BEAT THE RAT RACE

IT'S A RAT RACE OUT THERE!
If your week has been anything like mine, you've been running pedal to the metal from one job to the next, one appointment to the next, one errand to the next. You've barely had time to breathe! At the end of the day as you finally flop down into your bed, your mind is still actively in the race, thinking about all the "To-Do Lists" you've got to get "To Done" tomorrow! It's exhausting! Listen, if you burn the candle at both ends you aren't half as bright as you think you are.

IS IT MAKING ANY DIFFERENCE?
The worst part is, without any down time to just pause, reflect, dream, vision cast, assess, your life may be closer to that image of the guy in the hamster wheel than you realize. You might be going 100MPH but you aren't making any progress in the things of life that REALLY matter!

STOP! TAKE A DAY OFF!
No, I'm serious! Really! Take a day off! Yes, a WHOLE DAY OFF! Don't do anything! Don't work from home! Don't catch up on housework, or errands! Just take a day off and recharge your batteries. STOP before you crash and burn!! Sometimes you have to take yourself out of the rat race before you become a rat! Give yourself a break!

GO GET SPIRITUAL/PHILOSOPHICAL
While you are resting, spend some time in meditation and/or prayer. Get alone with your thoughts. Don't think about your to do list tomorrow. Think further out than that! 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years into the future. Where do you want to be? Who do you want to be? What do you want to be doing? Who do you want to be doing it with? Let your imagination run wild and dream big!

YOUR STRESS WILL 

KEEP ON COMING
You will never get ahead of stress. It will keep on coming. Every day will present new challenges, trials, struggles. Working yourself to death 24 hours a day will not get rid of your stress! It will just guarantee that you will be less prepared for the stress that's already heading your way tomorrow. You were designed to sleep, every night. you were designed to take a Sabbath day, a down day, where you do nothing but commune with loved ones and your Creator.

NEVER GIVE UP!
Continue to be hopeful. Know in your mind and heart that you will get through this. Refuse to stress yourself out. Give yourself time to relax and refuel. Clear your head and pull yourself together so that you can come back and face life stronger, more determined and fired up. You are special and valuable and significant! Believe that! I believe in you!

SIMON AND GARFUNKEL SAY 

"GO FEEL GROOVY"

That's my Life Coaching Prescription for you today! GO FEEL GROOVY! Way back in 1966, Simon and Garfunkel recorded "The 59th Street Bridge Song" which is better known as "Feelin' Groovy!" I was only three years old at the time but I can remember growing up listening to the lyrics. In case it doesn't ring a bell for you, here they are.

You got to make the morning last.

Just kicking down the cobble stones.

Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.

Hello lamppost,

What cha knowing?

I've come to watch your flowers growing.

Ain't cha got no rhymes for me?

Doot-in' doo-doo,

Feelin' groovy.

Got no deeds to do,

No promises to keep.

I'm dappled and drowsy 

and ready to sleep.

Let the morning time drop 

all its petals on me.

Life, I love you,

All is groovy.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll give everything I've got

to help you become

everything you want to be!

www.LifeCoachGregScott.com

Remember,

YOU ARE

The Great Adventure!

~~ Greg ~~

COMPARING

Only compare you ... to the old you!
There's always someone out there who is stronger, faster, thinner, prettier, more handsome, more popular, smarter, richer, bigger, more connected. If you fall into the trap of comparing yourself with others, no matter how awesome you are, you will often come away feeling like less than you really are. Don't fall into that trap. Don't try to be someone else. Just focus on being the best YOU that YOU can be! That's more than enough, because YOU ARE AWESOME! You are the Great Adventure and God believes in you, and SO DO I!

So how can we make you a better you today?
Have you written down a couple of major goals? Just a couple areas of your life you want to make some improvement in? If you haven't done that yet, that's the first step. Dreams that have not been written down, stay just dreams, something to fantasize about when you want to escape reality. Write them down though and they become goals, something to work toward and realize. Once you've got those goals, you've got to pursue them passionately and consistently!

