Bridges Edition of 1/8/2007

Welcome to Bridges, a monthly newsletter published by Robin Fogel, Executive and Career Coach & Consultant. My goal is that these newsletters include practical information that you can use in your work and in your life. If you found the newsletter helpful, please forward it to your colleagues, friends and family.

If you would like to take advantage of a business consultant or executive coach, please email me at robin@coachrobinfogel.com for a complimentary coaching session or visit my website - www.coachrobinfogel.com
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Happy New Year.
January is traditionally the time of year that people make resolutions. While most make personal ones, such as losing that holiday weight, it is also the time of year that individuals and businesses take stock of what they hope to accomplish in the upcoming year. As I have written in the past, the problem with resolutions is that they are a once a year occurrence instead of an ongoing process. Why not commit to having 2007 be the year that you implement goal oriented thinking. Approach each week as if you were making a New Year's resolution and ask three questions:

What do I want to accomplish?
What is the plan?
What is getting in the way?

My book club is reading "The Tender Bar", by J.R. Moehringer, the 2000 winner of the Pulitzer for feature writing. The bar (yes an actual saloon) was inhabited by cops, poets, business executives, bookies and soldiers, who instructed and inspired J.R. One passage has stayed with me as I've thought about 2007 and what has kept client, colleagues, friends, and yes me, from accomplishing goals. Whether stated or implied, the thing that gets in the way most often is fear.

One of the characters in "The Tender Bar" said to the author when he was still a young man, "You must do everything that frightens you... I'm not talking about risking your life, but everything else. Think about fear; decide right now how you're going to deal with fear, because fear is going to be the greatest issue of your life... Fear will be the fuel for all your success, and the root cause of all your failures...and the only chance you'll have against fear? Follow it. Steer by it. Don't think of fear as the villain. Think of fear as your guide, your pathfinder."

So acknowledge what may be getting in the way of accomplishing your goals - face the fear as the guy in the bar said. Then take these steps:
1. Write down what you want to accomplish this week or month
2. Break things down into small manageable steps
3. Get whatever support will help you achieve the goal
4. Evaluate whether you are on target or need to modify your approach.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT COACHING

Your company or organization may have identified someone as a high potential employee, yet someone who could benefit from one on one attention. Instead of sending them to a seminar or training, performance enhancement coaching provides that individualized help that allows them to develop and implement specified skill areas faster. Communication, leadership, delegation, and time management are only a few areas that can be enhanced.

Final Thought
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
- Edmund Burke

I wish you a successful, productive and happy 2007.

COPYRIGHT: 2007, Robin Fogel & Assoc., LLC. All Rights Reserved. May be distributed and reprinted in its entirety with copyright, subscription instructions, and contact information intact. However, you may not copy it to a website.