Engagement, Purpose, and Passion

The president and CEO of my coaching alma mater recently sent out a blog requesting that we, as leaders, begin to ask more questions of those we lead so that they may find their own answers. He is speaking to us as coaches, teachers, parents, or leaders. The blog discusses the topic of disengagement, how many people become disengaged in some aspect of their lives at different points in their lives. That this disengagement begins at a very early age possibly because of how we are told what direction we should lead our own lives in order to be successful. In adolescence, we aren't necessarily taught how to be successful. Instead, we are taught how others have become successful before us. This may be a great plan to follow for some people, but everyone is different. Everyone has different motivational factors that drive them towards success, and everyone has a different idea of what success is. Or do we? How can we truly know what success means to ourselves, if we have always been told what everything entails in order to get there?

Take this opportunity right now to stop and think about what would make your life successful. Define what success means to you. This is not something that can be taught to you. It is something far more personal. Only you have the answer. Look into your heart. Whether you are 20, 40, or 60 years old, the time to figure out the answer to one of life's most important question is NOW!

I spend time helping people to ask the right questions of themselves in order to find out their purpose or passion. I concentrate on students entering, within, or graduating from college so that they don't have to wait years upon years to start asking themselves these questions that inevitably come up for most of us. What will keep you engaged in what you do for a living? Being engaged in what you do will lead to success because you will feel that what you are putting into your work is providing something in return. On the contrary, not being engaged in what you do will surely not lead to success.

As years pass, people may change their passion, they may come to find a new purpose. In fact, it is likely that as your environment changes, for example, as you start a relationship or as you start a family, your desires may also change. However, I would not suggest that you wait for your future years to determine your own passion. Now is the time. Each step you take in the right direction leads you further along the path of success. You will learn more about yourself along the way if you start walking that path now. Become engaged. Find your passion.

To read the blog from iPEC, click HERE.

Enjoy life.

Coach Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP
www.coachsuozzo.com
www.facebook.com/PassionDiscoveryCoaching

Time

Today, my wife had something that she doesn’t get very often: time alone. She told me that she had a great road trip. She was in the car just shy of three hours in the morning and a little over that on her ride home this evening.  She did fiddle around with the radio but the majority of the time was spent thinking. At first, she said how it actually felt strange to be alone with her thoughts and how amazing it is the amount of topics you can cover uninterrupted. Most of her time, however, was spent on the topic of “time”. 

We have all heard the many quotes that convey the message of “Seize the day”. Unfortunately, I think, many times that perspective is fleeting. We live with that promise to cherish the day or each other - but then the refrigerator breaks or your child or spouse gets on your last nerve. We go through the motions of the day and tend to our responsibilities and forget to smell the flowers and appreciate what we have.

None of us knows how much time we are given on this earth. Sometimes it takes some tragic event to remind us – an event like Sandy Hook, a natural disaster like the recent tornadoes or fires, or maybe a family member becomes sick. Growing old is a privilege denied to many.

As my wife told me about her drive with “time” today, we both recognized that we need the constant reminder of how precious it is. As we were reminded today, let this remind you to love stronger, smile longer, and live better. Smell the flowers. Kiss your husband or wife. Be there for a friend. “Pick More Daisies” (Nadine Stair).

Enjoy your time. Enjoy Life.

Coach Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP

www.coachsuozzo.com

www.facebook.com/PassionDiscoveryCoaching

Failure leads to Success

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." - Eleanor Roosevelt.

How many of us never leave our comfort zone...never chancing to be hurt, to fail, or...if I can be crazy for moment....to succeed! Think about all the successes you have had in your life and ask yourself this, which are the most gratifying? I would be willing to bet that the ones that you either had to work for the most or the ones where you failed first, once or many times, are the ones that are the most gratifying, the ones you are the most proud of, the ones that are the most fulfilling. Eleanor Roosevelt was right on when she encouraged people to live life, and said "to taste experience to the utmost". There is no success without failure. But what is failure? Thomas Edison said that "many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." He also said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

There is no success without failure. If you are afraid to fail, maybe you could try on Thomas Edison's viewpoint that it is not failure, it is experience. And our former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, suggested that you "reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." These are two very notably successful people in our history. Go ahead and follow their lead. Leave your comfort zone from time to time. You just might enjoy it.

Enjoy life.

Coach Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP
www.coachsuozzo.com
www.facebook.com/PassionDiscoveryCoaching

And here is a story of one person's journey in pursuit of 100 days of failures taken from Sherold Barr's most recent blog...
Surprising Lessons From 100 Days of Rejection:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFWyseydTkQ

Zac Brown Band - Country Rock

I am very passionate about music. I believe that music has the power to shift one’s state of being. I know my spirit lifts and I stand taller when I hear the words to a particular song and I feel an excitment to be alive! “Well it’s funny how it’s the little things in life that mean the most, not where you live, what you drive or the price tag on your clothes. There’s no dollar sign on a piece of mind, this I’ve come to know.” (Zac Brown Band – Chicken Fried). 

The Zac Brown Band will be playing a local venue this weekend and unfortunately, I will not be in attendance. I grew up on rock music and have been looking for a quality band to follow since Def Leppard retired. Along the way I turned to country music. I believe that nowadays country music is very similar to 70’s rock. So I call what I listen to “country rock”. The Zac Brown Band is presently my favorite country rock group. (The Zac Brown Band frequently covers rock songs and plays with other rock stars such as GregAllman and Kid Rock)

The writing is brilliant. When I first began to listen to rock music, the words didn’t mean much to me, but I have learned how valuable really good lyrics are to a song. This makes it especially difficult for me to miss this concert. Not only is Zac Brown a great writer of lyrics, opening for them is Levi Lowrey who co-wrote Colder Weather and who wrote a couple of his own songs that I have heard and also have great lyrics. 

I guess I will have to take a page from Zac Brown himself this upcoming weekend and just let it go…"Save your strength for things that you can change, Forgive the ones you can't, you gotta let 'em go." (ZBB - Let It Go). At least I will be enjoying my time with family on Cape Cod, a place I can be without a hurry, or worry, in the world. “Ain’t in no hurry, I’d be a fool now to worry, about all those things I can’t change.” (ZBB - No Hurry). 

For those of you who happen to be attending the show this weekend, enjoy the show and pay attention to the lyrics if you can. Let them take to a place where you feel a sense of free. “Just as free. Free as we’ll ever be.” (ZBB - Free). It is Independence Day weekend after all. And on that note, I would simply like to take a moment to remember our heroes who fought bravely for the freedom that we enjoy today as Americans. 

“I thank god for my life, and for the Stars and Stripes, may freedom forever fly, let it ring. Salute the ones who died, the ones that give their lives, so we don’t have to sacrifice, all the things we love.” (ZBB -Chicken Fried). 

Feel free to find music that will allow you to escape your surroundings and enter into a different state of mind. I believe music has that power, but only if you give yourself over to it. Ultimately, you are in control and music is just a tool.  Feel free to use it. Enjoy it.

Enjoy Life.

Coach Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP

www.coachsuozzo.com

www.facebook.com/PassionDiscoveryCoaching

In The Zone

How do we become completely present in the moment, or as Tony Robbins puts it, “in the flow”. Athletes can do it. In fact, great athletes do it all the time. They block out all distraction and become completely focused on the task at hand. A baseball hitter sees the pitch and that is all. He does not hear the crowd. He does not see the fielders. He is “in the moment”.

A football quarterback sees the receiver and defender and where he wants to throw the ball. At the point of release, he does not see or feel the pressure of the defense surrounding him. He is focused solely on where to put the football. He is “in the zone”.

Being completely present in the moment isn’t only about athletics. Being completely present allows great leaders to see the entire picture through a clear lens and make the right choices. It allows parents to appreciate the experiences from which their children are collecting and learning. It allows YOU to feel like nothing around you matters, because you are concentrating on the present and in your natural state of being.

So what does being “in the moment” or being completely present mean? Does being completely present and in the moment mean that you are in a state of complete focus? Well, yes it does. But maybe a better question to ask yourself is how do I get there? For some people, finding this presence comes easy. For others it can be more difficult. One method of getting yourself to be completely present in the moment is described in the book “Energy Leadership”, by Bruce D. Schneider. In his book, Bruce D. Schneider provides you with his seven levels of energy, which can be used as your guide to get you completely focused on the present moment. Once you master these seven levels of energy, you can choose which type of energy you would like to bring to your situation. When you master all seven levels of energy, you become a master of yourself. You can choose to live “in the moment”.

So which are you? The person who can find their zone easily? Or the person still looking? Either way, refine your skill set, or grow your skill set. Find a coach, study the seven levels of energy, or find your own way to improve your focus on being in the moment. It will increase your confidence, your happiness, and maybe even your golf game!

Enjoy Life.

