Ottawa Women's Coach

Quote: "The only person we can change is ourself."
Countless unknown authors (me included) who tried to change others and finally realized the truth

Only a few hours left in 2004.

What is the best business decision you made in 2004?
What is the best decision you made regarding your personal life?
Have you achieved your top 2004 personal goal? If not,do you know why? What do you need to change to make it true for 2005? Hints: support, focus, investment of time, money, dropping non-essentials - soft addictions (tv, surfing, shopping, etc.) or hard ones (chemical substances, toxic people, ???)
Have you achieved your top 2004 business goal? If not, do you know why? What do you need to change to make it true for 2005?
Who do you most admire and respect? Not for what they have but for who they are? What quality can you develop so you can admire and respect yourself in 2005?

Happy New Year
Marguerite

http://www.canadascoach.com

Exercise is not something I grew up with. It's still an effort to do it and for that reason I make sure I try to have some extra benefits. For example, our winters around Ottawa-Outaouais are pretty mean and cold but I love breathing fresh air. For me it beats a gym anytime. Many years ago I started cross-country skiing. While I could use the trails right in town, I prefer to head up to the Gatineau Park where I can be in real nature, occasionally crossing path with a fox. Being in nature makes my exercise routine easier. Doing my exercise outside makes me feel I am really doing something good both for my body and soul. While I have gone skiing on days when the outside temperature was minus 30, I have made pact with myself that anyday colder than minus 20 is more appropriate to yoga in my living room or a swim or just curling up with a good book.
I also love swimming and our summers are short. The interior pool I have been using is fairly cold and I was getting reluctant to continue. I was fortunate that someone at my old pool told me about a recently renovated sport complex in town where the water is warmer. What a difference: I closed my eyes and I imagined I was at the sea. It worked. Today is the third day in a row I will go swimming there.

Is it a challenge for you to exercise? What would you need to add or change in the environment to make the experience more pleasant so that you are less tempted to find excuses? Find a gym closer to home? Get a gym buddy? Try something new?

Or are you someone who has no limits when it comes to exercise? Overdoing it? If you normally run or jog, sign up for a ten week yoga class, or tai chi to help you to connect with your inner self.

Marguerite
The coach who wants to change the world
One Man at a Time
http://www.canadascoach.com

P.S. The first issue of my electronic newsletter came out on Dec. 28 - If you are already a subscriber but missed the Dec. 28 issue, you can send me an email at
marguerite@canadascoach.com and I will send you a copy.

Good morning. The sun is shining and I am planning to spend the next couple of hours sitting with a good book in the corner of the room where I can enjoy the warm rays on this frigid December morning. If like me you are enjoying time off today, I invite you to enjoy this day off and use it as a holiday. You don't have to be productive doing. Take a good book or put some music on. If you live in my corner of the world, take a nice warm throw and a sunny corner. Read, daydream, take a nap. Enjoy a nice cup of coffee or herbal tea. Declare today a NO-WORK day. Do only what you want to do and enjoy.
As promised, here is a short article written by a Professional Fitness trainer Catherine Morisset, just in time to support your exercise program of the New Year.

"Is getting a personal trainer a good idea?
I imagine that you don't cut your own hair, and that your car gets repaired by a mechanic - you do, because you want good results.

I believe that, like most people, you probably know more about your car than you know about your body. You know enough about your car to schedule regular maintenance, you fill the gas tank regularly and you don't let your car rust in the garage all winter. And you get to replace your car in a few years.

What about your body? You got only one, and it has to last you a lifetime. Do you schedule regular body maintenance (medical check-ups), take care of your body with quality food and water, and make sure it's not rusty by regular exercising? If you are like most people, probably not.

I have been a professional fitness trainer (often referred to as personal trainer) for many years, and I am surprised at the number of people who shy away from getting an exercise program that works for their needs, their goals and their timeline. It seems that fitness is such a vague concept that anyone can do their own. Many people spend hours every weeks on fitness without much result: they have taken the do-it-yourself, jack-of-all-trades approach, and it shows.

I am a personal trainer, but also a group fitness instructor, so let me share my experience. When I design a group class, I design it for Ms/Mr Average, of average health, average built, average weight, average fitness - I don't plan it for you. When you take exercises from a magazine, you pick Ms/Mr Average workout - not yours. When you pick and choose exercises on your own, you may not know if and why an exercise works for you - or not.

A personal fitness trainer has the skills and expertise to help you feel good, lose weight, look better, prevent aging and much more, by designing, coaching and supervising a personal fitness/nutrition program that works for you.

A well designed program is not a time-consuming affair and it is highly effective. So consider investing in yourself and giving yourself a better quality of life, with a fitnness program that works for you."

Catherine Morisset is an experienced professional fitness trainer/guide with twenty years experience. She is a Certified Fitness Consultant with the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology, and a personal Trainer with the YMCA-YWCA of Canada and the Canadian Association of Fitness Professionals.

For further information, contact Catherine at cmorissetfitness@hotmail.com or by phone at 613-737-3428

You want to reach a specific goal in 2005? Contact me about my programs with the Goal Getter Kit. Whatever your goal, you can make it happen.Enjoy your time off this week. Take time to reflect on your accomplishments of 2004 and what you want to focus on in 2005

Marguerite Tennier, M.A.
The coach who wants to change the world,
One Man at a Time

http://www.canadascoach.com

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." Nietzsche

and I modify to "..who has a why for a goal can bear almost any how." If you don't know the deepest reason you are making a resolution, any obstacle will get you off your path. By deepest reason, I mean what benefits will this change give you? For example, let's say you want to stop smoking. If you do it to save money, that's one level of motivation. Does it mean that if you get a raise or win money you will start again? What if someone gives you cigarettes? Now, let's say your reason is to improve your health and you fully realize that smoking is a killer and you want to do everything you can to have a long, healthy life. There's a good chance this motivation will be stronger than the monetary one. When I stopped smoking more than twenty years ago, my first motivation was financial and I also did not want to die of a lung-related cancer. That reason has kept me cigarette free since then.

