1. Define the issue that you want to relieve.
2. Rate the severity of the issue, right now, on a scale of 0 to 10.
3. Tap 5 times, just below the little finger on both hands, where you strike for a karate chop, while saying: "Even though I have this issue (state it out loud), I deeply and completely accept myself and my feelings."
4. Tap 5 times on each of the following points with your finger tips while saying: "I am releasing this issue (state it out loud), and I am letting it go now."
   • Inside of eyebrows
   • Sides of eyes
   • Under eyes
   • Under nose
   • Chin
   • Collarbone
   • Under arms
   • Top of Head
5. Re-rate the severity of the issue on a scale of 0 to 10.
6. Repeat process -- saying "Even though I still have some of this issue..." -- until severity comes down to 3 or less.

The combination of repeating affirmations while tapping on acupressure points has proven to be an effective release technique for many people. It can be used, for example, to reduce food cravings, to stop smoking, to induce sleep, to improve self-esteem, and to overcome performance problems. There's no limit to its applications since any issue is amenable to tapping and affirmations.

To learn more including advanced techniques and additional tapping points, to watch videos, to download a free 87-page manual, to check out EFT endorsements, to order materials, and to sign up for their email newsletter, visit Gary Craig's website at www.emofree.com. The process is simple to learn, can do no harm, and has done many a world of good. Enjoy the relief!

Coaching Inquiries: What stress or emotional challenges would you like to relieve? What actions have been effective for you in the past? How willing are you to try the Emotional Freedom Technique? Why not try it right now?

We invite you Email Us or to use our Contact Form to arrange for a complimentary coaching conversation with your own LifeTrek coach.

2. Provision #572: Coaching as Tiger Team by Bob Tschannen-Moran

Perhaps you are familiar with the term "tiger team." I was not until I was introduced to it by today's featured client, an engineering project manager in the aerospace industry. And it presents yet one more fascinating metaphor, along with some new distinctions and dimensions, for understanding the coaching process.

The term seems to have originated with the U.S. military, where it refers to a team of "sneakers" whose purpose is to penetrate security, and thus test security measures. From there, the term spread to other sectors, especially computer-security circles, to refer to a team of professionals who attempt to hack into systems in order to expose errors and security holes.

It was only a matter of time before the term was being used more broadly, to refer to any group of people, in any context, brought together for the specific purpose of analyzing systems in order to identify hidden or heretofore unrecognized problems which might lead to performance declines, boundary violations, workflow interruptions, and decreased earnings.

Such preemptive action has become standard operating procedure for many companies. It also describes yet another facet of the coach approach to human development. The concept of hacking into systems in order to uncover, and ultimately to fix, hidden problems is a big part of what coaches do. Through conversation and a way of being, we invite our clients to look at their lives in new ways and to see the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Sometimes those pieces are right before our eyes; we just don't see how they fit together. Other times we have to go searching for them. But in the end, when the picture comes together, the truth can no longer be ignored and a compelling case for change is made.

Of course, that's exactly what happens when a tiger team strikes. In the military or other high-security environments, heads can roll over the discoveries these teams can make. Their operations can make people miserable. And so too when it comes to coaching. Coaching is not just a feel-good activity. Sometimes we make our clients very uncomfortable as an important part of the growth process.

Today's featured client has certainly had plenty of experience with tiger teams both at work and through almost two years of intermittent LifeTrek coaching. I trust that you will be blessed by his honest reflections on how our conversations have both assisted him to move forward and to realize the work that is yet to be done.

Q. How did you first learn about LifeTrek Coaching?

A. I had been reading your material on my Palm Pilot, through AvantGo, for quite a while before giving you a call. And when I called, I didn't even have it in mind to start a coaching relationship. I simply recognized you as a kindred spirit whose writing and work I had come to appreciate. I really just called to say "Thanks," and to explore opportunities to collaborate. Once we started talking, however, I recognized that LifeTrek Coaching could mean more to me than a weekly, inspirational Provision and I became open to the possibility that coaching might be able to assist me to reach my goals in life.

