Coaching for Change

DO YOU HOLD YOURSELF BACK? “There are so many good bloggers and good articles out there. Why would anyone read yours?” Said a tiny voice as I sat down to write my blog. I looked around. There was no one in the room except me. As I began writing again, this time a bit less motivated and a bit more skeptical, it tweeted again. The voice was so subtle and yet so mesmerizing. If I had not known better I would have actually given up on the piece I was working on. This was my inner critical voice. We all have it. It’s there somewhere in our subconscious, pulling us down all the time. Especially when we are trying to do something new, or difficult or public facing. The problem is not really the voice. The problem is the behavior or the action that follows it. We end up just giving up without even trying. This tendency is most prominent in tweens and teens. Here are some of the things our inner critic tends to say: I don’t think I am good enough. What if I make a fool of mys...

I dedicate this article to my favourite age group… the youth of today. This is a topic about which a lot has been said and written and yet it remains an enigma to most of us when it really shouldn’t be. It should be as easy as it is for a 4-year-old to tell a story. Recently I was invited to mentor a bunch of kids to polish their Public Speaking Skills. These kids were going to present their project to a group of judges and the best idea was to win an award to fund their idea. I first asked them to tell me about their project. As they told me about why they chose the project, the passion, enthusiasm, and energy in their gestures and body language was apparent. Then I asked them to present their idea to me as they would to the judges. Suddenly the whole dynamics changed, the same bubbly bunch became uptight, nervous and robotic. When I asked them what the reason was, they said:  -It’s a formal presentation so we need to look and feel serious. -It feels weird to stan...