It's Summer Time!

It is hard to believe that June is here! I LOVE summer. Of course I always get excited about the new season. It provides the variety and fresh perspective I need to be my best. I love the four seasons and couldn't imagine life without them.

When I look around me I see the fresh cut Roses on the table next to me. I smell the strong scent of Honeysuckle drifting through the window. These are all part of a support system I've designed to nourish and strengthen me.

What can you do today to strengthen your support system? Think about it and then follow-up!

Get off the Bench and Play Full Out

We've come to the end of another week. Did you put it to good use? What were your challenges and what were your successes? Did you move closer to your goals? Did you get the results you said you wanted? Take a deep breath and check in with yourself. How do you feel about the way you invested your time and energy this week?

If you did not end your week feeling like a winner, you may have set yourself up to lose. Follow-up Friday is the day we review our week for what worked and what didn't. What you accomplished, and what you didn't. Some weeks are better than others but every week we discover something new about ourselves. Did you play full out this week or did you sit the bench? How do you play full out? By having something to play for. Something at stake. Something meaningful to you. A good place to start is with a goal in mind. Goals are fickle and they need lots of attention in order to sprout and become something beautiful. How much thought do you put into planning your week? Do you blindly jump into Monday morning and hope for the best? If so, then congratulations because you got the results you wanted this week, which is to say you were willing to settle for anything so anything is an accomplishment. Truly, I say this with the upmost respect because I have lived many weeks this way. You simply can't fail but are you truly satisfied? Is it time to make a change?

"For things to change you've got to change. Otherwise, nothing much will change." -Jim Rohn.

In the book, The Power of Focus, co-authored by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, there are six reasons listed for procrastinating:

1. You're bored.
2. You are overwhelmed with work.
3. Your confidence has slipped.
4. You have a low self-worth.
5. You are doing work you don't really enjoy.
6. You are easily distracted, or just downright lazy!

Does any of this sound familiar? Whatever your reason for sitting the bench, let's get you up and moving. Focus this week on what's in your way. What tasks, projects, conversations, chores, etc, are you putting off? How would you feel if they were all handled? What do you need to do to make that happen? Ask for help? Delegate? Roll up your sleeves and apply some elbow grease?

What would happen next week if you made the choice to play full out? Would you experience more passion, joy, peace? Are you willing to find out? If so, you are invited to get off the bench and into the game this week, and be sure to reach out and let me know how your game is going!

Playing IS Winning

You have everything you need to create what you want to do, be and have in your life. Do you believe this? I do. You have the power within you to live your best life right now by being exactly who you are today. The good news is you do not have to change. The challenge is that you must believe in yourself and your ability to create what you want in your life with passion and purpose. This is what I call a sweet victory.

At the beginning of the week we each set out to practice living our best life at work and at home by writing down our goals and intentions, charting a course, and stepping out in faith. How did it go? Did you take the time to chart your course for the week and did you use your map to keep you on track? Did you follow-through? What still needs to be done? Who still needs to be called? What promises still need to be kept?

Each week you get to go out in the world and practice living your best life. Sometimes you'll win and sometimes you won't but you will learn so much about yourself just by your willingness to show up and play.

If you aren't satisfied with your results, I invite you to join the Sweet Victories group at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz. Once you sign up I will send you the link to our online group. It's free, interactive and fun. You'll get the support and inspiration to keep playing your best life all week. In the meantime, follow-up today and enjoy your sweet victories.

Come Monday morning you will have an opportunity to begin a new week, and I invite you to show up and play full out. For now, follow-up and celebrate your sweet victories.

Decide you can do it and don't shut down!

It's Follow-up Friday. Did you do what you set out to do? Did you keep your word? What's left to complete? Who do you need to call? Make a list of the top ten things that will need your attention on Monday and enjoy the weekend!

Take the Compass Red Carpet Ready Challenge!
Getting in shape requires more than diet and exercise. Create the mindset, commitment and attitude you need to succeed. Learn the keys to success and how to make a commitment to do the work using strategies and environments that will support your progress. Don't wait. Go to www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz and get started today.

What Do You Want?

What do you want out of life? That is a big question, isn't it? Most people feel overwhelmed by it, and it can takes years to figure out. The reason this question is so challenging is that what we want out of life changes through the years, and sometimes from season to season or month to month. I'm going to give you a challenge today: Do not go another day without beginning the process of identifying your core values, because once you do this, what you really want will begin to become clear. Get started now by accessing the first five days of Step Into Balance at http://www.mylifecompass.com/articles/18 . Step Into Balance is one of many coaching programs offered by Compass. For membership information or to connect with me on the Personal Development Network visit www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz. You have everything you need right now to be, do or have anything you want. Believe it!

A New Season, A New Challenge

Today is a day of endings and of new beginnings. At the beginning of this year we began a three-month journey with the intent to focus on our goals and achieve them together. Season one has come to an end but season two is just beginning! I've had the privilege of working with many of you personally in our groups or one-on-one coaching sessions, and I am celebrating with you today as you count up your sweet victories. There have been some fumbles and losses along the way, and there will be more in the future. This is part of playing a meaningful game. If you did not encounter challenges this season, you may not be playing big enough.

Next week begins a new season and a new game, and I want to personally invite you to begin your new season by taking the Compass Challenge.

The Compass Challenge is a simple 12-week life coaching program designed to help you achieve success. Access daily online audio coaching with leading authors and experts and keep track of your progress on the Compass Personal Development Network (PDN). First 5 Days FREE. Monthly membership for a little as $19.00 a month.

There are five challenge to choose from:

Get in Shape For Summer. Take the Red Carpet Ready Challenge With Celebrity Trainer, Val Waters

Get Balance Back In Your Life. Take the Remodel Your Reality Challenge With Compass Founder, Kim Fulcher

Align Your Priorities With God’s Plan. Take the Good News Challenge With Author and Speaker, Dr. Thelma Wells

Improve Your Relationship with Your Teen. Take the Parent as Coach Challenge With Author and Coach, Diana Sterling

Are you ready to take the Compass Challenge? Sign up at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz today and lets win this season together.

Follow-up in Action

"Your habitual actions create your reality. This concept is best illustrated with the widely accepted notion of cause and effect. Every action you take (or fail to take) creates a corresponding results. If you're unhappy with the results in your life, the most effective way to change them is to adjust the action you're taking." -Kim Fulcher "Remodel Your Reality"

Are you happy with the results you've created this week? What about the results you'll create next week if you continue on your current path? It's up to you to make the adjustments but there's plenty of help. Reach out this week and get the support you'll need to reach your goals.

LIVE WEBINAR WITH KIM FULCHER! FREE!!!!!!
    Saturday, March 20th – 1pm Pacific (2:00 pm Mountain)
    You can Register here:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/136767251


Win a free copy of Kim Fulcher's book, "Remodel Your Reality" by registering you and two guests for tomorrow's webinar. Contact me at vicki@sweetvictories.com after you've registered your group and I'll contact you by e-mail to get your shipping address! Let's win this season together!

We are at the end of the season....are you still in the game?

Today I want to take a minute to update you on my workout routine. I am happy to report that six weeks into my routine I am still on track to reaching my wellness goals. I am working out 4 to 5 times every week and am improving the quality of my diet. This is the sweet victory I am going for this season. As we approach the end of the season, I am feeling energized and happy with my results, and perhaps a little sore!

This season ends on March 31st. After 90 days of working toward your goal, how do you feel? Are you moving forward? Did you get side-tracked? Where ever you are on your path today, you can make the choice to move forward. Are your goals around money? Relationship? Health and wellness? Life balance? Do you long for a deeper connection with yourself? Whatever area you are working on, it is important to create supportive environments to keep you focused. Compass is one environment that supports me in reaching my goals. I'm leaving you today with a "sample" of the powerful coaching that is available at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz. Compass offers FREE and FEE services so everyone can play.

If you've gotten lost on your path this season, here is a MAP to help you get back on track:
http://www.mylifecompass.com/articles/11

Don't forget to create your free profile at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvicki and let me know what you are working on.

Let's celebrate your sweet victories together!


Coach Vicki Z

Get Into Action

Get Into Action
If you’re waiting for your dreams to come to you – or for someone else to hand you the opportunity you’ve been waiting for – then you’d better get comfortable, because you’re going to be here a while. Keeping the dream alive with plans and visioning? That’s a great first step – but don’t stop there. You can’t wait for change to happen, and it’s not enough to just think, plan and visualize – if you want your dreams to come true, you have to take action! Get Into Action is all about: Understanding the real truth around procrastination (it’s not what you think!) and finding the inspiration you need to put your dreams into motion. Changing your attitudes, perspectives and environments so that they create momentum rather than just maintaining the status quo. Realizing how others expectations – and your own – keep you from taking action on your dreams.

It's follow-up Friday so get into action and celebrate your sweet victories.

Get Into Action is one of five coaching programs offered at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz this month.

Hospitality Means...

"Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take them. " -Henri Nouwen

I ran across this quote in a coffee shop last week and it quickly permeated my heart and called me to take a renewed look at the world around me. After a few days of reflection I realized that I DO see the world as a hospitable place, and that is a sweet victory. I remember a time when I focused only on the obstacles that were in my path, and all the reasons why I couldn't accomplish my goals.

As you work your follow-up plan today I invite you to pause and look around you. Where is hospitality showing up in your life? Who is reaching out to connect and support you? You may be surprised to find that you have more support than you need to accomplish your goals but you just haven't taken time to notice. Take time to notice the hospitality that life has to offer and celebrate your sweet victories.

Life is a Game Worth Playing

You’ve just completed another week of your life, congratulations! Review your week for any standout moments. What are you particularly happy or proud of? Where did you succeed? What did you celebrate? I call these sweet victories and they make life worthwhile.

Sweet Victories don’t have to be big and expensive, and they are often supported by our core values. An example of a sweet victory might be witnessing a child’s first step, getting that coveted promotion at work or finally getting that bedroom closet cleaned out. They are personal and we each must define them for ourselves.

What challenges or obstacles did you face this week? Make no mistake, these are part of pursing any worthwhile endeavor and you get to decide whether or not to allow them to stop you. If you persevered through another obstacle then you have another sweet victory to celebrate.

We are into season one of the Sweet Victories Game, which means you have just over six weeks to cross the finish line. I’ve heard from many players this season and am inspired by what you are working on. Whether you are working on strengthening your personal relationships or improving your performance at work, you are working towards something important to you and I want to help you win. I invite you to e-mail me and let me know what you are working on. Or connect with me on the Compass Personal Development Network at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz and let’s connect, empower and inspire each other. Life is a team sport and you aren’t meant to play alone – and you don’t have to!

Would you like some personal coaching to play your game better? I am currently looking for two individuals who would like to coach with me for the next six weeks at a big discount. For six weeks I will be your personal coach as you turn a current challenge or goal into a winnable game worth playing. I will spend 30 to 45 minutes on the phone with you each week and you will practice, practice, practice playing your big game. The total cost to you is $79.00 and a commitment to play full out. I have two spots available and you can claim yours by e-mailing me at vicki@sweetvictories.com.

Wishing You Sweet Victories,
Coach Vicki Z

Follow-up and Be Amazed

Another week marches by. Was it just another week? Are you satisfied with how you spent your time and energy?

Time is finite but our choices about how to spend it are infinite. Are you satisfied with your choices?

I’m celebrating a personal sweet victory this week. I spent 5 hours exercising this week. I am a bit sore but very satisfied.

Interestingly, one week ago I believed I was too busy to spend 2 ½ hours a week exercising. Honoring my commitment to exercise is a victory but what makes it sweet for me is that I dispelled a limiting belief by stepping beyond what I thought was possible.

This victory required me to accept support from others while staying connected to my own purpose. How satisfied are you with how you spent your week? Would you like some support or do you have your own sweet victory to share? Join the Compass Personal Development Network at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz and then send me a friend request.

The Compass Personal Development Network is a free social network with a purpose – to help you step into your greatness. I hope to see some new faces on my friends list this week. Be sure and add your goals to my Victory Board by e-mailing me at vicki@sweetvictories.com or connecting with me at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz. Let me know what you are up to so I can support you. One thing I know to be true is that you have the power to amaze yourself but you’ll never know if you don’t try.
It’s Follow-up Friday so follow-up and be amazed.

It Takes Courage and Support to Stretch Beyond Our Comfort Zone

There is a truth I have experienced so many times in my life that I don’t doubt it: When we set a powerful intention for our life, the Universe responds. Suddenly opportunities open up, people come into our life and we start moving towards our goal, or we don’t. For many reasons, we don’t always participate in this beautifully collaborate process. There are many reasons why we don’t but I am going to focus on one reason today, and that is that we do not want to ask for help.
I’ve spent the past year working on my wellness goals…by myself. As a life coach I know the power of support but when it came to my own wellness goals, I thought I could do it in my spare time when it was convenient.
After reviewing my wellness goals for this season I realized that they were designed with my comfort and convenience in mind. I also realized that I was making no investment or personal sacrifice in order to accomplish these goals. Was I really committed? And why?
As I often ask my coaching clients to do, I took an inventory of the people in my life who could support me, and I made arrangements to work with a fitness coach. When I asked her if she could support me, she asked me one question, “Are you serious about getting fit or are you just going through the motions?” I was committed, and I realized that this person was willing to invest a great deal of her own time and energy into my success, and although it was one of the most difficult workouts I’ve had in many years, she was at my side as I went from “I can’t do this” to “I can do this”, to “I did it!”.
As you review your goals for the season, ask yourself if this is what you really want. If you are just going through the motions, it is time to make a change. What is it you are truly willing to invest in. What are you willing to make a sacrifice for? What I have found is that it is often the goal that is most meaningful to us that we hesitate to share with the world. When you step up and courageously declare what it is that you really want to achieve, the Universe will respond. Pay attention to who is showing up in your life or who has been there all along. Join in the collaborative creative process of achieving your goals by allowing others to support you.
Remember, life is a team sport. Send an e-mail to vicki@sweetvictories.com and share your goals, EVEN if you aren’t sure you have the courage to act on them. I’ll post it to my Victory Board. I won't tell anyone it's your goal but you and I will know, and so will the Universe.

Stretch Yourself

It’s a snowy and cold day here in Southern Colorado, a beautiful sight and the perfect setting for following up on to-do’s and projects. This month I’ve been making friends with new technology to help me run my business; a new computer, a new telephone,new software and a pretty big learning curve. Honestly, it would be easier to continue doing things the way I have for years but I know that the time I’m investing in designing new structures will outweigh any temporary inconvenience. Designing new systems, creating new habits and learning new skills are often disruptive. We often say no to the things we really want in life BECAUSE they are disruptive.

We are well into our first season of 2010, which ends on March 31st. Did you set your goals for this season? Did you e-mail me so that I can include them on my Victory Board? This month I’ve been stretching myself, and I’d like to challenge you to do the same. Is there a goal you’ve been ignoring? You know the one I mean, the goal that lurks in the corner of your awareness and causes your heart to speed up. The goal you’d really like to go after…if only. The goal that will cause you to stretch, and may even feel disruptive. I challenge you to put THAT goal on the Victory Board this month, even if you don’t believe you can accomplish it. Email me at Vicki@sweetvictories.com – no one will know it’s your goal unless YOU tell them. And remember to ask for support – no one said you had to do life alone. In fact, you aren’t meant to. Support is just one click away at www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz.
Now go follow-up with your to-do’s and keep celebrating your sweet victories.

