2qtr2007 - Not Just Talk! Newsletter

Table of Contents - 2qtr2007 - Not Just Talk! Newsletter

• Feature Article: 119 Steps
• Notable Quotables: Great Things I Didn't Say First
• Feature Article: Ask the Coach
• What's News at GottaGettaCoach!?
• GottaGettaBlog! Weblog Highlights

2qtr2007 - 119 Small Steps

It's amazing how much good information is out there on the Internet just a-waiting for us to find. Here's some more of it, courtesy of the Steps to a Healthier U.S. initiative from the
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, called Small Steps:

1. Walk to work.
2. Use fat free milk over whole milk.
3. Do sit-ups in front of the TV.
4. Walk during lunch hour.
5. Drink water before a meal.
6. Eat leaner red meat & poultry.
7. Eat half your dessert.
8. Walk instead of driving whenever you can.
9. Take family walk after dinner.
10. Skate to work instead of driving.
11. Avoid food portions larger than your fist.
12. Mow lawn with push mower.
13. Increase the fiber in your diet.
14. Walk to your place of worship instead of driving.
15. Walk kids to school.
16. Get a dog and walk it.
17. Join an exercise group.
18. Drink diet soda.
19. Replace Sunday drive with Sunday walk.
20. Do yard work.
21. Eat off smaller plates.
22. Get off a stop early & walk.
23. Don't eat late at night.
24. Skip seconds.
25. Work around the house.
26. Skip buffets.
27. Grill, steam or bake instead of frying.
28. Bicycle to the store instead of driving.
29. Take dog to the park.
30. Ask your doctor about taking a multi-vitamin.
31. Go for a half-hour walk instead of watching TV.
32. Use vegetable oils over solid fats.
33. More carrots, less cake.
34. Fetch the newspaper yourself.
35. Sit up straight at work.
36. Wash the car by hand.
37. Don't skip meals.
38. Eat more celery sticks.
39. Run when running errands.
40. Pace the sidelines at kids' athletic games.
41. Take wheels off luggage.
42. Choose an activity that fits into your daily life.
43. Try your burger with just lettuce, tomato, and onion.
44. Ask a friend to exercise with you.
45. Make time in your day for physical activity.
46. Exercise with a video if the weather is bad.
47. Bike to the barbershop or beauty salon instead of driving.
48. Keep to a regular eating schedule.
49. If you find it difficult to be active after work, try it before work.
50. Take a walk or do desk exercises instead of a cigarette or coffee break.
51. Perform gardening or home repair activities.
52. Avoid laborsaving devices.
53. Take small trips on foot to get your body moving.
54. Play with your kids 30 minutes a day.
55. Dance to music.
56. Keep a pair of comfortable walking or running shoes in your car and office.
57. Make a Saturday morning walk a group habit.
58. Walk briskly in the mall.
59. Choose activities you enjoy & you'll be more likely to stick with them.
60. Stretch before bed to give you more energy when you wake.
61. Take the long way to the water cooler.
62. Explore new physical activities.
63. Vary your activities, for interest and to broaden the range of benefits.
64. Reward and acknowledge your efforts.
65. Choose fruit for dessert.
66. Consume alcoholic beverages in moderation, if at all.
67. Take stairs instead of the escalator.
68. Conduct an inventory of your meal/snack and physical activity patterns.
69. Share an entree with a friend.
70. Grill fruits or vegetables.
71. Eat before grocery shopping.
72. Choose a checkout line without a candy display.
73. Make a grocery list before you shop.
74. Buy 100% fruit juices over soda and sugary drinks.
75. Stay active in winter. Play with your kids.
76. Flavor foods with herbs, spices, and other low fat seasonings.
77. Remove skin from poultry before cooking to lower fat content.
78. Eat before you get too hungry.
79. Don't skip breakfast.
80. Stop eating when you are full.
81. Snack on fruits and vegetables.
82. Top your favorite cereal with apples or bananas.
83. Try brown rice or whole-wheat pasta.
84. Include several servings of whole grain food daily.
85. When eating out, choose a small or medium portion.
86. If main dishes are too big, choose an appetizer or a side dish instead.
87. Ask for salad dressing "on the side".
88. Don't take seconds.
89. Park farther from destination and walk.
90. Try a green salad instead of fries.
91. Bake or broil fish.
92. Walk instead of sitting around.
93. Eat sweet foods in small amounts.
94. Take your dog on longer walks.
95. Drink lots of water.
96. Cut back on added fats or oils in cooking or spreads.
97. Walk the beach instead of sunbathing.
98. Walk to a co-worker's desk instead of emailing or calling them.
99. Carry your groceries instead of pushing a cart.
100. Use a snow shovel instead of a snow blower.
101. Cut high-calorie foods like cheese and chocolate into smaller pieces and only eat a few pieces.
102. Use nonfat or low-fat sour cream, mayo, sauces, dressings, and other condiments.
103. Replace sugar sweetened beverages with water and add a twist of lemon or lime.
104. Replace high-saturated fat/high calorie seasonings with herbs grown in a small herb garden in your kitchen window.
105. Refrigerate prepared soups before you eat them. As the soup cools, the fat will rise to the top. Skim it off the surface for reduced fat content.
106. When eating out, ask your server to put half your entrée in a to-go bag.
107. Substitute vegetables for other ingredients in your sandwich.
108. Every time you eat a meal, sit down, chew slowly, and pay attention to flavors and textures.
109. Try a new fruit or vegetable (ever had jicama, plantain, bok choy, starfruit or papaya?)
110. Make up a batch of brownies with applesauce instead of oil or shortening.
111. Instead of eating out, bring a healthy, low calorie lunch to work.
112. Ask your sweetie to bring you fruit or flowers instead of chocolate.
113. Speak up for the salad bar when your coworkers are picking a restaurant for lunch, and remember calories count, so pay attention to how much and what you eat.
114. When walking, go up the hills instead of around them.
115. Walk briskly through the mall and shop 'til you drop ... pounds.
116. Clean your closet and donate clothes that are too big.
117. Take your body measurements to gauge progress.
118. Buy a set of hand weights and play a round of Simon Says with your kids - you do it with the weights, they do without.
119. Swim with your kids.

2qtr2007 - Notable Quotables: Great Things I Didn't Say First!

• George Konrad: Courage is an accumulation of small steps.
• Susan Taylor: Use missteps as stepping stones to deeper understanding and greater achievement.
• Jimmy Buffett: Indecision may or may not be my problem.
• Francois Gautier: More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity.
• G. W. F. Hegel: Thus to be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great.
• William James: The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

2qtr2007 - Ask the Coach: Better Decision Making

Question: Hey Beezee. Whenever I ask my friends, family, and colleagues for their suggestions as to how I should handle a given situation, I end up with so much conflicting advice that I'm even more confused than when I started. I think it's important to gather as much information before making important decisions. but this isn't working. What's a better way?

Answer: Good for you for recognizing that the approach you're taking isn't giving you the results you're looking for. As Albert Einstein said,

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Consider changing the type of information you're requesting - or the way that you're requesting it. It's likely that you're asking a "What do you think I should do?" type question, or some variation thereof. The problem with this approach, as you noted, is that it rarely leads to consensus or clarity - you just get a bunch of differing and often conflicting opinions to filter through.

Rather than finding out what others would do if they were you, use these interactions to get clearer on what you need for you to make the decision. In other words, focus on asking for the objective data do you need to help you decide.

Example: You want to buy a car. Rather than asking others, "What car do you think I should buy?", first ask yourself, "What would affect my decision one way or another?"

• price?
• safety?
• reliability?
• resale value?
• fuel efficiency?
• ??

List your criteria, whatever it may be. Then ask people specifically about those things: How much should I expect to pay for a good used car? How important are crash test results? Which cars does Consumer Reports rate highly from a reliability standpoint? At what point does it make sense to trade in one car for another one? What else is important in deciding on a car to buy? Answers to these types of questions are likely to inform rather than confuse you.

In review:

1. Decide what are the important elements for you to use as a basis for your decision.
2. Gather information with respect to those elements.
3. Create a short list of possible choices.
4. Evaluate each choice with respect to the decision elements you've chosen.
5. Decide.

By the way, a very helpful tool to assist you with this is a Decision Matrix.

And don't worry if it takes a while to gather the information you need to decide. As Einstein also said,

"The important thing is not to stop questioning."

Hope this helps.

2qtr2007 - What's News at GottaGettaCoach!?

News and Highlights from last quarter:

• The Dangerous Allure of Trust, an article written by Barry Zweibel and published last year in Effective Executive magazine about why managers should NOT want their direct reports to trust them, has been selected by ICFAI Publications/Books for inclusion in an upcoming professional reference book on Employee Trust: Strategies and Cases.
• The New Coach Connection, an on-line community of "new and experienced coaches who are seeking ways to collaborate, connect and create awesome experiences in the coaching profession," interviewed Barry Zweibel as part of an ongoing blog series about experienced and recognized life coaches.
• Barry Zweibel, president and founder of GottaGettaCoach!, Inc., has been awarded the Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential by the International Coach Federation (ICF). The MCC is the highest, and most prestigious, designation available through the ICF, a globally-recognized, independent, certification body for professional coaches. The ICF has more than 11,000 members in 80 countries, and less than 5% of its membership -- and less than 2% of all coaches worldwide -- have achieved this MCC distinction.
• Burdened by Bad Habits - Barry Zweibel is interviewed about breaking bad habits in Columbia College's Echo Magazine, including his Ten Top Tips for getting over bad habits.
• Bridges to Fulfillment - How Life Coaches Help Close Gaps Between Dreams and Reality. An article published in Elite Magazine that interviews Barry Zweibel and one of his clients about how coaching works.

2qtr2007 - GottaGettaBlog! Highlights

I've been using GottaGettaBlog! as a vehicle to capture news, notes, and musings about coaching, mentoring, and getting more from YOUR Untapped Potential - along with whatever other stuff I happen to find amusing and/or thought-provoking - since June of 2003.

Highlighted postings from last quarter are listed below - just follow the links:

from January 2007

• [W + (D-d)] x TQM x NA, or not
• Life Coaching: Bridges to Fulfillment
• Leadership Move #19: Teach Others to Enjoy a Good Challenge
• Preventing Problems: Non-Event Successes

from Feburary 2007

• An Argument for Less Simplicity
• Leadership Coach Interview
• International Coach Federation Honors Local Life Coach with Master Certified Coach Credential
• Ten Top Tips for Getting Over Bad Habits

from March 2007

• Bye-Bye, 1q7
• Bad News and the Two-Question Set
• Definitive 200 - Rock n Roll's Best
• Quality versus Timeliness and their Downstream Implications

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