Category: Uncategorised

Are you getting the best of You ?

Can you say that your boss is truly getting the best of you? Do love your job or the business you are in? Not likely, according to the research.

Among other things, Forbes cite recent studies revealing 48% of employees worldwide don’t like their jobs, more than 80% of US workers feeling stressed at the office, and only 30% feel “engaged and inspired” by their careers. Especially troubling for leaders and business owners, 18% are actively disengaged, that is, present at work but not wanting to be there often referred to as ‘presenteeism’.

Over the past month, a significant amount of people I’ve encountered would fall in to these categories. Life was throwing them curveballs and dealing with these challenges was proving overwhelming, stressful and they wanted to work out what options existed for them.

Guess what…. this is a trend that will continue should we let it. Life will challenge you… if it didn’t, you would become complacent or bored and seek something else that would. So when these challenges are thrown at you, it’s how you react to them that will determine the outcomes you receive. Will you take the comfortable route and stick with the status quo, receiving the same results you’ve always got… or do you have the courage to ask “am I pushing myself to hit the upper limits of what I can achieve”?

In 2005 The Foo Fighters released a song containing the words “Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?”. Listening to this well-loved track, it made me ask myself if I was challenging myself… was I doing enough and setting my targets high enough to challenge me to step up?

This week ask yourself if you are challenging yourself or are you in your comfort zone? If your comfort zone suits your situation right now then that’s totally fine. However if you are totally honest with yourself and can achieve more, whether it be spending more quality time with the kids, amping up your business development activities, setting your targets higher, taking that opportunity that has been offered to you…. you may just get to experience outcomes you didn’t previously think were possible.

Let me know how you go and have an awesome week !

Cheers
Paul

https://www.mentorisgroup.com.au

10 April 2017

Ignoring your inner critic

Ignoring your inner critic – Here’s a story: The Australian Davis Cup Tennis team is leading 2-1 against the USA in Brisbane and they are leading two sets to nil in what could be the deciding rubber. You would think this game was won and it was time to make a hasty dash for the exit, so as to beat the traffic. The tennis being played was inspired and passionate, with the player channelling his focus to outplay his opponent. He then smashes his racquet on the court, gets a new one out of his bag, and plays on. He now starts to miss shots, lose points and before you know it is down 4-1 in the third set.

It appears this new racquet is causing his game to fall apart…. but is it really? For the first two sets he was focussed, fist pumping and responding to his coach’s motivational encouragement. Now it’s all about how the racquet isn’t as good as the last one, I can’t play with this, I’m going to go for big high risk winners rather than play to a plan… sound like somewhere we have all been before? Luckily for Team Australia he manages to refocus, changes his mindset, ignores his inner critic, gets spurred on by the crowd and goes on to win the match in three sets.

Great story…So what does it mean ?

The Australian was the better player and was showing that for the first two sets, yet when his focus changed from ‘winning in three sets’ to ‘my racquet is an issue’… his game changed in an instant. We all have these moments where we move out of focussing on what’s happening, to focussing on our own inner critic and making it all about us. If nothing else changes, and we start to focus on the negative, unhelpful and challenging thoughts and we are bound to drop the ball, hit a bad shot, make a less than suitable decision… all contributing to a less than stellar outcome.

A few ways we can overcome this:

Ask yourself, is the inner critic I hear helping me? If not, then you need to change your thoughts
Am I focussing on the outcome I want, or am I putting challenges in the way of my success? If it’s the latter, then you need to change your thoughts
Ask yourself, would others act like I am in this situation? If not, If not, then you need to change your thoughts

This week, look at the situations you find yourself in and the scenarios that make up your days. Are you blaming your racquet and others for your current performance, or do you admit you have taken your eye off the ball. Refocus on what you want out of each scenario and do what is needed to get that outcome.

I’d love to hear about your challenges and actions. I will post this on the FB page and please leave comments.

Have an awesome week!

Cheers
Paul

paul@mentorisgroup.com.au

https://www.mentorisgroup.com.au

4 April 2017

Be the Hero in your own story

Be the Hero in your own story – How often do you see children’s stories involving a person who does something heroic? Last week there was a seminar Myriad 2017 held at the Brisbane Powerhouse. Among the speakers was Patrice Brown, Telstra Business Women’s Queensland Entrepreneur for 2016. Among her segment, she highlighted the following concept which resonated… “Be the Hero in your own story”.

