CompassCast™

Think of an area of your life -- time at work, time at school, time talking to your partner about love and future plans, exercise...

Did you know that if you re-claimed 5 minutes that you wasted in 1 hour -- whether it be spinning your wheels, getting organized, finding something, going through piles of papers, not list--what did you say?..

Anyways.

5 minutes better managed each hour means a productivity increase of 8.3% minmum.

Here's the math (its easy) 1 hour divided by 12 = 8.3

Its not BIG steps that we need to take to be more effective in our lives.  Its not BIG steps we need to take to move from good to great.

Its small -- simple -- steps.

What can you do to re-claim 5 minutes from this hour -- right now.  Make this a daily habit you ask your self each day.  You can do it!

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

Coach Scott Graham continues the special CompassCast series on evil words with "BUT" --  a word that will keep you from meeting the commitments you make to yourself.

Post your response at http://Blog.TrueAzimuth.biz and I will support you with monthly emails to help you keep your bearings and keep going!


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©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

What would your life would be like if 2008 was your best year ever?

Watch the Video

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Complete the Program / Fill out the Worksheet

Download the BEST YEAR EVER program and complete the worksheet.  Click here. 

Want to really rev up your year?  Download a worksheet for each of your immediate family members / spouse.  Complete the worksheets separately and then sit down together and compare your lists. (We don't typically talk about this stuff).  Make sure your entire family is navigating together and that you are supporting each other.

Join the Group Coaching Call

Join me for a group coaching call to explore the Best Year Ever Program and to talk about the question: 

How would you have to be for 2008 to be your best year ever even if the things that mattered most didn't happen?

There are two times to choose from: January 2 or January 7 2008, 7:00 pm EST on either day.  Conference Call: Dial-In Number: (712) 429-0690; participant PIN: 647892# . 

I look forward to talking to you.

Consider Coaching

• Its not too late to take advantage of a special 3-month Coaching package I am offering and go from good to great!



• 3 months of coaching for $495 includes DiSC Profile,Intake Assessment, Coaching Packets, Free Seminars and Coaching Review.



• Go to:  http://Gift.TrueAzimuth.biz

Offer valid for new individual business- and personal- coaching clients only. Corporate clients excluded.  Not valid with any other offers, open or previous invoices.  No cash value.  This Offer Valid For A Limited Time Only.  OFFER EXPIRES ON DECEMBER 31, 2007.

A day-long business seminar, "Time Mastery" will be held on Friday January 18 2008 at the Community College of Vermont's Upper Valley Campus in Wilder, Vermont.  The seminar, built around an online time-management assessment, is conducted by True Azimuth, LLC in cooperation with the Business and Entrepreneur Network.

"Did you know if you could reduce your wasted time by just five minutes every hour, productivity would jump 8.3 percent?" says business and personal coach Scott Graham.  "The advantages of efficient time management go beyond squeezing more tasks into the work day. In companies with successful time-management strategies, teams meet project deadlines more often and managers spend more time pursuing opportunities — and less time struggling with paperwork or attending unproductive meetings. These organizations serve more customers without adding staff, equipment, and office space."

The investment of $91 includes all training materials, the pre-course Time Mastery Profile, a 32-page report with a gap analysis,  individualized recommendations. and action planning worksheets, and a continental breakfast.  Business and Entrepreneur Network members and Chamber of Commerce members receive a discount.

For more information, call Coach Scott Graham a 802-380-1026.  Register online at http://time.TrueAzimuth.biz.   True Azimuth, LLC has been providing business and personal coaching since March 2006.  They are located on the web at http://TrueAzimuth.biz.  The Business and Entrepreneur Network is a membership organization helping professionals to "work on -- not just in - your business."  They are located on the web at http://benbusinessnetwork.com.

Coach Scott Graham shares an inspirational speech by Russell Conwell, Acres of Diamonds, in the hope that you will establish a new holiday tradition and stop searching for what you already have.


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©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

I have to tell you this story...

It's a story told to me today during a coaching call with my coaching client, my homeopath and my friend Didi Pershouse (and yes she gave me permission to use her name -- she said "As long as you include a link to my website http://SustainableMedicine.net").

