Greetings All —
Let’s call this April-May combo the Swing Into Spring Newsletter. I’m in the process of redesigning my website with terrific web guy Peter Lacis and can’t wait to unveil that soon. In the meantime, much to report!
I attended Conversation Among Masters, a coaching conference in Asheville, N.C., in April and came back energized and ready to take my business and my life to the next level. Two books I must recommend based on hearing the authors speak there are: The Taboos of Leadership by Anthony F. Smith and Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck. They are both thinkers who know how to live life.
For all those who have been asking how to find my Game Plan life coaching columns on FOXBusiness.com, it just got a whole lot easier because FOX redesigned its homepage for easier access to its lead stories. So check it out every Wednesday and Friday for a fresh Game Plan. If you miss a column on the day it goes live, you can always find them all on my website archive: https://nancola.com/pages/press.html or use the search box feature on FOXBusiness.com.
As always, thanks for reading!
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SPRING IN YOUR STEP
Here are some ideas to ponder from my recent interviews with Stacy London, Anthony F. Smith and Julia Cameron as you spruce up your life in this season of renewal:
1.) The Ripple Effect of Looking Good
Every so often with my life coaching clients, I enjoy setting goals that, in some form or another, are about getting the “outside” to match the “inside.” I’m not positive, but I think I may have inadvertently borrowed that wording from the hosts of one of my favorite television shows – TLC’s What Not to Wear.
So, I figure, if I’m going to delve into the topic, why not go to the source?
Enter Stacy London, a sharp-witted stylist with a do-good bent, and the co-host with Clinton Kelly of the popular makeover show. I suggested to London in our recent interview that, with spring easing in, it sets the mood nicely for talking about taking stock of our “outside.” She agreed. But take heed: This discussion is not about yellow being the hot color for spring or your hips being too wide to pull off a pencil skirt; it’s about how looking good can impact your life.
“You can’t underestimate the power of feeling good, of looking good,” London said.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/lifestyle-money/travel-lifestyle/article/ripple-effect-looking-good_540902_22.html
2.) Balance, Wherefore Art Thou?
Life coaches tend to relish the idea of helping their clients reach this much coveted “place” called work-life balance. Some will even break out a pie chart to figure out what areas of a client’s life need to be trimmed and which ones should be filled out more. Too much career here. Too little spiritual there.
Until a few weeks ago, I had a pretty fixed idea of what the ideal life pie should look like. It closely resembled the (utopian?) societal norm where career, family, health, creative pursuits, social life, hobbies and spirit are nicely represented. But I just read a book called The Taboos of Leadership, The 10 Secrets No One Will Tell You About Leaders and What They Really Think by Anthony F. Smith and it made me rethink the options for divvying up that pie.
Maybe we should put down the knife and try to open our minds to alternate possibilities before we start slicing. Why are we assuming that everyone sees balance the same way? Aren’t we being short-sighted?
Smith, co-founder and managing director of the Leadership Research Institute, writes of work-life balance through the prism of a leader. His work takes a scholarly approach to leadership and his client roster over 20-plus years in coaching and consulting includes McKinsey & Company, American Express, the National Football League, General Electric and the Walt Disney Company. But his overall message on this topic applies universally – work-life balance is very personal.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/personal-finance/lifestyle-money/lifestyle-money/work-life-balance-personal/-1616138015
3.) An Artist and a Teacher
I can’t recall a time in my 20 or so years in journalism when I started an interview with a disclaimer, but then again I had never had Julia Cameron sitting before me.
“Part of the reason I’m a life coach is you,” I began. “So I cannot approach this like it’s just some interview. I don’t have objectivity and it’s very personal. The Artist’s Way is infused through what I do.”
Cameron — the playwright, the song writer, the poet and the author of 25 books — had just finished headlining a book event sponsored by Ladies Who Launch – a network that promotes entrepreneurship and creativity as a lifestyle – before 130 people at Barnes and Noble on 66th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Then she had signed copies of her new book, The Writing Diet, Write Yourself Right-Size, for most of those present.
Now here we were, she in a cushioned chair looking at me with her signature earnest eyes and nodding just the slightest bit as I spoke. I asked if people often say these kinds of things to her.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/personal-finance/lifestyle-money/lifestyle-money/artist-teacher/
What a privilege to receive wisdom from people who are using their gifts every day!
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COOL THINGS MY FRIENDS ARE DOING: Poet and writing teacher James Nave is bringing The Writing Salon, Writing From the Imaginative Storm — his venture with co-director Allegra Huston — to Taos, New Mexico, in July. This is a chance for you to joyfully and playfully indulge in your writing in a beautiful, spiritual setting. For more information, check out the website: http://thewritingsalon.net/.
