In part three of this net casting I look at the following questions (read parts one and two below. If you want to join me, you can spend 7-15 minutes daily on each question):
7. What new growth opportunities will excite and energize me?
8. What risks am I ready to take? Where am I ready to step into a new unknown territory?
9. What will make me very proud next year?

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Oct.31.2007 :: Coaching, Personal Growth :: No Comments »

Here are the next three questions in my October deliberations. If you want to join me, you can start by keeping a journal and spend 7-15 minutes daily on each question. Alternatively you may have a conversation about these questions with a friend:
4. What am I doing that I no longer need to do? What am I ready to stop doing?
5. What do I want to learn? What new skills and capabilities do I want to develop?
6. Forgiveness is the greatest act of self love – what am I prepared to forgive?

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Oct.30.2007 :: Coaching, Personal Growth :: No Comments »

October is almost over and the end of year draws near. Every new year brings in a new flux of opportunities, challenges, energy and growth. Each year, I begin to cast the net for the new year in October. It’s great time to reflect, explore ideas, and deliberate on options. This annual net casting is a process of bringing myself up to date with where I am today. I harvest learning and wisdom from my journey so far this year; I identify needs, trends and directions and I draw future plans and possibilities. This process starts in October and I keep working on it through the end of the year. This helps me “plough the field” and gives the process time to breathe in and out. I do this by dwelling on certain questions. Some questions need time to simmer and percolate and it takes time to engage the holistic capacities of the mind.

Beginning to cast your net now makes you more ready for golden opportunities to find you in the new year. In the next four days I will post three questions daily that I am deliberating on as I begin to cast the net for the new year. Here are the first three questions:

1. What have I learned this last year? What have I enjoyed and found satisfying?
2. What do I no longer need? What can I clear out of the way, to make space for the new?
3. Who are the important people in my life that help me be the person I am? What do they need from me? How can I be there for them?

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Oct.29.2007 :: Coaching, Personal Growth :: No Comments »

Rachel is a bright executive. She moved swiftly up the corporate ladder and was given responsibility for a large division in her company. She relocated and quickly adapted. Yet, for a few months Rachel continued to struggle. She hadn’t been able to communicate effectively with a key manager. He had been a talented manager and she tried a number of approaches but simply couldn’t get through to him.
When we spoke about her struggle it became clear to Rachel that it was not the manager she was struggling with. It was herself. “It’s my own internal sense of clarity and direction that I am having difficulty finding. My ineffectiveness with this manager is just a by-product. It’s not about him, it’s about me.”

The lights turned on for her when she realized this and proceeded to articulate that what she faced was not ‘doing’ things differently, rather it was finding a new, more powerful sense of ‘being’. It was not a technique to be found on the outside – it was a new knowledge of self, inside her, that she was looking for.

I challenged Rachel to clarify and reach for the things that were absolutely essential for – her core values and vision for herself. She came back with a tremendous sense of self-discovery, liberation and strength. Rachel then realized that she had released something powerful within. She had found a more authentic voice and the results were thrilling.

In the weeks following our coaching, Rachel was cruising at a different altitude. Her focus and enhanced effectiveness surprised even her. “It’s as though I have new amperage about me and there is a kind of grace and joy that accompanies all that I do. My communication is clearer and more confident. It is not an act. I have a compelling inner sense of what is important, of my values and of what I cannot compromise. People respond to me differently. I was able to find a powerful new clarity with the manager I had struggled with previously. I haven’t really changed a lot of what I say; it’s that I am now able to come out from a different place. The conviction and the energy come from the inside and other people can’t help but notice.”

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Oct.23.2007 :: Coaching, Leadership :: No Comments »