What’s your potential?  Are you living up to it?  How do you know when you are or you aren’t?  What can you do about it . . . either way? Do you use your potential only as a means of motivating you, or have you used it in the past as a way of punishing yourself when you’ve focused on not living up to it? Is your perception of your potential a moving target that has mirage-like qualities?

Potential means “the inherent capacity for coming into being.” Potential from an engineering perspective roughly means the capacity – or the ability – of a structure to bear a specific load.

For human beings, our potential is probably less a fixed number than a range of possibilities that can be impacted – positively or negatively – by a tremendous range of variables.

How much do you access or consult the idea of your potential with the intention of being motivated and inspired by it?  Less pleasantly, how frequently have you consulted your potential – and the difference between where you are and where you could be – as a means of beating yourself up?  What is the optimal relationship to potential?

Balance can be disrupted easily by events outside our control – weather, traffic, illness, difficulties.  What are the “rocks in the stream” on which you insist and depend on day-in and day-out?

For many people, meditation and exercise are “must-do’s” because the feelings of well being are significant enough to hold onto even if life’s events could make you believe you don’t have time.  Another of the best “rocks in the stream” is a regular bedtime and sufficient healthy sleep.

Who do you know who leads a balanced life? What are their habits which support balance?  How would you describe your life in terms of balance?  What would most improve your balance?

It’s been getting increasingly difficult to stay balanced due to technology; hasn’t it? Technology is supposed to serve us and increase our quality of life, but we’ve found ourselves working longer and harder just to keep up with its demands.

Maintaining a balanced life with technology is about maintaining healthy boundaries.  A few ideas:

* Read and respond to email only at the beginning, middle and end of each day.

* Limit time on social networking sites to 15 – 30 minutes daily.

* For every hour on your computer, take at least 30 minutes off of it.

* Have at least one day a week where you unplug as much as possible – and maybe unplug completely – only engaging in telephonic contact.

* Limit television time and expand interpersonal contact with friends and family.

What are your best approaches for staying balanced in your relationship with technology?  How much of an issue is technology in having a balanced life?

I had the privilege last week of seeing the great poet and songwriter, Leonard Cohen, live in concert. He said many things that night, but among the most striking was, “There’s a crack in everything. That’s what lets the light in.”

Most of us have had issues with perfection. We live in a world where airbrushed models, celebrities, professional athletes and even business people are presented as glamorized role models and heroes because of their supposed perfection.

This week, as we explore perfection, let’s take some time to consider Cohen’s remark and look carefully to observe those facets of our lives that appear to be imperfect or “cracked,” but which, in fact, let the light in. We can revisit the state of “perfect imperfection” in which each human being continually lives as a dynamic and ever-changing work in progress.

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

Witnessing bad things happen to people has been very hard to bear. People experience health issues, financial distress, emotional pain, relationship problems and a myriad of events ranging from merely bad to downright tragic. How do we deal with seeing that?

It has felt easier for me to live in equanimity about my own life difficulties than to have equanimity about others’ sorrows. Why? Because I want to help; I want to do something with and for them to change things and make it better.

Life recently presented me with a situation where I witnessed someone else experiencing great loss . . . and, try as I might, there is nothing that I can do about it, and I was unable to simply let it be.

Have you ever had the experience of being present to the pain and suffering of another . . . and be unable to help? How well have you been able to live in equanimity? Is it easier for you to have equanimity about your own situations or those of others?

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

Getting insight about how to expand personal productivity needn’t be complicated. Each of us is surrounded by people who can give us valuable feedback.

Asking “How can I be more productive” may feel risky because you may fear that you’re opening yourself up to criticism . . . . . and that you may be hurt.

Conversely, depending on YOUR attitude, you may find that receiving frank, constructive feedback feels useful and, well, “productive.” Be in a mindset that you won’t take anything that is said to you personally, that you’ll only hear the positive intent, and you’ll refrain from judging or shaming yourself or others.

Everyone can improve, and our business colleagues, friends, family members, customers – almost everyone who knows us – can provide intelligence for us that we may have been unable or unwilling to see.

Be particularly curious as you solicit the opinions of those whom you perceive have less power than you – children, students, employees, vendors and the like. Assure them that their feedback can be frank as long as it’s constructive.

And then listen without interrupting. Ask for clarification if desired. Don’t defend. This is a learning exercise. Take the information and assess its value. Experiment with it and utilize it to grow.

Most of all, have fun! The payoff promises to be significantly enhanced productivity and results.

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

Money is a highly-charged topic. In our culture where people are often judged by their net worths and their possessions, it may been hard to keep a balanced, healthy perspective about money.

There is a tremendous belief system of money myths ranging from the old Puritan point of view that wealth was proof that God favored a person . . . to the view that one can’t be both wealthy and a good person . . . and that it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter heaven.

Do you believe that money can co-exist with goodness? Does money always corrupt? Is the love of money actually the root of all evil?

What have been your money myths? Are there aspects of your early training at an impressionable age that no longer serve you?

Money, like anything else can be used for good or ill. How have your myths about money had you use it in your personal and business lives?

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

This week, we’re discussing the role and impact of money in our lives.
Benjamin Franklin said, “Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.”

Money is obviously required to provide at least the basics in life. And in the current economic climate, money occupies a central place in the news and in our thoughts.

Money is a medium of exchange . . . a common denominator that allows us to trade our time and resources for those of others.

What is your healthiest relationship to money?

Who are your primary examples of how to deal with money? Neighbors, parents, employers, the media? What did they teach you? Have you ever used money to assess your own value as a human being or the value of another?

How can we be prosperous and create abundant money. . . and, at the same time, have money have an appropriate place in our lives?

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.