Spring/Summer Workshops and Seminars

This May and June the schedule includes workshops and seminars on;

Transitions - Career and Work Choices, Decisions and Shifts
Finding Focus
Creativity and Writing (Productivity and Blocks)
ME FIRST Coaching
Work-Life Balance and Symmetry
Career and Practice Transitions for attorneys
Career and Practice Transitions for doctors

Workshops are two or four sessions.
Seminars are one session.
For more information or to arrange a workshop or seminar for your business, group or school, or for individual coaching please call 646.468.0608.

For information on Parenting and Education Workshops please visit http://dailylifecoaching4kids.blogspot.com or call 646.468.0608

Enjoy the day,
RK

Coaching Question

I'm in the process of putting together short coaching modules on different topics for those of you who asked for short-term self-coaching programs. I'd love some input on which one/s you'd be interested in first.

Transition Coaching
Are you transitioning from one job to another?
Have you recently been downsized and are looking for work in the same/another area?
Are you shifting your work or practice focus from one area to another?
Are you graduating colleger or grad school and looking for a first job?
Are you shifting from one career to another?
Are you thinking about retirement within the next year or two?
Are you thinking about a working retirement?
Are you thinking about a productive/life shift retirement?

Work Management and Resolutions?
Do you want to make positive work and work style changes in attitude, productivity or goals?

Burnout
Are you feeling burnout and need strategies for getting out of it and staying out of it?

Work-Life Symmetry and Balance?
Are you overextended?
Are the boundaries between work and life completely blurred?
Are you working too much?
Are you working not enough?
Are you working from a home-office and need clearly defined boundaries?

Finding Focus
Do you want to identify, clarify and define your goals and directions?

Corporate or Executive Coaching for you or your staff?
Creative Blocks
Staring at a blank screen or canvas?

Time Management

Stress Management

Please let me know by sending an email with the topic you're most interested in the subject line. Feel free to write a short description of what's going on and how you'd like to move ahead.

Write to kiki at dailylifeconsulting dot com

Enjoy the day your way,
RK
Rebecca Kiki Weingarten M.Sc.Ed, MFA
Daily Life Consulting

Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind - NY Times

Reat this article! Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind It also answers the question/comment that many people have about how being coached in one area seems to improve their lives in other areas.

Pay attention to the part about how willpower can be learned and strengthened.

Enjoy the day your way,
RK
Rebecca Kiki Weingarten M.Sc.Ed, MFA
Daily Life Consulting

Ok - You asked and now for some answers + Info on ME FIRST (c) Coaching Materials

Thanks for your emails yesterday, I've read and responded to many of them. If I haven't gotten to yours yet please be patient and you should get a response today or tomorrow.

Lots of F train riders answered the call (re: yesterday's post) and thanks R.G. for the suggestion to have a coaching workshop on the Manhattan bound F train in the mornings. Hmmmm - the concept is interesting but I'm not sure it would work - how would we do that? Second car reserved for meet 'n greet and the third car for coaching workshop? Also, all that getting on and off the train might be distracting. Hey - maybe we can get the conducter involved and he could call out some directions and questions - but I digress.

Lots of questions about dealing with stress relating to the economic situation in the country in general, questions from people in finance who are concerned about layoffs in the sector, questions from boomers who were planning on retiring within the next 5 or 10 but may have to put that off, questions from creatives who are thinking starving artist and freelance might not be the way to go, questions from people who wanted to transition into different careers or areas but aren't sure this is the time to do it.

I also got requests for coaching materials.

Ok - some quick thoughts.
Keep your focus on your goals and direction.
If you're having trouble finding personal focus, do that now before you make a move.
If you can't make a change right now you can still figure out what you'd like your future to look like so you're ready to make the changes when the opportunity arises.
Don't panic.
I know you've heard it before but think of challenges as opportunities.
Write up a short list of what benefits you might be gaining by being exactly where you are right now. What's good about it? What's positive about it? What are you learning from it?

