DareBooster is moving on !

Dear Friends and Customers,

This Blog is no longer in use. You can read news and get information on www.darebooster.com

or you can visit my blogs (English) Techie-powertools-for-coaches .com

(Dutch) Darebooster.blogspot.com
See you there !

Coach Ronny

Finding your niche

As a coach finding your niche can be hard. Sometimes coaches make out of this search for a niche an obstacle. It can prevent you from getting started.I handle my search for “the niche” slightly different. I believe a person can have a few niches matching with his or her interests. How to solve this dilemma ?

I do my promotion extreme niche-orientated, but I’ve set up 3 websites (and 4 blogs), with products, affiliates and description of my coaching in each niche.

For me this works fine, I’m embracing this 3 opportunities…and you’ll never knows if one of them would overgrow the others. I still can make a choice : go for partnership, sell one of my sites and lists. That’s how I’m doing this.

Take care

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Spirituality in your busy life

I’ve just entered “spirituality and business” in google and you know what?

Wow 10.600.000 hits on google.

What are all these people offering and what are busy people looking for when they enter spirituality and business on the search engine?

I started this small survey after attending some classes on spirituality and coaching. I knew spirituality and new age are big business, but the combination?

I had this feeling that creating a bridge between spirituality and coaching is the most important task for me to become the coach I really want.

For me spirituality has to do with respect and gratitude, patience and compassion. There can be no balance in life if we don’t feel fulfilled. I think being spiritual can help us to achieve that. Bring us closer with ourselves, nature and the people we’re living and working with.

So I see this comment on my blog as the beginning of a new path. I’ve started the journey and I don’t know where I’m going. Isn’t that a great feeling?

Yep for me it is.

Interesting article : Spirituality In Business by James A. Ritscher at :

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC11/Ritscher.htm

 

 

 

http://www.jyanet.com/cap/2003/0117fe0.shtml

Kill him/her !!! Where did he/she got her drivers licence?

Traffic is a challenging activity. Most people can’t live without a car although they get stressed from the first minute they get in it.
Why do you react when somebody isn’t driving as he/she’s supposed to ?
Do you hit the horn? Do you start swearing ?

I used to do. Luckily I was not alone. Today I heard an Italian coach struggling with his desire to be more peaceful when driving. He said : “When it happens ones, no problem, twice is still ok, but the fourth unfriendly driver … I get really really mad on him.”

Let me tell you this story : I drive a pickup truck, you know this ugly big 4X4. They are hugh, there’s almost nothing you can’t transport with it. I pull the horse van, 2 tons of sand or wood, there’s almost no limit. When we go to the mountains we love to take our dog along. He’s a wonderful dog, almost too perfect. He causes just 1 tiny problem for our outdoor-loving family, he gets carsick. We tried medicines and nothing really helps… Well one thing! Drive slowly on the curvy roads up into the mountains.
That is the moment other traffic participants get annoyed with my driving. Yep they judge me. They make gestures, yell at me.

Do I have to leave my dog at home? We do, but not always, he loves to go out walking and running in nature for a whole day.

My lesson : I don’t judge people anymore. As long as they stick to the rules of driving, what is there to say ? Maybe the driver in front of me isn’t having the best moment of his life sitting behind the wheel. I presume there is always an explanation or motivation for his or her behaviour. Who am I to judge?

I call it compassion, some people call it empathy … How do you call it ? And what’s even more important, do you use it? And if so, how do you use it ?

Neuro-plasticity

I found some interesting readings on the net in English :

• Scans of Monks’ Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning — SCIENCE JOURNAL By SHARON BEGLEY – November 5, 2004 click to read

• Long-Range Synchrony in the Band : Role in Music Perception — click to read

• Long term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice — click here
  

Monks in laboratory

Everybody who is searching for the link between mind and spirit should see the documentary “Monks in laboratory”.

Neurobiologists have done research on how Buddhist monks use their brain in meditation to overcome stress.
They measured and scanned how the monks brain functions are affected.

But even more significant is that by applying the first practice of Buddhism that can be described as : “ voluntary generalization of compassion“ measurable new connections in the brain are activated !

You can read more about this if you click here

Do you have the right to remain silent ?

To talk or not to talk … that’s the question!

At ICA we learn about the importance of listening.
To look for the difference between a coach and a mentor, counselor or therapist.

I can see the danger in talking too much. There’s so many people out there feeling weak and powerless. If a coach talks 80% of the time and listens only 20% he will get of the track and no longer be a good coach.
He’ll become a guru. Wouldn’t you think so?