So why did this resonate?

With the advent of social media, our expectations of ourselves and the way we live our lives has changed. We spend a lot more time being busy, wrapped up in what others think of what we do. Sometimes this can be a good thing, other times it’s us simply filling up a day without trying to achieve our desired outcomes.

We always have the choice to make a decision and change a strategy that isn’t currently working, our path, our direction. If we choose to not take action, we will be left Wishing, Waiting and Hoping things will change.

We each set out on our own journey, initially influenced by those around us and the experiences we have. Then we are told to be considerate to others needs and somewhere along the line we start to be driven by what we think others expect from us…. our thoughts about what others think drives our decision making processes. Far too often I see people going about their days not putting their hand up to be the hero… that takes far too much courage and being brave.

So how do we do it?

A few ways that we can choose be the hero:

Are you doing all you can to ensure you are living life on your terms… if not it’s time to mix things up
Realise it is your story, so step up and take responsibility for your direction
Consider what you want your legacy to be
Embrace the exciting opportunity to shape your own future… make decisions and choose to fill your days surrounded by quality people

This week, look at the book of your life. Are you driving the direction of your story in a hero like manner… or are others driving it for you. You want your legacy to be an interesting read and a true reflection of you…. then get making decisions and choosing to make things happen.

Have an awesome week!

Cheers
Paul

paul@mentorisgroup.com.au

https://www.mentorisgroup.com.au

20 March 2017

Being fully present to build your Resilience

How can we adjust to being fully present to build our Resilience? “Are you listening to me” or “did you hear what I just said” are phrases that we hear all too often as we are growing up. Is it intentional that we are not focussing on the person in front of us, or is it simply somewhere else we would rather be than doing our homework?

Being fully present means having your focus, your attention, your thoughts and feelings all fixed on the task at hand. If you are speaking to somebody, then your attention and energy is focused on them and what they are saying. If you are doing a task, then your entire being is focused on the task.

At the same time we are also encouraged to multitask, something us men traditionally struggle with, to get more achieved in the same timeframe. The classic image of someone having simultaneous conversations on multiple phones comes to mind. Being fully present means you hear all the information, make others feel like you are actually listening and allows your decisions to be based on facts, rather than your interpretation of the facts.

A couple of tips to help you be fully present:

take an open mind in to meetings rather than just your view, freeing you up to process all the information and ideas
focus on hearing what someone else has to say, rather than what you are going to respond with
leave “your views” in their box and use the other person’s thoughts, ideas, information to help clear challenges

You will find that the quality of your decision making will reflect this renewed focus. Have better information, build better rapport with your colleagues and who knows…. others may leave your meetings feeling special because you have taken the time to actually listen.

Let me know how you go on paul@mentoriscoaching.com and have an awesome week !

Cheers
Paul

paul@mentoriscoaching.com

http://www.mentoriscoaching.com

5 March 2017

Build your resilience through change and challenge

We all go through times where we experience periods of change and challenge, sometimes making decisions resulting in less than satisfactory outcomes. Some wish they could dig themselves a deep hole and hide, others accept the result and get back in the ring to take on the new challenge to get things back on track.

Possessing the ability to handle this stress and anxiety, allowing quality decisions to be made under pressure, is classified as having resilience. Recently, Forbes.com reported 76% of employees didn’t have enough resilience, with a third having almost no resilience.

So where do we learn to be resilient through change and challenge? When we are growing up, our experiences shape our ability to make decisions. If we are encouraged to make decisions and experience things regardless of the outcome, we are more likely to develop this resilience earlier. If we are protected from making decisions in these formative years, we don’t get the opportunity to learn from errors in judgement and thereby building our resilience for later life.

How do we build resilience? There are various way, however the one you can implement today is making more decisions. You find change and challenge thrown at you – make a decision and go with it. When we sit back and ponder the what if scenarios, we become more likely to become anxious and get overwhelmed. Taking action and making a decision gives you direction. Should this not be the best choice – make another decision and change the direction and get on with taking action. Once you start to make more decisions, you will learn what makes a quality decision and be able to make them more often.

So this week, assess your level of resilience. Are you able to make decisions and take action, or do you sit and worry about the outcome you “might” get. Make that decision, get your direction and take action… bringing on the benefits of more quality decisions.

