| Destination Success Newsletter - June 2004
Welcome to the first issue of Destination Success! This monthly publication will provide you with success tips, keep you up-to-date on what is happening at ProCoach and inspire you with success stories from other ProCoach members. As your program designer and Master Coach, I will be writing the initial issues myself. If I have not delegated the task to my team by this fall, please harass me mercilessly!
The ProCoach Success System officially launched on March 1 with a goal of attracting 200 members. We have close to 170 members now, so our target is already in sight. I would like to thank everyone who has registered for the program. It is an honour and privilege to serve you. My passion is creating a system that consistently and predictably advances people towards high levels of success. Thanks to your confidence in me, I get the opportunity to do what I love full-time.
The response to the look and contents of our new program has been incredible, however I want to remind you that this is just the beginning. Since we are a new company, most of our attention is currently focused on getting our internal systems in place. Soon we will be solidly established after which we will be able to spend our time and energy finding ways to help you get even better results.
The best part of this whole process is that we all share the same objective. When you succeed, we all win. So go out there and make it happen. You can count on us to do everything we can to help you.
Here's to your success!
Andrew Barber-Starkey
Newsletter Contents
Success Tips
Crucial announcement for ProCoach Success System members
When talking to our members the one thing that leaps out at me is how hard they are on themselves. The new program materials were only introduced in April, yet every member I talk to laments that they are not using the system to its full potential and tells me how disappointed they are with themselves for not being diligent enough. Listen closely. GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK!!!! This is a 3-year program, and if you stick with it YOU WILL GET THE RESULTS YOU WANT! Most people take almost a year before they start using the system effectively, and they still double their income and double their time off by the end of three years. Please be patient.
If you joined ProCoach in March or April and all you have done is complete a Quarterly Intentions Folder for the current quarter, you are doing just fine. If you have completed any of the workbooks (Long-term Vision, Financial Tracker and 3-Year Intentions) you are even more on track. Don't worry about whether you are using the Weekly Success Planner, Laser Coaching, Success Partner program, or the Success Factor. Even if you are not using any of the above, I guarantee you that your journey to success is accelerating. I encourage you to allow the system and your coach (that's me) some time to help you build your momentum. I never promised you overnight success. I did promise you amazing results if you stick with the system and I stand by my promise.
Set yourself up to win!
One thing I know for sure is that every time you complete an intention you set for yourself - no matter how small - you add fuel to your fire and accelerate your success. And every time you write an intention and fail to achieve it, you pour water on your fire and reduce your momentum. The current quarter ends on June 30, which is just a few short weeks away. Here is an exercise you MUST DO immediately if you completed a Quarterly Intentions Folder for this quarter.
Pull out your folder now and review everything you wrote on it. You will see that the items on it fall into four different categories:
1) Some intentions will be completed. Put a big check mark beside them and pat yourself on the back. Good job!
2) Some intentions will be on track for completion by June 30. If you are confident you will complete them, write "OK" beside them and recommit yourself to following through with them.
3) When you look at some intentions you will see that they are in alignment with where you want to go, but it is unlikely or impossible that you will achieve them by June 30. Since failure extracts a high price, we must correct this situation! I hereby give you permission to revise your intentions so you can complete them by the end of the month. COACHES TIP: When you modify your intentions, make them significantly more modest and realistic so that the chances you will achieve them are a solid 10 out of 10. Remember, there is no penalty for setting a smaller intention and overachieving it!
4) You may look at an intention you wrote and realize that it was totally unrealistic, or that things have changed and you no longer are committed to it. In that case, do not modify it. Decommit from it. That's right. Cross it out completely, and do not write anything in its place.
This approach may seem like cheating to you, but really it is just a smart strategy. At the end of the quarter every uncompleted intention will hurt you, but the ones you crossed out will not hurt you even if you crossed out 80% of what you originally wrote. That is because building your confidence and momentum involves your subconscious mind and it is not affected by the intentions you crossed out.
Even if you only completed your Quarterly Intentions Folder recently, you must do the above exercise. The chances are that you were overly ambitious about what you thought you could complete by the end of June.
Housekeeping Items
Laser Coaching
All ProCoach members are entitled to receive one Laser Coaching session per calendar quarter. That means that effective July 1 our tracking system will zero out all past sessions and allow you to book another session, even if you had one in June. So, if you have not had a Laser Coaching session in the April to June quarter, book yourself one before the end of June. You do not need wait until you have a big item to deal with to justify scheduling a session!
Upcoming Quarterly Seminars
The dates for the upcoming Quarterly Seminars are as follows:
Red Deer - Tuesday, July 6
Seattle - Thursday, July 8
Vancouver - Tuesday, July 13
Quarterly Seminars start at 9:30 and end at 5:30. Further details are posted on the schedule page of the website. Since the live seminars include lunch, we need to know whether or not you will be attending. If you are a Seminar Member we will contact you shortly to confirm your attendance.
What's New at ProCoach International
Lessons from the ProCoach Start-up Story
A lot of people have asked me why I left SuccessTracs and Peak Potentials. A huge number of factors contributed to my decision, but in the end it all boiled down to one. It was time for me to move on.
