Media Parents

www.mediaparents.co.uk worked with Life Coach Angus Fletcher www.angusfletcher.com and www.streetcoaching.com, to work out what people wanted from 2011 and how to achieve it.

This blog will be a mixture of Angus’s wisdom as seen through the eyes of different people at the event.  First, me.  In a room full of do-ers, Angus asked us to step back from “doing”, and start connecting with our “feelings”.

As an icebreaker he asked us each to approach 3 different people in the room that we didn’t already know, and ask “how are you feeling about 2011?”

And with that the evening launched.  There was a mixture of answers “optimism”, “anxiety”, “apprehension”, “excitement”, “determination”, but not many more than that – most of us were in the same headspace.

Angus asked “Think about what you want to achieve and how you want to be when you are doing those things – decide on your emotional response.”

We then were asked to do a visualization exercise.  ”If you’re feeling that this is all a bit touchy feely for you, and you’re thinking ‘Oh no’, please channel your creativity and think ‘Oh yes’,”  Angus asked.  ”Close your eyes and imagine it’s been the year you wanted.  See yourself in a place at the beginning of 2012 and see how you feel there.”

People felt peaceful, emotional, calm.  Someone said “I imagined my house, painted.”  Angus explained “This is the big A Agenda”, the endgame, “versus the small a agenda – the steps to get to the result.  Create a measurable feeling of how you want to become and the visualization will pull you forward”.  Perhaps you had to be there.  But the idea of breaking down your plan into small tasks makes sense.  ”Having imagined the bigger feeling, think of shorter term practical tasks”.

PECSAW is an acronym used to achieve “well-formed outcomes”.  Get there, I suppose.  It stands for :

Positive

Evidence

Context

Self Achievable

Advantages / Disadvantages

Worthwhile

so – frame your goal in POSITIVE language  (less stressed, for example should be “calmer”).  What would be the EVIDENCE of that?  Sleeping better could be one outcome.  CONTEXT is the part of your life you want to achieve this outcome – at home / at work, you choose.  SELF ACHIEVABLE? Can I do it myself or do I need to influence things that are external.  ADVANTAGES/ DISADVANTAGES are obvious, and whether it’s WORTHWHILE should determine whether you bother to try doing it, I guess.

In the discussion that followed this, someone bravely admitted “I spend my life trying to find disadvantages – that’s why I’m here.  These are the things I need to change”.  Angus coached us on “filtering” to focus on the positives as well as the negatives.

Someone else told me “I’m not feeling as positive as when I came in, but I think that’s because I’m feeling more realistic about what I want to achieve (and that it might be possible). Just being here is a positive for me, creating the time to think about things”.

We moved on – here’s someone else’s view of the evening, lifted from the Media Parents watercooler:

“Angus’s life coaching session was a good introduction – and left
me wanting more. For those unable to make it we touched briefly on where we wanted to be in a year’s time (focusing on emotional association rather than career or practical ones). Angus, the life coach, then asked us to reflect on a struggle that we had overcome in 2010 – identifying those strengths we had inside that helped us achieve this. We had to predict what our hurdles would be in 2011 and showed us briefly that we had it in us to access those strengths that we had already possessed.”

Angus asked “Is the hurdle internal or external? If you are finding it hard to identify whether the hurdle is internal or external, it’s probably internal (you). If you’re thinking it’s a huge thing – it’s probably you”.  That’s a hell of a home truth to contemplate.  Debbie said “Last year I made a big decision to keep stress in different compartments when I was working and moving house at the same time – that’s work / this is life”.   Someone else told me “It’s been good to vocalise what’s been going on internally.  I’m definitely going to think more about advantages”.

Angus encouraged us to “recognise that you may face hurdles and be prepared for them.  If you want the confidence to become ‘intentional’ then don’t take these things by chance – think about how you feel when you feel confident and learn to turn on those behaviours so that your feeling of confidence isn’t by chance but you can summon it.”

Here’s a list of SUCCESSFUL BEHAVIOURS:

being intentional

expanding your range and flexibility

being curious

zooming in / zooming out (to look at detail or the bigger picture)

noticing your impact

building rapport

focusing on the result

Overwhelmingly the people from Media Parents who took part in the workshop felt that working with Angus had positively influenced their outlook for the year ahead.  Here are a few comments made anonymously “I will be more definite about what I want”. “I’ve realised that my biggest hurdle is me and my attitude”.  ”I’m going to take more risks this year”. “I had a good laugh and got a lot from the energy of the group”. “I feel more upbeat about tackling the year ahead”.

If you’d like to look at Angus Fletcher’s powerpoint presentation of the evening, please click here: MediaParentsPresentation To discuss life coaching with Angus and benefit from a discount he’s offering to Media Parents members, please go to www.angusfletcher.com or click the logo.