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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Unlock your potential with practical strategies for simplifying your biggest challenges A frustrated client hires a coach. He's looking for answers. Direction. And clarity. He wants to leave his job but can't find the self-confidence to do so. Should he stick it out? Is entrepreneurship a good idea? Little does he know, he's about to be fired in just five days. Inside Easier: 60 Ways to Make Your Work Life Work for You, a self-leadership inquiry becomes a story of transformation--and powerful universal discovery. Can a single conversation change your life? Easier is the hold-your-handbook on coaching, leadership, and resilience. The story offers leadership insights on creating the future of work, finding connection and guidance, and uncovering 60 ways to make everything--yes, everything--easier. For team players, and team leaders, and everyone in between, see how self-leadership creates lasting and powerful change, in the midst of the most difficult career challenges. In this book, you'll discover: * How to pivot from "How do I get through this?" to "What can I get from this?" * How to access innovation and empathy, for yourself and others, regardless of your circumstances--and find true personal freedom * How resilience and adaptability are available to anyone, anytime Who doesn't want to make things easier? Tap into peak performance, by understanding that you don't have to go it alone. The coaching conversation begins with a common concern and leads to a reimagined future of work, because everything in life can be made easier--if you just know where to look.
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Seitenzahl: 233
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Table of Contents
Cover
Praise for
Easier
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1: The Arrival
Chapter 2: The Realization
Note
Chapter 3: A Commitment Emerges
Chapter 4: A Daring Rescue
Chapter 5: A New Identity
Chapter 6: A Bold Plan
Notes
Chapter 7: Coming Back Home
Notes
Chapter 8: Discoveries
Note
Chapter 9: The Departure
Chapter 10: The Lost Weekend
Chapter 11: Calling The Police
Chapter 12: The Hail Mary
Chapter 13: To the Gallows
Chapter 14: Life After Death
Note
Chapter 15: Financial Matters
Chapter 16: Crushing Your Goals
Notes
Chapter 17: Creating The Future
Chapter 18: Under The Blue Sky
Epilogue
Recommended Reading
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Praise for Easier
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Begin Reading
Epilogue
Recommended Reading
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Index
End User License Agreement
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PRAISE FOR EASIER
“Chris’ ability to share insights and wisdom with humor, depth, and simplicity makes this book a direct hit. Every chapter is full of relatable and transformative takeaways for business, leadership, and life. Easier leaves an impression, creates powerful internal shifts, and stays with you long after you read it.”
—Barb Patterson,Transformational Coach
“A master coach at the top of his game, Chris Westfall has an uncanny knack for striking at your core. A deceptively simple message delivered in an approachable conversational format, Easier will have you reframing your perspective on life and wondering how you can get more out of it, with less.”
—Aaron Powell, Founder and CEO Bunch Bikes, Shark Tank Season 12
“Chris Westfall provides a brilliant blueprint for personal transformation from the inside out.”
—Karen Mangia, Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce; author of Working from Home and Success from Anywhere
“The unexpected format and captivating story pulls deeply on familiar emotions and experiences through its rich detail, characters, and exquisite storytelling. However, Easier is more than just a well-told story. It challenges the way you think about your life and career, offering a wealth of insight on maximizing the potential of both.”
—Christopher Lind, Founder and Principal Advisor, LearningSharks; former Chief Learning Officer, GE Healthcare
“Who doesn't want to make things easier? In this book Chris shares 60 strategies to activate peak performance. You'll certainly find multiple ways to unlock yourself inside of these coaching conversations!”
—Alisa Cohn, Executive Coach and author of From Start-Up to Grown-Up; #1 Startup Coach in the World at the Thinkers50 Marshall Goldsmith Coaching Awards
“Chris Westfall drops anvils of truth from the highest perches and lets them crush the reader's cemented perceptions of identity.”
—Ken Orman, Recovering Mortgage Banker; Writer/Producer of Freeing Josie and From a Distance Dad
“What a wonderful book, filled with stories, lessons and humor that would inspire anyone to find an easier way to live life. There is always a better way and Chris certainly helps the reader find it!”
—Flip Flippen, New York Times best-selling author of The Flip Side, founder and CEO of the Flippen Group
“Chris’ masterful storytelling, imagery, and character development read like a great novel. From the first paragraph the story kept me emotionally engaged, reflecting on my own experience and ego, and somehow made me freer to absorb the underlying wisdom and lessons with little effort. A truly great read!”
—Mark Bowles, 8-time venture-backed founder, inventor, venture investor, and award-winning TV producer
“Chris’ book is a realistic example of how to break free from routine, misery, and frustration - and come out with a clear realization for the next chapter of your life.”
—Jeffrey Hayzlett, primetime TV & podcast host, speaker, author and part-time cowboy
CHRIS WESTFALL
easier
60 Ways to Make Your Work Life Work for YOU
Copyright © 2022 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Westfall, Chris, author. | John Wiley & Sons, publisher.
Title: Easier : 60 ways to make your work life work for you / Chris Westfall.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2022] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021044591 (print) | LCCN 2021044592 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119834571 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119834618 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119834595 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Employees—Coaching of. | Executive coaching. | Personal coaching.
Classification: LCC HF5549.5.C53 W47 2022 (print) | LCC HF5549.5.C53 (ebook) | DDC 658.3/124—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021044591
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021044592
COVER DESIGN: PAUL MCCARTHY
For Phil Westfall
You know what frustration feels like.
Unmet expectations. Regrettable observations. Unfortunate confrontations.
Maybe you don't believe you deserve more. Lots of people feel that way.
Most people feel frustrated and they just call it “life” and they ease on down the road. Even if that road is a dead-end street.
Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted a change. A change from frustration and freedom from expectations. He decided to try a new highway, to see where it might lead.
He was successful. And also not. He had achieved a lot. And also not. He was diligent. And also not.
He wanted more. He wanted a change. He was frustrated and he didn't want to wait for his life to change.
He thought that no one needs coaching.
But he saw that the people who really want to win never go into a game without it.
He wanted to play the game at a new level.
Maybe even change the rules.
Or find a new team? He wasn't sure.
He met a guy – a Coach – who said he helped people turn frustration into fascination. Said he transformed lives and had the track record to prove it. Launching businesses, changing careers, changing lives. The invitation wasn't a sales pitch.
The frustrated man was curious. He agreed to a conversation with the Coach.
Here's what happened next.
“I need you to be lazy,” the Coach said.
Driving through the neighborhoods of manicured lawns, the Client had peered only at the road right in front of him. His attitude, regarding the interior of the car, the nearby traffic, or the amount of gas in his tank, was not lazy. He was not glancing at the palm trees that bordered the lawns. He did not take shortcuts. He did not wander off of his chosen path in a lazy manner. The four-hour drive had made his imagination work harder than the engine, leaving him wondering if he would find any real answers in the conversation ahead. The leather on the driver's seat was comfortable, but he was not. Because he was never, ever lazy.
Intent on his destination, he turned. But only when the GPS said so. He knew, deep down, that the navigation would reroute if he made a wrong move. But he didn't want to risk it.
On the drive, the Client was preoccupied with two objectives: getting somewhere and leaving the past behind. The first half of his plan was going well. Gripping the wheel tightly, he found himself on a broad residential boulevard. He had reached the Coach's street.
He still managed to drive past the address. He was lost in thought. Recalculating, he got there.
“Welcome,” the Coach had said, and opened the front door. The Client and Coach exchanged greetings and walked through the house. They passed through two French doors and entered a large outdoor patio.
The Coach sat cross-legged on the Client's right. Underneath the ceiling fans, the two men had planted themselves at a right angle to each other, on overstuffed neutral-colored chairs. These were the kind of outdoor seats where you could spend an hour or two and not notice the time passing.