Look at the changes you want to make. Why do you want to make them? Find a motivation that will stand any possible assault. Once you have found it, write it down on post-it notes and leave them in stragegic spots in your home and office.

Marguerite Tennier, M.A.
The coach who wants to change the world,
One Man at a time

http://www.canadascoach.com

Need help with your goals? Enquire about my multi-levels program with the Goal Getter Kitemail me marguerite@canadascoach.com

"Creating authentic power is a proactive, lifetime endeavor that requires your intention and effort." The Heart of the Soul, Gary Zukav and LInda Francis
Traduction
"Se ré-approprier sa vie est le travail d'une vie et demande intention et effort."

"Listen to the truth of your heart, not the chatter of your mind." Author unknown

I wish you all health, love and the courage to keep on growing. Special greetings to my clients, past and present, my friends out west, Kim, Michele Grace and Susan as well to those of you right here in town.

Marguerite
http://www.canadascoach.com

Two days before Christmas and many of you are feeling frazzled. Too much expectations of what you "should" do and be. Turn on your speakers and go to: www.positivepause.com to decompress for 5 minutes.

Marguerite Tennier, M.A.
The coach who wants to change the world,
One Man at a Time

http://www.canadascoach.com

Don't forget Tuesday, Dec. 28, a couple of spots left for free coaching between 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern

"Love is the selfless promotion of the growth of the other." Knowlton Meyerhoff

Now that you are aware that you must have a compelling desire to help you stay on the path to reach your goals, you may have to let go of some "things" in your life to make space in your life. Just like you can't elegantly stuff a new suit in an already full closet, you can't keep on adding to your already full life. Something's got to go.

Coach's challenge: You need to choose between a full (like in stuffed) life and a fulfilling one. Like between huge meals of fast food or slow, gourmet, makes your heart melt food. Same applies to relationships. Take paper and pencil and list all the "junk" in your life, anything or anybody that does not "promote your growth", even if it's not a "junk" activity or relationship. There are only so many hours in a day. Stop trying to be all things to all people. Be courageous. Be selective in how you invest yourself. Put the useless out with this week's garbage and change the lock on your heart to make sure it does not come back.

Marguerite Tennier, M.A.
The coach who wants to change the world,
One Man at a Time

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http://www.canadascoach.com

If you live in Ottawa, check out today's edition of the Ottawa Sun featuring a story about coaching. I was interviewed sometimes in the Fall for this story. Remember that December 28 (Tuesday), from 9:00 a.m. to noon is "Free coaching day". Email me marguerite@canadascoach.com to reserve your spot.

subscribe to my new free newsletter: subscribe-956610422@ezinedirector.net
Marguerite Tennier, M.A.
The coach who wants to change the world
One Man at a Time

http://www.canadascoach.com

Only 19 days to 2005 and to another tradition, the Annual New Year's Resolutions. Will you make one or more New Year's resolutions on January 1st? You have heard that goals have to be SMART - specific, measurable, etc. and it is true. The sad truth is that most of us play that game year after year and we sometimes get discouraged when we must admit that we did not even come close. The reason is often that we forgot that the first rule to reach a goal is to evaluate how strong our desire is to reach that particular goal. Without a strong desire, we will not be able to sustain the effort.

On a scale of 1 to 100, how strong do you rate your desire for this year's resolution? Whether you want to change job, go back to school, remove toxic people or habits out of your life or make any other life change, how strong is your desire? Maybe it's 80 or even 90, which sounds pretty good, except that it still leaves 10 or 20 points off and that gap can ruin your best efforts.

Coach's challenge: Use the next 19 days to work on increasing your score of "Desire" to 100. We reach our goals when we make succeeding so compelling that we leave no room for excuses. Use visuatization to imagine your success. See what it will look like, taste your success, hear what you will say. Write down how your life will be different (list all the benefits of this change). Let yourself enjoy it, as if you were already there.

Marguerite Tennier, M.A.
The coach who wants to change the world,
One Man at a Time

Subscribe to my new monthly newsletter
subscribe-956610422@ezinedirector.netDecember's free coaching: Tuesday, December, 28, from 9:00 a.m. to noonemail me to reserve a spot: marguerite@canadascoach.com


http://www.canadascoach.com

There is an expression in French that says "Il ne faut pas trop s'écouter." Litterally translated it means "you must not listen to yourself too much". While it may be true at times when we tell ourselves excuses not to move out of our comfort zone, for the great majority of human doings (and there are more and more of those each day), this little sentence can be your worst enemy because it says, don't trust yourself. It's the same voice that says "You are not good enough unless you are doing something" and it calls you name, like lazy, when you choose to relax and do nothing. If you find yourself tired a lot, with too many things to do all the time and the feeling that you can't change anything, then it's time you start listening to your self and honor what your soul and your body are telling you before you get a stronger message in the form of illness or burnout or depression.

NEW: Subscribe to my new, monthly or so, free newsletter:
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Marguerite Tennier, M.A.
The coach who wants to change the world,
One Man at a Time

http://www.canadascoach.com