Lyn and I earn our living through coaching. The power tools we reach for daily are Active Listening and Powerful Questioning.

For today, if you allow this blog entry to be your self-coach, we have just one question:

Are you managing your business or mastering it?

About the Author: Neil Phillips is an internationally known network marketing and direct selling coach. Get more from Neil on his Direct Selling Notebook , the DSWA Coaching Center and Twitter. You may contact him directly through neil@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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I don’t know of any hard working person who doesn’t want—and need—some time off to recharge their mental batteries.  Steven Covey referred to this as “sharpening the saw.”  Lyn Christian challenged us to take some breaks to avoid a meltdown.  I agree wholeheartedly.  That’s part of the reason I was on my annual sojourn to northern Canada to go fishing.  For me, a week without electronics and a human deluge is very refreshing. 

I don’t go on this trip looking for life or business lessons.  They were hard to avoid.  Here is the short list.

• You have to fish where the fish are biting, and you have to do it when they want to bite.
• No one is more patient than a good fisherman.
• The person who says, “that beaver slapping his tail on the water sounds like a gunshot” sees the world much differently from the person who says “that gunshot sounds like a beaver slapping his tail on the water.”  [I was surprised that the words are identical in these two phrases but the meanings are radically different.]
• One is humbled by a golden eagle, who stares haughtily at us as we inch closer for a picture.  One is even more humbled when he raises his tail, defecates in our direction, and flies off.
• Silence is very comfortable after eight hours a day for six days in a fourteen foot boat.
• The purpose of a fishing trip is to fish.  Everything else is secondary.
• You can’t catch fish sitting in a cabin talking about it.
• The fish is never at fault.  A fish is just being a fish.  Its job is not biting your hook.
• Fish always win a staring contest.
• There are a lot more things that we can’t control than we can.  This is the inevitable conclusion as you come around the bend in a river and see how the setting sun has turned a million shades of green into a million shades of gold.

What did you learn on your summer vacation?  I’d love to hear your insights.

About the Author: Neil Phillips is an internationally known network marketing and direct selling coach. Get more from Neil on his Direct Selling Notebook , the DSWA Coaching Center and Twitter. You may contact him directly through neil@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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As your health is, so goes your business.

If this statement were true, how would you measure up today? Sometimes, especially in the case of Solopreneurship this statement is absolutely true. For some of us our physical, mental or emotional wellness is the engine to our business. The more vitality you have the more you have to bless your work and your personal life.

How many of these three statements can you say “yes” to?

• I have had a dental check-up in the past nine months.
• I have had my regular annual medical check-up.
• I have had my vision checked in the past 16 months.

Can you answer these questions?

• I know my blood pressure is regulated.
• I know that my cholesterol levels are healthy.
• I have a healthy, regular exercise program custom fit for me AND I follow it.

So now that we’ve pricked your conscious a bit, what do you need to do this week in order to better manage the other side of entrepreneurship known as your health?

Lyn Christian is the founder of SoulSalt, Inc., a coaching and coach training company. She is passionate about the “free-agent” worker who wants to earn their living and live their lives by doing what inspires them. Get more information by visiting www.soulsalt.com or contact Lyn directly through lyn@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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Lyn and I earn our living through coaching. The power tools we reach for daily are Active Listening and Powerful Questioning.

For today, if you allow this blog entry to be your self-coach, we have just one question:

Do you say, “I don’t have time to do X” or “I don’t do X because it’s not a priority”?

About the Author: Neil Phillips is an internationally known network marketing and direct selling coach. Get more from Neil on his Direct Selling Notebook , the DSWA Coaching Center and Twitter. You may contact him directly through neil@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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Lyn and I earn our living through coaching. The power tools we reach for daily are Active Listening and Powerful Questioning.

For today, if you allow this blog entry to be your self-coach, we have just one question:

Are you as young as you’ll ever be or as old as you’ve ever been?

About the Author: Neil Phillips is an internationally known network marketing and direct selling coach.   Get more from Neil on his Direct Selling Notebook , the DSWA Coaching Center and Twitter. You may contact him directly through neil@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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One huge lesson I learned as a writer and developer at Franklin Covey Co. was something Stephen R. Covey said, “How many of us often find ourselves too busy driving to stop for gas?”

Have you ever felt that way in your work? When we are too busy to stop for gas we often find ourselves over stressing to eek our way on fumes until the next weekend or vacation. Other times we find our tank completely empty and we are stranded in an undesirable location unable to move.

As it is with gasoline and cars, so it is with energy and entrepreneurs.  We can and often do wear ourselves thin or completely empty.

So what is one to do?  Here are some basics that when practiced can help us pace ourselves over long and short periods of performance:

Every work-night (typically week days) turn the lights off and leave work behind at a specific time. One powerhouse I know has set the time as 7:00 p.m. At that point all phone calls go to a phone service and everything stops. He spends time with his family which includes sitting down and eating with them.  This practice helps you hit the ground running the next morning and able to keep a stronger stride all week.

