A Coaching Power Tool Created by Chris Accornero
(Transformational Coach, UNITED STATES)
Everyone has inside themselves a piece of good news! The good news is that you really don’t know how great you can be, how much you can love, what you can accomplish and what your potential is! [1] ~ Anne Frank ~
Limiting Beliefs – those beliefs that have formed in our minds that stop us from making progress and becoming our truest self.
- What is holding you back from making sustained progress in important areas of life?
- What limitations do you have embedded in your mind that you have kept for years?
Emerging Potential – the process of coming into being – in any moment, in any situation, there is an emerging potential waiting to happen.
- What is trying to happen at the deeper level of self and soul?
- What is trying to happen in relation to various life situations?
We have one body and one life to live, so why spend it boxed in by limitations when we can it focused on abundant possibilities? Thinking about what we are NOT isn’t a good strategy for a fulfilled, healthy life, where we are a blessing to the people around us. What is needed is for us to exchange old, self-doubting and limiting beliefs for ones that actually move us forward toward the person we dream of being. The person that we were created to be and the person that we really are is waiting to be released. We must remember who we are. The power inside of each of us is mind-boggling – we are creative, healing, amazing beings.
Do you have beliefs that limit you?
- Have you ever started a project on Monday and quit by Tuesday?
- Have you ever purchased a home treadmill or stationary bike, worked out for a few weeks and then stopped?
- Have you ever bought a book, started reading it and now you don’t even know where you put it or left off?
- Have you ever tried to lose weight and just quit because it wasn’t happening faster?
- Do you believe you are too old to try something new?
- Do you believe that you are overweight because your family is?
- Do you believe that you cannot change or overcome your circumstances?
If you said yes to any of these questions, then you have a limiting belief. What has formed in your mind that caused you to answer yes? Did someone convince you, when you were very young, that you “could do that because….”?
What, if instead, you were to see yourself as someone who was born with potential, a potential that emerges and evolves over a lifetime? This potential is inside of each of us, in our DNA, in the essence of who we are and who we are designed to be. This potential is ours, alone, and for us to embrace and develop. It is only limited by what we will or will not do – by the limiting beliefs that we take in and own. So who will you become and what will you do with your potential?
Remember, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken new action. If there is no action, you haven’t really decided. [2] ~ Anthony Robbins ~
Case – Appreciative Intelligence or Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn
A story from Thatchenkery and Metzker (2009)
Appreciative intelligence is the ability to perceive the positive potential in something right now, in the present. An easy way to say it is that this type of intelligence is the ability to see a large, mighty oak tree before you when you only have an acorn in your hand. Potential!
This ability allows people to take new or challenging circumstances and turn them into amazing opportunities and experiences. The components of appreciative intelligence are reframing, appreciating the positive, and seeing how the future unfolds from the present.
- Reframing – the ability to perceive – to see and interpret, to frame or reframe. Framing is a process where we intentionally view or put into a certain perspective any object, person, context or scenario. Example – calling a glass of water “half-empty” or “half-full”. Regardless of how the glass is described, the amount of water is the same – only the perspective is different.
- By framing reality in a new and positive way, people open their minds to seeing new connections between ideas, people and situations.
- People with appreciative intelligence reframe a situation to see what is positive, but they don’t deny that negative aspects or destructive possibilities exist.
- Appreciate the Positive – seeing and selecting aspects of the present that are useful, valuable or desirable. The ability to focus on positive aspects of a current situation that can generate a successful future.
- When we see what is valuable, constructive or wonderful in the present, we open the door wide for a positive future.
- Appreciative intelligence is the capacity to see other people and their talents in a unique way – to reveal hidden talents or bring out the best in others.
Coaching Application
This power tool helps to start the coaching relationship on a very strong, solid foundation. It helps to ask powerful questions about how the potential client values themselves, hears their own voice and how easily they can envision a positive, healthy future. The introductory questions that would be sent with the contract or even earlier might be:
- What are your most important goals (short and/or long term) right now?
- What resources do you have to accomplish your goals?
- Who are the most important people and biggest fans in your life?
- Who are your biggest bullies (invalidators)?
- What are the top three frustrations in your life?
- Share one (or more) of your favorite strategies for managing yourself.
- Is there an area of your life right now where you feel stuck? If so, what is it?
- Do you have a dream? If so, what is it? (Or, if you could accomplish only one thing in life, what would it be?) – You can answer either question.
- If you had three wishes, what personal things would you wish for?
- What would you like to accomplish through coaching?
Reflection
- What beliefs are limiting you, stopping your forward movement?
- What are your dreams for the future?
- What do you imagine or visualize that you will be doing in the next 5 years?
- As a coach, how do you help your client look at all aspects of life, avoid limiting beliefs and reach their full potential?
Remember, if a person has a big enough “WHY”, they can endure almost any “how”!
[1] “Famous Quotes from Frank…” Biographical Dictionary, .
[2] www.tonyrobbins.com/…/Mike%20Koenigs%20MM%20Workbook.pdf