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Stuck in a rut?

 I found myself stuck in the wrong lane today.

Due for a reasonably important appointment, I would make the meeting on time if all went right.

Through lack of route planning and too much reliance on Google Maps, I was caught in the slip lane to the motorway going in exactly the wrong direction! Inconvenient roadworks on the Melbourne M1, lead to another missed opportunity to turn towards my destination. I was sucked into a flow which would take me away from my true objective.

I cursed the traffic, the technology, the heat outside and got upset. With the benefit of car airconditioning on a 30-degree day, I cooled down. I realised I had to accept that the erroneous decisions were all mine, and plan to get back on track.

With an extra 30 minutes to kill in traffic, I had time to think about how many times I had been in the wrong lane taking me away from my goals or stuck, unable to move forward. Earlier in the day, I’d had a conversation with a new coaching client who advised they were stuck too. Mentally unable to move forward.

Getting back on track

It seems I’m not alone in having to take stock once in a while, review where my decisions and behaviours were taking me and decide to change course.

Firstly, you have to contemplate your trajectory, assess where you will end up if you keep heading that way, re-evaluate where you want to be, then work out the best way to get there.

It reminds me of the old joke about the tourist asking for directions and is told ‘Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here’.

But “here” is the only place we find ourselves, and it would be great to get a little more help and guidance in order to help ourselves than the poor tourist.

Contact me below to talk about a personalised coaching discussion to help you get unstuck and back on track.

Darren Sandford is Founder and Managing Director of Darren Sandford Consulting and Coaching. With extensive experience in IT, banking, finance and creative photography, he is a qualified trainer and assessor, and a business and personal coach. He works with organisations and individuals to enable them to unlock their potential and achieve results they hadn’t thought possible.

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What’s your most fundamental value?

Last week in my coaching course, we did an individual exercise to determine our most important values, each narrowing their choices down to their top value. Mine was “Integrity”.

Integrity: “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” Deriving from the Latin, integer and integritas, meaning intact.

At the end of a great week, I enjoyed a long-planned stay at Woodend in Central Victoria to see Midnight Oil in concert.

In fact, I’d booked it back in March, as soon as it was announced that the band would be performing at nearby Hanging Rock reserve. I’d learnt from previous experience trying to get accommodation would be difficult, so I jumped in early to avoid the rush on finding a bed within a reasonable distance. Sure enough, the week before I got last minute requests from friends (who hadn’t planned ahead) to help them find a bed. I tried to help them out by calling the AirBnB host and seeing how many extra guests they could squeeze in.

Danny, the host of “Island Farm” cottage, advised me he had been receiving calls all day (the day before my booking and the concert) with offers of triple the going rate to cancel my existing booking and take their booking. Fortunately, not only did he refuse those offers, he offered me a couple of extra beds at a minimal cost. When I asked him in person why he didn’t take the offers, Danny told me that it’s not always about the money and that it was about doing the right thing.

We hear so often of businesses not being consistent or displaying integrity when dealing with their customers or honouring bookings. When we get a great customer experience through a display of integrity it really does make an impression.

Imagine if all our interactions with our customers, our staff members and our colleagues were handled with this level of integrity!

What are your most fundamental (core) values?

Try selecting your top 10 out of this list of 230 personal values:

https://scottjeffrey.com/core-values-list/

Take that top 10 down to your top 5 by crossing out 5.

Now one by one, cross out your fifth most important, then fourth, and third until you are down to your top two. Now between those two, make a choice. Cross out the one which you find less important compared to the other.

That’s your most fundamental value. I would love to hear what it is.

Soon, we’ll talk about how your decisions and motivations are aligned with these values.

Darren Sandford is Founder and Managing Director of Darren Sandford Consulting and Coaching. With extensive experience in IT, banking, finance and creative photography, he is a qualified trainer and assessor, and a business and personal coach. He works with organisations and individuals to enable them to unlock their potential and achieve results they hadn’t thought possible.

Contact Darren: https://darrensandford.com/contact/