At least three of four weekends a month stop working Friday night and don’t return until Monday morning. The only exception is to perhaps spend 15 minutes Sunday night making your weekly plans. This means cell phones and laptops can’t be used for work purposes. Leave it alone for two whole days. You’ll be amazed at how strong you can start a work week when this happens.

Take Vacations. Yes the word is plural so it means more than one a year.  Vacations qualify as such when phones, computers and work are out of place and irrelevant. You can have a couple three or four-day weekends as part of a vacation plan. However, the minimum break time is two weeks a year for strong entrepreneurs. That means you can split the weeks up or take them together for a jumbo vacation. As your success grows you’ll probably start ditching the extended weekend version of vacations and start taking four nice long breaks a year.

Mini-breaks scattered in your day. Finally there are such things as delightful little moments in the day when you allow yourself to eat lunch at a healthy chew and swallow rhythm. Or, perhaps you stop and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine for fifteen minutes with nothing more on your mind than how great it feels to sit still. If you do nothing more than begin to play with this option, you’ll have a good start.

There you have it. And there are two things I know for sure:

The power of renewal gets bigger and stronger, more fulfilling and profitable the longer you practice it.

Million dollar ideas can’t occur in a mind that’s in meltdown.

If you’d like to view or share the video clip of this article please visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcpRKM7LRb4

Lyn Christian is the founder of SoulSalt, Inc., a coaching and coach training company.  She is passionate about the “free-agent” worker who wants to earn their living and live their lives by doing what inspires them.  Get more information by visiting www.soulsalt.com or contact Lyn directly through lyn@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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Sometimes as business athletes, we are forced to slow down and take a break for food, water or rest. I use the word forced because we are known for pushing the limits and often to the point of collapse, injury or illness.

If you are honest with yourself, you can think of times when some force larger than yourself made you STOP! So here is my coaching question: What would happen if just for today you stayed put, sat still and remained in one place?

I wonder if that thing that you really want the most would finally have a chance to land on your shoulder because you stayed still long enough for it to find you.

Just thinking out loud on this blog. What are your thoughts?

Lyn Christian is the founder of SoulSalt, Inc., a coaching and coach training company.  She is passionate about the “free-agent” worker who wants to earn their living and live their lives by doing what inspires them.  Get more information by visiting www.soulsalt.com or contact Lyn directly through lyn@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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Lyn and I earn our living through coaching. The power tools we reach for daily are Active Listening and Powerful Questioning.

For today, if you allow this blog entry to be your self-coach, we have just one question:

Are you happy or just not unhappy?

About the Author: Neil Phillips is an internationally known network marketing and direct selling coach. Get more from Neil on his Direct Selling Notebook , the DSWA Coaching Center and Twitter. You may contact him directly through neil@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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Recently I opened a magazine and saw the iconic photo of an American flag being raised over Iwo Jima. The theme for this issue was Freedom because during July in the United States we take time to celebrate this gift.

When I reflect on how I personally celebrate freedom, I realize that I don’t focus on stars, stripes and fireworks.

Freedom for me means: expressing as much of your own creative capacity as possible while leaving you and everyone else better off.

William Faulkner, American author and Nobel Prize winner said: “We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”

Where I practice freedom the most is within the arena of entrepreneurship. The longer I play and work here, the stronger my conviction is that this is an excellent avenue for me to pursue personal and financial freedom.

I was once challenged by Executive Coach Marshall Goldsmith to depart from every other practice than what my heart and mind, my soul was calling me to do. His advice left me shaking in my boots and completely ecstatic at once. What I had been doing for a living had been profitable. However, the bigger game for me, the greater practice of freedom was in his challenge.

All my life I had wanted to earn from my voice in my work and through my words. I wanted to sale, market and deliver my training, my coaching, my ideas and not those belonging to another.

I took Marshall’s challenge. Since 2004 I’ve been on my own. And through-out the process and now there is great joy and increased earnings. I’ve published two books, various articles, blog entries, dozens and dozens of speeches and trainings and I coach for a living. I have achieved Master Certified Coach status. I’ve done it!

Venturing into entrepreneurship requires courage. If you are like me, going out on your own means you overcome inner obstacles and meet external challenges every single week.

That’s probably why Robert Frost, poet and four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize said, “Freedom lies in being bold.”

I’m curious about four things:

How do you practice freedom?

How much freedom do you allow yourself?

How bold are you willing to be?

What are you doing with your freedom?

If you are viewing this post in an email, please click over here to view the video.  

About the Author:  Lyn Christian is the founder of SoulSalt, Inc., a coaching and coach training company.  She is passionate about the “free-agent” worker who wants to earn their living and live their lives by doing what inspires them.  Get more information by visiting www.soulsalt.com or contact Lyn directly through lyn@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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Lyn and I earn our living through coaching.  The power tools we reach for daily are Active Listening and Powerful Questioning.

For today, if you allow this blog entry to be your self-coach, we have just one question:

Are you in transition or passing through?

About the Author: Neil Phillips is a founding partner of Team Connections and Director of the DSWA Coach Excellence program.  Get more from Neil on his Direct Selling Notebook , the DSWA Coaching Center and Twitter. You may contact him directly through neil@thecoachtoolkit.com.

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