrant, juicy lemon in your hand. Cut off a slice of that lemon. Breathe in that lemony scent. Now, bring it to your mouth and take a great big bite. Salivating yet? You didn’t really just take a bite out of a lemon, did you? Yet, in creating that vision, your body reacted “as if” you had. So, start to take action in accordance with who you want to be. Act “as if” you already are being, doing and having whatever it is you want to create in your business. Your attitude will be shifted to a more optimistic place and your resilience will build.
Build a supportive team: Going it alone typically doesn’t work. Without the support of others, we tend to get stuck in doing things the way we’ve always done them. Create a community of supportive people from different backgrounds and professions who can help to keep your mind open to fresh perspectives and new ideas. Having others to lean on creates resilience-building social support.
Look for the gift: What is the opportunity in the situation you’re facing? What might the situation be trying to show you? By focusing on the opportunity rather than the challenge, you open the door to solution-finding rather than problem-solving. You choose how you want to “show up” in the situation and your positive focus enhances your resilience.

There is no one formula for enhancing resilience. Find what works for you and practice it on a regular basis. Over time, you are likely to find that how you respond to those entrepreneurial ups and downs is very much in your hands.

What has helped you to build your resilience? If you’d like to share your strategies, please add a comment.

Inspiring Leadership

June 21, 2017 By Sherry Dutra 1 Comment

Are you in need of some inspiration? Have you been wondering why your team isn’t more invested in their work? Are you struggling to describe your service or product in a way that captures attention? If so, then, please set aside a few minutes to watch Simon Sinek’s TED talk on “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”. Through his work, Sinek recognized that all great, inspiring leaders and organizations, think, act and communicate in the same way. This led to his discovery of what he calls “the golden circle”, which is a simple but game changing insight.

The Golden Circle

Imagine three concentric circles. Why? is in the inner circle. How? is in the middle circle. What? is in the outer circle. Every person and every organization knows what they do. There’s usually no doubt around that. Some can also tell you how they do it. Sometimes this is referred to as the value proposition or what makes them unique. However, a very, very small percentage can tell you why they do what they do. Contrary to popular belief, the “why” doesn’t have anything to do with making money, though monetary success tends to come to those who can uncover the “why”. The “why” is about the answers to the following questions: What gets you up in the morning? What’s the belief that drives you each day? What is your purpose?

When we aren’t clear on the “why”, then we communicate from the outside in. We focus on the “what” and the “how”. Honestly, the “what” and the “how”, by themselves, aren’t very inspiring. When we think, act and communicate from the inside out, like those inspired leaders and organizations, we connect with others who believe what we believe and we capture other’s minds and hearts. As Sinek states, “people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it”.

Implication for You

So what is the implication for leaders? No matter the size of your team or the company you work in or own, true leadership involves inspiring and energizing those with whom you work and interact. I invite you to get in touch with your “why”. What is it that you believe in that gets you up and out every day? How will you share this with your team – to inspire deep commitment? How will you share this with your customers – to inspire long term relationships?

To hear more directly from Simon Sinek, including business examples and the science behind his theory, please click on this link.

Call to Action

If you’d like to share your “why”, please do so in the comments section.

Do You Take Responsibility?: True Leadership Starts with This

April 13, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.” ~ Jim Rohn

When was the last time you complained about a person or a situation? When have you had anything turn out differently than you wanted, either at work or at home, and you found yourself blaming someone else for the outcome? Come on, be honest. I know I’ve done it and still catch myself doing it. It’s likely that you have blamed or complained at one time or another. It’s a common response and one that most of us learned as a part of growing up. Yet, how would your success in life be enhanced if you took full responsibility for your results?

The Power of Choice

In every moment, you have a choice. Recognizing that you are always at choice and that you are responsible for your results leads to personal empowerment. Think about it. If you believe that your results are in the hands of external circumstances, then you give away your power to create what you want in every aspect of your life, including your work as a leader. While studying Jack Canfield’s Success Principles, I chose to develop an on-going practice of incorporating the principles into my life. Principle #1 – Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life – sets the foundation. Understanding this principle intellectually and fully embracing it are two different things. I am still a work in progress on this myself and I continue to integrate it a bit more each day.

