Week 13: Express Your Gratitude

Express Your Gratitude Links Website Blog Life & Business Coaching Young Adult Coaching Past Newsletters Press Purchase a Copy Welcome to April! This month we are celebrating the vibrance and color in your life! Recap - March into March by Simplifying Week 12 - Six Strategies to Clear Mental Clutter 1) Get a notebook 2) Complete the uncompleted 3) Drop what isn't working 4) Schedule time weekly to regroup and monthly to plan 5) Move - physically 6) Stay in the present moment Week 11 - Simplify - Clear Your Clutter -Establish ground rules for your home -Everything in your home is either functional, beautiful or both -Everything in your home has a "home base" where it "lives" Before you buy new things ask yourself: 1) Where will this item "live" in my home? 2) What am I going to do with it...beauty or practical use? 3) What can I donate, give away, sell or toss to make room for my new treasure? Week 10 - Simplify - Tidy Your Finances -Take a look at your finances -Organize your papers -Use Suze Orman's article in O Magazine as a roadmap Week 9 Simplify - Your Purse & Wallet -Set aside 20 min to clearn your purse and wallet -Reduce the amount of stuff -Rethink what you actually need -Eliminate the excess As your coach I want to encourage you to dream wildly, love wholeheartedly, persevere relentlessly, believe in yourself unwaveringly and give abundantly! If you are new this week...welcome...let's make 2010 your best year yet! For a recap of what we've covered so far visit the archives. In April we focusing on the color in your life! God Bless, Margaret. This Week's Topic: Express Your Gratitude Dear Friend, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." ~Cicero April is a month of rebirth and renewing. As winter fades and spring emerges we see life and color in nature around us and we are able to spend more time outdoors experiencing these glorious things! This month I want to focus on the color in your life - the elements of your life that give it flavor and vibrance! To kick start this month I'd like to return to what I believe, after prayer, is the most essential step in our life - gratitude. When we have gratitude for our life, for the people in our life, for our experiences - good and bad - we are able to fully celebrate our life! The truth is, small things matter because in acknowledging them we open ourselves up to receiving more. When we can look at our lives and have deep and pure gratitude for all that is, we change as people. We unlock our inner belief in abundance. As our beliefs change, we evolve as individuals. We become prepared to accept with gratitude the abundance God has created for us. Make It Happen I believe gratitude exercises should be as much a part of our daily routine as brushing our teeth. This week feel and show gratitude. Here are several ways to begin: A gratitude journal - each morning or evening write down five things for which you are grateful Say out loud to yourself twice daily - four things for which you are grateful Write a letter to someone who has impacted your life and express what they did for you and how you feel about it Incorporate gratitude into your daily prayer, "Dear God, I am grateful for..." or "Dear God, I know it is because of your grace..." Be creative - come up with your own way to express gratitude - open yourself up just as the warming of the earth enables a bud to blossom. Feel your own magnificence by having gratitude for the vibrance in your life! May you be blessed, for you are a blessing! Encourage your friends, family and colleagues by sharing this newsletter with them and invite them to subscribe! Direct them to www.MargaretPundmann.com where they can sign up. The "Powerful Living, Powerful You" newsletter is written and distributed by Emerge Enterprise, LLC. Copyright © 2010 Margaret Pundmann Fortner. All rights reserved. www.MargaretPundmann.com.

Who Do You Need to Acknowledge?

Dear Friend,

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought,

and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

~ G.K. Chesterton

This week we are going to focus on whom we need to acknowledge. Next week we will discuss various ways to acknowledge those who have made a difference in our lives. We have all been blessed by people in our lives personally and professionally. These are people who have guided us, supported us, nurtured us, comforted us ... People who have helped make our lives what they are today. When we celebrate the role that people have played in our life we show our gratitude and acknowledge that we are the result of others. Dr. Martin Seligman, considered one of the fathers of Positive Psychology, studies happiness. He was written several books, created a master's program in positive psychology, given countless lectures, and led the way for changing how psychology evaluates and examines people. Over the years, he and his team have developed many techniques to help enhance one's happiness. One very significant way is to express our gratitude to people who we have never properly thanked. Next week I'm going to share with you the exercises he has created for his students.

Make It Happen

Take a few moments each day this week and reflect on those to whom you are indebted. Maybe it was your 3rd grade soccer coach or maybe it was your piano teacher or your first boss. This week take time to stroll down memory lane and revisit your life. Ask yourself, "Who has enriched my life?" Search your life for people who have impacted you. Break your life in five year segments start with the last five years. You can begin this process by noting these people in your gratitude journal. Here are some figures that many of us have had in our lives. Use this list as a point of departure.

• Teacher
• Parent
• Friend
• Mentor
• Boss
• Colleague
• Sibling
• Spouse
• Children
• Dog

Blessings to you!

