SigmaU Blog

Perhaps you're embarking on a new year with grand ambitions. Some goals may even seem risky and require courage to take on.

Calculated risk is what high achievers do to leapfrog past average performers. They demonstrate courage more often than their peers and as a result, they see consistent and significant success.

We’re naturally inclined to minimize risk or avoid it all together. But what if we thought about risk in a new way? 

R- RISE UP

New levels if success will require us to abandon old habits and patterns that aren't in line with the person required to meet our bold goal. Look at calculated risk towards a big goal as a way to rise up. What are some of the habits you currently have that no longer serve the person you’re striving to become? What habits do you currently do that support that future best self and how can you amplify them to reach your goal? Where do you find inspiration to rise? Is it a friend, coach, author, or podcast host? What would it look...

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’m embarrassed to admit it, but while I was doing my annual reflection, the first subconscious thought that jolted me while reminiscing on 2022 was… “you lived below your potential”. 

Ouch! That was tough to hear.  I’m doing my best to be open and coachable and listen to the hard truths that are often just what we need to hear.

Don’t get me wrong, there were several positive habits I kept in place from previous years, but I had this nagging feeling that I could have done way more.  This isn’t about perfection or striving for 10 out of 10 and consistently moving the target. This was an honest reflection on what I had done, and I had come up short.

There were some telltale signs that I missed, or let’s face it, ignored so I’m sharing those with you here so you can catch yourself before too much time passes.

1. Things running too smoothy

You may be thinking “Um Nikki, of course I want life to run...

Fuel is damn expensive these days and keeping our tanks full is costly, but it's necessary to get around.

Consider for a moment, another type of fuel tank and that's your mind.

Our minds are beautiful, malleable, intricate, and powerful tools we can use to reach enormous heights.

The challenge is, we often shrink back from trying to chase our goals and dreams because we don't control our thinking.

Here's where the power lies! Consider your mind to have two separate fuel tanks side by side to form one large tank that keeps us motoring.

One side, will feed us negative thoughts. We will see the bad in all things. The weather is too cold, the relationship is meh, the business opportunities mediocre. And when we add fuel to this tank it works very efficiently to keep pumping us with evidence to support all the negativity we see.  A full negativity tank will tell us every reason why we are selfish for wanting more, don't have the time or we're unworthy of investing in our personal...

I was on a group coaching call last night and my coach and mentor made a statement that made me stop dead in my tracks.

He said, “Same distractions, same year”! BOOM!

What a concept and so incredibly true. He was walking us through an exercise to evaluate our distractions and things we needed to eliminate to focus on our goals in the coming year.  When he said that, I literally said “WOW” out loud, put down my pen and shook my head.

It got me thinking.  We will continuously have a carbon copy of the year before unless we shake things up! I once heard someone say something to the effect that people who live the same lives over and over each year stop living well before their dead!

As I reflected on this powerful statement, I started substituting distractions for other words.

Same distractions, same year.

Same associations, same year.

Same nutrition plan, same year.

Same workouts, same year.

Same date nights, same year.

Same habits, same year.

I...

A great coach will PUSH you to your next level of excellence!

Part of why I love the High-Performance Coaching ™ community is that we are taught that we are paid to push our clients. We’re not paid to be friends or counsellors; we’re not equipped to deal with trauma, but we are paid to push the boundaries.

So how does a great coach do that?

P – Paint a Picture

It’s cliché but true, often we cannot see the forest for the trees. A coach provides an objective perspective of reality while encouraging you to paint a picture of the future. Better yet, a great coach pushes you to paint a picture that is so outside of your comfort zone that it’s difficult to believe it can happen. Since we often limit our dreams and goals, an outside coach who believes we can make things happen is critical for thinking bigger!

U – Uncover Strengths

Great coaches will work with you to focus on your strengths.  For years, you were probably told to double...

Earl Nightingale shares a story about a father explaining, The Goose and the Golden Eggs story. In this metaphor, the father explains to his son there is a goose producing golden eggs.  The moral of the story is, most people capitalize on the eggs (car, house, boat) the goose produces rather than carefully nurturing the goose itself!

You and I are the “Goose” of Course! It’s important to nurture our minds and bodies so we can continue to grow and improve.  Without the goose, the eggs are worthless. You can have all the possessions in the world, but if you’re not working on improving your health, what is it worth? You have to invest in your personal development growth as well to continuously evolve and grow into an even stronger, capable goose.

How do you go about that?

Motivational books and podcasts are a great way to feed your mind and soul with inspirational stories and strategies for living your best life.  High Performance Habits by...

Accountability starts with you! That can be harsh to hear, but it’s true, and a lesson that I’ve learned over the past couple of years.

No one is coming to hold your hand, or mine, to make sure we get stuff done.  The person who cares the most is standing in the mirror.

We may have friends that support us, accountability partners we check in with and coaches who champion us along; at the end of the day, its up to us to get the work done.

I’ve found that friends and even accountability partners can let us off the hook too easily.  We make a big claim about our fitness, and we falter. Often, we’re met with niceties such as “don’t be so hard on yourself”, “you needed a day off”. While this feels good in the moment it’s not what we need and it won’t challenge or change us.

We make the change every time we decide to make a promise, set a goal, and then do it no matter what. Coincidently, every time we keep that...

If you’ve never worked with a coach, I promise you, the return is tenfold! Coaching brings a new sense of self awareness.  A coach is an objective partner that will teach you the necessary skills to achieve self-mastery, and provide a gentle nudge of encouragement on your journey to success.  Here are some of the ways coaching has helped me recently…

1.  Stay on track with positive habits

Sometimes, we don’t realize that we’ve slipped up or fallen back in to old patterns until someone holds up a mirror for us. This happened recently while I was working with my coach. The topic we were covering that day was presence.  The deeper we got in to the conversation, the more I realized that I had completely slipped back in to an old pattern that wasn’t serving me! I was checking email first thing in the morning in bed, during lunch and after hours. I was back to having an umbilical cord relationship with my phone and I had stopped separating...

I had the honour of being coached by one of my coaching clients today! At Sigma Promotions we hold Feel Good Friday Zoom calls over the lunch hour. We talk about all things positive and personal development concepts. This week, I passed the torch to Lindsay, and she blew me away!

Here are some of the key AHA moments that I took away…

Try something new!

We all crave a sense of novelty.  Fill your cup by treating yourself to something new. This could be a new restaurant, food, new hobby or simply a new meditation technique that will inject a little fun into your world.

Watch your self-talk

Lindsay shared the importance of being kind to yourself. As a recovering “meanie” to myself for years, I appreciated this point. She recommended that we become aware of those negative looping things we say to ourselves and to break the pattern with a cool idea. Lindsay shared how she started leaving herself sticky notes around the house and at work. These positive and...