SigmaU Blog

Being intentional is not a small feat in a crazy busy world, but it is the key to living a fully engaged life!

I'm not sure about you but I often find myself going through the motions. When things are hectic or I'm under a lot of stress, I tend to push through tasks and even conversations with little thought.

The challenge of course is that this impacts our level of happiness and engagement. Let me explain.

When we're intentional about how we want to show up to a meeting, let's say, we know the behaviours we want to display. We know the energy we want to bring and we know the outcome we're aiming for. At the end of the meeting, we can reflect on how we measured up to our expectations.  Without intent, the meeting "just happens".

The same is true on our personal relationships and the interactions we have. We can half listen while scrolling on our phones while our spouse is describing their day, or we can listen deeply. When we show up to these interactions it takes effort but I...

Everyone we meet has value. They have worth and most likely expertise and strength in certain areas of life. They can offer wisdom and mentorship that's extremely valuable and can propel us forward faster than doing it alone.

On the other hand, there are an equal amount of people ready to offer terrible advice on topics they are not well-versed on or have little to no achievement in.

We've all received horrible advice at one point in time and can probably say that excellent advice has saved us too.

So where do we take advice from? What's the criteria?

Two things that are critically important as I'm seeking advice is...

1. Has the person giving advice mastered or excelled in this area?
2. Is it in line with my core values and is my intuition saying yes?

Would you take relationship advice from someone who hasn't been in a longterm, happy and loving relationship?

Would you take money advice from someone who is struggling financially?

Would you take career advice from someone who has...

This week I had to display courage in many ways. It took courage to speak my truth when my voice was shaking. It took courage to own my reaction and own the consequences of it – and it took courage to reflect and revisit an uncomfortable situation to move forward.

It got me thinking about courage and just how important it is to live a fully charged and authentic life.  Most of us will run into situations that require courage and, more times than not, we’re not ready. We don’t have our sword and shield up and we’re often blind-sided. What happens, and what happened to me when I wasn’t ready and had my back against the wall, was an instinctual reaction.

How do we know when courage is required?

C – Core Values

When something comes up that conflicts with our core values, it takes courage to speak up. It can be incredibly uncomfortable and even lonely to stay true to your beliefs when you’re facing the majority. But to live in congruence...

A mentor recently said something that made me scream “Yes!” because it is completely true. He said “Most people assume that the 1% have the secret to success. The reality is that the 99% just don’t want to believe that it comes down to hard work, discipline and grit.” WOW! Agreed. I have to admit, I hoped that there was a secret to success, a shortcut or a secret sauce, but he’s right. At the end of the day, success requires a lot of hard work and most often we underestimate the effort required on our part.

So how do we build grit?

G – Give

The reality is that you’ll most likely give a lot more than you receive, especially at the beginning. If you’re building a business, you’ll give a ton of value, information, free advice and extraordinary service with little returns. That’s just the reality. It’s a grind and requires inputs at a high level to achieve results. If it’s with your health, you’ll give...

I know better, but I did it anyway! I checked my email and read a news headline before I was finished my morning routine and you know what? It messed with my head!

One thing that I’ve learned from the High Performance Coaching ™ community, is the importance of keeping a morning routine that is sacred and sets you up for success.

My morning routine normally consists of an early start, gratitude journaling, goal setting, setting intentions for how I want to show up, planning for what might trip me up, prayer and meditation. Most days, I’m vigilant about guarding my time.

Today, I was halfway through my gratitude journal and wanted to email myself a quick note about an upcoming team social so that I wouldn’t forget. Well, you guessed it! I was pulled in to my phone (something I typically don’t touch until my routine is done) and got sucked into emails!

I derailed my morning routine, answered some emails and before you knew it, was behind schedule. Slight...

I accidentally leveled up the other day! Let me explain. I was running on the treadmill and didn’t realize that I had mistakenly pressed the speed button higher than usual. It wasn’t until I looked down that I noticed I had been running at a pace that was new for me and presumably outside of my comfort zone.

I learned from that experience to question my comfort zone. In that moment, I thought to myself “where else am I holding myself back from leveling up”? Clearly, the speed that I had previously gotten comfortable at was a pace slower than I was capable of.

Sometimes we level up when we’re thrown into a situation we’re unprepared for or we press the speed button without realizing it!

Here are some ways that you and I can be intentional about leveling up…

1. Our Associations

The people you surround yourself with matter to your level of success. This could be personally or professionally. It could be physically, your nutrition,...

Life will smack us in the face with the unexpected and when it does, it’s normally not a pleasant surprise.  In fact, most of the time when you and I are blindsided it SUCKS big time!!

Here are a few ways that I've found helpful to deal with those surprises...

1. Listen to The Alarm

Listen to your bedside alarm and get up and going. Listen to the proverbial alarm, that nagging voice in your head and get up and get moving. Taking action diminishes doubt and quickly replaces complacency with momentum.

2. Nourish Your Soul

Do something that nourishes your soul. Read, pray, meditate, sit in silence, listen to the sounds in your environment. Use all five senses to ground yourself and breathe. Deep. Cleansing. Purifying breaths.

3. Feel Your Feelings

Set aside time to feel the feels. Get angry, weep, wallow and give yourself permission to sit in the suck. Don't judge what you feel, who you feel angry towards, or the nasty narrative. Let it play for a prechosen period. Then...

Abraham Lincoln famously said, “If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.”

I thought of this recently as I submitted my workout photo to my accountability group. When I sent in my “glamourous” sweaty shot, I put the caption “Axe is sharpened”.  Meaning that the most important part of my day is getting mentally and physically prepared to set myself up for success.

There were several times in the past, especially when work got really busy, that I would question the time I was taking to work out. Then it dawned on me, that it was one of THE most important things I needed to be doing to show up as my best self!

How do you go about sharpening your axe? First, take an assessment on what dulls your axe. What dulls your senses? Is it video games, scrolling, wine, weed? We all have vices that may not be serious addictions but when we evaluate them, may be derailing or slowing our progress.

The...

Robin Sharma wrote a book called “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” and in that book he talked about the importance of clarity. He used the example of an archery target and how we cannot hit a target we do not see. He expressed the importance of crystal-clear goals so we know we’re on track and to motivate us.

I was reminded of this concept this morning when I jumped on the treadmill. When I start my workouts, the first thing I do is look at my strain goal for the day. Then I get fired up and determine to not only hit that target but surpass it.

This morning, my performance band didn’t indicate my target strain. It was calculating the minutes, the calories, and my current strain but it didn’t register my goal. I’ll be honest, it threw me off. I need to have a crystal-clear goal in mind to get me pumped up. Chances are you do too. 

The challenge is that most of us have vague goals. I know that prior to working with a coach, I had goals like...

How are you pursuing life? Is it in a reactive state or are you pursuing life with bold determination?

If you are unsure consider the following...

Leaders and High achievers set their sights on bigger goals. They are consistently chasing after a dream or goal that will require them to stretch. They may not meet their goal, but they know it is worth every moment of effort because it is shaping them into an excellent human.

As Jim Rohn famously said…

“The major value of reaching goals is not to acquire it, but it’s the person you become while you’re working to acquire it.”

Leaders and high achievers can think bigger and have possibility vs. limited thinking. You will rarely hear them say things like…

It’s never been done before?

I’m not sure I can do it?

What makes you think you can achieve this?

These questions are examples of limited thinking and a closed mind.

Achievers say things like…

If not me than who?

Why not?

What is...