Caring For Ourselves, part two

Dear Friend,

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

Cicero

How did it go over the last week doing one nice thing for yourself? Where you able to do it?If so, I congratulate you! Way to go! If not, I encourage you to ask yourself, why couldn't you find a small piece of time for yourself?I encourage you to make your-self a priority in this next week. Right now, mark thirty minutes on your calendar and select an activity that you can complete in that time. Remember to achieve something you must set specific, measurable, realistic, and scheduled goals - so take three minutes to map that out right now. I believe one of the greatest ways we can care for ourselves is to show gratitude. (The rest of this column is an excerpt from my book, The Emerging Woman, due out on November 13, 2008.)

Begin a Gratitude Journal

According to research done by Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want, a gratitude journal can make you happier. She had two groups of subjects that kept journals for ten weeks. The first group kept a gratitude journal and regularly jotted down those things that they were grateful for (meals, day, relationships, and work.) The second group wrote down daily hassles and annoyances. Not surprisingly, after ten weeks the group keeping a gratitude journal was happier, more optimistic, exercising more, experienced better health in terms of - decreased headaches, coughing, and even nausea. Some days you will have profound revelations. Other days, small simple things like food on the table and shade to shelter you from the heat of the sun will fill your list. You will see that those things you notice and appreciate change over the coming weeks. As you experience personal benefits of keeping a gratitude journal, take note below of those benefits and experiences. Over time, this journal will serve as a reminder to you why this is an important practice in your daily life.

Make it Happen

Right now, decide that you will purchase a lovely little notebook - one that is beautiful on the outside and makes you smile. Promise yourself, that each evening, before your head hits the pillow you will write five items for which you are grateful.

Try This

After a week of using your Gratitude Journal, take note of the benefits of your gratitude journal. Use this list as a reminder to continue using the Gratitude Journal. Blessings to you!

What Coaching Isn't

I think it is important to make some distinctions between what coaching is and what it isn’t. These brief comparisons will help clients needing therapy, consulting, mentoring or another service discern which type of professional is best suited to meet their needs. My hope is that clients who are considering hiring a coach will have some basis for comparison about what they can expect and ask for from their coach. Coaching isn’t therapy. Generally, therapy goes back to the roots to work through unresolved issues of the past. Coaching assumes that the past is perfect, whether it is or not, and focuses on putting your energy to work in the present and moving forward. Therapy is appropriate for clients who need to resolve their past in order to move forward. Coaching isn’t consulting. Consulting typically begins with a particular problem that a client wants to solve. A consultant, the expert, does tests and evaluations and delivers a report with potential solutions to the problem. Coaching assumes that the client has all the information they need to problem-solve. Coaching questions the true problem to ensure that the client won’t find answering another question more meaningful and profound. Once the client has selected the question they want to answer or the problem they want to solve, the coach and the client work together to devise strategies to create a win. After the client has articulated exactly what the win looks like, the coach and client work on creating the win together. Coaching isn’t mentoring. Mentoring is about providing advice and guidance based upon past experience and “having walked in the clients shoes.” The coaching partnership is focused on the client and helping them discover their own truth. Because the mentor is assumed to have greater knowledge, in the mentoring relationship there tends to be a hierarchy between the client and the coach. In coaching, the client is the expert on their life and the coach brings questions, ideas and thoughts for the client and coach to ponder together. Hence the relationship is flat.Therapy, consulting, mentoring and coaching all offer tremendous benefits to the client looking for change. Understanding where you are and what your objectives are will help you best determine which type of professional is best suited and most qualified to work with you. Check out other articles on MargaretPundmann.com: Globalized Workplace Integrity - We Are Our Word Connect to me: Margaret Pundmann's LinkedIn.com Margaret Pundmann's MySpace.com Profile

What is Coaching?

There are many different types of coaches. If you’re familiar with competitive sports you know there are coaches for tennis, baseball, basketball, football, etc. There are also life and business coaches; and there are even many specialties within the life and business coaching frameworks. Life and business coaches are similar to sports coaches in that they work with their clients (players) to create a vision of the win. That is to say, a coach’s goal is to partner with an individual to understand who they are at their core, and what their values are. A coach is also looking for what a client wants to accomplish. A client may desire to accomplish a broad range of things which might include: creating more fulfilling relationships, job transition, organization, weight loss, financial stability, and on and on. Most clients want some combination of many of these goals. Together the coach and client create a path to achieve these goals. The coach and client strategize on the most effective and efficient way to create a win. One thing a great coach is always looking out for is false goals. A goal that isn’t connected to who a client truly is and is instead a “should” or “have to.” Coaching is a synergistic partnership that enables an individual to reach their highest intent and potential in the most efficient and effective path while staying connected to their truth and integrity. It is a mutual agreement to create a “safe space” to explore one’s beliefs, values and vision for their life. Check out other articles on MargaretPundmann.com: Globalized Workplace Integrity - We Are Our Word Connect to me: Margaret Pundmann's LinkedIn.com Profile Margaret Pundmann's MySpace.com Profile