A new leaf? Picture courtesy of www.tvftdo.com

Having seen all the recent activity on my blog, one of my lovely clients asked if she could submit a blog giving an account of her personal coaching journey.  I know she has come such a long way and got a great deal from her coaching.  She has done this with focus and very impressive determination.  I am flattered by what she says and I am delighted she wants to share her story.

“I started my coaching with Sue in April 2008.  Initially, I was seeking help with my work life balance.  Once I began my sessions I could see how closely connected all areas of life are and how it’s hard therefore to discuss them independently – hence the title “Life Coaching”!

Life coaching with Sue has made a real difference to me. I have been able to look at my responses and  reactions to situations and take greater responsibility for my actions and decisions. This has enabled me to feel calmer and more in control of my life.  Coaching is powerful because through careful questioning it leads to finding solutions from within yourself.  Coaching is all about finding clarity and moving forward.

Sue has walked alongside me through a range of issues –  from time management, issues at work to more personal issues of communication within relationships and even enabling me to face a real fear and anxiety about driving.

Throughout, Sue has challenged and supported me.  It has been an incredible journey (quite literally with the driving!). I have learnt alot about myself and made valuable life changes.  Life Coaching is a real personal investment..  I have learnt the importance of making and taking time to look at my life.  It is not indulgent, it is a necessity if we wish to give and be our best not only to ourselves, but to those we live and work with.

Of course, the real success lies in finding and working with the right coach. I count myself very fortunate to have met Sue and to have had the opportunity to work with her. Sue offers more than just the ability and skills needed to be a coach.  Sue is compassionate and has a real commitment to her role as well as great intuition.    I met Sue at a time when I really needed help and guidance.  I can really see the difference between how I handled things before coaching and now.  With Sue I have found clarity, contentment and a feeling that whatever happens I “can handle it”.

This is priceless.  Life Coaching with Sue is a present to myself – and what a gift it is.”

Find out more about how life coaching can help you.
Free your mind – Live your life, free email coaching programme

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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More time needed

What if you could add a couple of hours to each day, would you do it?  Would you get everything done?  In the words of Louis Armstrong  ’We have all the time in the world’ or do we?  Do you frequently find that you run out of time?  Our busy world is filled with people rushing everywhere, to get the train, to pick up the children, to get some emails sent, to get to a meeting, the list goes on.  Where does time go?  I think time is such a valuable commodity it could even be sold on the stock market,  Just imagine if that was possible?  If you did buy more time what would you do with it?  Would you spend more time at work?  Would you spend more time with your family?

Here are my top tips for finding more time in your day.

1. Plan your day.  Decide what you want to do, decide what you want to achieve in a day.  Write down your goal for the day

2. Make a list. Write it down the night before and leave it on your desk or your worktop ready for you the next day.  When the next day comes stick to it.

3. Be firm.  Give others warning that you are sticking to your time frames and if someone wants to have some of your time then schedule it in advance.  Be firm with yourself too, don’t let distractions take you away from your plan.

4. Focus on the big things,  Remember you chose what you focus on and if you focus on the small things then they will get done.  So focus firmly on the big things and they will get done instead.  Stay with your main aims for each day.

5. Delegate.  If there are some things that you either hate doing or you could easily delegate then do it.  You’ll find by delegating it will free up your time to focus on the big things.

6. Celebrate.  Decide what treat you are going to have when your plan is accomplished.  Maybe give youself some ‘Me time’ at relevant points in the day.

Enjoy your time, it’s the only time you have.  Remember John Lennon’s famous quote:

 ’Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans’.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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A recent Harvard University study has shown that most people spend 46.9% of their waking hours in a state of distraction. The study found that people were thinking of anything other than what was happening around them for nearly half their time awake.  How disturbing is this?

The more I thought about this statement, the more it bothered me.  And one reason it bothered me is that I can relate to that feeling.  We live in a world of fast-moving wonderful technology.  We are used to instant gratification, we want instant answers.  Everything is now, now, now!  I attended an excellent conference today on Personal Development and Engaging Employees in the workplace.  It was fascinating stuff!  What I noticed was how at coffee and lunck break many delegates were huddled into every available corner of the conference centre hurridly speaking into their mobles.  Those who weren’t on their mobiles were looking at their Blackberrys and iPhones for emails.

So how do we address this and live our lives in the moment to enjoy and appreciate every minute.  It is of course a nirvana that many of us aspire to, yet not many of us (as the study shows) achieve.