A Leader’s Story

Here’s a simple example of not taking full responsibility. John was asked to take on a new, exciting project. In order to free up the time to devote to the new assignment, he delegated another important project to Tom, a member of his team. Tom is experienced and has the skills needed to handle the project. So, John spends a minimal amount of time outlining the project and expects that Tom has what he needs. Three weeks later, John gets a phone call from a very unhappy customer who is checking in on the delegated project and wants to know why they haven’t received the agreed to deliverable. The customer, who highly values dependability, tells John that they are going to seek a new vendor for future projects.

The Responsibility Formula

Many years ago, Dr. Robert Resnick introduced Jack Canfield to a simple formula that illustrates 100% responsibility remarkably well. The formula is E + R = O or Event + Response = Outcome. Let’s look at this example through the lens of E + R = O.

In this situation:
E = John had an opportunity to take on an exciting new project which required a delegation of something else on his plate to free up time.

R = John selected an experienced person, Tom, to take on the delegation and spent a small amount of time passing the project over.

O = An important deadline was missed and the company lost future business with the client.

Clearly, John wasn’t happy with the outcome. He has two choices when he encounters an outcome he doesn’t like:

He can blame the event (E) for his lack of results (O). So, in this example, he could blame his boss for the timing of the new project that caused him to have to delegate in the first place. He could blame Tom for not delivering on the delegated project. Perhaps he finds a way to blame the economy, the weather, his dog, etc. You get the picture. There are many influences that can impact results or outcomes but if those influences determined success, then no one experiencing them would succeed. Yet, there are countless examples of those who experienced similar circumstances and were successful. So, the event itself does not lead directly to a particular outcome.
John could change his response (R) to the event (E) until he reaches his desired outcome (O). In the future, for instance, John could take a more deliberate approach to delegating an assignment. He could set clear expectations and ensure alignment, build in periodic check-ins, work together to develop a plan of action, ask Tom where he feels he needs support, etc. In any situation, John can control his response. So when the choices you make don’t lead to the results you want, you can seek to understand what occurred. Then, you can determine what steps to take to get back on track versus blaming or complaining. Also, as events occur, you can proactively determine the outcome you’d like to achieve and respond accordingly.

Call to Action

While this principle may be easy to understand, it is not easy to implement. It’s an on-going journey of paying attention to the results you’re producing and what responses have led to those results. Ask yourself:

What did I do or not do that led to that result?
What do I need to do differently next time to get the result I want?

Since taking 100% responsibility can feel rather daunting, start with 5% more. Ask yourself, if I were to take 5% more responsibility for my leadership effectiveness, I would… and jot down your answers. Then, put an action plan in place to follow through on your commitment. Over time, this will naturally become a part of who you are.

Join me in the practice of integrating this core principle into your life and watch your results.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who helps you create consistent, optimal performance using all your capacity and potential in both your work and life. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Relationships and Value: Considerations for Entrepreneurial Success

March 24, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Recently, I read Gerard Adams’ article titled “Social Currency and Your Circle of Influence”. Adams defines social currency as “your value to the world” and your circle of influence as the people you spend the most time with. It’s a great reminder that to grow our entrepreneurial success, we must pay attention to both. So, it prompted me to share some ideas to help you take action.

Evaluate Your Relationships

Let’s start with your circle of influence. While the notion that you begin to take on the traits of those you surround yourself with makes complete sense, how often do you really evaluate the quality of your relationships? As the saying goes, “old habits die hard”. There is often a tendency to continue to hang out with the same people out of habit or because it’s comfortable rather than to take notice of whether it’s a positive relationship or not.

Call to Action – Relationships

Define what a positive or healthy relationship means to you in both your personal and professional life.
Make a list of the key people you spend time with in both environments and note whether they are part of your personal or professional life.
Evaluate each relationship against your definition(s).
- Which ones lift you up?
- Which ones bring you down?
For those that lift you up – identify strategies to continue to nurture and grow each relationship.
For those that bring you down – you have 5 choices
- Stay in it, as is
- Change it
- Change your view of it
- Accept it
- Leave it
Work with someone you trust to help you put a plan in place to grow the positive relationships and effectively manage or shift the negative ones.
Notice what happens as you consciously focus on crafting your circle of influence.

What’s Your Value?