Have an awesome week and let me know how your are getting on with your decision making.

Cheers
Paul

paul@mentoriscoaching.com

http://www.mentoriscoaching.com

19 February 2017

Self Belief is the starting point to being successful

Throughout a successful corporate career spanning more than 20years, there have been many times where I have chosen to ignore my self belief to deliver on expected outcomes. One story that comes to mind was when I was living in London. I was starting a new job and arrived at the office early to make a good impression. To my surprise, as I walked up to the front door, the CFO (my manager) was being escorted from the building. Mmmm so what does this mean, has he done something dodgy, do I follow him, do I still have a job, how am I now going to get my sponsorship to stay… so much uncertainty hit me at that moment.

At that point, I chose to push on in to the office to find out what was happening. It turns out it was a great choice, as the recently vacated CFO role was offered to me… promoted on day 1 and now to fill the shoes of a CFO ! So to walk in to an office where the person who hired you was being walked out and to now take up the CFO role was daunting… how did I do it?

Self Belief…. believing the skills and experience I had at that point was all I needed to take on the challenge. This self belief is something that had been developed over a lifetime of experiences and overcoming challenges. Working hard to get results gave me the confidence in my abilities, regardless of the situation I had found myself in.

Self Belief is important for a number of reasons:

Believing you are good enough and have all the skills you need right now, allows you to take action… the first step towards being successful
It allows you to see the options available and have the courage to step up and take any of those options
Backing yourself, also known as being Self Aware, gives you the confidence to say Yes more often to things that will excite and interest you…
If you believe in yourself, you are already half way to everyone believing in you… 🙂

Should you need to regain your self belief, there are a number of ways to can do that:

Remember the successes you’ve had previously and how achieving them made you feel
Remember that you are good enough to do whatever it is you want
Surround yourself with people who also want you to be successful and believe them when they tell you you are good enough
Remember self belief starts with you….. focussing on why you can be successful, get that job, win that business, deliver that presentation is an epic first step

Mastering self belief helps you proactively take action, say yes more often, remain calm in stressful situations and more regularly deliver on your potential. The best thing is that it involves the choices and efforts of one person…. YOU!

Let me know or comment on how you have dealt with self belief and have an awesome week.

Cheers
Paul

paul@mentoriscoaching.com

http://www.mentoriscoaching.com

12 February 2017

Just do it!

Just do it! …With so much marketing and online content these days, it’s easy to get wrapped up in slogans. From Amazon’s “Work hard, have fun, make history” to McDonalds “I’m loving’ it” they have their place in getting us to do something.

The one slogan that resonates with me is Nike’s “Just do it”… for a number of reasons:

It’s simple… nowadays we try to complicate things by making them far more complex than we need to. Keeping things simple makes it much easier to get things done.

It drives action… make that decision, take that step, choose to take something on, have a go at something you’ve been putting off, Eat that frog first up.

It gives you an opportunity to experience the growth that you want.

I love using it whenever I want to make a decision. Applying the “Just do it” motto has me looking at what could go right when I make that decision. Far too often we focus on what could go wrong when making decisions, not on the potential for things to go well.

So now knowing this, what will you choose to do differently this week? Do you apply the Just do it motto or is it time to start? If you do start, let me know how it changes the way you spend your days and the impact it has.

Have an awesome week!
Cheers
Paul

https://www.mentoriscoaching.com.au

6 February 2017

It’s time to change when you’ve had enough!

It’s time to change when you’ve had enough! ….With an alarming regularity, we find ourselves so busy being busy that we miss a critical opportunity to step back and take stock of what we are doing, who we are doing it with and WHY we do it. Most of us have at least one area where we want to make changes, yet we use being busy as a reason to not make the call to change.

Taking a moment to stop gives us time to reflect on what strategies we are running, whether they are effective or limiting, and what will change when we refocus on the outcomes we want. Picturing yourself having achieved an outcome allows you to experience what it looks like, feels like, sounds like and gives you a renewed drive to get there. It’s similar to the feeling of standing at the top of a mountain looking down having successfully scaled it, rather than standing at the bottom looking up.