Stay Hungry for your goals! 
People who are "HUNGRY" are willing to do the things today that others won't do in order to have the things tomorrow that others won't have. People who are hungry are relentless. People who are hungry are unstoppable. For people who are hungry - NO Excuse is acceptable! Visualize your goals! Say to yourself "It's not over till I SUCCEED! It's not over until I attain SIGNIFICANCE!" Be the best you that you can be!  I'm here to help you when you are ready!

I'll give everything I've got

to help you become

everything you want to be!

www.GreatAdventureCoaching.com

Remember,
YOU ARE

The Great Adventure!

~~ Greg ~~

CONFIDENCE

It’s time to believe in yourself! God gave you abilities, natural talents, intellect, personality and willpower! He says if you delight in Him He will give you the desires of your heart! What are the desires of your heart? Who do you want to become? What do you want to accomplish? Why do you doubt yourself and criticize yourself and talk yourself out of your dreams?

You have enough critics! You don't need one more, especially not yourself! You have the power to do more than you ever thought you could do. God has faith in you! I have faith in you! Have faith in yourself!

Stop letting your past define you! It doesn't have any real power or presence in the world. It exists only in your mind. Stop trying to go back to a place that doesn't exist! Stay rooted in your present. Don't worry about tomorrow, each day has enough to keep you engaged. Today, this day, matters! The present is where you will make your impact on the world. The present is where you can begin to change lives, starting with your own.

You've got to take care of you! You want to take care of other people but listen, you cannot give what you do not have! If you don't take care of you, you won't be around to take care of anyone else. There's a reason the airlines tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first before you try to help someone else.

While you are rooted in the present, keep your feet pointed toward the future! You redefine your future when you redesign your present. Take a fearless inventory of yourself every night! Look at your health, your career, your finances, your relationship, your self-esteem, etc. What's the balance sheet look like? What line items do you want to look differently? Do you realize that you have the power and authority to set that plan in motion?

Revisit your goals every morning and ask yourself what you are doing on a daily basis to bring those plans to fruition. Resolve to take at least one positive step in the right direction. Don't try to do everything at once! Just do something!

Are you on track for your big picture plans and goals? Or are you off course, chasing squirrels? You have to daily monitor your progress and make sure you course correct quickly. No one runs in a perfect straight line but your path to success and significance in life will be shortest and most direct by keeping your eyes firmly fixed on your primary goal.

Above all, be teachable! Be coachable! Figure out what you want to do and then find someone that has already done it and hire them to assist you. Hire them so you can save yourself time and costly mistakes.

There’s no secret to success but there IS a system to success! Once you learn and implement that system, you’re golden. I promise you that you have something special, something you can believe in. It's right inside you and we just need to bring it to the surface! Believe in yourself! You were designed and destined for significance!

I'll give everything I've got

to help you become

everything you want to be!

www.GreatAdventureCoaching.com

Remember,

YOU ARE

The Great Adventure!

~~ Greg ~~

WELLNESS WEDNESDAY: SELF-TALK

WELLNESS WEDNESDAY: SELF-TALK

Be careful of how you speak to yourself. Protect the wellness of your mind. If you don't closely monitor your self-talk, much of what you say to yourself amounts to negative, limiting beliefs that will hold you back in life. Unchecked, they actually can do far worse than that.

They can poison your attitude, drain your energy and weaken your spirit. You can end up being your own worst enemy, worst of all, an enemy you never see coming. Quit sucker punching yourself. Stop kicking yourself when you are down.

So raise your self awareness today. Be aware that, ungoverned, the negative novelist who lives inside your brain will magnify your fears, bury your faith and empower a spirit of hopelessness.

At Great Adventure Coaching we call that spirit The Inner Saboteur and he/she is YOU!! Kick that voice out of your head today before he/she steals any more of your life. Tell yourself how you expect yourself to be treated from now on and then follow through. I know it sounds a little crazy but believe me it works. You are talking to yourself all the time anyway. I'm just telling you to be more intentional about what you are saying.

