Day #30 – Seven Questions to “Reboot Your Life”

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365 Ways to Start Over, board development, executive coaching, getting unstuck, life coaching, life transformation, making changes, Mary Lee Gannon, moving on, Pittsburgh, reboot your life, starting over, starting over now, sustainable change, work life balance

365 Ways to Start Over: Day #30 – Seven Questions to “Reboot Your Life”

Find a few quiet moments and sit down with a fresh piece of paper and a pencil. The answers you are about to generate are so revealing you won’t want to scribble them on scrap paper or pencil them in between other notes you are taking. Make sure there are no distractions around you visual or auditory – just pleasant inspirational things to look at or listen to. The answers to these questions may have many parts so have extra paper near by.

Reboot Your Life Questions:

1. Now what is the one wildly out of reach aspiration you would do if you knew you could not fail?

2. What do you keep telling yourself is the reason you can’t do that?

3. What are you doing instead?

4. What has this mindset and the behaviors associated with it cost you?

5. How would the results be different if you reached your aspiration?

6. What would you be doing differently in this fulfilled state?

7. When you are in this totally rewarded and satisfied place where everything in your life is in unison and energy flows effortlessly through you as you live your life purpose every day – what empowering thought is going through your mind?

The secret to Rebooting Your Life” is simple. Replace #2 with #7. Here’s how you are going to do that.

Reboot Your Life Plan:

1. Write the statement from #7 in bright colorful letters on index cards or paper (I call these – Reboot Reminders) and tape them everywhere you spend time: the rim of your computer screen, bathroom mirror, refrigerator, dresser mirror, desk, in your car.

2. When the limiting head trash of #2 comes flooding back into your mind, erase it and replace it with #7. Go to tone of the Reboot Reminders that you posted and write down something differently you have done to reboot your head trash toward life purpose and date it. These dates and notes will remind you that you CAN make change – sustainable change. You already have! Start now!

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Mary Lee Gannon is the president of Gannon Group – an executive coaching and consulting firm that produces higher individual and organizational performance through Executive Leadership Coaching, Fundraising Coaching, Organizational Development, Board Retreats, Visioning, and Planning. Mary Lee’s personal turnaround came as a stay-at-home mother, with four children under seven-years-old, who endured a divorce that took she and the children from the country club life to public assistance from where within a short time she worked up to the level of CEO. Her book “Starting Over – 25 Rules for When You’ve Bottomed Out” is available in bookstores or at Amazon. Get her FREE ebook – “Grow Productivity – A Leader’s Toolbox” on her web site at www.StartingOverNow.com.

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Day #28 – The Rock Your World Quiz

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business coaching, creating a plan for your life, executive coaching, finding your life purpose, Goal setting, life coaching, living your dreams, Mary Lee Gannon, Pittsburgh, starting over, starting over now, time management, work life balance

365 Ways to Start Over: Day #28 – The Rock Your World Quiz

This is a lesson on how to break things into purposeful chunks so that you can move the mountain in front of you out of the way.

1. What one really far out there, totally off the wall, extravagant, beyond your reach thing could you get done that would part the clouds and rain a parade of sunshine into your life? This goal should be something you never thought you would accomplish and should be an act of purpose that you have dreamed about. Just the mere thought of it sends an exhilarating jolt up your spine and through your veins, emulating energy from you that lifts you right out of your chair. It’s the view from a magic carpet 30,000 feet above your life where you see, smell and hear yourself fulfilled, joyous, serene and peacefully making a difference that lies to rest every unsettled urge that ever existed in your spirit. In this place your strengths are at play in full capacity. What you are doing is in total alignment with your values. Your smile stretches right off your face and onto the face of others. This is your life’s purpose.

2. Now, on a scale of one to ten how close are you to getting that done?

3. What one thing could you do that would move you one notch higher closer to 10?

4. What are you working on that takes your time away from your purpose? (If you are answering emails and working late are you working for yourself or on someone else’s project? Can you truly be of benefit to others when your own purpose is not fulfilled?)

5. What are you going to do differently tomorrow than you did today?

If you have definitive answers to each of these questions, you will soon be doing things that rock your world. If not, you won’t. It is difficult to create new habits. But a strong vision of yourself in a place that fulfills you will keep you on track. Passion is not enough. Set goals. And work yourself closer to your goal everyday by eliminating what is not in alignment with your values. Start now!