Once you’ve taken that moment to reset, it’s then you to take that leap and make things happen. Having a plan and a list of dreams / outcomes you want is a start, and if you leave them on the whiteboard and don’t take action they will remain just that….dreams. To take action and do something that will see you grow, both personally and professionally, generally requires a dose of courage and passion. Something the people I hang with have developed over time.

So what can we do? This week take a moment to stop, reflect on where you are, what you are doing, what’s working well (celebrate the wins) and what needs to change. Whether it is setting goals, redefining your vision/mission, setting up more structure, taking action or surrounding yourself with driven people, it’s time to take the leap and get things moving.

Have an awesome week!
Cheers
Paul

http://www.mentoriscoaching.com

3 February 2017

How do those around you impact your ability to be successful?

“Do all those around you know how they impact your ability to be successful?”

Over the past week, I have been fortunate to have conversations with a lot of people involved in either running events or pushing themselves to drive and be even more successful in their lives. . Through these conversations, it became obvious that a common theme was emerging. Each of these people were trying to achieve their desired outcome but were getting a bit stuck. Yes they all wanted more, yet it wasn’t clear how this could be made possible.

“So who around you is involved in getting your outcome yet may not be aware of the importance of their role or the potential to help you be more successful?”

Whether it be your partner and the role they play in helping keep you on track; extended family checking in to see how you are doing and if you need a hand; your friends who are there to be sounding boards for ideas; or those you work with who may not yet know how they impact your workload…. all these people impact your potential to be successful. So what would happen if you took the time to include them in your vision, educate them on how they impact and how they can help you become even more successful?

We spend most of our time focussing on setting OUR goals, putting systems in place to deliver OUR processes, taking OUR action…. and we all try to do it on our own. As they are OUR results we think it is solely us driving our bus to success.

This week have conversations with those people who may be unaware of the roles (either directly and indirectly) they play in your journey…. you may be surprised how willing they are to help you step up. I will post this on my Mentoris Facebook page, so please share your stories of conversations you have had and how things have changed …regardless of the outcome.

Have an awesome, successful week.

Cheers
Paul
paul@mentoriscoaching.com

http://www.mentoriscoaching.com

3 February 2017

What’s your WHY and why it matters!

What’s your WHY?…..I am blessed with a family who cares about each other and who have grown to embrace the work I have been involved in. From my dad who has embraced and shared the concept of being “Above the line” (Ownership, Accountability, Responsibility) v “Below the line” (Blame, Excuses, Denial), to my sister who now sends me links to motivational and inspirational information.

The most inspirational of my family though are my nieces. Over the course of the past 12 months, they have accepted the changes “Uncle Paul” has made and are openly starting to embrace some of the most admirable traits. The attached diary is a present I received from them, purely unprovoked and bought with their own money they had saved.

So why does this matter and how does this relate to your WHY?

When you are passionate about what you do and, more importantly, why you do it, people and organisations who share the same beliefs will be attracted to you. They will see why you are on your journey and because it resonates with them, will buy in to you. Whether you are selling suits, facilitating workshops, dealing with legal matters or teaching others…. showing your WHY will bring you opportunities to work with those sharing similar beliefs and values.

This week, take a moment to think about your WHY and how you can surround yourself with people who share the same values and beliefs and incorporate in your work/business.

I’d be interested in hearing what your WHY is, so feel free to send me an email on the address below. Have an awesome week.

Cheers
Paul
paul@mentoriscoaching.com

http://www.mentoriscoaching.com

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About Paul Farmer, Mentoris CEO and Business Coach

With a background in finance, business strategy and leadership, Paul has built a reputation as a business mentor responsible for getting the best out of business owners and leaders. His calm and measured ways help create an environment where quality results are created, and growth is delivered for any business or large organisation.

For the best business mentor Brisbane and the Gold Coast has to offer, contact Paul Farmer at Mentoris. If you are a business owner seeking business mentoring support from someone with many proven years experience, you’ve come to the right place.

Find Out More

Read more about how we work with you for:

Are you getting the best of You ?

Ignoring your inner critic

Be the Hero in your own story

Being fully present to build your Resilience

Build your resilience through change and challenge

Self Belief is the starting point to being successful

Just do it!

It’s time to change when you’ve had enough!

How do those around you impact your ability to be successful?

What’s your WHY and why it matters!

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Business Mentor & Coaching Brisbane