Open up that incredible loving heart of yours and love on YOU today! You are worth it! Love yourself unconditionally, just like your Creator does. Treat yourself at least as well as the strangers you meet throughout the day. So polite to them, you would never dream of saying the horrible things you say to yourself. (If you do speak ugly to strangers we've got a different set of problems we need to work on.)

Celebrate the positives in your life right now. Oh, yes there are! The positives ARE TOO there! Look hard enough and you will find them! Shut off the negative already and accentuate the positive.

Stop worrying about a million what ifs and your ten thousand problems. Just focus on doing the next, right thing. And then do the next right thing. And then the next right thing. You matter! What you think matters! What you say matters! What you do matters! You are a world changer, put here to change the world for the better! The proof that your mission on earth is not complete yet is that you are still here.

So, listen ... Listen me now ... Listen ... Don't miss this!

ASPIRE! GO! DO! BE!

I believe in you. Remember, YOU ARE THE GREAT ADVENTURE!

I'll give everything I've got to help you become everything you want to be.

~ G ~

WAVE WIPEOUT

Have you experienced a setback recently? Sometimes life takes us out at the knees doesn't it? You feel like you are caught under a wave, tumbling and turning trying to surface and grab a breath. Maybe you've experienced a devastating loss, the death of a loved one, a job or financial loss or a lost relationship. Maybe you are going trough a health crisis of your own or caring for someone who is seriously ill, elderly or frail.

Often you feel that overwhelming stress and frustration. You may sometimes think of "giving up" even saying those words out loud to no one on particular. 

"I quit! I give up!"

I want you to know today that there are some specific things you can choose to do to lift your spirits, relieve your mind and remind you of what is still good and positive in your life, your real truth.

Do at least one thing every single day that will allow you to reconnect with yourself, who you really are and what you really want to experience in life. Make a promise to take better care of yourself. Make those brief sanity breaks a daily priority to just get still, draw on God's strength and get refocused.

Never forget that even in your darkest moments, you have something very special inside of you. 

Remember, YOU ARE THE GREAT ADVENTURE and I BELIEVE IN YOU!

I'll give everything I've got to help you become everything you want to be!

~ G ~

SUCCESSFUL PIG FLIGHT IN FOUR BASIC STEPS

I'll believe that when pigs fly! 

We've all heard it or said it ourselves. An idea that has been presented seems dubious at best, impossible at worst. We throw out the "fact" of impossible pig flight with a dismissive wave of the hand and move on to more likely, more logical options.

You know that change in your marriage, in your career, in your emotions, in your education, in your business, in your behavior that you would love to see happen? You know the one I'm talking about. The "impossible" one! The thing you have given up on? The thing you have tried to change a million different ways with no success? Your "grounded pig" of a problem?

What if I told you that it is possible for that idea, that change, that dream, that "pig" to fly after all? Would you respond with "I'll believe that when pigs fly?" That's fine, because the reality is:

With sufficient thrust, 

all pigs can fly just fine.

STEP #1: 

BELIEVE IT BEFORE YOU SEE IT

No, you didn't read that wrong. People tend to say it the other way around. "I'll believe it when I see it." That's why their pigs don't fly. If you want your "impossible dream" to get off the ground, you've got to believe it BEFORE you can see it. You've got to engage what I like to call your sanctified imagination. This is an ability given to you by God to picture what could be, to create and set apart something in your mind before it manifests in your physical world.

The history books are full of positive thinking visionaries who believed it before they saw it. It's why we have electricity, indoor plumbing, computers, automobiles, airplanes, etc. Think about that jumbo jet sitting out on the tarmac at the airport. If you traveled through time from the year 1700 and saw that giant metal behemoth would there be any logical reason for you to believe that thing could fly, yet alone at 600 miles per hour? 

"It doesn't matter what you've heard. 

Impossible is not a word. 

It's just a reason 

for someone not to try."

- Scott Davis

Believe it before you see it and then act accordingly!

