Category: Videos

Weekly videos highlight an intention or topic to consider

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Recurrence & Getting 'Unstuck' – Rhoads Life Coaching

Groundhog Day. They have a lot of practice at this recurring tradition! This mile marker on the calendar has become one of my favorite ‘holy-days’ not because of the tradition and predicting (and celebrating) the end of winter, but because of the 1993 movie ‘Groundhog Day’. Harold Ramus and Bill Murray give us a comical example of how recurrence works. It is possible to to get stuck in the loop of doing the same things day after day, week after week, year after year. How often do you say to yourself, ‘Where did the weekend go?’ or ‘I’m just trying to get to Friday’? If we don’t pay attention, nothing ever really changes and we become mechanical in how we live. This mechanicalness drains the meaning and fulfillment out of our lives. So how does Bill Murray get out of his loop? First he takes ownership of his situation. Something has to be done! He keeps trying things until things start to click. There are setbacks! It is hard to break out of the recurring patterns. He has to change. It is critical to note that the world doesn’t change around him. The change comes from within himself. Here are four rules to follow for getting ‘unstuck’!

  1. Do SOMETHING!
  2. Don’t STOP!
  3. Lose CONTROL (in a good way)!
  4. Ask for HELP!
Where are their recurrences in your life? These could be daily, weekly, monthly, annually. Where are you being mechanical and just going through the motions? What is ONE THING to do different this week to start to break the loop and to create more intention and meaning in how you live? – www.rhoadscoaching.com   Rhoads Life Coaching - Recurrence   finding purpose and meaning in daily life ]]>

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What Do You Value? – Rhoads Life Coaching

What are your values? Have you ever thought about it? How do you know what you value?

We acquire our values based on our experiences. Even if we didn’t know it while it was happening, we learned what was most important to us as life happened to us.  Our personal values are as unique as our fingerprints.

Values end up being large concepts that are difficult to define. Freedom, independence, integrity, growth, family, love, and honesty are all examples of these large concepts. Check out Jame Clear’s list of 50 core values to find examples. We have trouble seeing them in our lives because they saturate every aspect of how we live.

When we encounter a situation that conflicts with our values, we feel frustrated and out of sync and we often have conflict with other people who have different values from our own. We filter all of our beliefs, thoughts and actions through our values. Take some time to try and define what your values are because there is a benefit to knowing what you value most! – www.rhoadscoaching.com

 

Value - Rhoads Life Coaching Logo

 

finding meaning and purpose in daily life

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Internal Blocks – Rhoads Life Coaching

Nearly all of our thoughts and behaviors (good or bad) served a purpose at one point. Some of them prevented bad things from happening to us. Some of those preventative internal blocks got left in place and no longer help, and now hinder growth and change.

Say for example, I had multiple events growing up where I was laughed at or teased for being willing to try something new that I had never attempted before. It would make sense if I put a block in place to prevent myself from trying new experiences in order to not be exposed to more teasing and vulnerability. That internal block protected me through the rest of growing up and served a useful purpose. Now as adult, I have forgotten that preventative measure is in place and I am unwilling to ask someone out on a date or look for a new job. What once helped, now hinders my ability to change and grow.

What internal blocks do you carry around with you that no longer help (we ALL have them!)? How do you go about removing them? The first step is self-observation and becoming aware the block is there. From there understanding the purpose of original behavior and what is different now allows for a new choice to be made and the block to be removed. This might take awhile! Change and growth and something better become much more difficult without going through this process. Which internal blocks can you remove? – www.rhoadscoaching.com

 

Internal Blocks - Rhoads Life Coaching

 

finding meaning and purpose in daily life

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Practical Application – Rhoads Life Coaching

It doesn’t matter what theory, dream, vision, goal, desire, or belief system you have until you create some practical application of that idea. Reading about shooting foul shots may be a helpful tool, but expecting to shoot foul shots without practicing is unrealistic. That also applies to our values, priorities, goals, and vision. It may be comforting to dream of a better job, or a wonderful vacation, but until you make make practical steps to apply that vision, you are only daydreaming. The same can be said for the belief systems, self-development, and growth we say we prescribe to.  All of the self-help books in the world will not change anything until you apply the steps outlined. Without taking a positive attitude, or loving your neighbor and enemy into the world, our spirituality and religion do not serve their purpose. These ideas were not meant to stay as theories.

What practical application are you missing from your daily life? What goals have you set that you are not working towards? What do you believe about how we should treat each other that you are not implementing? What do you need to start practicing? What is your motivation to start and keep going? Who will hold you accountable? – www.rhoadscoaching.com

Practical Application - Rhoads Life Coaching

 

finding meaning and purpose in daily life

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Being Hopeful – Rhoads Life Coaching

What does being hopeful mean for you? Have you ever paused long enough to focus your attention on what hope is and where it comes from? Whether we know it or not, our hopes are reflections of our values, priorities, vision, dreams, and fears. Being hopeful for something shows who we really are. What are you hopeful for?

Implicit in hope is an expectation that things will change for the better. Think about that for a second. Once we give up hope and our lives and the world becomes hopeless, we do not expect things to change. Hopelessness surrenders to the world staying the same. Somehow, being hopeful is implicit in being human. Our resilience to holding on to hope will get us through just about anything. Embedded in our survival is a vision of the future being better. What are you hopeful for?

