April 2020 « Confidence Coach

Be Present

With all that’s going on in this difficult time, are you really being “present” and in the moment? Or, do you feel like you are spending most of your time worrying about the future and what’s going to happen tomorrow? Are you trying to figure out when and if things will get back to normal?

One thing I know for sure is that all we really have is today.

I encourage you not to miss what’s happening today — in your family life, in your business, with your customers.

Don’t miss the people you are with. Maybe you are chaffing at the social distancing and not able to get out of your home. In that case, you still need to be connecting with people although it may look differently via zoom or Skype. Or in some cases, your children are at home while you are working remotely. Are you actually spending more time with them or setting aside time just for them?

Decide today that you are going to be present.

Experience all today has to offer. You can never get this day back once it’s over. Once it’s gone; it’s gone forever.

Tell people that you love them.

Pass on joy to somebody whether it be a family member, customer or an employee.

There are a lot of things to learn during this difficult season. We all have a lot of areas to grow. There are lots of new things to experience.

Are you actually thinking about what new things you are learning today? Are you actually thinking about things this way? Is this your mindset at this time?

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. Let us help you make progress and really be present today.

by Scott Ballard , April 29, 2020

Building and Protecting Your Confidence

Are you building and protecting your confidence during this difficult time?

How do we build and protect ourselves? There is an exercise that we have been taking people through that has been helping them to rebuild their confidence. Although the times we are going through are difficult, if we recall our past, we realize that we have already gone through other difficult seasons as well.

Answer the following five questions:

Name your most difficult seasons (pick 4 or 5 of things)
Why was it difficult or scary?
What did you learn from that season?
How can you apply it to this current season?
Discussion ideas — What does the season we are in make possible.

If you’d like me to send you these questions in a PDF format along with an example of how to fill it out, just email me at scott@confidencecoach.org or feel free to schedule a free call and I’ll walk you through it.

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead.

by Scott Ballard , April 26, 2020

Focus on Your Gratitude

When times get tough, everyone has to make a fundamental decision: to complain or to be grateful. What do you choose?

In an environment where negative sentiment is rampant, the consequences of this decision are much greater. Complaining only attracts negative thoughts and people.

Gratitude, on the other hand, creates the opportunity for the best thinking, actions, and results to emerge. Focus on everything you’re grateful for, communicate this, and open yourself each day to the best possible consequences.

What are 3 things you are grateful for today? Start with the small things and then you will build on your gratitude muscle.

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. Let us help you make progress.

by Scott Ballard , April 19, 2020

Focus on What’s Available Not What’s Missing

When things change for the worse, many desirable resources are inevitably missing, including information, knowledge, tools, systems, personnel, and capabilities, even a shortage of toilet paper!

These deficiencies can paralyze many people, who believe they can’t make decisions and take action.

A strategic response is to take advantage of every resource that is immediately available in order to achieve as many small results and make as much daily progress as possible.

Work with every resource and opportunity at hand, and your confidence will continually grow.

Network with others, give of your time and resources if you can to help others as well. There are lots of things out there that people are sharing for free at a time like this.

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. Let us help you make progress.

by Scott Ballard , April 16, 2020

Focus on Your Response

When things are going well, many people think they’re actually in control of events. That’s why they feel so defeated and depressed when things turn bad. They think they’ve lost some fundamental ability.

The most consistently successful people in the world know they can’t control events — but continually work toward greater control over their creative responses to events.

Anytime there is fear, uncertainty, or discomfort, it’s an excellent time to focus your attention and energies on being creatively responsive to all the unpredictable events that lie ahead.

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. Let us help you make progress.

by Scott Ballard , April 14, 2020

Focus on Who You Can Be

Many people define themselves by external circumstances. When these abruptly or unexpectedly change, they don’t know who they are, so they keep trying to be who they used to be.

From now on, take your cues from the inside — from your dreams, ideals, values, and operating principles.

These need never change, regardless of the circumstances.

Take advantage of external confusion to become self-directed, self-managed, and self-motivated.

But in all that’s going on, be sure and don’t become so self-absorbed and self-focused that you forget about others. We are all in this together. Reach out and help others whether it be through a phone call, pay for someone’s coffee in the car behind you, grocery shop for the elderly who are shut in and scared, or any number of things. Be the best person you can be by giving to others.

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. Let us help you make progress.

by Scott Ballard , April 10, 2020

Focus on Being Grateful

The simple act of being grateful makes us feel better and is good for the soul. I would encourage you to limit your watching of television and news coverage because it can set you on edge and increase anxiety unnecessarily.

We need to practice self-care and one of those ways is to be grateful. Express your gratitude to God and others and feel your own spirits lift. In our coaching we often encourage our clients to practice gratitude and make it a habit. If you already have this habit or practice, you especially need it now when we are going through difficult times with COVID-19 all around us.

I like to remind people to think about their thinking. Here are some questions that come to mind that you should ask yourself:

How am I going to react to this?
How am I going to process this?
How am I going to think about this?
How am I going to respond?

Now, more than ever, practice gratitude and thankfulness each and every day. There is always something that you can find to be grateful for — family, friends, the sunshine, the rain, flowers that are coming up, the beauty of nature. At least, start there and see what else you can come up with.

If you are meeting with your team (either at the office or remotely), start your meetings out by asking them to share one or two things that they are grateful for that day. This will be an encouragement to them.

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead.

If you’d like to talk, reach out today and schedule a free call. We’d love to help you make progress during these difficult times.

by Scott Ballard , April 6, 2020

Self-Care During These Times

As leaders, we naturally jump into things and meet challenges head on. Sometimes this can be at the risk of our own self-care however. During these difficult times, you need to be really mindful of how you are taking care of yourself. You need all of your strength and emotional reserves for the long game, not just for a week or so.

Here are a few tips to help alleviate stress that I would suggest you do on a daily basis.

Give thanks. As I’ve said before, expressing thanks to others will lift your own spirits.
Write in a journal. If you examine negative thoughts and emotions, they will lessen.
Take a walk. Get out in nature and you will feel refreshed (exercise also relieves stress).
Listen to soothing music. You can do this while you are on your walk or make it part of an evening ritual before bedtime.
Give a friend a call. We are all missing human connection during this time which is a very vital need that we all have.
Tell a joke or read a funny book and share it with someone. Laughing is good medicine, especially when shared.
Drink water. If you are dehydrated, you don’t feel good. Stay hydrated.
Take a break. Walk away from the laptop or project periodically.
Hold hands. If possible, keep the human connection with family members.
Turn off the news. We all need to get an update because things seem to be changing fast. However, get your update, then get out. Don’t obsess over things that you can’t control.

We will get through this.

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead.

If you’d like to talk, reach out today and schedule a free call. We’d love to help you make progress during these difficult times.

by Scott Ballard , April 3, 2020