If you read last week's email, you know that Suzee talked about the FEAR we caught ourselves in around SEAR and the resulting clarity that's coming into focus. The stumbles, the mistakes, the learnings, and the great results - these are all part of this process of GROWTH that we are in as a company and, more so, as people.

Awareness + Action = Change

A client told me that she saw a billboard with that equation this weekend and thought of the work we are doing together. Such a simple equation with so many hidden complexities.

The Awareness piece can be really difficult for some, requiring us to slow down and even pause and to know, to be curious and thoughtful.

And the Action part ... well, we as coaches live our lives helping people get into the right actions, don't we? So we know that isn't always easy either.

But those things are the building blocks of change. You first have to know and then you have to do.

I'm reminded of my fingernail-biting habit. You probably heard me talk about this vice before. I bit (sometimes still bite) my nails for years and years and years. It was and still can be a source of shame. I told my coach 17 years ago that "I wanted to be a person who has nice nails". Her answer was simple: first you have to catch yourself putting your finger in your mouth. Then, and only then, you can make the decision to not chew your nail. Logically, this clicked. Practically, that was hard to do. That's why the bitter nail polish is brilliant (the one that has a foul taste when you put it in your mouth): because it was forced awareness.

Once the Awareness piece is complete (oh hey, my finger is in my mouth!) ... you have to take Action (or avoid a negative action which is, of course, taking Action). Take finger out of mouth! Don't bite!

For my clients (and myself), this Action part can be hard. Let's be honest, if they were doing "the thing", we probably wouldn't be talking about them not doing "the thing".

How to flip the equation

But you don't always have to have the Awareness first before you take the Action. Sometimes, you can take the Action to cause Awareness. This is actually one of my favorite coaching tools.

If you'll allow me to continue my beauty example: the fact was that Awareness didn't work for me with nail-biting - because I could notice and decide to keep on biting.

So instead, I started to proactively make my nails pretty (gel polish anyone?) and that Action in turn created Awareness. And I created the Change I was looking for too: I was in fact a person with nice-looking nails.

OK, so what does all of this have to do with SEAR and with coaching?

As Suzee described, we stumbled a lot - we've recorded videos, we've re-recorded, we've gone on social media, we've created courses and masterclasses. It was (and is) a lot of Action. And, the Action has been rooted in an Awareness of generally what we want to create and who we want to help: a community for people who coach. As a result, the Action has given us new Awareness of where we need to be nimble and pivot and refine. The Action of speaking and writing copy has had us gain clarity regarding our goals

The result has been more pride for me internally based on what I'm doing daily (Change!), and physically there is now a growing database of resources where there was once none (Change!).

This might all be obvious - but it's not easy. I thought it was important enough to mention again because I deal with some part of this equation in every. single. coaching. call.

Excavation

But there's more .... a hidden part to this equation that we can get to when we work with clients. Right below the surface of Awareness and Action can be a ton of beliefs that you may need to address for real Change to occur. The "what's going on here" questions. Like, for me, WHY was I biting my nails? Could I notice a pattern? <Spoiler - of course!> What did that pattern mean? What thoughts or beliefs were at the root?

We just dropped a Masterclass on Limiting Beliefs where we discussed ways in which we help clients with this type of Excavation.

One of the points that I made in the Masterclass was how I started out as a client with no Awareness that I was operating with beliefs that were getting in the way of both my Actions and making Change. My mind was blown when the possibility of new ways of thinking were introduced to me. It was like I just saw the world with a new pair of glasses.

I say all of this to remind us all of:

• How far we've come
• How basic we may need to be with clients new to this, and
• How basic we may need to be with ourselves in areas that we want to improve.

So the challenge this week is going back to basics with:

• Can you identify one Action that you think would cause Change for you? What is it?
• What can you commit to regarding that Action?
• What Awareness does success with the Action create? How about if you fail?