In your life, career or business, you are your biggest asset, your own instrument of success. You are also your biggest liability. And how you show up every day, with your colleagues, friends, family or clients, is a huge factor in determining your overall level of happiness and success.
So tell me, how much attention do you put into tuning your instrument?
If you were a world-class musician you would never think of performing without tuning your violin, guitar or what have you. The sour notes would be noticed immediately and detract from your performance. Thus musicians always take the time to tune their own instrument and then tune to the orchestra prior to a performance. How about you?
In your life, career and businesses, I am sure you have had a few experiences where you felt in tune with yourself, your surroundings, the task at hand, and things flowed almost effortlessly.
And I am pretty sure there have been many other times when the sense of struggle was so palpable, you may have felt you were playing off the wrong sheet music.
If you do nothing to proactively prepare for each day or tune your instrument, it will not take too much (stress, conflict, unexpected developments, etc.) to tip you into a far more reactive mode. And feeling a little off-key or behind the rhythm, you are more likely to appear impatient, intolerant, unsympathetic, distracted and generally self-focused. This of course is going to be noticed and have an impact.
Taking the time to tune your instrument, to get more present, in-sync, will not immunize you from life's challenges. But it will ensure you meet them with the greater creativity, trust and the resourcefulness needed to be your best, under any circumstance. And this will also have an impact. (A very positive one.)
Challenge
If you don't have one already, my challenge to you is to create your own daily routine to "tune your instrument". (And if you do have one, I simply challenge you to take it to the next level.)
There is solid research to indicate that if you only take 10 minutes, two times a day, to do something that gets you out of your normal, reactive, personal, anxious, resistant, over thinking mindset, it can dramatically improve your well being.
We are simply wanting to find some regular daily practice that triggers your relaxation response (your parasympathetic nervous system), resets the mind from its obsession with how it wishes things would be and helps you get a little more in tune with what is actually happening.
What might the practical benefits of this be in your business, career and life? You will experience less stress, have much greater rapport in all your relationships, access more creativity, be a more effective leader, enjoy higher self-awareness and far greater self-management. You will laugh more, love more, and your blood pressure will be lower so you may well live a lot longer.
Not a bad payback for an investment of just 10 minutes, twice a day. Take the challenge. You can thank me later.
Steve Mitten CPCC, MCC, of ACOACH4U.COM was the 2005 President of the International Coach Federation, and 2007 Canadian Coach of The Year. He is a Master Certified Coach and an expert on human potential and change. Steve has helped thousands of leaders; entrepreneurs and independent professionals find the fastest and most enjoyable route to more meaningful success. http://www.acoach4u.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment