Be Amazing – New Zealand premier site for health, wellbeing and development

HOW TO TAKE THOSE FIRST DIFFICULT STEPS… Are you one of the many people who have set a personal/business/work goal or a resolution, or said you’ll do something – even something small, but never actually achieved it – or even got started on it?

There are now many coaches out there to choose from, some specialising and some offering a range of services, but even though coaching has earnt it's place as an effective way for people to improve themselves and their world, the skills of a coach, plus experience and competence can vary. Use this guide to help you choose the right coach for you!

What is a TRIGGER? A TRIGGER is some kind of cue that ‘TRIGGERS’ a certain thought – it’s essentially building an association between an object and a specific thought or feeling – In setting up a TRIGGER, YOU CHOOSE the thought or feeling to be associated with it.

If you'd like some proven techniques for increasing your personal effectiveness, read on...

Coaching is not just an investment of time and energy, it costs money too! So what's the real value of coaching? How can you measure the return on your investment? A fair question deserves a fair answer!

In this article, we turn our focus to the subject of de-energisers, which represent a great opportunity to free yourself of mental clutter and improve your energy and motivation levels.

Should You Hire A Career Coach? Sara Eckel of Forbes.com talks about what to look for, what to expect and how to avoid scams.

Since the February earthquake, many businesses and organisations in Christchurch will have an understandable drive to return to ‘business as usual’ (BAU), but as Team and Leadership Coach David Savage points out, this drive must also take into account the emotional recovery of their staff if people are also to make a good recovery.

As a leader, if you want people to follow you, inspire them with a compelling vision, affirm the importance of their roles in achieving success, and then give them the resources they need to innovate and make the vision a reality ... they will find the way! By David Savage with extracts from the the book The New Leaders by Daniel Goleman

Setting and getting goals is exciting, inspiring and challenging - well at least I hope they are for you. And the 'journey to the goals' so often is such a rich experience on it's own. That is great - but what about when you finally achieve that big big goal? You're on a real high, buzzing for maybe a few days, maybe weeks.....and then, you get that sinking feeling, that little voice in your head ( or is it your heart?) says 'So what!?"

We're passionate about supporting you to Stay Amazing through the loss of a job. We've not only been there ourselves, but we've helped hundreds of people like you to survive, and in 2009 we published a book about how we, and others around the world have survived. Here are our top 10 Tips;

When personal values and company values clash, there can be a general 'unease' or 'unhappiness'. People often try to get on with the job and ignore the things they don't agree with, but eventually this gets too much and decisions have to be made...

The holiday period for most of us is a time of relaxation and an opportunity for finding another perspective on what balance means. This perspective often causes people to question why they do the work they do and often creates some dread about going back to work.

Once you've set your goals, it's really important to break them down into a manageable action plan to avoid procrastination or overwhelm.

There are many great coaches for you to choose from, and they're featured in this amazing website so that you can find out more about their work, and what they have achieved. To help you decide who is the right person to work with you, try checking out our tips for idendifying a coach to help you be even more amazing.

This article is about the quest for slow. It’s borne out of my own desire to stop, slow down a bit, and get off the treadmill of being continually busy. I hope that my discoveries also benefit you, and together we can learn to give up the habit of being constantly busy, slow down a little, and smell the roses.

What is it that people who lead by inspiration do so differently to those who lead through position? It might just be that those who inspire do so by 'being' who they are - that is their message and beliefs create a connection between humans.

As a leader, if you want people to follow you, inspire them with a compelling vision, affirm the importance of their roles in achieving success, and then give them the resources they need to innovate and make the vision a reality ... they will find the way! By David Savage with extracts from the the book The New Leaders by Daniel Goleman

When you take on a Coach there are a few essential ingredients you need in place to make the most of it ... Yep, the right goals for a start and a solid game plan. But also, it's how you engage with the coaching and the little things you can do to maintain the focus you need to nail your goals!

We didn't exit the Stone Age because we ran out of stones, we progressed because someone saw room for improvement, had a great idea, chose to lead the change and took action .... and so came the Bronze Age!

By understanding our values, we can experience greater levels of satisfaction and also simplify our decision making.

1. Be truthful – if you overstate your achievements then it’s likely that you’ll find yourself doing work you’re not capable of doing...or the reference checking process will expose anything you’ve misrepresented.

If you don't know what you're aiming for, you're sure as heck not going to hit it!