Some tips:
1. Look around you, be aware of your surroundings, the sky, the trees, be aware of nature.
2. Breathe, then breathe again, slow deliberate breaths.  Let go of any tension.
3. Look at others around you, smile say hello, speak to people face to face.
4. Switch off your phones, look at email twice a day.
5. Sign up for the ‘Free Your Mind – Live Your Life’ free stress-busting elearning course, sign up is at the top left hand side of this page.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Some people say life is a game, a game of luck, I believe life is a game of getting back what you put in.

Many of us rush through life cramming as much in as possible and not taking time to notice what is going on around us.  Then suddenly something happens and we sit up and take notice.  A couple of weeks ago I found this movie clip, which I think says it all.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Ladies at 11 Business Awards, winners, sponsors and finalists

Friday 7th October saw a lively evening at Sandown Park for the inaugural Ladies at 11 Business Awards. The sparkling evening, sponsored by Natwest began with a champagne reception.  A difference on this occasion was the inclusion of men in this event, it was lovely to be able to take our husbands and partners along too.

Sarah Martin, Founder of Ladies at 11 welcomed us all before we filed through into the main room for a delicious dinner.

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in probably not enjoying my meal as much as I could have done as I was quite excited and apprehensive about the main event which of course was the award presentation. Imagine my dismay when I read the programme for the evening to find that we had to wait until 10.20pm for this to start.

The evening was expertly compered by Lynne Parker from Funny Women.  A raffle was held to raise funds for Eaves, a London-based charity that provides high quality housing and support to vulnerable women.

Throughout the evening guests were wowed by the creations of Miss Ballooniverse.

Carolyn Currie who heads up the new business development team for women for Natwest gave a presentation about women in business and female entrepreneurship.

Then came the presentation of the awards and the winners were as follows:

1. Inspirational Woman Award sponsored by MDM Associates – Winner - Lynne Parker, Funny Women

2. Entrepreneur of the year award sponsored by Tony Purslow Ltd. Mercedes- Benz Guildford – Winner - Samantha Kelly, Funky Goddess

3. New Business Award sponsored by Sandown Park – Winner - Diane Dunkley, RM2 Music

4. Continued Business Success Award sponsored by The Surrey Chambers – Winner - Zoe Brown, BWebsites

5. Networking Champion Award sponsored by Best of Guildford – Winner – Laura Hart, Voice Coach

6. Ladies at 11 Outstanding Contribution Award – Winner – Sue Bown, The Coaching Zone

7. The Natwest Award for the outstanding business success, judged from all the winners – Winner – Lynne Parker, Funny Women

Me winning my award, feeling very chuffed!

So I won the Ladies at 11 Outstanding Contribution award!  I am delighted for this award because I believe completely in what Ladies at 11 stands for.  I attended the second ever meeting of Ladies at 11 over three and a half years ago.  I have coached and mentored Sarah Martin along the way.  I know that Sarah and Ladies at 11 will go far, just you watch.

I am flattered by Sarah’s very kind comment on the night that without my support there would be no Ladies at 11. Wow, what can I say!

Congratulations to all of the winners and the finalists. With thanks to the sponsors and judges for an excellent event and to Ladies at 11 of course.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Find a way to live your life stress-free. Photo courtesy of tvftdo.com

It makes shocking reading but the report by Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) featured in many of the nationals today says exactly that.  Stress is so common-place it’s the top cause of workplace sickness and it’s so widespread it’s been called the Black Death of the 21st century.

Stress has overtaken stroke, heart attack, cancer and back problems as the commonest cause of absence from work.

Common causes of stress are an excessive workload, the boss’ management style, problems at home, anxiety regarding restructuring in the workplace.

What is stress?
Symptoms of stress are lack of focus, losing your temper more quickly than normal, losing your sense of humour.  Left untreated these can lead to more serious illnesses such as heart disease, stomach and bowel conditions and depression.

I believe that by living in a fast-paced world of fast answers, instant access, iPhones, Blackberrys and social media, whilst they all offer benefits to our lives, they can if misused by detrimental to our health.

My top tips for de-stressing:

1.  Give yourself time everyday.  Find some time even if it’s just 5 minutes where you can just be alone with your thoughts.  We all need thinking time

2.  Focus on your breathing, inhale fully, and exhale fully, using every part of your lungs.

3. Turn off social media, give yourself a break.

4. Take up meditation or yoga.  Both of these are so very beneficial to health and wellbeing.

5. Be your own best friend.  Think about some advice you’d give to a friend in the same situation and take that advice yourself.  You’ll be surprised what you know.