As for Coaching materials, I do provide proprietary coaching materials to my clients as part of their coaching process. They are exercises and workbooks that I've developed over my years of coaching (and include my teaching, program development and psychological, counseling and guidance training). The result is a full coaching system called ME FIRST Coaching (c) which will be available for sale later in the Spring.
But-
But-
But-
Since so many of you have been requesting some kick-start coaching materials what I'll do is put together a short version with some of the beginning exercises which will get you started. I'll work on a short version with different targeted topics and make those available soon.

Meanwhile - to those of you from around the country who sent in emails and questions - thanks! And to you Brooklynites - see you on the F train!

Enjoy the day your way,
RK
Rebecca Kiki Weingarten M.Sc.Ed, MFA (APA)
Daily Life Consulting

Ask For Help - A Little Can Go A Long Way

If you have a question or issue you'd like help with send me an email to kiki at daily life consulting dot com and if I can I'll try and post a response here. That's the very short answer to a lot of the questions I've gotten recently. If you're not ready for coaching (financially, time-wise or emotionally) you don't have to jump right in but you don't have to suffer either. I can't take it when people suffer or struggle through something. I know I can't solve all the world's problems but....so here's what it's all about.

People ask me all the time how I came to do the things I do. Short answer, I really love helping people live better lives. I love helping people live the lives they want to live.
I became a teacher in order to be the kind of teacher I wished I had had. Guidance and Counseling? I wanted to guide and counsel in the way I wished I'd been. Coordinating NYC Youth Services? I wanted children all over NYC to get the directed help and programs that they needed in the simplest and most efficient way possible, and hopefully set an example for other cities in the US to develop databases and systems to enable them to do the same.

Psychology and my mental health studies are a way of giving me more information to help me achieve my goal in helping others achieve theirs. The creative arts a whole other story. But back to Coaching.

Coaching is a combination of all of the above. Teaching, Guidance, Counseling, developing and creating programs to assist people in attaining their goals, guiding people toward services and programs that can enrich their lives.
I like to help people. It's my nature. It's a result of what I've seen people go through in life. It's just who I am. Really, don't apologize if you send an email or ask a question you need some assistance with. Sometimes I can just post a general answer.

For example - shout out to the young woman on the Brooklyn bound F train from Manhattan on Friday afternoon at about 4:30pm - it took everything I had not to go over and just give you a one shot coaching burst just to get you out of your funk!

Here's a young woman who is describing her life to some friends she hadn't seen in a while. She's now a lawyer and apparently gave up her dream of being involved in sports on some level. Her friends were shocked "but you looooooove sports....you were always so into it....I can't believe you're not doing anything sports-related."

So here's this young woman who probably killed herself to get through Law School and now she's miserable (you should have seen the body language and tone of voice). I couldn't take it but at the same time I didn't think it was appropriate to hand her my card or start giving her unasked for advice and guidance. (If you happen to read this - send me an email - there are lots of ways that you can incorporate the things you love into your life.)

So ask for help, even if all you need is to let someone know you feel like you might need it at some point. It might not sound like a "big issue" but if it's bugging you, that's big enough.

Send an email to me at kiki at daily life consultin dot com and put 'a little help needed' in the subject line and I'll try and respond as soon as I can either via email or as a blog post.

Enjoy the day your way,
RK
Rebecca Kiki Weingarten M.Sc.Ed, MFA
Daily Life Consulting

More On Goals

I received lots of emails and questions regarding the Goal Post that I posted earlier this week.

Lots of questions. Some specific. Some general. I'll free associate some thoughts I had and some of the discussions that have followed as a result.

Goal Posts: Wouldn't it be great if we had them clearly set out there?
Guide/Instruction Book: Ditto how terrific it would be to have one for each goal.

