How Much Work
Is TOO Much Work?

Do you find yourself saying yes to new projects and social commitments way more often than you intend to? Feeling a little frayed at the edges and wondering when enough is enough? Coaching Out of the Box®'s own Amy Rupert was recently interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about how to recognize and manage things when work and life get full to the brim and become downright overwhelming - an issue almost all of us have come face to face with at some point. 

So how do you know when to say no, or when to give yourself a break? Read the interview for some great tips on balancing everything that's on your plate, being kind to yourself, and yes, still getting a whole lot done. (Hint: one of our favourite tips involves taking a nice loooong shower each morning.) Want more? The Wall Street Journal also featured Amy's tips in a live interview. 

Drumroll Please...Introducing the new Coaching out of the Box® Website and Coaching Quotient™

It's been a busy time at the Coaching out of the Box® headquarters over the last few months. We're pleased to announce we've been cooking up a new website, which is now live. Our new site is fresh, modern and easy to use. We'd love to hear your feedback.

February Newsletter: How Successful Relationships Impact Career and More...

The month of February has us reflecting on love, partnership and balancing work and life. Three of the core members of the Coaching Out of the Box® team (Alison Hendren MCC - CEO, Bruce McLeod PCC - Chief Culture Officer, Amy Ruppert MCC - Chief Learning Officer) have each been in long successful marriages. We asked them to each answer the same two questions:

How has being in relationship impacted your work? Neil has always been a humble supporter of my work. He quietly does all kinds of things that make my life easier like cooking, building and maintaining our fabulous home, amazing landscaping that I look out at from my office, washing my car before I leave for various business trips and bringing in his good sense when I start to go off the rails. He has never taken a coaching course BUT he has one key incredibly important skill...he listens!

Out of the Box: Spring Into Action

It's official, Spring is here; which means that flowers are blooming, trees are sprouting leaves, little baby bunnies are hopping around, and in my neck of the woods baby quail are crossing streets in a nice single file line. Spring means new beginnings, fresh starts, and beautiful color. With the lovely weather and beautiful newness of it all I would like to encourage to create some of your own beginnings and fresh starts.

The time is now to let go of old hurt, limiting beliefs, and even relationships that no longer fit/serve you. Let's do some Spring cleaning by taking inventory of the people, things, and feelings that surround you. What supports your growth? What doesn't?
Now is the perfect time for giving birth to new ideas, new projects, new hobbies; the things you have always wanted to do, but haven't yet. What stands in your way? What do you need to make things happen?
Embrace Spring Fever! Take some time to play and embrace your child side. With your fun, child side comes renewed energy and a means to view things with a fresher eye.

However you decide to acknowledge this amazing season, the time is now to Spring into action. Enjoy! Grow! Rejuvenate! Happy Spring, Everyone!

Out of the Box: Here a Choice, There a Choice

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." Wayne Dyer

Isn't it great to have the power to choose our thoughts, feelings, and actions? We even get to choose how we wish to show up each day. And not only that, we get to choose how we wish to handle challenges and which options or opportunities would work best for us.

Here's the kicker though, in order to make choices (i.e. how to overcome a challenging situation, what career path to take, etc.), it's important to have clarity and clarity can sometimes evade us. It is particularly elusive when we are in a state of overwhelm or fear.

So what can we do to create clarity?

Here are a few ideas...

First, recognize that we're all human and being human can sometimes be a messy process. (We can learn a lot from our messes.)

Second, be willing to ask those powerful questions that support deeper discovery and awareness.

Third, don't force the clarity. Sometimes it takes time for an answer to appear or a choice to present itself.

Fourth, work in bite-sized pieces or as we say around the Coaching Out of the Box® halls, make that elephant into elephant steaks. This will cut down on the overwhelm.

Just remember, the power to choose is YOURS!

Out of the Box: A New Year of Opportunities
Welcome to 2013 and a very Happy New Year to all of you!

We all know that with the New Year often comes a renewed hope for exciting opportunities, positive changes, as well as a sense of excitement of what lies ahead. Critical to creating or recognizing opportunities and changes is the willingness to also create awareness. Simply, AWARENESS = OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE AND GROWTH.

With that said, we hope you will enjoy this issue's Team Talk article written by our very own Pamela Richarde.

Here's to a New Year filled with much joy, good health and amazing opportunities!

Out of the Box: Play or Sit?

Life is a wonderful game to be played and not watched from the sidelines. That means we have to be willing to take chances and get in the game or we'll never know what it feels like to score a goal, sink a three-pointer, or make a touchdown.

OK, enough with the bad sports analogy. Think about it though, as coaches in order to challenge our clients to play a bigger game, we have to be willing to challenge ourselves. So, when was the last time you took a chance? When was the last time you threw caution to the wind and just went for something?

If your answer is, "I have no clue." OR"Gosh, I don't remember." Don't you think it is time you got off the bench and stepped into a bigger game?

To support you in doing so we want to share the following thoughts to ponder...

You have much more to gain than you do to lose. It's true, because if you go after what you want and get it, you gained. If you go after what you want and don't get it, you haven't lost anything - instead you have gained some knowledge, right?
Speaking of knowledge, every experience, good or bad is an opportunity for growth and learning.
When you allow fear to stand in your way, you are just handing your power over to the fear. We all know it is no fun being powerless.
Create some awareness around what holds you back. In creating that awareness you have the capability to remove the obstacle or jump over it.
If you follow your heart, you can't go wrong.
If you follow your heart, and someone thinks you are silly for it, that says more about them then it does about you. Besides, it really is none of your business what others think of you. It is your business what you think of you.
Did we mention that you have more to gain than you do to lose?

So what's it gonna be; are you going to sit or are you gonna play?

Out of the Box: A Child-Like Perspective

Have you ever watched a child pick up something and investigate it as if it were the coolest thing they have ever seen? They often explore what we might consider the most simple things with a wide-eyed curiosity and enthusiasm. It is a beautiful thing to see; to see a child so present in the moment, learning, and enthralled by the things surrounding them.

Isn't it true that as adults we sometimes get so lost in all the day-to-day that we sometimes don't see what's around us? We forget to be present in the moment, clouding our ability to see the great learning experiences and fantastic opportunities. Heck, we even forget to breathe!

How does the color blue suit you?

We can learn a lot from children. We can learn to slow down and be in the here and the now. We can learn to look at almost everything with a renewed enthusiasm and zest for exploration. Just because we are older and even wiser that does not mean we are too old to learn, too old to explore, nor too old to play.

It is our wish that you gift yourself (if only for the week) the curiosity and spirit of a child. Take time to stop and enjoy exploring your surroundings. Take a look at things through the lens of curiosity and see what you notice. The key is to be curious!

Out of the Box: Silence is Golden

Silence is a beautiful thing. Silence provides us with a break from all the buzz. It affords us some breathing space. It can be a sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day. As coaches, it can be one of the most powerful coaching tools in our coaching toolbox.

You may have already noticed or experienced this, but when there’s silence there’s a natural urge to fill it. In the coaching conversation, when you use silence you give the other person the time and the space to reflect before responding. Think about it, you have asked that jewel of a question, a real eye-opener, what better way to highlight that question then to go silent?

We encourage you to give yourself the gift of silence in your conversations and take notice of what happens. Did the person you were talking to create a deeper awareness? Did they fill the silence with more information? What happened?

Here’s to the gold that is silence.