Didi told me this story about her Mom as we were talking about her website and content an I was encouraging her to blog (like I am right now).  Didi expressed some hesitation about sharing certain ideas because she is concerned someone else might scoop them up and write a book, launch a concept -- whatever.  (Didi is writing a book about homepathy, BTW).  I can totally related to Didi's dilemma.  When I first started my work as a business coach / life coach I had some ideas and was quite protective over them.  Maybe its a Vermont thing -- but I doubt it.   I was not going to have someone steal an idea from this Vermont business coach and use it in their practice in New York or Idaho or wherever!  My coach, Michael Raymond, gave me some sage advise back then -- "Give it away.  There is no idea that is that original -- and if other people use it - its a tribute to you."

I eventually got over my Gollum-like obsession and heeded Michael's advice.  I am glad I did.

Telling Didi this story -- I am not an advice-giver as a business coach  / life coach -- so I often share stories -- like parables -- anyway -- telling Didi this story prompted a story from her about her Mom:

"My Mom makes these incredible decorated eggs -- they are amazing -- they could be in an art gallery.  But she is afraid that if somebody else saw them they would steal her idea.  So she keeps them on a shelf in her kitchen."

I suspect that we are not alone (Didi's Mom, Didi and myself).  Many people are afraid to start some business project because it needs to be all wrapped up and ready-to-go, or finished, or copyrighted or whatever.  So they don't start.  Ever.  (Unless they come to this Vermont business coach).

I did a Google search for "decorated eggs" and selected "I'm feeling lucky."  This took me to http://lujs.tripod.com/eggers/eggs-pg1.html where I was not amazed to find... you guessed it... photos of decorated eggs.  Eggs like this:

There is a lesson here.  Not just for businesses -- but for everyone -- a lesson of particular importance this time of year -- a time of year when the is such a focus on get-get-get and more-more-more.  That lesson, if you haven't guessed it already, is give-give-give.

Share the wealth.

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

Coach Scott Graham talks about why a business plan is important and provides an overview of how to craft a business plan.


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Coach Scott Graham, returning from a Vipassana Meditation Course, challenges you to shift your relationship to thinking and discover equanimity.


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A day-long business seminar, "Building Bridges to Understanding" will be held on Friday December 14 2007 at the Community College of Vermont's Upper Valley Campus in Wilder, Vermont.  The seminar, built around an online diversity assessment with 20-page individualized report, is conducted by True Azimuth, LLC in cooperation with the Business and Entrepreneur Network.

"Businesses, desirous of becoming distinguished in an increasingly diverse world, seek opportunities to educate staff, but most diversity seminars only provide general information and reccomendations," says business and personal coach Scot Graham. "We help participants understand how their viewpoints and behaviors affect others.  They get specific suggestions on how to limit the influence of stereotypes, reduce conflict, and embrace diversity as a source of organizational strength."

The investment of $91 includes all training materials, the pre-course Discovering Diversity Profile® and a continental breakfast.  Business and Entrepreneur Network members and Chamber of Commerce members receive a discount.

For more information, call Coach Scott Graham a 802-380-1026.  Register online at http://diversity.TrueAzimuth.biz.   True Azimuth, LLC has been providing business and personal coaching since March 2006.  They are located on the web at http://TrueAzimuth.biz.  The Business and Entrepreneur Network is a membership organization helping professionals to "work on -- not just in - your business."  They are located on the web at http://benbusinessnetwork.com.

I live in Vermont.

We do things different here.

Sunday I went to a chicken swap -- my second actually.  We had introduced Guineafowl to our flock and had too many so we decided to cut the flock in half.  So off I went -- birds in tow -- to the chicken swap a few towns over in Randolph Vermont.

I figured it would be a quick deal -- I was offering them for free.  And I was right.

As I was walking back to my car to leave, a truck pulled up next to mine and pulled out two cages with two black bunnies -- complete with wooden name plates that read, "Jasmine" and "Ruby."

"What cute bunnies," I remarked.