Beyond the open doors on the patio, the lush green backyard gave way to some slight rolling hills in the distance. Three brightly colored noodles bobbed against the side of the pool. A large rock formation, sort of like an elaborate four-foot-high kitchen backsplash, snaked around part of the backyard. The rock formation provided a small waterfall for the pool. Elegant tin roofs from neighboring houses floated above tightly trimmed hedges. Further to the south, the gray shadow of office buildings and construction cranes punctuated the landscape. Austin's skyline sat on the horizon like fingers on a hand.
The Client had been “coached” before. Mostly accountability stuff and goal-setting junk that lived somewhere between grit, willpower, and getting over yourself. The corporate coaching felt like having another manager in his life, with weekly meetings designed to help him to be all that he could be. He wasn't sure if it was a punishment or opportunity. Often it felt like both. He didn't want to sign up for that ride again.
Lazy seemed like a terrible idea.
He already saw himself as a mistake that needed to be corrected. A plan that failed because he failed to plan. Even when things went right, he could have and should have done more. He had risen in his career by being hard on himself. That pressure gave him an edge, kept him sharp, made him want more than the next guy. Nobody had ever told him to be lazy.
The suggestion was a loud fart in an elevator. He didn't appreciate the context, the source, or the repercussions. He looked down at the sweat clinging to the outside of his iced tea glass. His lips tightened and his teeth clenched. He looked at the Coach.
Back at headquarters, the Client's division was in the toilet. He had separated himself from the office by over 200 miles, but he carried blame and regret with him everywhere he went. He anguished over every detail, haunted by negative results. His business development job focused on acquisitions and growth. But the company hadn't even invested in any interesting technology in the last two years. He was, in his mind, completely ineffective.
He wanted control. Control and confidence. So he could do what needed to be done. He wanted out of the death spiral that had gripped his organization. He wanted freedom. Options. A new perspective. Not a lazy one.
He was here to make a change. Find a fresh start. The numbers weren't working. But, by God, he was. Even now, far from his office, he was still unable to leave work behind.
The division was tanking. He wanted to quit his job. He needed answers.
Lazy wasn't one of them.
He needed to fix a broken situation. He didn't need to sit here trying to fix a broken man.
He stared at the condensation on the glass of tea. He was going to resign in the next few months, if he could get this Coach to help him to find the courage to do so.
He didn't know he would be fired in five days.
Coaching was a fool's errand, he reasoned. Not today, not with this guy, not with me. No way.
Another error needed to be corrected.
Lazy? No, thank you.
The Client stood up. “I've made a mistake,” he said. “I'm … I'm not doing this right now.”
The Client turned, stepped around the chairs, and walked back into the house. The front door opened and closed. The Client was gone.
Twenty-six seconds later, there was a quick double-knock on the front door, and it swung open. “Sorry, I forgot my cell phone,” the Client half-shouted, as he reentered the house. The Coach was standing three feet away from the swinging door. He was holding the cell phone in his outstretched hand.
The Coach wore tan jeans and leather boots, a charcoal T-shirt, and a black watch with some heft to it. He was smiling, emphasizing the lines around his eyes. Grinning, actually. The Client took back his phone and began to apologize.
“I'm sorry,” he said. What he said next spun out of him like a fork in a garbage disposal.
“I'm sorry I left like that; I just have a lot of obligations and a lot of things that I need to do – lots of stuff on my mind that's really pulling me out of our work and this conversation. Even though when I made the appointment it seemed like a good idea, I am not really in a place where I can focus on myself right now, because I just … well… . Uh, I can't seem to … yeah. What it really is is just something that, uh, half the time I don't even know myself, but I just feel like I can't really be here right now. I hope you understand and again I am really sorry. I also have to say that I don't understand where the hell you were going with that ‘lazy’ remark and I'm just not in a headspace where I can really unpack that, so I think it's best if I just leave.”
