Coach Andrea

Coach Andrea’s Intro

To the gym or hit the snooze button? To the gym or hit the snooze button? To the gym or hit the snooze button?

Steve Straus’s Tip this week reminds us that the timing of a decision can greatly influence the outcome. Read on to see what you can do to make better decisions.

Quote of the Week

“Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.”

~  Lester R. Bittel

Decision Time

By Steve Straus

One of the markers of a person’s growing maturity is that they are making better decisions. Children, and even many young adults, tend to make decisions based on the instant gratification of their immediate wants and needs. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that timing, it tends to ignore even bigger returns which may be provided by making decisions which take in a longer view.

Key to making powerful decisions is the timing of the decision.

For instance, if you want to go to the gym in the morning to have a workout which you feel will help you be healthy, making that decision when the alarm goes off — the bed is warm, the room is cold, you’re still sleepy, and thoughts of exercise seem less than exciting — is not the time to make the decision.

The time to make your workout decision is before you go to bed. Arrange your gym clothes, set the alarm to get you to the gym on time, and then go to sleep feeling good about your decision. In the morning, instead of making a decision you are simply executing a pre-decided process.

Look at the timing of some of your past decisions which didn’t turn out so well. Did you decide in the middle of high emotion or neediness? When feeling lack, hunger, fear, or separateness? These are typically not good times to make a decision.

How about some of your past decisions which worked out really, really well? What was the timing of those?

Copyright 2011 Steve Straus. All rights reserved. Steve Straus can be contacted at http://www.StrausUSA.com

Coaching Call To Action

What’s a decision you’re currently facing? Is now a good time to make it?

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

The PaperRoom Process that I offer to my clients is about gaining access to your perceptions, beliefs, habits, expectations and assumptions, which leads to greater awareness. This week’s Tip by John McGuire and Gary Rhodes reminds us what is possible when we “get a bigger mind”.

Quote of the Week

“Let us not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around us in awareness.”
~James Thurber

Getting a Bigger Mind

by John McGuire and Gary Rhodes

By increasingly opening up your awareness and beliefs, you can be more conscious of and about the decisions you are making and the impact of those decisions on your behaviors and practices. We call this process “getting a bigger mind.” It expands your awareness of what’s really going on and enables you to perceive more complex interconnections and respond with both long-term strategic acuity and elevated knowledge of how your next decision brings the environment you want to create more fully into existence (McGuire & Rhodes, p. 48).

McGuire, J. B. & Rhodes, G. B. (2009). Transforming Your Leadership Culture. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Reprinted with permission from the OSU Leadership Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, (614) 292-3114, http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu.

Coaching Call To Action

What process do you use to step back and “get a bigger mind”? Do you brainstorm with your business partner, go for a run, sleep on it?

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