Success is Easy!

SUCCESS IS EASY!!

Do you agree? I shared this statement with a group of college students this morning and asked them for their thoughts. Their responses were all over the board:

• "YES! Success IS easy!"
• "It depends on how you define success."
• "Whether or not you think success is easy depends on your attitude and how you look at life."
• "Success requires hard work, which is never easy."
• "No one can really believe that success is easy. If it were, everyone would be successful."
• "Success is definitely not easy."

What do you think?

One of the things the SOS Leadership Partners regularly share with people is this simple idea:

"The things that are easy to do...are also easy not to do." As we make progress toward our goals, we always have a choice. We can move forward, stand still, or go backward. As Paul J. Meyer often said, "If you are not making the progress you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined."

Ultimately, if you're not making the progress you would like to make and are capable of making, you have no one to blame but yourself. Don't waste your time and energy blaming your significant other, parents, friends, coworkers, upbringing, or even your kids for your lack of accomplishment. You're calling the shots. Figure out what you want in life, and make it happen! Stop blaming, and start doing.

I'll close with one of my favorite affirmations, which comes from Paul J. Meyer's Personal Success Plan:

"Develop a Dogged Determination to Follow Through on Your Plan, Regardless of Obstacles, Criticism or Circumstances or What Other People Say, Think, or Do."

Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim...It's Time to Fire!

There are three ways you can make decisions:

1) Ready, aim, fire: You prepare yourself. You aim by doing your homework and making sure you have the necessary information to make an informed decision. Then you decide. You go for it!

2) Ready, fire, aim: This is for all of you impulsive types out there. You go with your gut. You make the decision with your heart and justify it later with your head (or kick yourself for not gathering more information before taking the plunge).

3) Ready, aim, aim, aim: You determine what decision needs to be made, and then you gather information, ask a lot of questions, and analyze what you've learned from your research. Then you decide that you don't have enough data to make a decision so you set out to gather more info. Sometimes you even revisit the same data and re-read it a few more times. You contact more references or talk to more experts. You consider yourself to be diligent. You are dotting all of your i's and crossing all of your t's. But what if you're spending your whole life aiming and it's time to pull the trigger? What if you are missing opportunities because you can't make a decision?

If you find yourself getting ready and aiming and aiming and aiming, you've got to pull the trigger at some point. You can only gather so much information, create so many pro & con lists, and analyze a decision so much. The time to decide is now. Your future depends on it!

As a leader, you will be called upon to make tough decisions. You can count on it. Those who follow you are counting on you.

"Indecision becomes decision with time." ~Author Unknown

Becoming a Coach (Part Three)

So you are thinking about becoming a coach? In Part One of this blog series I looked at why anyone would want to become a coach. The industry is booming. You can make a good living. And most importantly, you can help others become the best versions of themselves. In Part Two, I looked at the different types of coaching. I mentioned business coaching, life coaching, executive coaching, career coaching, etc.

In Part Three, I want to focus on an important issue that many prospective coaches and even people already coaching face, "do I need to get certified? If so, where should I go?"

A coaching certification is not required for coaches. Some people believe that having a certification is helping to police the industry, but unfortunately there are a lot of certifications out there that cost a lot of money and provide little value. Before I give you my opinion on certifications, let me tell you why someone might want become certified.

You may want to become certified if you lack confidence because perhaps you already lack education. Or you may want to because you have found a certification course or program that is perfect for you and it fits in your budget. Other than those two things, the main benefit is a few letters you can add after your name that most people won’t understand.

If you decide you really want to become certified, I recommend any certification that is approved by the International Coach Federation (ICF). Going through a university is always a great option. This, I believe is what looks the best on your resume and where you probably can learn the most. There are some great programs within universities like Georgetown, Columbia, Duquesne, and many more.

My opinion on certification has two parts. I believe that getting credentialed through the International Coach Federation is fine. That requires an application, a log of hours, and some other things that are important. I always recommend that more than anything.

But I do not believe a certification makes you a good coach. I know a lot of great coaches who are not certified. Many of them could teach courses on coaching. I know some bad coaches who are certified and vice versa. My point is that it is a toss-up. You will be successful not because you are certified, but because you commit to your business. You will be successful because you can sell coaching and because you are good at what you do.

There are a lot of coach certification programs out there that are really just scams. They get you to pay thousands of dollars to learn how to be a coach, but they teach you nothing. You cannot learn to coach through a three hour course or even a 10 or 18 hour course. You learn to coach over time. What you need to learn is how to sell coaching because that is how you build a coaching business.

In order to be a good coach, the most important thing that you need is good content. Coaching is not and should not be advice giving. It is about guiding clients on their journey towards success in life, business, and any goal that they set. Lucky for you, Part Four of this blog series will be on content. Be sure and come back next week!