Category: Personal Transformation

In the last post we covered three keys I learned while re-connecting with a childhood classmate who now coaches leaders in business, healthcare, the arts, and more.

Those first 3 keys highlight ways to be more effective working with people.

These next 3 are key to further success in business and in life.

So let’s dive in — three more keys I learned while talking with my friend for greater success:

An Overarching Vision

1) Behind her actions and her success, I discovered my friend has an overarching belief and vision that fuels her passion to coach and contribute to the lives and work of influential leaders in business and in the world.

Her vision is that if there are more leaders doing good in the world, then there will be more peace.

What’s yours?

How can you cultivate an overarching vision and belief that fuels your work or business, so that your day-to-day tasks, goals, and activities are connected to something larger that fuels and inspires you?

Positive Expectation

2) How many times have you found yourself hesitant to do something because it was new, unfamiliar, or beyond your comfort zone? Or perhaps you did it — you called that person, made that “ask” — but even as you did it, you expected to be turned down?

What I noticed in my friend is that she has cultivated a sense of positive expectation. Even if it takes months or years to engage someone as a client, she’s already determined that it is worth it to pursue a relationship with someone who stands out to her, and she is patient enough to let the relationship unfold over time if needed without letting initial disinterest affect her own sense of confidence, mission, and purpose.

Two of the best ways I’ve found to cultivate this sense of positive expectation are:

a) practice
b) internalizing the mindset and stories of people like my friend, so you have a broader perspective
and internal “database” to draw from than just what you’ve personally experienced so far.

A sense of ease

3) The final thing I noticed in my friend is her sense of ease. And this sense comes across not just as a personality trait, but with a deeper basis in a sense of trust, of confidence, of loving people as they are and knowing she’s loved by God.

With this deeper foundation, I sensed in speaking with her that she is enjoying her clients, her life, and even the process of discovering new people and cultivating new relationships with both confidence and ease.

How can you cultivate this sense of ease in your own life and work?

It comes from not being wholly dependent on how others see and react to you, or on your current circumstances, but rather having that deeper sense of loving people, loving life, and knowing you are loved.

In a sense, it means becoming “unconditional.”

This takes time and daily practice, too.

So there you have it — 3 more keys to cultivate:

1) An overarching vision
2) Positive expectation
3) A sense of ease based on loving people and knowing you are loved

Quick action step:

Write these three keys on a 3×5 card, post-it note, or with a dry-erase marker on your mirror, and practice reminding yourself and “laying the tracks” for these three keys in yourself this week.

Comments, questions? Have your own key to share?

Feel free to post below!

Here’s to your ongoing journey of creating a life you love!

Ben