"They're free," the man replied.

"I'll take 'em," I shouted without a bit of hesitation.

"Free," I thought on the drive home.  "Can't beat that."

But the story doesn't end there...

I hadn't even thought about the other expenses.  Nope, not one bit.

• This is how many people deal with their expenses.   They have a vague idea about where the money goes but no specific detail.



• This is how many entrepreneurs deal with their income.  And their expenses.

That's why I challenge clients who are concerned about money to track every penny and build that into a statement which they can then assess to create a budget.  I have a series of coaching tools I offer to make this process easier.

The tracking doesn't end there.  You need to track money going forward.  Otherwise you are guessing.  You might as well be talking about the weather patterns on Mars (I assume you know little about this subject).  Similarly, I have financial coaching tools to make this easier.

Where are the bunnies in your finances?  And what are they doing to those seeds you planted in a retirement account?  Are they wreaking havoc in your financial garden?

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

Coach Scott Graham asks is the grass really greener and what can you do about it?


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A day-long business seminar, "Achieving Life Balance" will be held on Friday November 30 2007 at the Community College of  Vermont's Upper Valley Campus in Wilder, Vermont.  The seminar, built around The Coping and Stress Profile from Inscape  Publishing, is conducted by True Azimuth, LLC in cooperation with the Business and Entrepreneur Network and Massage  Therapist, Lynne Walker.

"Stress is a big problem for business -- and the holidays only magnify that issue,"says Graham.  Graham, who has conducted the seminar since 2006, is collaborating this year with Walker to add a special touch for the holidays.

"Other stress-management approaches focus primarily on using personal coping resources such as exercise, nutrition, and  building self-esteem to deal with stress in a do-as-I-say format,"  says Scott Graham, business coach.  "This workshop uses a  self-directed assessment that provides personal insight and direction -- people leave with tangible strategies around  stressors."

Workplace stress costs the nation more than $300 billion each year in health care, missed work and stress reduction efforts  according to the American Institute of Stress.  1 out of 5 workers are at risk for stress related health problems. The  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reports that Workers who are stressed incur health care costs that are  46 percent higher, or $600 more per person, than other employees.

The investment of $82.50 includes all training materials, a 32-page self-directed assessment with action-planning worksheets  and a continental breakfast.  Business and Entrepreneur Network members and Chamber of Commerce members receive a discount.

For more information, call Coach Scott Graham a 802-380-1026.  True Azimuth, LLC has been providing business and personal  coaching since March 2006.  They are located on the web at http://TrueAzimuth.biz.  The Business and Entrepreneur Network is  a membership organization helping professionals to "work on -- not just in - your business."  They are located on the web at  http://benbusinessnetwork.com.  Lynne Walker has been providing massage services since 2004 and has an office in Norwich, Vermont.  For more information about therapeutic massage call 603-252-6664.

The weekly teleclass component of the Reality Coach credential is now recorded and available online at http://podcast.RealityCoaching.info or http://teleclass.RealityCoaching.info.  It is also streamed in directly at the main Reality Coaching site (in the feeds area).  So you now never have to worry about missing a call.

Reality Coaching -- an approach to business coaching / life coaching using an established model -- has an entire learning website avaiable for coaches who want to move beyond a constellation of disperate techniques or gut feelings to a model for growth and change used by thousands of "change agents" -- counselors, social workers, personal coaches, marriage and family therapists -- world wide.

You can participate in any number of ways -- from online blogging as you read texts to publishing papers that show the power of Reality Coaching -- to the weekly teleclass -- to live role plays via conference calls.  You keep track of your own progress and success via your own personal website / e-portfolio that is assigned and created for you at http://RealityCoaching.info (registered participants only).

One final note, listening to a recording of a Reality Coaching teleclass does not count as meeting one of the requirements toward the Reality Coach Credential (which is participating in the teleclass).

The word-of-the-week is a special CompassCast series on evil words -- words that keep you stuck -- words that keep you just good or OK -- never great -- words to eliminate from your vocabulary.

The word-of-the-week for October 21st 2007 is "IF".