Let’s move to your social currency or the value that you bring to the world. You may be able to immediately articulate the gifts and talents that bring value to those you interact with. If so, go right to the call to action below and jot them down. In some cases, however, you might find that pinpointing the value you offer is more difficult – not because you don’t have value but because it is something that is so easy for you to do, you discount it and don’t see it as valuable. If this sounds like you, enlist the help of those who are positive members of your circle of influence to help you answer the questions below.

Call to Action – Value

What natural gifts, talents and strengths do you bring to your business/work?
What is unique and different about you?
Listen to your emotions while you work. What activity or activities bring out your passion and make you happy or satisfied?
Share your value within your circle of influence and with all you encounter. Shine your light and watch your business grow.

Make a commitment to surround yourself with those who energize and inspire you and leverage your strengths while continuing to grow and develop. The combination will play a key role in your success.

A Blueprint for Leadership Mastery

February 15, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle

Core Leadership Skills

Fundamentally, there are a collection of key skills that prepare someone to step into a leadership role. These include things like the ability to:

communicate effectively,
influence others,
be adaptable and flexible,
drive for results,
build cohesive teams,
delegate and empower,
make decisions and problem-solve,
think strategically and
develop talent.

While every leader should have the opportunity to learn and build skill in these areas, skill-building alone is not enough to create leadership mastery. Have you ever noticed that regardless of your skill level, there are some days you’re “on” and some days you aren’t? There are some days you are filled with confidence and others where you question your ability? Some days where you crank out the results you want and others where you’re distracted and have difficulty staying focused on a project or goal?

What is Leadership Mastery?

All of the challenges that you face as a leader, no matter how skilled, come down to one thing. The one thing that changes everything is the understanding of, implications for, and ability to control the energy of performance. You know as well as I do that your competency level doesn’t shift from day to day. Your energy, however, is fluctuating all the time. Your energy is what determines how well your skills and competencies are expressed in any situation and what your outcomes will be. Leadership mastery, then, is about:

understanding the nature of the energy of performance,
utilizing that knowledge to create the conditions for optimal performance, and
making any necessary tweaks as any specific situation unfolds.

The energy that a leader presents in any situation is influenced by a number of different elements.

Mental ability that allows for clarity and focus
Emotions that are experienced throughout each day
Social factors that relate to your interactions with others
Environmental factors that relate to the conditions in which you are performing
Physical factors related to your level of health and wellbeing
Spiritual factors that speak to the connection you have with a sense of purpose, meaning and motivation.

When your energy is out of alignment and you’re feeling a bit “off”, you might experience anxiety, fear, worry, lack of confidence, or lack of motivation to name a few. How often do you actually get the outcomes or results that you want when this is going on? Likely, not very often. So how do you turn this around and have your energy work for you rather than against you?

Your Blueprint for Leadership Mastery

There are 5 key components to unleash your full leadership potential. Whether you run your own small business or you are leading a large organization, the foundation of your performance is built on these components. These 5 components make up COR.E Leadership Dynamics.

Component 1: Creating Your Plan
Self-awareness, a clear vision and specific goals are the essence of this component. Having a complete picture of the performance you want to create is critical.

Component 2: Establishing Your Energy and Performance Foundation
Energy fluctuations create inconsistent results. To sustain consistency and performance excellence, you must learn to manage your energy. Explore leadership mastery, understand the energy of performance, and identify and address blocks that stand in the way of your potential.

Component 3: Finding and Harnessing Your Performance Influencers
Earlier, I mentioned the 6 elements that influence your performance in any moment. Recognizing and understanding the impact of those influencers in the moment allows you to make immediate adjustments that keep you firing on all cylinders or get you back on track if things are going awry.

Component 4: Mastering the 10 COR.E Disciplines
Successful leaders have developed a personal approach or philosophy that keeps them motivated, resilient and aware of opportunities that present themselves. This component helps you to develop your own philosophy, built on the foundation of the 10 COR.E Disciplines, that will tap into your true leadership potential and performance.

Component 5: Optimizing and Sustaining Your Leadership Success Formula
An important element of this component is to embrace the need to evolve your approach over time. The world is a rapidly changing place and developing the capacity to be flexible and adaptable in the face of uncertainty is key to success.

