Happy Canada Day. I am grateful to call this beautiful country home.
One of the most powerful tools we humans have is our thoughts. Our thoughts create so much of our reality and we have something like 60,000 of them a day. The great news is we can choose thoughts that serve us well and toss out the others, put them in the junk folder so to speak. Changing thoughts is one of the biggest tools in the coaching tool chest!
So listen to this for a timely example.
At our beautiful lake property, I came across this, tree stump. You should have heard me.” Oh my god, someone chopped down our tree, who do they think they are???, what is this place coming to.”.That sort of thing. Was I ever mad!!! I mean really!
Martin my sweet husband and the great love of my life says ” Sweetie, look, those are teeth marks, a beaver took the tree!’
“Ahh the cute little beavers, they got our tree isn’t that sweet. Our tree is part of their house to protect them from the winter ahhhhhhhh”, I thought to myself! Funny, eh?
What I actually did was change my thought and that changed my experience of the cut tree and my day.
The Thought model looks like this.
Circumstance: The facts of the situation ( cut tree)
Thoughts What you think about the circumstance. ( not facts just your thoughts)
Feeling/Emotions What you feel in response to your thoughts ( I was mad because I thought people had cut my tree)
Actions What actions you take from your feelings ( I was ranting and raving because I was mad because I thought that the people chopped down the tree)
Results What are the results of your actions ( Mine was wasted energy)
Here is what it looks like in a thought model.
Circumstance:
Tree cut
Thought
Some person cut our tree
Feeling
Mad, outraged
Action
Ranting and raving
Result
wasted energy
By changing our thoughts we change our feelings, action and results so here is what the thought model looks like once I thought it was a beaver.
Circumstance
Cut tree ( stays the same)
Thought
Oh a beaver did it
Feeling
Happy, proud to help the beaver
Action
Smiling
Result
A charming lake experience
So the thought models clearly show that the circumstance which in this case is the cut tree stays the same. However and so importantly and powerfully, by changing my thought about who/what did it, I change my feeling/emotion, and then my actions and results change.
I think of it as a Coaching Magic Wand. It changes how you feel and literally changes your life.
So try it out on this Canada Day or any other day.
I am more than happy to help you with this or all things coaching!
Susy Giddy is a Life Coach who talks the talk and walks the coaching walk.