The Coach chose his next words carefully. “There's no need to apologize. You have to do what's right for you. I support that. I'm here to support you. Whatever shape that takes is A-OK with me. I get it. Deadlines. Details. Obligations. I've been there myself, more than once. But before you go, why don't we just drink one glass of tea? One glass. Let's relax together, for a minute. And if you don't like the tea, or the conversation, then we can reschedule or whatever we need to do. No obligations. No pressure. It's just a conversation, right?
“And you never have to apologize,” the Coach continued, hoping that those words landed. He was sharing more than just a courtesy. “Ever. Here, there are no mistakes. Only choices. And whatever they are, I respect your choices. You wanna sit back down?” he asked. “The tea is pretty good.”
The men walked back out to the patio. They sat in silence.
The Client noticed a row of Italian cypress trees, standing like 40-foot-tall soldiers, waiting for battle. Perched in the blue sky, white cirrus clouds floated above the pointed green trees like a bunch of lazy hippies. Lucky bastards.
He turned to the Coach. “Nothing is easy for me,” he said, apropos of nothing and yet somehow covering everything.
He continued, “Hard work is all I've known. If I'm lazy, how can I move forward in my life and in my career and … and … well, how is being lazy going to help?”
“People think of lazy as an activity, like eating potato chips and watching Netflix. That's ‘lazy,’” the Coach said, uncrossing his legs. “And you're right – as an activity, ‘lazy’ is a horrible place if you want to get anything done. Other than binge-watching a show or growing your waistline, being lazy seems like a strategy for getting nothing done. We all know that being lazy is the opposite of being productive!”
Deep insight, the Client thought to himself.
“But as an attitude, lazy is actually brilliant. Consider your experience of being lazy on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Have you ever experienced a lazy Sunday afternoon?”
He had. The Client loved lazy Sunday afternoons. He began to share some memories of time apart from obligations, work worries, and schedules. He easily recalled times when he could do whatever he wanted; it was a rare treasure. Play with his kids, work on a project around the house that really mattered – the Client had several stories to share of time spent by himself, with his family, just exploring the outdoors sometimes. He confessed that he even enjoyed potato chips and the occasional Netflix binge, which made both men laugh.
“Me too! But wasn't that what made lazy Sunday afternoons so fantastic?” the Coach said, agreeing with him. “You got to do exactly what you wanted to do? You never wasted time doing something you didn't want, unless you wanted to waste time, and then the time-wasting thing just kind of turned from a label into life.”
The Client chimed in, “And I lived it, and loved it, and all was well with the world.” Were both men smiling?
“But you still had work on Monday, right?” the Coach interjected into the Sunday memory excursion. “Why didn't you spend your Sunday worrying about the week ahead?”
“Because that's not how a lazy Sunday works,” the Client told him straightaway. “You stay in Sunday, you stay with the activity (or lack of it) and just enjoy the moment. Why would I think about the week ahead when I'm enjoying a lazy Sunday?”
“That's the kind of ‘lazy’ I'm talking about,” the Coach said. “You don't waste time or energy on a lazy Sunday. Even if it looks like you're wasting time, you're actually not really wasting anything; you're just going through a kind of unconscious discovery of whatever it is you want to do next. Am I right?”
The Client took a healthy sip of his iced tea. He realized he hadn't had anything to drink since Waco. The Coach was telling the truth: this was good tea. He drained half the glass.
“Let's talk about being lazy in a new way – in a way that's super-kind to yourself,” the Coach continued. “When you want to do something, what if you did it with a complete economy of action? Where you took only the actions that would maximize your results? Because, if you have a lazy attitude, you will always find the way to put in the least amount of effort to get the maximum impact.”
The Client was interested in impact. He knew all about putting in effort. Hard work was the key to creating results, a fact that had been drilled into his head by well-intentioned teachers, family members, and that coach-manager person he had met with a few years back. Life was meant to be difficult. Even when it wasn't, it still was. That was the way he was wired. Or so he thought.