So as we end this season and this year, take a few minutes and observe your own hope. What does being hopeful mean for your personally? Where do you sense it in your body? What do you need to do point yourself towards the change that is required to achieve what you are hopeful for? – www.rhoadscoaching.com

 

Being Hopeful - Rhoads Life Coaching

 

finding meaning and purpose in daily life

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Bringing Light to the Darkness – Rhoads Life Coaching

Our culture, whether we are aware of it or not, has spent an enormous amount to time and energy celebrating bringing light into the darkness. Something about being human is fulfilled by the hope illumination brings. Each year we experience a collective convergence as we pass through the holiday season and our cultures and religions orient themselves towards the days beginning to increase in length again and light begins to overtake the darkness of winter.

There are many layers to the symbolism of this image. It is possible to process this illumination at a personal, family, community, and planetary level. At its simplest level, we can literally see more light shining into each day as the planet tips back towards the sun. There is also the opportunity for personal growth as we bring light to the dark places of ourselves, illuminating the shadows that we fear. By bringing more light to our own personal darkness, we illuminate those around us and ultimately the world itself.

It isn’t an accident that we light candles and decorate our homes with lights. Even if you aren’t a religious person, it is difficult to not get caught up in the collective celebration of illumination. As you celebrate the end of the year, what parts of you will benefit by being illuminated? How will you continue your growth and development as we pass the winter solstice and more light is brought to the darkness? – www.rhoadscoaching.com

 

Bringing Light to the Darkness - Rhoads Life Coaching

 

finding meaning and purpose in daily life

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Repetition – Rhoads LIfe Coaching

There are things we repeat (over and over) that become our habits (good and bad). Think for a few seconds about some of the repetition and patterns you have created over the course of your life… The way you get dressed, or how you eat your eggs, or the stories your tell yourself about who you are or what you are worth… How many times have you repeated those habits (hundreds, thousands)?

To change an old habit we need to counter-act it with repetition of a good habit. All of the self-help books and videos out there offer options for doing just that. Some work and some don’t. John Wooden’s whole philosophy around winning as a team was and being successful as a person was embodied in repeating over and over what it looked like to succeed (all the way down to how to tie your shoes as an athlete). What in your life are you so passionate about that you are willing to make that kind of effort? What do you want for your life and how motivated are you to make it happen? The first steps begin with repeating the habits that will lead you to your goals.

What repeating do you need to make to reach the vision you have for yourself? What old repetitions are getting in the way? – www.rhoadscoaching.com

Rhoads Life Coaching - Repetition

 

finding meaning and purpose in daily life

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Introspection – Looking Inside Ourselves – Rhoads Life Coaching

Introspection is the act of slowing down & looking inside ourselves to observe our internal world. Until we look inside we can’t see the whole picture.

We have each developed a software code that runs who we are as a person. It addresses all of the internal and external things we experience. It determines how we react to everything and how well we are able to react to the world around us. Frequently this code needs to be inspected. Is there a glitch? Have you applied a filter to your system that is not benefiting you? Do you have a bug in your code that needs to be fixed? The only way to find out is to be introspective and look inside to inspect how your insides work.

So how to begin? What does introspection look like for you? In our fast-paced world it is difficult to focus time, energy and attention inside. Stopping long enough to observe thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations is a good start. Asking ‘why do I feel this way?’ or ‘what does this sensation need?’ can become a habit of observing without judgement. The value of introspection is in acknowledging the different parts of ourselves and observing whether those parts are reacting to the world in a healthy way. – www.rhoadscoaching.com

Introspection - Rhoads Life Coaching

 

Finding meaning and purpose in daily life

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How Much Do We Exaggerate? – Rhoads Life Coaching

How much do you we exaggerate what we relate about our lives? Do you add a few degrees of drama in relating an exciting story? Do you downplay how much you worry, or are hurt? This tendency to increase or decrease the reality of our situation comes at a price. We push the way we relate ourselves to others toward the extremes.

Consider the possibility that nearly every form of entertainment, advertising, and social media is exaggerated to some degree. How much does that influence how we relate to each other? It becomes difficult to have empathy for ourselves or others when we only see their highlight reel on our phones; or to find common ground when every encounter is either the best or worst thing that has ever happened to us.

How can you reduce this exaggeration? The language we use to communicate is important. Removing the expectation for every event to be life changing (awesome, epic, huge), allows for perfectionism to be taken out of our experiences. Practice noticing where you exaggerate. Try to reduce that exaggeration by even a small percent. If you could reduce the amount of exaggeration in your thoughts and language, you can have more room for life to be meaningful and fulfilling. – www.rhoadscoaching.com

 

 

Exaggerate - Rhoads Life Coaching

 

finding meaning and purpose in daily life

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We Are All Connected – Rhoads Life Coaching

It is difficult to overstate the idea that we are all connected. In the “Power of Vulnerability”, Brene Brown says that as human beings we are hard-wired for connection. She takes it a step further and states it is part of our purpose to be connected to others and the world. If connection is our purpose, the intent of how we achieve connection changes dramatically. We are not being fully human if we aren’t looking for meaningful and purposeful connection with others.

By not connecting to those around us we are not fulfilling our purpose.

Are you isolating yourself? Do you know someone who is? What do you need to do about it? – www.rhoadscoaching.com

 

 

All Connected - Rhoads Life Coaching

 

finding meaning and purpose in daily life

 

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