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Mary Lee Gannon is the president of Gannon Group – an executive coaching and consulting firm that produces higher individual and organizational performance through Executive Leadership Coaching, Fundraising Coaching, Organizational Development, Board Retreats, Visioning, and Planning. Mary Lee’s personal turnaround came as a stay-at-home mother, with four children under seven-years-old, who endured a divorce that took she and the children from the country club life to public assistance from where within a short time she worked up to the level of CEO. Her book “Starting Over – 25 Rules for When You’ve Bottomed Out” is available in bookstores or at Amazon. Get her FREE ebook – “Grow Productivity – A Leader’s Toolbox” on her web site at www.StartingOverNow.com.

Day #22 – Killer Problem Solving (Great for Meeting Facilitation too)

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executive coaching, facilitating a meeting, good meeting facilitation, how to build consensus, how to deal with strong personalities at a meeting, how to facilitate a meeting with a problem, how to generate solutions to a difficult problem, how to problem solve on a team, how to solve problems, life transition coaching, Mary Lee Gannon, problem solving, starting over now, work life balance

365 Ways to Start Over: Day #22 – Killer Problem Solving (Great for Meeting Facilitation too)

Problem solving is often difficult whether the problem is yours alone or one that requires group consideration. If the problem is personal in nature, you may feel ‘stuck’ in moving forward. In working with groups of people either at work, in volunteer activities or in your own family it may seem impossible to generate fresh ideas or for a group to come to a consensus. Resources may be thin. Strong personalities may weigh with heavy influence. Personal agendas may come into play. Different constituents may have different goals. The following steps will help you to solve any problem whether it needs a group solution or it is a personal issue.

Problem Solving on the Fly

1. Define the problem. Write down exactly what the issue is and gain agreement from all parties. If working with a team, it is imperative that there be buy-in from everyone involved in order to gain the best solution. Is the problem that sales are down? Or is it that production cannot keep up with orders? Are you stuck and can’t make a decision on your life purpose?

2. Establish criteria for evaluating solutions. Do not consider the solution when doing this. Instead think of what will make a solution a good solution? Will it be cost efficient? Will it require low overhead? Ask the question, “The solution should be one that _______ and does not __________.” Ie: The solution should increase sales and not necessarily increase costs – thus a redistribution of resources not spending more. The solution should provide me with fulfillment in mind body and spirit and nothing is too far out to consider.

3. Identify a root cause of the problem. The root cause can most easily be defined by asking ‘Why?’ five times. Why did we miss our goal? Because we didn’t sell enough product? Why not? Because we didn’t have enough opportunities to get in front of our ideal client. Why not? Although we closed a high percentage of the clients we met with, we didn’t acquire enough leads for appointments. Why not? Because our internal sales force did not have enough training nor were they incentivized? Why not? We didn’t develop a program for this strategy.

4. Generate alternative solutions. Ie: 1) We establish a training program with skilled trainers. 2) We invest in better training for our trainers. 3) We establish an incentives program for the internal sales force. 4) We establish a referral program whereby existing customers get a price reduction for every lead that converts to a sale. Or: 1) I will devote 60 minutes everyday to doing something I have never done before. 2) I will schedule coffee meetings with three people this month that have achieved success in an area of interest to me.

5. Evaluate each solution based on the criteria in #2.

6. Select the best solutions.

7. Develop an action plan. The plan should include:1) key stakeholders, 2) key metrics that you will measure, and 3) a timeline.

8. Implement the plan. Adjust the plan along the way and record the changes so that a process becomes clear.

9. Measure the outcomes and communicate the progress. The culture of any organization, family or group relies on clear communication. Tell your plan to someone who will hold you accountable to it.

Executing this strategy closes the gap between a desired solution and a current situation in a straight forward way. For a personal issue this promotes an assessment of all viable options in an objective manner. For teams, this allows for everyone to weigh in with opinions and for everyone to own the outcome. Start now!

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Mary Lee Gannon is the president of Gannon Group – an executive coaching and consulting firm that produces higher individual and organizational performance through Executive Leadership Coaching, Fundraising Coaching, Organizational Development, Board Retreats, Visioning, and Planning. Mary Lee’s personal turnaround came as a stay-at-home mother, with four children under seven-years-old, who endured a divorce that took she and the children from the country club life to public assistance from where within a short time she worked up to the level of CEO. Her book “Starting Over – 25 Rules for When You’ve Bottomed Out” is available in bookstores or at Amazon. Get her FREE ebook – “Grow Productivity – A Leader’s Toolbox” on her web site at www.StartingOverNow.com.