Coach Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP

www.coachsuozzo.com

www.facebook.com/PassionDiscoveryCoaching

9 Years of Marriage

I recently celebrated being married to my wonderful wife for nine years. She has taught me a lot and I only hope that she has learned half as much from me as I have from her along our journey together. I find it truly amazing how much I have grown as a person. Not that I thought I knew everything, but I had a lot of confidence before I got married and I liked to think that I already had many things figured out. Deep down inside I knew I really didn’t have as much figured out as I wished I did. So I was lucky enough, and smart enough to understand that there was much that I didn’t already know because it presented me the opportunity to grow.

What I did know was that I would need to be flexible and open-minded in my marriage. That each of us is our own person and even if we had many common values, we came into each other’s life with our own experiences. Therefore, we may not always share the same opinions, but that didn’t make someone right and someone wrong. I have learned that the one who is wrong is the one that insists that they are right. For two people, right and wrong isn’t necessarily black and white. Respecting the other persons beliefs when you don’t agree with them can be difficult to do. But really how difficult is it when the other person is the one you promised to spend the rest of your life with and have built your relationship with, a relationship based on love?

I am happy in my marriage and thankful that I found my bride. My wife teaches me how to be a better person in every sense. In order for marriage to work, you have to be willing to change. Not changing who you truly are, but growing who you are. You have to be willing to change by learning to become better. In my marriage, I have improved upon myself by learning from my wife in areas such as empathy, compassion, kindness, generosity, friendship, and love. We learn from each other.

In my life, I have always tried to take the best of the people closest to me and be the best that I could be. My wife is the closest person in my life. I am grateful that she has so many redeeming qualities from which I can learn. It has been a fulfilling nine years. Both of our parents are close to fifty years in marriage and happy as ever. May my wife and I be as successful in our marriage as they are. There are moments when I like to picture us another 41 years from now, holding hands and smiling at each other with the understanding that we may have started together with different experiences, but have gained so many more together. For now, I plan to enjoy the moment that is and smile because we are loving and growing together.

Enjoy Life.

Coach Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP

www.coachsuozzo.com

www.facebook.com/PassionDiscoveryCoaching

Superman Is Back!

(I don’t mean me, although I still wish my kids thought I was Superman. Thank you Christi for the costume, but even with it they aren't buying it!)

When I was young, beginning around my early teen years, I decided that the mind is the most powerful thing in the world. I believed that if humans could only learn how to tap into the powers of the mind then we could do so much more. I imagined that we were so close to “super” capabilities through the simple use of our minds. Okay, I was into superheroes big time. (I still am, and I plan to see Superman in the theater as soon as I can!) I also grabbed onto the myth that people use only 10 percent of their brain. Maybe if the 10 percent myth were true, I would still believe that people are capable of super powers. Or maybe I just want to believe.

As I grew older I began to accept that people are just people and that super powers must be left to science fiction and fantasy. The movie “Phenomenon” didn’t help me put my theory to bed. I’m such a sucker for film. They certainly can make me feel that if someone can think it, then someone should be able to do it. That’s stuff of fantasy, right? Just maybe that is why I have a hard time understanding people who DON’T like superhero movies. Where’s your imagination? Can’t you imagine how cool it would be to have these super powers? I think the opinion is that there is no point in imagining something that can’t happen. My answer to that is that if it provides you any kind of positive benefit, then it is worth it. Whether it is a moment of confidence imagining you are Batman, the high that comes with the feeling that you can fly, or the simple smile that comes with thinking you have special capabilities. I think it’s all worth it.

I became a certified professional coach from a school that teaches the power of the mind, or in their words, the power of choice. I lived most of my life thinking that the mind is the most powerful thing in the world. This idea, along with my intuition, made my life so much easier and happier. My conscious mind now understands why it is the most powerful thing in the world. I wake up every day with the knowledge that what I say and do is my choice. I choose to find things to be happy about instead of things I could be sad or angry about. I choose to give myself pause in the heat of the moment so to not react out of anger when a value of mine is crossed, and use that pause to come up with an alternative reaction. I choose to accept those whose opinions differ from mine as simply people with different perspectives and experiences and not view them as wrong. I choose to love and forgive, and live with a smile.

I do not make these choices 100% of the time, but I try. Our choices may not come easy, but with practice we can condition our minds to make the difficult choices that will lead us along a happier path. We have millions of choices every day. Be aware of them. Be aware that our choices represent our behavior and attitude, and help define who we are. Join me in practicing to make better choices for our happier lives, and growing the power of our minds. Become super.

Enjoy Life.

Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP

P.S. Interested in hearing about what the power of the mind can do for you? Check out this TED Talk by the world’s leading positive psychology expert and bestselling author Shawn Achor entitled, The Happy Secret to Better Work.