Until today.
“Lazy as an action plan means doing nothing. But lazy as an attitude is more like a lazy Sunday afternoon,” the Coach explained. “On a lazy Sunday afternoon, you're not going to do anything that you don't want to do. And if you choose to do something, like working on your car, painting a room, hiking with your kids, or just making a spectacular sandwich – whatever it is that you like to do – you're not going to waste any extra energy. You're ‘actively lazy.’” He leaned in for emphasis. “Actively lazy means that you are keenly invested in what you are doing and making sure that you're not wasting your time or your energy on anything that doesn't make you really happy. Unless, of course, you want to waste some time on something. Which is still part of the attitude – your state of mind – a lazy Sunday afternoon. There's nothing you can do that is a mistake, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Because you are not on some artificial schedule, if you're really enjoying your day.
“Here look at this,” the Coach said, handing the Client a small 3x5-inch card that was hidden underneath a black leather portfolio on the nearby coffee table. The Client read the printed words out loud, a quote from Bill Gates.
The Client sat back in his chair, as deep and as far as he could. The Coach took a sip of iced tea. He looked out at the trees to make sure they were still growing. Made sure no new buildings had been added to the distant skyline. Counted the clouds.
“So, that's it?” the Client asked. “Just be lazy, or actively lazy, and everything gets easier?”
The Coach looked out at the great outdoors. “Does it look like life has some kind of shortcut that you just haven't figured out yet?” He smiled as he spoke. There was kindness in his voice, even as the Client knew he was being teased. There was no malice or judgment. Both men knew there were no shortcuts. “I'll tell you a secret,” the Coach said, leaning toward the Client and putting his hand up to emphasize the whisper. “Anything can be made easier. Anything. Maybe not easy, but easier.
“You've already discovered the choice that's easiest: walking away. Doing nothing. Embracing the status quo and giving it a big fat kiss,” he said, laughing. “But easiest isn't necessarily effective, is it? I mean, if we bail out on the conversation, or the opportunity, or the relationship, how can we ever know where it will go? Not exploring is the easiest thing. But how will that help you – or anyone – to grow? To see things in a new way? I mean, discovery: that's what we're here to do, right? Regrets and missed opportunities aren't easier. Ever.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Some things can never be made ‘easy.’ Fixing a rocket while it's flying through space, for example: not easy. Performing a liver transplant: not easy. Working in a business where competition is fierce, customers are fickle, and technology doesn't always cooperate: not easy.”
“So basically, every business?” the Client interjected. He was starting to remember why he came to visit this guy.
“And every relationship.” The Coach chuckled. “But we can go about our understanding and our business, our relationships and basically every aspect of our lives in a way that's easier. Easier is where life's better, where we find freedom. Clarity. Confidence. It's where we don't struggle and suffer and wish and try to manage the whole entire world. We can perform and produce and connect and just live, in a way that's easier.”
“What if everything could be easier,” the Client said, neither a statement nor a question.
“What if life could feel like a lazy Sunday afternoon?” the Coach added. “Not because you tell yourself some lie and decide to hallucinate while you're awake, but because you understand where things can actually get easier. And if you're wondering what things I'm talking about, I mean everything.”
“I know this much is true,” the Coach continued, shifting in the overstuffed patio chair. “I know exactly how many ways there are to make things easier. And so do you.”
A bold statement, the Client thought to himself.
The Coach looked over at him. “You know exactly how many ways there are to make anything easier. Easier, in every aspect of your life.”
“Everything you said makes sense except the part where I already know how many ways there are to make things easier,” the Client admitted. “Because I don't.”
“Well, the answer is the same as the number of ways to win a game,” the Coach said. “A game of football, tennis, Parcheesi … you name it. The answer is also the same as the number of ways to paint a painting.” The Coach took another sip of tea. He waited.