The first time I realized I needed to go was after a session with my coach in June last year. I was finding many things challenging, but until that moment the idea of leaving had never seriously occurred to me. When the possibility surfaced, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was terrified and I resisted it with all my strength. There were so many reasons to stay. I enjoyed the people, the program and the income. Surely there was another way to resolve the areas of dissatisfaction I was experiencing!
As with most major decisions, it took me some time to get my head around a new and completely different future. I always encourage my coaching clients to move towards something they want rather than away from what they don't want. Yet I was clearly in "moving away" mode. It was not until September, after lengthy discussions with Harv, that the idea of creating my own program first began to emerge. It was a frightening prospect, yet in my heart I knew it was the right thing to do. This created a dilemma for me. I frequently quote Harv's saying, "When you do what is hard, life becomes easy." Since I take my position as a role model seriously I knew I had to follow through in order to stay in integrity.
What happened next is an interesting study in the process of change and the journey to success. The idea of leaving first occurred to me in June. I gave Harv my notice in September. The time frame was obvious. I needed to have my new program fully operational in time to hold my first Quarterly Seminars in early April. There was a ton of work to be done, yet I did almost nothing. In November I finally incorporated ProCoach, and in December I started thinking about some of the infrastructure I would need to deliver my own program. But almost nothing happened until January. Why did it take me so long to get started?
Here is the lesson. Although I was taking very little action externally, internally I was going through a total realignment. I had no awareness of this, and of course criticized myself for my lack of action. It was only recently I realized that while I was floundering around and apparently doing nothing, I was actually preparing myself for what lay ahead. You may have heard me use the analogy of a car travelling at high speed on an icy parking lot. If the driver turns the steering wheel, the car continues in the same direction because of its momentum. (See my article called "Excuse me, the experts are wrong" under the Program Philosophy section of the ProCoach website.) The cell memory in my body was used to going one way, and I changed directions rather suddenly. During the time I was not taking action, I was integrating myself internally.
By January I was ready to move, and there was a lot of work to do in a short period of time. With SuccessTracs, my role was simply to design and deliver the program material. Suddenly I was responsible for it all - marketing, operations, administration and human resources plus program design and delivery. Fortunately my part-time assistant Valerie is amazing. The two of us buckled down to do the work. We installed a computer network and software to run the business, automating as many functions as we could. We set up bank accounts, borrowed money and jumped through endless hoops to become authorized to accept Visa and MasterCard in Canada and the US. Working with my coach and other experts I designed a marketing plan and sent out emails to build our database and attract our initial members. The construction of the website took over 200 hours of my personal time plus several weeks of work by a programmer and an artist. The same artist worked with me to create the look for the new program, which then had to be printed. The logistics of the first live seminars were organized and the Success Factor and other seminar materials produced. Valerie saved the day repeatedly and I called on my support network over and over. The list seemed to be endless and several times I worked 24 hours without a break. However, in the end it all came together and we were ready to launch on March 1 and hold our first seminars shortly afterwards.
Now our operations are in order and we have hired a wonderful Program Manager, Suzanne Martin, to look after our members. The circumstances that brought her to us are another story. Suffice to say that we are blessed to have such a wonderful staff! After not taking a single Freedom Day between January 1 and mid-April, my life is finally returning to normal.
It has been very valuable for me to observe my own transition process, and in the past year I have learned some great lessons about what it takes to be successful. I am very proud of the way I handled the entire project, but the thing that pleases me the most is the timing of my departure from SuccessTracs. Looking back I can honestly say, "I did not leave a minute too soon and I did not stay a minute too long."
So let me conclude with a coaching opportunity. Where in your life are you "hanging on" when your heart knows that it is time for you to leave? And where in your life are you leaving too soon when it would actually serve you to stay a little longer? If you are able to get the timing right and then "do what is hard" it will contribute tremendously to your success.
Member Success Stories
This month our member spotlight shines on Sandra Minarik of Surrey, B.C. She is a photographer, and recently applied to the Professional Photographer's Imaging program at Vancouver's Langara College. Each year the program accepts just 20 students from over 300 applications. Sandra has been utilizing the "take the next step" principle for the past year, attending classes at the college to position herself for a shot at the program. Amazingly, she was accepted during her first interview - an unheard of occurrence. Although her talent was obviously important, Sandra believes that her commitment to preparation and hard work was the ingredient that made the difference.
Sandra joined the ProCoach Success System in April, having never used any kind of goal setting or coaching program before. She applied herself with her usual diligence, and within a few weeks had completed all the workbooks and was meeting with her Success Partner weekly. Although she has been using the program for just a short time, Sandra is already experiencing tremendous results. "I feel more organized, positive and motivated now that I am using the system," she says. "I have learned that I tend to be very hard on myself. ProCoach has taught me to lower my expectations of myself and be more patient. Writing my successes and acknowledgements each week is really boosting my confidence. I am starting to realize that success is a process and it does not all come at once."
Sandra's biggest result is in the area of her relationship with her mother. "Our relationship has been difficult at times," says Sandra. "After I joined ProCoach I let her to read my Long-term Vision and 3-year Intentions workbooks. Something seemed to change after that. It is like she knows me better and she is happy about what I am doing with my life. Now I share my Weekly Success Planner goals with her every week and she listens to me. We talk more and we even started a running program together, which would have never happened in the past."
Congratulations, Sandra. Your commitment to using the ProCoach Success System and the results you are getting are an inspiration to us all!
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