STEP #2: 

ACT LIKE YOUR ACTIONS MATTER

Often, we SAY something is important to us. We CLAIM that what we want more than anything else in the world is to be self-employed, to have a great marriage, to have a better relationship with our kids, to go back to school, to have more financial freedom, etc. If asked, with complete sincerity, people will say "I want THAT (flying pig) more than anything."

The reality is, we let A LOT of other noise and junk cram in and crowd our priority bubble. There is a reason guys like Warren Buffet have no idea who got voted off the island last week. They are focused on what they really want in life. They act like their actions matter. 

Dr. K Anders Ericsson, a Psych Professor at Florida State University is recognized as one of the world's leading theoretical and experimental researchers on expertise. In one landmark study he found that accumulated time of deliberate practice is the critical difference in a professional musician's performance ability. He found that the best experts had logged 10,000 hours by age 20 while the least accomplished experts logged only 5,000 hours of practice. Serious amateur pianists logged 2,000 hours. 

Dr. Ericsson also found that this applies to many other arenas of life in addition to expertise in music. How much time have you invested in getting your pig off the ground? 

"We are what we repeatedly do. 

Excellence, then, is not an act, 

but a habit." - Aristotle

Act like your actions matter and then overcome the obstacles.

STEP #3: 

EXPECT AND OUTSMART 

YOUR CRITICS

Hey, success isn't easy! If it was, everyone would have it and nothing riles up the disgruntled "have nots" like watching a former "have not" begin to experience success. It's always been much easier to drag someone down than it is to lift someone up. The old adage "misery loves company" became a truism ... well ... because it's true!

Have you ever gone on a diet or stopped smoking or started exercising and found that suddenly your friends and family who don't diet, don't exercise or don't want to stop smoking seem to suddenly be trying to talk you out of that decision? "Come on! Go have a cigarette with me! Quit tomorrow! Come on! Go have ice cream with me! You can get back on your diet tomorrow!"

It's not that they want you to fail. It's that you succeeding makes them face their own failures and that isn't a pleasant sensation when you aren't willing to change yourself. So rather than change themselves, if they can instead "help" you not "waste your time" by showing you that change is an impossible pig flight, then they can again feel better about their own choices. 

No matter what great idea you come up with in life you can be sure there will be someone close by to tell you what a horrible idea it is. Post a personal video on YouTube sometime if you don't believe me. The pre-teen troll universe is poised, ready and waiting to pounce with bullying speech like you've never imagined.

In 587 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the walls, city and temple of Jerusalem. One hundred forty-two years later, Nehemiah, returned to rebuild the walls. Despite constant intimidation, criticism and threats of violence, Nehemiah and his team accomplished this challenge in the "impossibly" short timespan of just 52 days! Over and over his critics tried to stop him, distract him, discourage him and even kill him. How did he keep the plan on course? He gave this answer to his critics :

"I am doing a great work 

and I cannot come down.
Why should the work stop 

while I leave it and 

come down to you?" 

- Nehemiah

STEP #4:

BUILD A PIG FLIGHT TEAM

You are only human. You have to sleep, eat and bathe (please) sometimes. You can't be about the pursuit of the dream 24-7. What if you had a team of people around you helping you pursue your dream and you helped them pursue theirs as well? 

Let's take it a step further. What if you surrounded yourself with a team of people whose dreams were similar to yours so that many of the steps, lessons, tasks and challenges overlapped? What if that synchronicity kicked in and allowed all of you to be more successful, quicker? 

The truth is, that happens every day all over the world! It's true of every great endeavor! It takes teamwork to make the dream work! No one makes it to the top of Mount Everest alone. No one makes it to the moon alone. No one makes it to the bottom of the ocean alone. Steve Jobs didn't run Apple alone. Disney didn't create the Magic Kingdom alone. Felix Baumgartner didn't skydive to earth from outer space alone! Michael Jordan, as amazing as he was, didn't win six NBA championships alone! All of these people had coaches, mentors and fellow team members with a shared vision, an idea about a preferred future reality they were steadfastly pursuing together. 

Who is your team? What positive people have you intentionally gathered around you? Do you have a coach? A mentor? Teammates? Partners? 