What do you think of when you hear the words "setting goals"?:
People have different reactions.
Some love setting them and just blasting forward.
Some people imagine how terrific they'll feel when they've achieved their goals. Some people think of the financial rewards.
Some people think about the emotional rewards.
Some people think about the intellectual rewards.
Some people think about the ego-gratification rewards.
Some people think of the look on their friends' faces at the reunion.
Some people become overwhelmed by the thought of all that goes into achieving them.
Some people immediately think about everything that can go wrong on the way.
Some people think about all the difficulties that will be involved.
Some people think of the sacrifices they may or may not want to make.
Some people have more than one goal.
Some people have goals that seem to conflict with one another.
Some people like to make charts to plan them out.
Some people like visual cues.
Some people like financial milestones.
Some people like emotional milestones.
Some people like intellectual milestones.
Some people like psychological milestones.
Some people like the idea of a good day's work.
Some people think there is no such thing as a "good" day at work.
On and on and on.

If it were simple and everyone knew exactly what they wanted and exactly how to get it everyone would be doing it already wouldn't they?
Something gets in the way.
Sometimes lots of things get in the way.

While mulling this over the image of a stagecoach came to mind. Maybe I'd seen 3:10 To Yuma that one time too many but there it was. Then I thought of those scenes where something's holding the stage up. The driver's got to get the wheels out of the mud, or the horses are skittish because they sense a storm a brewin'. Maybe the driver's got to dump some of the baggage on board because it's holding them back from moving forward. The next image I had was of the driver just jumping on those horses and driving on to his destination. In the timeless dialogue of old westerns - that yee-ha! moment.

Sometimes that's what the process is like. Figuring out where you want to get to.
Figuring out how to get there.
Overcoming obstacles along the way.
Developing the tools you need to get you there, sustain you and enable you to move forward on your own.
Finally taking the reins yourself and having your own yee-ha! moment and life.

(Remind me not to free-associate in the ether here. Sometimes I "do go on" as they say.)

Well anyway, hope this answers some of your questions and comments. If there's more information you'd like or to talk about this more please email me at rebecca at dailylifeconsulting dot com.

Enjoy the day - any which way,
RK
Rebecca Kiki Weingarten M.Sc.Ed, MFA (APA)
Daily Life Consulting

Workplace Harrassment - Bullying - When the Bully Sits in the Next Cubicle (or office)

Important and excellent article in today's NY Times When the Bully Sits in the Next Cubicle about harrassment and bullying at the workplace. I added "or office" because this kind of bullying goes on at the management level as well. I work with clients who have experienced it or who are experiencing it.

If you feel or think you're being harrassed do not minimize your thoughts or feelings about the matter. I say this from both sides of the coaching relationship.
I won't go into the details here on my personal experience but suffice it to say that it is really horrible. It is because of this that I am so compassionate and understanding when working with people at the highest level of management who come in for coaching to deal with the issue. Sometimes they think they're "imagining it", being "too sensitive", begin to "doubt their own capabilities", "feel paranoid", "feel depressed", "don't want to go to work in the morning" and more.

Coaching Tip: (and yes, I will shout this one)
DO NOT MINIMIZE WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH!!!
Check out the the survey developed by Researchers at the State University of New York in New Paltz of behaviors that can constitute bullying. If not addressed, and taken care of, the affects can be long lasting and can really damage your professional confidence and sense of self. Don't wait to take action. Speak to someone YOU TRUST either in your HR department, or find a coach or advisor who can help you get through it.

I was lucky that I had amazing support and the personal and professional training, experience and integrity to see what was going on. I also had the support of people higher up than those who were doing the bullying so that I was able to see the situation for what it was. As a firm believer of my own Boomerang theory, I knew it was inevitable that the people in question would get their just desserts. I did what was right for me in order to move forward successfully and was lucky enough to see that indeed what they had sent out into the world ricocheted and came right back to them.

For more information on the topic please feel free to email me at rebecca at dailylifeconsulting dot com.

Good Luck,
RK
Rebecca Kiki Weingarten M.Sc.Ed, MFA
Daily Life Consulting