Goal Setting

Make Your New Year’s Resolution SMART

Posted by on Jan 8, 2010 | 0 comments

  Several years ago I swore off New Year’s Resolutions. (Yes, I see the irony of that.) The annual hopeful energy and inevitable late-winter decline was a cliché, and I was too cool for all that. So I steadfastly ignored Auld Lang Syne and set personal goals willy-nilly throughout the calendar, with varying success. But as we enter a new year and a new decade, I am struck by the moment and by a desire to turn a new page and even to turn over a new leaf (how’s that for a cliché?). So then, how do we avoid the mid-February dissolution of our resolve? Make a SMART* resolution....

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What Do You Want from 2010?

Posted by on Dec 13, 2009 | 0 comments

  Time Magazine’s cover last week dubbed the 2000’s “The Decade From Hell,” and many are saying “good riddance.” But what lessons have you learned, and how do you want to enter the coming year, the coming decade? With a New Year’s resolution that will be stale by February, or with an energized and rigorous plan to achieve a well-integrated set of goals that will improve your performance, satisfaction, and life balance? Now is a great time to try coaching, a collaborative relationship that helps you develop your own goals and take concrete actions to make real change....

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Taking Your Game to a Bigger Arena

Posted by on Oct 11, 2009 | 0 comments

  I am just back from a trip to New York to pitch my old law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell, on the value of coaching and try to persuade them to include coaching in their associate development and retention program. I’ll cut to the chase: I was unsuccessful. My lack of track record in a firm setting, management’s structural concerns, and the current economic climate all conspired to make my proposal a non-starter. And while I feel disappointed, I’m not crushed. I don’t feel like a failure. I actually feel proud of myself. So what’s that about? It’s...

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The Not-Knowing

Posted by on May 4, 2009 | 0 comments

  Do you sometimes feel like all aptitude and no direction? That was me for a long time. I had confidence in my capacity to do something, but could never figure out what that something was. I was surrounded by people who were driven to pursue one path or another – family members and friends and boyfriends who were passionately pursuing a dream while I slogged along in corporate law – and it felt to me like I was just missing that passion gene. Instead, I felt stuck. I would have given anything to know what I should do. Does this sound like you? Are you capable, maybe even ambitious, but...

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