Q. And what were some of those goals?

A. How much time do you have? For the last twenty years, since I was in college, my overarching goal -- my Big, Hairy Audacious Goal or B-HAG, a term which I originally heard at a retreat with Mark Victor Hansen who had himself borrowed the phrase from Jim Collins -- has been to reduce the dependence of the United States on fossil fuels.

In college I rode my bike to get to class until, if you can believe this, they banned bicycles from the campus. The university transportation czar was wheelchair bound, and so she was focused on wheelchair-accessible public transportation. Bicycles were seen as an obstacle to accessibility. That decision seemed ridiculous to me. Bicycles and wheelchairs could coexist. So I became an activist and got on the university transportation board in order to change the policy.

Since that time, I have had repeated experiences that remind me of this priority. I see or sit in traffic jams, with one person to a car, depleting the earth's resources, destroying the environment, creating economic dependency, and ruining our health. These experiences have made me more committed than ever to developing sustainable forms of transportation and alternative energy sources and I know, in my heart, that our country possesses more than enough technical expertise to achieve these goals if we were to make energy independence a priority.

Could LifeTrek Coaching assist me to reach such a goal? I believe it has, it can, and it will by assisting me to rearrange my life in ways that enable me to put more time and energy into my passion. That is why I decided to work with you, because there is a huge disconnect between my core values and where I spend my time. My core values put the well-being of our planet, and of my family on our planet, at the top of the chart. But you would never know it from the hours I work each week in the aerospace industry.

So I wanted you to assist me to see what I was missing, like my own personal tiger team. I wanted you to come in and evaluate the holes in my life, and in my excuses, so that I could figure out a new way of being in the world.

Q. How did we do on that score?

A. The bottom line is that I do better when I talk with you on a weekly basis than when I push things back to biweekly, monthly, or not at all. You have become an accountability partner for me. The fact that we have a scheduled appointment, that I prepare for that appointment by completing the Prep Form, and that we have homework growing out of every call means that I am more accountable to myself in living from my values rather than from my pressures.

But I would be lying to say that we have made great progress. The huge stumbling block for me is figuring out how to replace my salary in the aerospace industry with my passion for renewable energy. I have not figured that out yet, and the longer it goes on the worse it gets. I get promoted into increasing positions of responsibility, requiring even more time and energy for me to be successful.

Right now, I have not been coaching with you on a weekly basis for quite a while and I have let things slide. From the point of view of my day job, it is worse now than on the day I first called you.

So come January, after the holidays, we may need to ramp up our work together again. That's because I really do better with you as my tiger team. On a personal level, I do better with my spiritual practices and my family commitments. I also do better with my daily habits. As the work load has ramped up, for example, I'm back to drinking coffee again and having ice cream at night -- two habits I had completely eliminated when we were working together weekly. I am also not exercising like before. In short, my life is in better balance when we are working together more regularly.

On a professional level, I do better with my plans for leaving my current job in favor of my B-HAG. We have discussed two important strategies here, both of which deserve more attention than I am giving them now. One is to develop my network marketing business into a going concern, to replace some of the income I would lose if I left my current position. The other is to work in the field of alternative energy or energy conservation, either through a for-profit corporation or a not-for-profit organization.

Q. Those two strategies could fit together nicely, supporting both your passion and your finances.

A. Yes, and I only saw that recently in conversation with you. I had once thought that network marketing would provide a sufficient revenue stream to fund the startup of my own business, developing technological innovations to cost effectively improve automobile fuel economy without sacrificing performance. But after a couple of years of network marketing experience, while I have achieved a moderate level of success and associated income, I have not yet been able to earn enough money for me to walk away from my day job.

When you suggested, however, that I could work in the field of my B-HAG, earning a salary, albeit lower than what I now make, I suddenly saw how the two together might be the ticket I have been looking for.

Q. So what's to stop you from pulling this all together?

A. What stops anyone from stepping out in faith? Too much fear and too little time. The fear, of course, is that it won't work. That we'll develop a plan that we'll never be able to implement. It's always harder to walk the walk than to talk the talk. But the lack of time gets in the way of everything. My work is so demanding that it leaves precious little time to think about anything else. After working all day, I come home, enjoy some time with my family until the kids are asleep, and then often work overtime hours late into the night. At that point I usually just fall into bed, exhausted, without thinking about or working on my B-HAG.

In other words, to borrow a phrase that you've written about from Steven Covey, I have precious little Quadrant II time in my life right now. Quadrant II time is focused on the Important-Not Urgent items. But so much of my life is urgent, the proverbial "squeaky wheel." The demands are loud and they keep getting louder. If I can't get myself to spend more time in Quadrant II, I will never get to working on my B-HAG.

Q. With so many external pressures, how could coaching assist you to do better?

A. The same way it always has. When I have a coaching call on my calendar, I leave the office and take the call. When I have assignments growing out of the call, I always somehow manage to make the time to do the assignments. In other words, to have a coach is to make a commitment. And I am serious about my commitments. That's why I do well at work. And that's why, with a coach, I do better in other areas as well. Having a coach forces the issue. If you're not going to do the work, then you shouldn't have a coach.

Coaching also opens my eyes to new possibilities. I'm not just talking to myself, I'm talking to someone who is not entrapped by the same pressures or inside the same boxes. There's no way to describe how refreshing it is to talk with someone who is not overwhelmed and who trusts in my ability to figure this out. It makes my goals seem possible and doable.

And, of course, we come up with incremental steps that I can take from week to week. These are not short-term solutions; these are practical, doable steps that I can act upon to make progress towards my long-term vision. That's what I like so much about coaching. It's a high-accountability, judgment-free space that propels me into action. When I work with you weekly, I develop a cadence in my life that is positive, productive, and purposeful.

Q. That sounds like a strong recommendation to our readers as to the value of coaching.

A. Absolutely. Establishing a coaching relationship allows you to bring out the things that are inside you already, the things that are really important, the truths that you know to be true that can no longer be ignored. Once you've heard yourself explain them to another person, once you've written them down and embraced them on the deepest of levels, it becomes almost imperative that you take action upon them.

Coaching makes your values more real, tangible, specific, and important. You find yourself asking the questions, "Why am I not living my values?" "Why am I not acting on the information that I know to be true?" When you play in that sandbox with your coach, it becomes increasingly difficult to find reasons to justify inaction. The tiger team pokes a hole through your defenses until you sit up, take notice, and move on. You eventually become the person you were meant to be.

Coaching Inquiries: How well does your life express your values? Do you feel exhausted and distracted by the demands of life? Would having your own personal "tiger team" assist you to get on track? What's one action you could take this week that would move your forward in the right direction?

To reply to this Provision, use our Feedback Form. To talk with us about coaching or consulting services for yourself or your organization, Email Us or use our Contact Form to arrange a complimentary conversation. To learn more about LifeTrek Coaching programs, Click Here. Top

3. Readers' Forum

Editor's Note: The LifeTrek Readers' Forum contains selections from the comments and materials sent in each week by the readers of LifeTrek Provisions. They do not necessarily reflect the perspective of LifeTrek Coaching International. To submit your comment Email Bob or use our online Feedback Form.
========================================================
Thanks so much for all your recent client interviews. They really speak well as to what coaching is and how coaching works. Top
========================================================

4. Bulletin Board

-- Amazon Kindle. My latest "find" is an electronic library that enables me to take hundreds of books with me, where ever I go, in a device that's about the size of a small, paperback book. The device is called a Kindle and I encourage you to check it out. With a connection to the Internet that comes free of charge, many are finding that the Kindle can also be used for email and conventional browsing. For more information, visit Amazon Kindle.

-- LifeTrek Coaching In The News. Bob Tschannen-Moran, the President of LifeTrek Coaching International, was recently featured in the news. Read the Full Story Online today!

-- CelebrateEmpathy.com. To learn more about the process of honest expression and empathic reception, visit out latest Celebrate! website, CelebrateEmpathy.com. The site features resources and training opportunities in Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

-- CelebrateSchools.com. Building on the school leadership work of LifeTrek Vice-President, Megan Tschannen-Moran, Associate Professor of Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership at the College of William and Mary, LifeTrek offers a dynamic process for school improvement utilizing Appreciative Inquiry, training, and professional coaching. To learn and to contact us for a possible consultation, visit CelebrateSchools.com.

-- CelebrateCongregations.com. If you are involved with a church or congregation in need of transformation and renewal, Appreciative Inquiry and professional coaching provides a powerful combination for making things different. To learn more and to contact us for a possible consultation, visit CelebrateCongregations.com.

-- Discount on Athletic Apparel. To receive a 10% discount on athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories, contact Dan Distelhorst of Second Soul Delaware. Just be sure to mention that you are a reader of LifeTrek Provisions! To learn more, visit their store online, sign up for their electronic newsletter, write Dan an email, or give him a call at (740) 369-0622.

-- Visit our Blog. Want to catch interim thoughts, between Provisions? Just visit our web log Click. You'll find links to relevant articles on topics of interest to LifeTrek Readers. You can even add your own comments and replies.

-- LifeTrek Coaching Programs. LifeTrek offers a full range of individual and group coaching programs. In addition to what you read every week in Provisions concerning your personal and professional development, did you know that LifeTrek also does a wide range of organizational development work and leadership coaching? The various aspects of our program are clearly described at our Website, Click. Visit our site today to learn how LifeTrek can assist you or your organization. Top

5. Bookstore Click

You can purchase all of the books mentioned in LifeTrek Provisions as well as a whole lot more from Amazon.com. These great books will move you forward in your own life trek. Here are links to a few recently mentioned books:

-- Distracted by Maggie Jackson Amazon
-- The Handbook of Coaching Psychology by Palmer/Whybrow Amazon
-- How Coaching Works by Joseph O'Connor & Andrea Lages Amazon
-- Blink by Malcom Gladwell Amazon
-- The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch Amazon
-- Brain Rules by John Medina Amazon
-- Appreciative Coaching by Orem, Binkert, & Clancy Amazon
-- The Inner Game of Work by W. Timothy Gallwey Amazon
-- Coaching Conversations for Transformational Change by Hall & Duvall Amazon
-- Coaching for Performance: Growing People, Performance, and Purpose by John Whitmore Amazon

E-Books by Bob Tschannen-Moran

Old Provisions never die; they just keep on providing inspiration for life. You can purchase some of your favorite Provisions' series, for a nominal fee, bundled and formatted either for Palm Pilot document readers or as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Here are the titles currently available with a link to purchase:

-- Listening e-Book and Audio Series. Bob Tschannen-Moran's series of Provisions on Listening has been turned into a 41-page e-Book together with an audio series that he recorded along with Margaret Moore from the Wellcoaches Corporation. In addition to learning the "10 Keys to Better Listening," this e-Book and Audio Series will enable you to appreciate the humor and insight of Bob's perspective and voice. If you're not ready to start work with a LifeTrek coach, this series on Listening is the next best thing. Working through the 10 Keys, and listening to the audio recording, will assist you to reap the personal and professional benefits of better listening. Order your copy today for $10 U.S. Click.

We also have a variety of other resources for as little as $1.50. Check out these titles:

-- Mastering Your Money: Road to Financial Independence, PDF or Palm DOC
-- Ten Strategies for Success: Culled from America's Greatest Sports Coaches, PDF or Palm DOC
-- Get Motivated For Life: How To Give Your Best Every Day, PDF or Palm DOC Top

6. Subscribe/Unsubscribe Instructions

LifeTrek Provisions goes to more than 50,000 subscribers in 152 countries, including 35,480 subscribers on handheld devices as of the end of March 2008. To view the list of countries, Click Here. Let us know if we should add your country to the list: Click. To subscribe or unsubscribe from LifeTrek Provisions, visit our Subscriber Services' page:

http://www.lifetrekcoaching.com/provisions/subscribe.htm

Submit your request, and you will be promptly added or removed from our database.

May you be filled with goodness, peace, and joy.

Bob Tschannen-Moran, President
LifeTrek Coaching International
121 Will Scarlet Lane
Williamsburg, VA 23185-5043

Email: Click
Phone: (757) 345-3452
Fax: (772) 382-3258
Top