What changes are you planning for 2010?

What do you want more of, less of – and perhaps none of, going into the New Year?

A New Year, a New Decade – and New Opportunities that are on the horizon for all of us.

Doing more of what works is the secret of effortless change. There is a reason for this. Repetition is the mother of skill – so is always learning, always growing. To do, be and create at the next level what you already know, – what your already good at takes effort. If you have learned to do something one way – you can always learn to do it better. This is something golfers really understand. So is mental conditioning.

Mental Conditioning will be of interest to you only if want unlimited success. It’s about learning things that you already know about by learning to look beyond the way things are. It is about learning more, being more skillful and executing what you do more acutely with less effort. It is a “mental intelligence” that will keep you going in the coming year and for years to come. Thoughts become things and the same level of thinking that got you where you’re at – is not going to get you where you need to go.

We all have the power we need to create all the focus we need to see the opportunities before us. We know the juice we get from being mentally sharp, on top of our game when we are clear about things. We all know in our own way what works in our life, and what doesn’t. The same is true in business and on the golf course.

Neville, who wrote The Power of Awareness might have said it best, “Man’s chief delusion is his conviction that there are causes other than his own state of consciousness.’

May you have effortless and lasting change in 2010 to do be and create more of you want and more of what is important to you and yours?

We all live in a world that is moving very fast. And if ever you feel like you’re on a merry go round some days or hamster on a wheel, or feel stuck – may you embrace mental conditioning. Because it is true, in order for things to change, good bad wrong or right, who must change? YOU! You and your thinking must learn to keep up!

Keep it going! Happy New Year to all, Ida.

Who you are at your core personality never changes. You can add to it – you can delete from it, but you cannot change your essence.

Why do people look for reason to blame others to justify their thoughts and behaviors? Because countless factors impact who we are and how we behave and it is our personality that is at the core of our behavior. Your core is the driving force of your innate behavior, skills and talents.

Our conscience is our voice of reason, our checks and balances for right and wrong.

Our personality, our core motive speaks to us about being true to our self’s.

You cannot ignore what drives your core motives, nor can you pretend they don’t matter because if you do – you will never experience your true self. Personality is innate and motive-based.

“Stay True to Who You Are,” writes Loren Slocum, a Mother, Wife, International Life/Balance Coach and Speaker, Founder of LoBella International. Loren’s message rings true in all of us. We each have an innate
desire in becoming the best we can be and the best way to do this is to know thyself. Loren, a dear long time friend, always empowers me to be true to myself.

So ask yourself, “What motivates me the most at this time in my life to be the best I can be?” The answer is the fuel to start your engines for 2010. Living a deliberate life, living with passion and purpose, comes from claiming yourself.

Ways to increase your ability to stay the course and trust the process to be your best, once charted, comes from clarity and boundaries. Make a commitment to stay around healthy people, stay close to nature, and keep learning, something you can truly do on a golf course. Golf is a great way to connect with nature, have confidence, inner motivation and a positive sense of self and courage. Each of these are ways to increase your congruence.

Staying on your life course, takes a charted course- a mind-map. Each of us needs to live creatively in stable and unstable times. Each of us can condition ourselves to correct and improve our state in the moment.

Don’t wait until you feel your life is taking you nowhere to begin, do it now. “The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn… and change” said Carl Rogers. And I agree. The future belongs to the congruent!

Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan - have thick "MYELIN" for their skill.

A Master Coach, plus DEEP Practice = Talent. The Book, by Daniel Coyle - Talent Code, explains this well. You can also visit their web site is www.thetalentcode.com

Some how innately I got a gift to value deliberate practice from an early age.

And because I have been where you might be right now as an individual or with a team, students, clients, or employees, STUCK - I found value in deliberately knowing more. I did not know until recently what I was really doing until I read Talent Code.

What I didn't know was being talented at being resourceful was all along strengthening my "myelin". Yes myelin, a dielectric material, white matter in the brain that is essential for proper functioning of the nervous system. And if stuck with a coaching client, a student – customer, I have always the willingness to ask the hard deliberate questions.

I'll ask questions like what would Coach Wooden do? What do I need to learn, - where are the best role models for the challenge? Who do I need to learn from? How do I get "us" on the other side of this? Every coach needs a coach. I never forget when I am "the coach" - they are counting on me to teach them, show them, and empower them to be winners! No matter what!

Task specific knowledge makes it desirable to grow. "Your players arrive with skill and motivation", says Wooden. He taught theatrical honesty. "The truth about their performance and moral standards, connect coaches with their students. The two together make a "real" connection."

What is the secret of talent & how do we unlock it?

3 elements work in the brain to form 'MYELIN' - which gives us each as a person vast amounts of speed and accuracy to our movements and thoughts. The sweet spot is when what you know, and doing what you know, come together.

Master coaches make mistakes and turn them into skills. Here some points from The Talent Code

3 Elements to "Myelin" -

1. Down to earth, disciplined, vast deep frame work of knowledge of a desired skill.
2. Deliberate cultivation of the knowledge - steady incremental work for growing skill circuits in the brain -, which, turns into:
3. Core skill circuits that ultimately they/we don't try to control.

Planned talking points, planning the day - made decisions that are kept, for both the team and the individual, by specific words - leaving a stronger clear message and image was Wooden's secret. Target information, task specific knowledge, skill sessions on mental toughness, fired at his players for cultivation. Something I have valued to model in my own planning and practice.

I also think there is a secret to seeing talent and how to unlock it. To make it desirable for someone to grow their skill, they need profound knowledge they can bite into. No fluff, no being let off the hook, just pure honest open communication with you and your client. Having great coaches made the biggest difference in the effectiveness of my talent. Yes, strengthening my myelin has made me a scratch player at what I do and it will do the same for you!

One of the best things a master coach said to me when I was a trainer in training at Life Mastery in Hawaii, with Tony Robbins (www.TonyRobbins.com) in 1994 was " If you want your team to win you can't keep breast feeding them. You need to make them independent thinkers and problem solvers". I took “breast feeding” as code to stop micromanaging, and I did. Talent Code speaks to this.

And that is what I went on to master. Giving them, my teams, students, clients and customers profound knowledge. And when I don’t have the answer, I am honest. And then I go find them. “Get up early – stay up late, do what ever it takes Ida” was and is my mantra still today, something I learned from my coach Tony Robbins. Giving them, clients - those people who employ me to do my job deliberate skills. Giving them the ideas, options and perspectives, the answers. Answers I know they can use, skills they can master to go to mastery of their talent.

How about you? What do you do when you are stuck? Who's your mental conditioning coach?