Make sure you choose these people wisely. Don't put a critic on your team. Don't put dead wood on your roster. Life is short. Don't waste time or energy dragging a weak team into the future. Help those who don't share your vision join a different vision they CAN support and instead find kindred spirits to join your on your shared pig flight journey. 

"It takes teamwork to make the dream work 

but a vision becomes a nightmare when 

the leader has a big dream 

and a bad team."

- John Maxwell

I look forward to your official pig launch announcement in the future!

I'll give everything I've got 

to help you become everything 

you want to be! 

Remember, 

YOU ARE the Great Adventure!

Greg

Job Loss Grief Recovery

(Suggestions for Managing Job-Loss Grief: Great job loss grieving suggestions from my friend Andy Robinson, Executive Career Coach with my thoughts in parentheses. - G)

Be open about what has happened to you. Don't be afraid to say, "I lost my job." You may be surprised at how many people you meet have had similar experiences.

(The stigma of having been fired by an employer, even if just an economic "downsizing" is overpowering. But in this economy it is far more common than you realize. Current studies show most people will lose at least one job at some point in their adult career. - G)

Become part of a support group. It can be especially helpful to talk to (and listen to) a group of people who are in your situation. Often just finding out that there are others with your same concerns and fears can be a great help in dealing with those feelings.

(Bottling it up and stuffing it down won't fix it or make it go away. It just turns your grief into a ticking time bomb that you will be unable to control when something sets it off. Take positive control of it now and don't let it control you. - G)

Process your emotions. Admit your anger, fear, and frustrations to your support group, your family, and your friends. When you allow yourself to do this you are taking the first step toward managing your emotions instead of letting them control you.

(Freud could be pretty weird with some of his theories but with this catharsis thing he really hit the nail on the head. You don't need to talk to everyone about what you are feeling but you do need to talk to someone! I don't care how tough or macho you might think you are, a good cry once in awhile is what every guy and gal needs. Get all that poison out and let some tears flow. It's okay. - G)

Affirm yourself. You may feel guilty - feeling like you are personally letting your family down even though you know your job loss had nothing to do with anything you did. Or you may have missed out on a job opportunity that would have kept you employed. 

(Even if you were fired for mistakes you did make, I promise you, no one is perfect. So forgive yourself. Treat yourself as kindly as you would treat your best friend if they were in your shoes. - G)

Once you resolve this guilt you can move on. 

(Some studies show an average of 5-8 years for job loss grief recovery - rivaling grief related to the death of a spouse - so be patient and don't try to rush the process. -G)

Renew and deepen relationships. Your marriage and family, as well as your friends, can be a source of strength that is stronger than you realized. Having someone you can lean on and rely on can be crucial in times of trouble. Also, there may be times when you need someone to "give you a shove" when you become too discouraged.

(Incidentally, a Life Coach is a great objective ally to enlist to help you healthily move through your grief and give you a positive shove when you get stuck. - G)

Maintaining or renewing spirituality is just as helpful as your relationships with other people. Your personal beliefs and your relationship with God can give you support even when other people are not available for support. Your spirituality can help you develop your "inner strength" to deal with hardships, and it can also help you find an "inner peace" that can be just as beneficial.

(Connect with God in the way that works best for you. If church isn't your thing, go spend some time in nature or wherever else you can sense God's presence. Listening to positive, spiritual music is a powerful coping and recovery strategy that works for many people too, me included. - G)

Keep your sense of humor. Laughter is as important to your health as physical exercise and a good diet. Just as it is important to exercise on a regular basis, it is important to maintain your sense of humor on a regular basis. If you don't already read the daily comics, that can be a good start. 

(Stand up comics, TV comedies, etc are great as well. Find a way to laugh, I mean really laugh, big belly laughs, every day! This proven endorphin production factory alone will make the long days of grief recovery more bearable. - G)

Also, learn to look for humor in everyday situations, especially things that happen to you. Learning to laugh at yourself is one of the best ways to have a healthy self-image.