Coach Vicki Z
www.mylifecompass.com/coachvickiz
www.sweetvictories.com

***************************************
What’s happening at Compass this month:

Take a Break and
Change Your Life
We know you have limited time. (We do too!) We’ve designed our monthly product, the Compass Monthly Action Plan (MAP™) to help you take small steps each day to improve your life. As a member of Compass, you get access to our library of MAPs so you can choose which area you'd like to focus on each month. You can make a big difference in just a few minutes a day – five days a week!

 
Current MAPs for January - there are five to choose from:

Life Balance – Step into Balance:
Don't let the weight of someone else's priorities spin your life out of balance. Take back control of your life and Step Into Balance today.

Health & Wellness – Make It Happen
This month’s MAP program is all about intentionally crafting and nurturing the life you want to live instead of leaving things to chance.

Relationships - Courageous Conversations
What’s stopping you from having the difficult, sensitive or potentially confrontational conversations you need to have?

Money and Career – Discover Your Dream
Choose your own greatness over fear and break through the things that are holding you back.

Spirit – Find Your Courage
Listening for what matters is one way to nurture, honor and respect everyone in those relationship on a deep level.

Find out more about Compass

The Victory Board

At the beginning of the month did you take time to identify what you wanted to accomplish this season and how you will spend your time and energy? Are you moving in that direction? We are at the end of another week. Are you feeling energized and fulfilled by how you invested your time this week or do you feel drained and used up? At the beginning of January I invited you to send me an e-mail with your goals for the season. If you did this then you know that I have added your goal to my Victory Board and you are my players this season. You are the driving force behind The Sweet Victories Project. It’s not too late to make your contribution to my Victory Board. The season ends on March 31st and at that time I will be posting a picture of my board at www.SweetVictories.com, and I would love to include your goals and aspirations. Email me today at vicki@sweetvictories.com and let me know what you are up to this season. Are you working on adapting healthier habits to improve your health? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to improve a relationship? Perhaps you want to finally get your closets organized. Do you need to improve your performance at work or school? I invite you to play along with me this season. You will remain anonymous and only your goal will be listed on my board. Life is a team sport so let’s win this season together.

One Small Change

It’s easy to overpromise our time and energy when we don’t’ take the time to prioritize our commitments. We also need to remember that we need to be at the top of that list. In reviewing this week’s schedule do you see yourself reflected in the choices you’ve made about what to do with your time? Are you satisfied with your choices or frustrated?

Go for the sweet victory: Do you believe you have a choice about how to spend your time? If you could, would you make a change? Your schedule is a contract you make with yourself about what to do with your life. If you are constantly feeling overwhelmed by your schedule, it may be time to make a change. You could be one small change away from winning a sweet victory today. Now follow-up and let’s win the season.

Welcome to 2010 - and a new season!

I hope the first post-holiday Follow-up Friday finds you well rested and eager for the New Year. Though I must confess, that does not describe my state of mind. My body is still recovering from all of the Christmas treats. Looking back it may have been better to just eat a bag of sugar. Needless to say, I’m moving a little slow this week.

My big wins this week: Working out every day while listening to an audio class; catching up on messages left for me over Christmas break; completing a big project that has left me feeling a bit weary but extremely satisfied; and there are others as well. There are also some areas where I failed to reach my mark. I wouldn’t call them losses though; I’m very happy with this week’s results. I had planned to take down the Christmas decorations but they are still up and I have grown tired of looking at them. I’ll be calling on my home team to pitch in this weekend. As for this evening, I am going to celebrate my wins with a little R&R. If you too are coming down from your Christmas high, enjoy the ride.

We are at the beginning of a new season. What do you want to accomplish in the next 90 days? Pick at least one thing you are WILLING to work on and let’s get it done this season. E-mail me at vicki@sweetvictories.com and let me know what it is. Over the next 90 days I’ll be here to support you to win your season. Have a wonderful weekend and remember, let’s play to win.