My Invitation to You

If you would like to learn more about how COR.E Leadership Dynamics can help you to maximize your energy and optimize your performance to be the best leader you can be, please click here.

What Lights You Up?: Expressing Your Passion in the World

January 24, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

“To love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun?” – Katherine Graham – American Publisher

Being in the Zone

When was the last time that you were so engaged in what you were doing that you completely lost track of time? What is it that you were involved with? Were you organizing, planning, decorating, running a meeting, painting, gardening, helping others, or teaching? Whatever you were engaged in, you were experiencing being “in the zone”. This is a state of being fully focused, motivated, and passionate – a state where you are doing what you are uniquely gifted to do.

One of my teachers, Laura Berman Fortgang, has said, “your satisfaction will not stem from what you do but from who you get to be while you do that thing.” We often get caught up in what we are “supposed” to be doing. This can stem from a wide variety of influences including parents, friends, teachers, and societal pressures to name a few. Forget titles and look at the essence of who you get to be in any occupation or pursuit you consider. It can open up doors you never imagined.

Find what it is that uniquely lights you up. Your passion can be something that you’ve known all your life or you may evolve into it as you notice what you most love. To begin your own exploration, consider the following questions.

Ask Yourself

What gets me excited about life?
What brings meaning to my life?
If I could do exactly what I’d like to do, what would it be?
What are my natural gifts and talents?
What did I most like to do as a young child?
What are my criteria for happiness?
What are my values?

Your Next Steps

Once you have jotted down the answers to these questions, it can be helpful to share them with a close friend, a mentor, or a coach to flesh them out and look at possibilities. It’s never too early or too late to decide on the best path for you. No matter where you are on your life’s journey – early career, mid-life, or planning your next chapter – dreams can be realized. Take these first steps to open the door to what could be next for you.

Forget Resolutions: Tips to Create the Life You Want in the New Year

December 19, 2016 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

A fresh new year is before us. Sometimes that might feel a little daunting and other times it can be filled with excitement. Which is it for you? Instead of creating New Year’s Resolutions which, let’s admit it, we often don’t follow through on anyway, how about trying a different twist? One of the most effective ways to kick start the year with enthusiasm, engagement and excitement is to establish a clear vision. When was the last time you gave yourself the luxury to dream about what you’d like to create in your life? There’s a saying that “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”. Not having a vision is like expecting a GPS to get you to a specific destination without entering the address. You might find some interesting sights along the way but you have no idea where you’re going to end up. So get comfortable and follow the tips below to do a little dreaming!

Creating Your Vision

Focus on What You Want
Describe what you want as clearly as possible. Write in the present tense, as if what you want has already occurred. Describe what it looks like, feels like, sounds like, etc. Catch yourself if you start describing what you don’t want and shift your focus back to what you do want. Our brains are powerful creators and are programmed to go after what we focus on. What you attract into your life will be in alignment with what you give your attention to.

Think Holistically
You are a multi-faceted human being with many dimensions to your life. As you describe what you want, be sure to consider the following eight dimensions:

Business, Job and Career
Personal and Professional Relationships
Finances
Health and Well-Being
Fun Time and Recreation
Personal Development
Contribution/Community
Spirituality

Establishing Powerful Goals and Actions

Once you have created your vision, the next step is to set specific goals and objectives that will bring that vision into reality. In each of the eight dimensions, write down what needs to happen and by when, in order to reach your desired destination.

Finally, we must break these goals down into action steps. Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one”. Determine the specific next action steps required to meet each of your goals. It can be helpful to think in terms of what steps are necessary to be completed 6 months, 3 months, 1 month and one week from now to get you started.

Following Through on Your Commitment

How do you want to stay true to your commitment to yourself? Telling someone what you plan to do is a proven method to help you stay on course. Just putting it out there and sharing your vision and goals with someone else makes it more real. You might consider telling a family member or friend. If something a bit more formal works for you, perhaps you can team up with someone else who is committed to their own vision and schedule brief check-in calls either daily or weekly to help you both stay on course. Working with a coach can provide you with one-on-one support to help you stay on track and develop strategies to navigate any obstacles that might arise. Whatever method works best for you, be sure to have something in place that will motivate you to accomplish at least one thing per day toward the vision.

To your success!