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Starting this week, you can listen to a new series on CompassCast:  the Word of the Week. 

As a business coach / life coach, I am keenly aware of how our thinking -- often expressed through our language -- impacts not only our behaviors but our emotional state along the way to reach the goals we set.

Thinking-actions-emotions-physiology.  All are intertwined.

Shift how you talk and you will shift your relationship to your goals.

Get your bearings and get going!®

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

Listen -- write -- and think -- as coach Scott Graham engages you through a series of activities to explore the impact of the people you "hang out" with on the direction and quality of your life.


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Starting this month, you can now listen to Compass, the bi-weekly podcast that helps you get your bearings and get going®, on this blog.

I am excited about this new opportunity to communicate strategies and create insight for people who want more balance, direction and fulfillment in their life, career or relationships.

Each CompassCast™ will have its own, distinct blog entry with a description of the audio.  You can listen from the audio by clicking on the play button below the description.  You will also be able to subscribe via iTunes, Google, Yahoo or your favorite podcast player.

Besides only coming out every other week (on Sundays) CompassCasts are short, too-the-point and provacative experiences that I hope will help you go -- as Jim Collins' says -- from Good to Great!

Thanks for listening!

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

I spend a lot of time with my coaching clients making sure they have their bearings and are following their true azimuth.

People who use a compass to find their way know that in order to work properly they need to make sure to hold the compass away from magnetic fields and other sources that may impact where the needle on the compass is pointing. Otherwise they may think they are traveling north only to be traveling north or even south!

Similarly we have many forces pulling and pushing our internal compass as we navigate our lives. If we aren't careful we lose our bearings and go in directions we never intended to.

A great example of this happened in my own life came when I worked for a company who had different values than myself -- particularly with regard to how they treated their employees. At first my bearings were accurate and true to myself -- my values -- specifically my belief in people first. But, over time, the influence of those whom I worked for started impacting how my internal compass was oriented. The emphasis on the bottom line. The focus on money over people. My behaviors and actions shifted. And I ended up behaving in ways that I am not proud of. And I didn't even realize it. After all I held the same values I always held. I thought my internal compass was accurate. I thought I was doing just great. I even preached to people about the importance of identifying your true values, writing them down, prioritizing them and following them.

But like a compass needle spinning from being too close to a magnetic field, my internal compass needle was spinning. Pointing toward values I didn't subscribe to. Not in the least.

Eventually I left the company. And, of course my internal compass pointed differently. I noticed it. You see, the forces that affected my values -- and sent my internal compass spinning -- happened over time so I didn't notice it. Leaving the company I was completely free from influence of different values. My awareness was immediate and I felt awful.

I knew then there was much more living the life you want then having a map: identifying your true values, writing them down, prioritizing them and following them. I need to make sure my internal compass was working. And that it stays working. Correctly. I need to get my bearings and regularly check my bearings. I need to be aware of invisible forces that throw off my internal compass. Invisible.

Where is your internal compass pointing? Are you following your true azimuth?

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

Watch coach Scott Graham provide an overview of his coaching style using a personal coaching client.


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If you work with a coach, ask them what their model of human behavior and change is.

Do they respond by offering you some complicated graphic about the coaching dynamic, talking about techniques, skills or procedures or handing you some other mumbo-jumbo?

If you are a coach – you may be reading this and may have taken offense -- take a moment to articulate your model.  Post it under comments.  I want to read about it.

Coaching without a model is like driving a car without a road map.

You might be an expert at how to parallel park.  You might be an expert on how to change a tire.  But if you don’t have a road map, you will be lost the moment you drive outside the area you maintain in your head – your mental road map.  Most coaches who don’t have a model end up giving advice – based on what they know – directions, if you will, from their mental road map.

Most coaches operate without a road map -- they have no model.  Just an amalgamation of skills and "gut" instinct.

Working with a coach without a model is like getting into the passenger seat of that car and trusting that the person without the road map is going to get you to where you want to go!  Ever been a passenger with a driver who doesn't have a road map?  What was that like?