I think it depends. In my view there are occasions on which sharing your knowledge and experience with your client is a good thing.

The following quote by Castaneda explains my point of view: “My writings are nothing but registers. The reader has to find our for himself how to use the ideas mentioned in this book. He has to walk on his own legs…”
Or as Frederic D. Homer wrote about Georg Groddeck in his book “The interpretation of illness” : “ Disciples like their master to stay put, whereas I should think anyone a fool who wanted me to say the same thing tomorrow as I said yesterday. If you really want to be my follower, look at life for yourself and tell the world honestly what you see.”

You can ask your client many power full questions but sometimes the client will not have any answers available.
You wait, give him the time to think but nothing comes out … Would you let the silence become painful ?
I don’t think so. What would be the use of starting a guessing game with your client ?
Say what you want to say, sharing your ideas can be much more effective!

The following comparison could be useful to explain how this works in coaching practice :
Imagine you and your friend are climbing. You are the expert so you climb first.

As you reach the end of the trail you are delaying your partner who is struggling in a difficult passage.
You have to give him the time to find out for himself how to get through. But if he doesn’t manage and you can see the sweat on his face and the despair in his eyes ?

Do you wait in silence ?

Do you miss the moment to give him a hand and guide him through ?
Of course not ! You do everything you can to help him!

And if he doesn’t make it with your mental support, tips and tricks, you have to reach him your hand or pull the rope to get him up there and save the day !

That’s exactly what a coach sometimes has to do. When he sees a solution for his client it’s his duty to share it with him.
He just has to offer the client this possibility and opportunity.

If this means exceeding the holy 20% limit of talking …well what the heck !
Share it, give the client some time to think about it.
Go on coaching, go on asking power-questions !

Promises and promises but what about 2007 ?

The truth is I wanted to change the world by all means. And on the way I got overwhelmed. My list of “to do’s” became longer and longer.
I had a list but no Vision. That’s what I realised when I started to read and learn about coaching.

My dream is to make the world a greener and a safer place. But I didn’t know where to start. My grandmother always says : change starts with yourself. And she is more then right !

So I promised myself to do all I could do to save the world again. I ended up with a long list. Oh, I do more then most people.
I recycle, buy organic, don’t use to much (hot) water, water the plants with rainwater. I plant trees and eat most vegetables out of our own garden etc.

But I wanted to do more : use solar energy, drive a hybrid car … promises and promises and I got stuck and depressed. I wasn’t changing the world. I was spreading the word of ecological disasters but nobody was listening. Maybe that’s not entirely fair, I had my fans, 3, no 2, my wife and my daughter.

Nothing really happened until I threw all my promises away. Yep, that’s what I did and I didn’t even recycle them.

I’m so happy Al Gore made “An Inconvenient Truth”, it gave me the support I was looking for.

He lost the elections in 2000 and he came back. Al Gore has a vision that kept him going. Building on a better world and serving others. On his site Climate Crisis – What you Can Do, you can find an useful list. He gives everyone the chance to do something good.

I sat down and looked back at 2006 without punishment or judgement. Took some recycled paper and wrote down my vision for 2007. I added the hidden challenges that have been sabotaging my success.
You can’t imagine what an energy that released. I saw myself coaching, because I believe I can help people to make the changes in their lives. So they can start living a positive life : less fears and a lot of passion.

How did I do it ?

For 2007 I asked myself the following:

1. What’s my truth? Is there anything I’m withholding ? Am I making choices that are taking me closer to my Vision, or am I searching for excuses to keep me in the “DOUBT LOOP ?

2. What do I want to accomplish this year? Is this in line with my VISION STATEMENT ?

3. Do I have a specific action plan that includes a timeframe and a system of accountability to help me stay on track even when other distractions present themselves or when it feels more difficult than I anticipated?

4. Hold myself accountable for the things I said I would do? I wrote it down and took a coach. Commitments spoken out to somebody who’s trusting you, will make it more easy to keep. A commitment that stays in your head has the same value as a new years promise, NONE

Out of this vision I created my action plan. No more list of “to do’s”, a real plan that moves me forward.

A plan can change your life. It changed mine.

Hello world!

Welcome everybody.

I started coaching in spring 2006. I just added it to my work as a horseman. It looked great but after a few months I got stuck. I wasn’t doing it the right way. But what is the right way ? I couln’t find the answer, so I started to take classes at ICA (International Coach Academy).

This year I will be exploring the world of coaching. And you can share my journey by reading and posting your comments on this blog.