As a success coach, I have the pleasure of seeing my clients light up with insights, answers, and a new lease on life. However, when they start coaching with me, my clients feel like “Dorothy” trying to find the Wizard of Oz when she first walked along the yellow brick road. Most of that confusion is a result of one thing… Attitude.
My job as a success coach is to remind my clients that attitude and success are intertwined.
Attitude counts. Optimism and pessimism affect your results.
Was Dorothy An Optimist?
YOU BET SHE WAS!
How would you feel if…
- Your house was hit by a tornado?
- Your life was threatened by a stranger with a pointed hat?
- You were attacked by winged monkeys?
Throughout all of this turmoil, Dorothy was a trooper (with the help of a few success coaches).
My job as a success coach is to give you some basic “Dorothy training” – to train you to be an optimist, not just when things are easy, but when you’d rather just pull the covers over your head, thinking “there’s no place like home”. A success coach needs to begin every client’s journey with a little “attitude adjustment” wizardry.
Here are a few of the key lessons I share with my clients to move them along the “yellow brick Road”, thus training them to be the ultimate optimist…
Why Bother Being An Optimist?
Pessimism has its place. You don’t want to stare a problem in the face and fail to admit that you need to do something about it.
With my clients, I always cover a few important reasons to be an optimist:
- You will enjoy life more.
- You will have better health.
- You avoid wasting valuable time waiting for bad things to happen.
What Is An Optimist?
Let’s start with what an optimist isn’t. An optimist is not someone who sticks their head in the sand. Optimists don’t lie to themselves or distract themselves in order to feel better about things in their life that aren’t going well.
In fact, optimists are sometimes the most realistic people, they simply have the faith, courage, and power to turn their lemons into lemonade. An optimist is willing to be disappointed because they can handle it when their expectations aren’t met.
We don’t give optimists enough credit for the slings and arrows that life is throwing at them.
A true optimist is resilient, bouncing back from failure. They don’t give up!
A true optimist reinvents themselves… their career, their goals, and their attitude… whenever they need to.
A true optimist takes responsibility for whatever happens because they know that they can make it better tomorrow, even if the current road is fraught with danger and problems.
How to Become an Optimist: a Success Coach’s Guide
As a success coach, I turn people into optimists all the time. How do I do it?
Here are four things I do with my clients that turns even the worst pessimists into optimists:
1. Surround yourself with optimistic people:
The peer group you surround yourself with is everything. One of the first things I do with a new client is get them to surround themselves with an optimistic peer group. This may require them to jettison a few pessimistic friends. That can be hard, but being surrounded by one naysayer after another is never worth it.
2. Have faith:
I always tell my clients,
“You have to believe in the F word… Faith”
Faith is directed imagination.
Faith takes directing your imagination towards the ideas, future, and dreams that you would like to see happen, and then believing strongly that all of that is possible. Faith is believing in something that you can’t already see.
3. Don’t seek out failure… Learn from it.
Whether they feel like it or not, I push my clients to learn from their failures. We all fail; it’s an undeniable fact. Superstar athletes, billionaires, entertainers, and presidents; they have all failed before becoming successful.
I tell my clients to expect failure, embrace it and learn from it. Using failure as a springboard to success is a sure-fire way to become an optimist!
How Do You Stay Positive?
Life isn’t always sunshine, rainbows, and lollipops. However, it’s possible to find your own pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with a little attitude adjustment.
The ultimate lesson I’ve learned from my clients? The ultimate optimism is within each of us. Our job is to find our own brand of optimism. What do you use to get you focused on the positive, even when everything around you is negative? What brand of optimism works for you?
Photo Credit
Photo Of Dorothy Is Public Domain
Guest Author Bio
Jeffrey Sooey
Jeffrey T. Sooey is the CEO of JTS Advisors and the founder of Coaches Training Blog community.
Jeffrey began his study of personal success with the masters of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). This led him to an involvement with the Anthony Robbins Companies as a results coach and seminar facilitator. As his client list grew, he began implementing the technology on a professional and organizational level, focusing upon team leadership and management. Jeffrey began to redevelop the original success philosophies of Napoleon Hill by facilitating the alignment of his clients’ goals with their values and strengths. The results of his clients are immediate and lasting.
Mr. Sooey’s love for the saxophone brought him to the top of the jazz scene in New York City. He played frequently at the famous Blue Note and subsequently traveled round the world to Japan as an international Jazz recording artist. Mr. Sooey traded equities for private accounts, studying under master traders of ABN Amro and Schonfeld Securities, LLC. After leaving the Robbins organization, Jeffrey co-founded 180 Television Networks, an international media conglomerate — serving as President and Vice-Chairman. He has addressed distinguished audiences ranging from the International Coaching Federation to University of Southern California graduating MBA class of 2002. Jeffrey also contributes his skills as a motivator and speaker by giving workshops at local penitentiaries. Mr. Sooey is the President and CEO of JTS Advisors, a boutique firm offering full focus support to a select clientele.
No stranger to the water, Jeffrey’s personal interests include windsurfing and offshore yacht racing. On the weekends, Jeffrey still loves to sail and on many given evenings you may find him performing music.
Blog / Website: Coaches Training Blog
Follow Jeffrey: Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Linkedin
Recent Guest Author Articles:
- How Breathwork Creates a Pathway Through Trauma: Beyond Traditional Approaches
- Pilates Machines on Sale: What to Look for Before You Buy
- Calming an Overthinking Mind: How I’m Tackling Stress At 60
- Simple Ways to Help Your Scared Dog Feel Safe Again
- Men in Nursing and the Redefinition of Strength, Compassion, and Career Success
I love the relation that you made from the Wizard of OZ to living a successful life. It’s definitely SO important to stay positive in order to be successful. Where have found the easiest place to find optimistic people? sometimes that’s really tough. I can only imagine what the world would be like if it was full of optimists!! thanks for that great article!