Rebecca Rodskog, a change management coach and consultant, continues her journey with Monique Fields, a.k.a. Honeysmoke, our Passion Project winner. I am a lucky girl. As one of the coaches on the Passion Project Team/Prize, I am lending my expertise to the talented winner, Monique Fields, AKA "Honeysmoke”. But the cool thing is, I get to work with her through the WHOLE process! And let me tell you, I am blown away by Monique. In the two meetings we have had since our Foundation Session, I’ve been able to dive deep into what her values are, and her intentions for this year, and I am so happy to be one of the people that will support her in getting there. Closing out the “REFLECT” step that we discussed last month, Monique and I discussed how important it is to understand your values before you embark on any change in your life. Making decisions without knowing what you value is like letting someone else choose what to write about. Being grounded in your values is your lighthouse, sending you beacons of light to guide your journey. Without the beacons (values) you can end up completely off course, or worse, shipwrecked. I presented Monique with an exercise to help her pinpoint her core values – I leveraged it from Tom Leonard’s book, The Portable Coach. The activity lists a couple hundred words or potential “values” and makes the participant chose around 20 that they feel connected to, and then makes them whittle it down to five. There are usually two hurdles in doing this: 1) understanding what a value is (vs. a want or a need) and 2) getting the list down to five! I guide my clients to choose works that they feel a “natural pull” towards – if they're over-thinking it, it’s probably not a value. From Tom’s book: “The same thing can be a need, a want, or a value for different people, or for the same person at different times. It just depends on you or the situation. Here are some guidelines that will help you draw distinctions: * If there is urgency, it is probably a need. * If there is craving or desire, it is probably a want. * If there is a natural and uncomplicated pull, it’s probably a value.” If they are really having trouble, I have them think of things they definitely DO NOT value (for me things like politics, materialism, selfishness) and think of the opposite (genuine connections, value, generosity). And then when they are culling it down to five, I tell them to group like-values together and pick the one that floats to the top to use as a summary-value, and the rest of the words can be used as descriptors (for me: “COACH” was the summary word and the other, related ones that I used to describe it were “inspire”, “teach”, “guide”, etc. – I used those words to define what “coach” means to me.) Monique’s results (her 5 CORE VALUES): · Create · Teach · Learn · Move Forward · Be the Best Using her core values as our guideposts, our next step in the REFLECT phase was to take a snapshot of her “as-is” state using my life map tool.

This is a common coaching tool that I have customized for my clients, which helps assess where a person is in all the areas in their life, and where they would like to go! I ask a simple question: in each of the following 8 areas, rate yourself on a scale of 0-10 – 0 meaning you would like to change everything in this area, and 10 meaning you would not like a single thing to change – it’s perfect! The areas are: 1. Career 2. Money 3. Health 4. Friends and Family 5. Significant Other/Romance 6. Personal Growth 7. Fun and Recreation 8. Physical Environment After she ranks that, I have her go back around and tell me where she would like to be in each area one year from now, which eases us into our next phase of the process: ENVISION! We are creating an intentional, value-based journey for her which encompasses all the areas of her life. In addition, through this quick exercise, we are able to see where her ambition for change is – meaning what does she really WANT to work on – which helps us prioritize her intentions and actions. Monique’s results: Money: move from a 3 to a 9 (change of 5) Career: move from a 5 to a 9 (change of 4) Personal Growth: move from a 5 to a 9 (change of 4) Fun and Recreation: move from an 8 to a 9 (change of 1) Physical Environment: move from an 8 to a 9 (change of 1) Health, Friends and Family and Significant Other were all placed at a 9 right now, with no ambition for change a year from now. Our next steps are figuring out HOW we are going to intentionally create the movement she desires above in her life. She is busy developing her thoughts around what it looks like when she accomplishes the movement (what does a “9” really look like?) and action so help move her towards those goals. I hope you’ll follow along with us as we complete her vision with those intentions and start developing her action plan, guiding her into the next phase of the process, my personal favorite, GROW! Rebecca is a change management coach and consultant, actress, writer, and mother of two who lives in Manhattan. Check her out at www.rodskog.com, and schedule your own consult through us, right here!