Having had the privilege of working with many thousands of individuals over the last 20+ years one of the things that keep arising is how most people are like square pegs in a round hole in their job. Most people find themselves doing what they do to keep food on the table for a number of reasons: following parental suggestions; it was the only job going; a friend got me the position; it seemed to relate to my years of study; or I saw it advertised…

We live in a society that doesn’t fully understand emotions and that most often encourages us to push them aside in favour of “getting things done.” Ironically, what keeps us from really getting things done or from even knowing what is most important to do are the very emotions we have pushed aside...

It’s all about enabling yourself to pick up information through your senses, principally so you can gather information more effectively as you work with people. Building on and developing sensory acuity means that people not only learn how to gather information about those around them, but also gather insightful information about their own behaviours and attitudes, empowering them in creating more deliberate, helpful styles of engagement with others.

Have you returned from a fabulous holiday break and realised nothing has changed in your work environment? Does your time on the beach, tramping in the hills or reading on the deck seem like a distant memory? Did you leave work on the 23rd of December thinking "I just need to relax, unwind, laugh with my friends, eat great food and spend time out of the office and then I will feel so much better"? If this sounds like you, read on...

Even when you are not job seeking it is important to have an up-to-date CV that accurately reflects your skills and experience. Your CV should always be at the ready. You never know when an opportunity may present itself to you. So how do you create a great CV?

Today leaders need to know how to ‘lead’ themselves through their own life and their daily responsbilities as leader at work. We have a frighteningly fast pace of change and innovation, changing expectations, demands and concerns for staff and their well being and development – not to mention new ways of communicating, selling, distributing to make a difference…..and thriving in a global financial ‘crisis’ The leader who understands a couple of things will fare better than those who don’t.

I recently watched a TED video with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and it stimulated my thinking further. If you have started looking for another job it does not mean you have to mentally check out of your current one. This is a common occurrence; most people who have had enough of their current environment will no longer participate fully, will shy away from additional responsibility and ignore any new opportunities that might come their way. Does this sound like you?

Some books can be even more than life changing...they can be life and career changing! Here's one that inspired me to move to New Zealand from the UK, and quit my life in the corporate world.

Have you recently attended an interview for a role you really wanted and come away thinking - "that went reasonably well". Then receive in your inbox the next day a "dear john" email.

In my work as a coach, often with leaders in corporations or private companies, I see in my clients eyes a look of panic - of being trapped - of waiting for the rescue vehicle to arrive and 'fix' their lives.....to get them out of their extremley busy, and highly successful lives and career. Why is this?

"Start where you stand and make the road by walking." Antonia Machado

Some people have that ability to create something amazing out of the conversations they have. Whether it’s helping someone gain insight over a dilemma, adding a little sunshine to someone’s day or replacing conflict with collaboration. So how do they do this? What skills are they using?

It’s ‘that’ time of year again when we dig out our ‘to do’ list for the last twelve months, enjoy a smug 5 seconds of celebrating what we accomplished and then feel guilty at the remaining actions that we never even got close to achieving. I’m completely guilty of ‘over promising and under delivering’ when it comes to my own New Year goal setting so this year I’m going to do things differently – everything is going to be about my career.

It’s ‘that’ time of year again when we dig out our ‘to do’ list for the last twelve months, enjoy a smug 5 seconds of celebrating what we accomplished and then feel guilty at the remaining actions that we never even got close to achieving. So how are you going to make certain that January 2012 is different? What can you do to make sure that you're likely to ACHIEVE the career goals that you set yourself? What will it take to motivate you to keep going...even if the going gets tough?

Stress features in the lives of most people – in paid employment, self employment and those who run households. It can be as deadly as a cancer or as subtle as a mosquito bite!

From the 26th of September 2011, a ban on bullfighting in Barcelona ends a tradition that is hundreds of years old and etched into the DNA of Spanish culture. Whilst for some it’s a loss of identity and for others it’s an evolutionary step forward, one thing is for sure …. it demonstrates that leaders need to sometimes play a long-game to create change.

Looking for work can be a difficult experience and sometimes recruitment consultancy staff are not as helpful as you might have expected. Something to keep in mind is that you are using their service for free. They are paid by the employer and will put more effort into communicating with them than you. However, all is not lost. You can find a new job with the help of a recruitment consultant.

On September 4th 2010 a substantial earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale rocked Christchurch. Suddenly managers and leaders were required not only to help their team continue delivering against business requirements, but also operate in a working environment that saw over 2,500 aftershocks within an eight week period. I was asked to provide a coaching tool to support some of those managers and I hope that you find this information useful.

Some people have a great ability to keep the head under pressure in front of others. They steer their focus away from a feeling of risk and doom, to one of being in the moment - performing in the same way as they had mentally rehearsed their performance. And of course, with more experience, the easier it is to (in the words of Adam Ant) stand and deliver!