Have your big plans ever failed? Not just your big plans in work or business, but with your family?
As a parent, you’ve probably tried to plan quality time. But if you’re like me, you have discovered that you cannot force quality time. For instances, if your daughter wants to hang out with her friends at the Mall, but you force her to spend “quality time” with you, I can promise no matter how hard you try, you aren’t going to experience much quality time.
Why is this?
Because the focus of this blog is on leading your life into your bigger story, I’m regularly asked my opinion on what is success.
If you think about it, there are many ways to answer the what is success question. For instance, true success is:
I do a lot of life and career coaching through this website, as well as speaker coaching through Speak It Forward. In both cases, I share a lot of insights and thoughts on success about life and work. Even more, I teach a success system that, if followed, leads people to discover their Vocational Calling and equips them to make decision based on that Calling.
But therein lies the rub with coaching…all I can do is share thoughts on success; I cannot take action for a client. What that means is if a client doesn’t do anything with the thoughts on success we talk about, then thoughts are all they end up holding. Bottom line, actions taken by a client speak much louder than the thoughts on success shared by a coach.
Below is an email I received this past week from a former client. A current prospect asked me for some references, so one of the names I forwarded to him was Christopher Jones. As you’ll see below, Christopher has experience success in both his life and career because he took action on the thoughts on success we discussed. Way to go, Christopher!
I coach a swim team during the summer, which makes my summers pretty hectic. This summer, our team consist of almost 180 swimmers ages 4-18. We practice everyday from 8 AM to 11 AM, and we just finished a stretch of competing in 7 meets in 40 days.
I could list out many more details, but just know that for about 10 weeks during the summer, I add an extra 30-35 hours of work to my plate each week. It’s challenging because I have to continue to run my business and, of course, invest in my family during this time as well. (If you’d like to read more about how I do this without going crazy, be sure to read my blog entitled Thoughts On Success – 5 Reason Why It’s Okay To Be Super Busy And Out Of Balance.)
Often I’m asked, “But Kent, why coach a swim team?” Well, there are tons of reason…
I share a lot of my personal thoughts on success via this blog. Thoughts on success for business. Thoughts on success for personal development. Thoughts on success for life in general. Of all the thoughts on success I share, none are more important than the thoughts on success for relationships. Relationships are what makes life rich, full, and meaningful; hence, thoughts on success for relationships are of the utmost importance.
When it comes to thoughts on success for relationships, perhaps nothing can hinder a relationship more than saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Sort of like Brian Regan comedy routine “You Too and Stuff,” only worse (his routine is at the end of this blog—hilarious!).
Recently, I said the wrong thing at the wrong time. It was only a 3-minute conversations, but if I could have a do-over, I’d definitely redo those 3 minutes. To save you from having to make the same mistake I made, here are 5 things I learned from this experience about watching what I say, how I say it, and when I say it.
I really felt that we achieved what we set out to do, which was take all the ideas I've had and narrow them down into a focused plan and direction for my life. Not only that, but I feel that I have been given a set of tools by which I can measure future decisions about my job, career, and life direction. This is a great process and I whole-heartily recommend Kent's personal coaching sessions to anyone who wants to get a clear life and career focus.
Jeremy Jenkins