Gestalt Coaching, Adlerian Coaching, Coaching based on NLP and Reality Coaching® are methods of coaching based on an established model of human behavior.   They are they road maps to get you where you want to go.

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

What would your life would be like if each passing year was your best year ever?


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When a goal requires doing something on a daily basis, many people face a struggle.

Its not that they are unmotivated to achieve their goal.  Its that they have no strategy for turning a new daily task into an accustomed habit.

There are a number of factors at play here but the biggest is all-or-nothing thinking.  It happens when you set a specific parameter for your habit (for example, "exercise for 30 minutes three times each week", or meditate for 60 minutes every day", or "create a 500-word entry in my on-line coaching blog twice each week").

Parameters are great:  they keep you focused on your task, allow you to measure benchmarks, hold you accountable to expectations you set for yourself.  But they can be sabotaged through all-or-nothing thinking.  Consider the example of exercising for 30 minutes three times each week.  If you find yourself choosing to stay on the coach and not exercise because you can't exercise the full 30 minutes then you may be caught up in all-or-nothing-ness. 

They way to snap out out of it is to ditch the time frame. 

Reframe your plan:  "I will exercise three times each week whether its for 1 minute or 30 minutes."

Once you get into the "habit" then worry about the time frame.

I struggled for years to maintain a daily mediation practice.  I go on a retreat once each year and after each retreat my daily practice would be "strong," sitting each morning and evening. Then it would start to fizzle out and eventually I would start thinking "If I can't do the whole hour, why bother."  I would talk about this with teachers on retreats I sat and got similar advice:  be diligent, be committed, etc.

Then I met Pat Coffey who co-led a Men's Retreat at IMS in Barre Massachusetts.  Pat said, "Don't worry about the time.  Tell yourself each day that you will just assume the position -- even if it means you sit down and then get right back up.  If you sit for 30 seconds that's fine.  If you sit for 30 minutes that's fine.  No expectations.  Just sit and see."

So successful was this advice in my practice that I have integrated into my coaching helping people to find success in everything from exercising to stopping cigarette smoking.  We create this mindset of what success has to be and if what we end up with doesn't match perfectly we want to throw it all away.

We forget how hard change is and we forget to recognize and celebrate the huge success of changing the course of our life -- a life charged with significant powerful momentum -- even one tenth of one degree.  We don't consider the impact of a one tenth of one degree change in course over time:  you will end up hundreds of miles from where you were originally headed.

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

Many people seek a personal life coach or business coach because of the "accountability" factor:  they want someone to note their goals, purpose, [healthy] habits and other aspirations they are working toward and monitor their progress toward these aspirations.

"What do you want me to do if you get behind on your goals?" is a question I ask all my clients when we start out.  "Give me a kick in the pants" was one response.  This push me request happens more often than not.

I do honor this request and I do push clients I work with who want this.  But at some point I broach the question, usually as an inquiry or thinking assignment, "Why do you need someone to hold you accountable?'  This is provocative question for most people and one not easily answered.

• Do you need someone to hold you accountable to your goals, purpose, [healthy] habits and other aspirations?



• What would you need to change in order for you to be accountable to you?  How would you need to restructure your life for this level of internal accountability to happen with automatic ease each time you set your mind to a new achievement?



• How much more effective would you be if you could increase internal accountability?

Don't wait!  Take action today toward real accountability to the only person who really matters:  you.

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching

A short video to help you decide if you should work with me.


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A coaching client emailed me today about a difficult situation she is engulfed in with her business.  She believes the situation will resolve over the next month but its quite volatile now.  She wrote  "If [the issue] can be controlled until it [is resolved], and if I can tolerate it until then, all is well." Why do we tolerate things in our life?  Why do we put up with things?

I will tell you why.  Fear. 

• The known quantity we have is better than the unknown quantity we might end up with so we tolerate.  We fear change.



• Are ability to put up with what we have it greater than our perceived ability to change it.  We fear failure.

So we tolerate.  And tolerations create subtle ripples of stress in our life.  Until something big happens and sparks a change.

©2007 True Azimuth, LLC
Business Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Life Coaching