SigmaU Blog

Pain sucks but it may just be the gift required to propel us forward!

Most of us avoid pain at all costs when, in reality, pain can serve as an amazing indicator that it’s time for change.

People will often stay in jobs, relationships, and countries they aren’t happy in until something painful enough to move them to action happens. Pain can be a great communicator if we’re open to learning.

Potential

When we experience pain, it is often because we recognize that we’re living below our potential. I remember experiencing this when I sat down at a family BBQ and I had to keep pulling my shirt away from my belly. I was embarrassed that I had let myself go and decided in that moment that I was living below my potential. The experience was awful BUT it made me commit to a healthier lifestyle which would expose me to my greater potential. What pain are you experiencing right now that could be an indicator that you were created for more than what you’re living...

Much of our success is contingent on the relationship we have with our self-talk. Often, we can be much harder on ourselves than others ever would be and, when it’s destructive, it will derail our goals and dreams!

There are four ways that you can mitigate this…

1. Set Intentions

The highest performers start each day with intention. They know what their high value tasks are, what their interactions will look like, and they predetermine how they will show up. They typically choose one word or three words that would describe their best selves. They think through what the day has in store, and they are deliberate about focusing on those three words.  My three words are disciplined, joyful and kind. I will make sure I think about the meetings, coaching sessions, and personal interactions I have coming up that day and ask myself how I can align with those words.  Choose a word today that would describe the best of who you could be. How would showing up that way...

A mentor reminded me that rarely does a good idea chase you down, you need to seek them out!

With that in mind, you and I must rise to the person of excellence we’re looking to become. That version of us will never come to meet us where we currently are!

How do we go about that? Through actively seeking that next level.

SEEK

S- Seek Through Insightful Questions.

One of the reasons I absolutely love High Performance Coaching™ is that it’s less about teaching and more about self-discovery. Clients and coaches go through a journey of understanding and clarity through transformational questions that are empowering and lead to change. The reason that this is so powerful is that our minds typically lead to negative thinking and disempowering questions. Coaching is focused on the future, changing thinking to seek the positive and possibility vs. visiting the past for excuses and reminders as to why we’re not equipped to reach out big goals. Daily high performers ask...

We all want more out of life, we want deeper relationships, we want more money, energy, opportunity, meaning!

To have more, we need to activate our potential by sharpening our edge! How do we go about doing that?

Reflect

Reflecting on past successes, failures and missed opportunities are great ways to think through our patterns. What have we done that works well? Reflecting gives us a chance to strengthen our resolve too! When I work with coaching clients who are in a slump, the first thing I have them do is create a success list of things that they have overcome, successes they have accomplished and challenges they have risen above. This reflection is an important reminder that in the past we have been able to sharpen our edge when it’s necessary to rise. We can sharpen our edge in the future to rise even higher!

Plan

The next powerful step is planning for success. Sharpen your edge by stretching your goal a little bigger than the original target. This stretching will expand...

Going through loss is such a complex process. I found myself slipping into thoughts that were more than regular sadness. I found myself in despair and teetering on entering another period of depression. I reflected on where I was at, through journaling, and realized that there were small things I could do to make this transitionary period easier, a little brighter and a way to cherish life.

Positive Inputs

One of the things I needed to regain control of was what I was listening to. I love listening to charged debates, but during this time I recognized it wasn’t serving me. In fact, it was making me edgy and pessimistic. I replaced my fiery podcast hosts and went back to the basics of personal development during my morning workouts, and it’s been helpful to ground me and refocus my energy on what I can control.

Pause & Reflect

The other powerful thing I found was self-reflection. Taking the time to look at the situation with a different perspective. I asked myself

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Jim Rohn famously said, “You’re not a tree.”  One of my colleagues says, “Your feet are not cement.” Both mean that you and I can change our circumstances should we chose to do so.

What holds most of us back? Fear of change, fear of the unknown?

In High Performance Coaching™ we dive into the psychology behind what holds most people back. It comes down to three primary things… process pain, loss pain and outcome pain.

Process Pain

What if uprooting my life and moving to another country is going to be painful? What if there’s mountains of paperwork, foreign languages to navigate and massive risk? What if moving towards that degree means that I will step into rooms where if feel unqualified? What if all of the steps involved to move on from this relationship are overwhelming? We can get caught up in the process, the tasks and steps and this is where most of us become paralyzed with fear and don’t move forward.

Loss Pain

What...