6. Sign up for my free email coaching programme, top left of this page.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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A badge of honour

‘Your letter is only the start of it…’, I was singing these words over and over again in my head this week.  Yes, you’ve guessed it I had the ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ theme tune stuck firmly in my head.

To begin with it made me laugh then after a while began to drive me mad.  I had watched the TV programme about Sir Jimmy Saville, who recently died, and who had hosted the legendary TV show ‘Jim’ll Fix It’.  In this British TV show, which ran from 1975 until 1994, Jimmy received letters from viewers asking for their wishes to come true and Jim to ‘fix it’ for them.  It was heart-warming Saturday night entertainment, guaranteed to bring tears of joy and hope.

Then I realised, I’ve recently written some email requests to people I don’t know asking them to help me, and guess what, some of the recipients agreed and made my wish come true.  I nearly didn’t write them as I tried to talk myself out of it.  Thoughts of ‘They don’t know me’, ‘It’s only me’, ‘They’ll say no’ ran through my head.  But I did it, I wrote to them and they said yes!  I am delighted!

Do you ever ask anyone to ‘fix it’ for you?  Or do you trudge on wishing you could ask for help or even knowing you should ask for help?  Go on, give it a try, you never know your wish may come true.

‘Your email was only the start of it……….’

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Top questions - picture courtesy of www.tvftdo.com

As a coach I ask a lot of questions, coaching is all about asking people questions that helps them think things through to enable them to progress, grow and reach their goals.  Sometimes the less I know about a client or their lives is better because then I ask the questions, that probably sound dumb, but makes a client fully think through what is going on in their life or business.

Funnily enough there are a great deal of questions I get asked too.  Here are the top 3 most popular questions right now:

How do I effectively manage my time?
This is a great question, because I have phases of being a bad manager of time.  I really enjoy having flexibility around my time, I like the feeling that I can choose to do what I want to do when I want to do it.  That’s great of course, up to a point.  There are many occasions where time has to be managed correctly, it helps with all sorts of things, getting things done for example .  Another  extremely vital reason is maintaining a good work/life balance.  Effective time management is something you can give to yourself.  Start by making some small changes, if you like flexibility give yourself some managed time and some unmanaged time.  Break tasks down into small steps, give yourself some deadlines.  Notice what works best for you and keep doing it.

How can I make sure I change my life?
Many people considering coaching are nervous about whether they can change or not.  They disbelieve that they’ve got what it takes to make the changes they want in their life to reach their goals.  My advice is to get started, we all learned to do things and to create patterns in our lives, the knowledge that we did learn is the proof that we can un-learn it too.  Human beings are creatures of habit, start gradually changing those habits and beliefs and you’ll get there.

My partner needs coaching how can I convince them?
This question comes up a great deal.  First thing to consider is how would you feel if the boot was on the other foot and your partner was suggesting you did something.  What would it be and how would you react?  Lose weight, give up smoking, take more exercise, get a new job.  It’s easy to find reasons why others should do something and not always easy to do something for yourself.  I believe the need for coaching has to come from within.  If it doesn’t then any reluctance will cause the coaching to not be as effective.  Step one is to see what changes you could make for yourself, maybe you could change your reaction to your partner, maybe just stopping the nagging could help.   By starting to do something for yourself could be the catalyst to help your partner get started themselves.

I hope you’ve found these questions useful, if you have any comments please use the comments section on this page, I’d love to hear from you.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Fed up with your avoidance tactics

Do you find you have days when procrastination is the order of the day.  You wake up in the morning filled with focus and determination.  You have a to-do list as long as your arm.  Then something happens to stop you in your tracks.  What is it, fear, perfectionism, control, indecision, bad time mangement, whatever it is it doesn’t feel good.  The brakes go on and the breaks go on.

Procrastination. The definition of this syllable-rich word is, to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness or to postpone or delay needlessly (source: www.thefreedictionary.com).

Now, I’m not going to go on about it, because it’s possible you’ve arrived here looking for a swift solution.

So let’s cut to the chase:

My Top Tip To Stop Procrastinating

Choose one non-negotiable hour every day when you will get on and do the tasks that regularly cause procrastination. The real tough tasks.

Set the countdown time on your mobile phone or your PC for one hour.  Make sure an alarm is going to sound at the end of an hour.

And get on with it!  See how much you can achieve in an hour.  It’s amazing.

Let me know how you get on.

About the Author: Sue Bown: Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

Twitter @thecoachingzone
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheCoachingZone

Other blog posts:
Would you buy more time?
Sarah Martin – aiming high and far
A Day in the Life
How do I indentify my target market?
How changing your view can reinvent your life

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts