My Positive Review for the last 90 days of Coaching

This is what I wrote about me now:

1. I’ve started writing again; AND it’s GOOD!!


2. I’m paying bills and moving toward being a paid facilitator.


3. I’ve re-connected with several old friends


4. I SING!!


5. I’m doing great presentations with authenticity from my heart.


6. I’m asking for help.


7. I’m being less self-reliant.


8. I’m stepping up quicker and more often with less hesitation.


9. I judge less and love and accept more.


10. I trust myself.


11. I listen inside more (GURU)


12. I’m more committed to me and to life and to my dream.


13. I’m living my dream!


14. I believe in me and my ability to do.


15. I’m doing what I’ve been teaching and supporting the youth in doing (living my dream).

Next, while sitting in the hot seat (being the first one to volunteer to do whatever we were about to do) I listened to my peers tell me what they saw in me. Here is what they said (as written by Christine):

1. Good writing-Impressive


2. You Shine/Radiate


3. You support Christine


4. You gave 100% at ROPES


5. You are a giving person


6. You are more serious-not joking to avoid feelings


7. You connect with your heart even more


8. You are even more willing to be vulnerable


9. You are willing to ask for help


10. You have a great story-an amazing book (When Love Hurts)


11. You are more confidant and know what you want


12. You were willing to go door to door selling water to meet our objective


13. You are genuinely caring and concerned; a big Teddy Bear


14. You trust your team more


15. You are willing to let go of appearances


16. You are committed to yourself and your goal


17. You always got 100% on Momentums and weekly activity


18. You sing more and are on pitch.

That false modesty part of me found it awkward to sit there and hear everything they said. Truthfully, everything they and I said about me is true; and I claim it!!

Each of us took our turn in the chair reading what we had written about ourselves and then listening to what others had to say about us. It was easy to find kewl things to say about everyone of my peers. It has been a life-changing experience for me to spend the last 90 days with Mat & Pam Gover, Robbie & Sylvia Rainaldi, Diana Gourley, and of course, my wife Christine. My life is forever changed, as are theirs, and we got to share that experience with each other. Of course, the main catalyst for our change was from our two coaches, Jamie Utley and Douglas Phillips, and our two coaches.

To Jamie and Douglas, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for encouraging me to dream again. To my peers in the class, I feel sooo honored to have been through that with you and to experience you, too, changing. To my support team; Dan, Wally Myrna, Mary Ellen, and Angie; I thank you for taking this journey with me and sharing your insites.

I AM IN HIGH DEMAND AS I PASSIONATELY PRESENT THE PLAYBOOK SERIES WITH AUTHENTICITY FROM MY HEART!!

Week 12 Mind the GAP

This is the final week of coaching! Our celebration and graduation are scheduled for next Tuesday from 6-9. This week we talked about not focusing on the GAP between our ideal self and how we currently see ourselves. In Europe they have signs that say, “Mind the Gap” posted in subways, reminding people to beware of the open space between the rail car and the platform that you stand on, waiting to enter the train. When we focus on the perceived gap between how we see ourselves now and our ideal us, it can lead to a lot of shoulds, guilt, comparisons and other things that take our focus off of where we are going. My momentums this week on based on staying out of the gap and helping others, as well as ourselves, to see the end game, including looking back at all that has been accomplished.

My affirmation:
I am in High demand as I Passionately present the Playbook Series with authenticity from my heart.

Momentums:

1. Post my ‘out of GAP’ affirmations.


2. Post the feedback that I received from my peers in the coaching class.


3. Share my experience/accomplishments with at least 2 new someones this week.


4. Look for opportunities to help others see who they really are.


5. Follow up within two days on each response I get and accept that they value what I am offering.

That’s all that I am going to write tonight, but you can see from 1 and 2 above that I have some pretty cool things to post.

Week 11- The Eleventh Hour; or the Red Phone

Here are my Affirmation and Momentums for this week:

Affirmation: I am in High demand as I Passionately present the Playbook Series with authenticity from my heart.

Momentums:

1. Red Phone-I am contacting all the Unity and Religious Science Centers in the Northwest this week, first by eMail, then a follow-up phone call, to introduce myself and offer to present an intro to the Playbook Series.


2. Reconnect with all of my support people at a deeper level, going over my goal and accepting their support and help.


3. Find a collaborator for web and design.


4. Commit to ‘being’ what I teach at an even higher level. Add at least 5 new plays to my personal Playbook by Choice.


5. Be willing to stay in the struggle to experience the balance between me ‘making’ this happen vs trusting the universe and ‘allowing’ it to happen. Listen and write what I re-discover.

Everyone has heard of the Red Phone in the White House that gives the President immediate access to all the super powers in the world. We talked about coming to the end of our coaching and developing our Super Powers around our goal and using the Red Phone to commit to another human being to accomplish a rather large momentum that will lead to our goal.

I thought about my super power and came up with Jonathon Livingston Seagull. I love the way he went about exploring and seeking his truth regardless of what his ‘peeps’ were doing and regardless of what they thought. He wanted their friendship, but exploring and finding his truth was even more important. He talked about eating to live, not living to eat.

The story of him out over the ocean practicing his dives drives me! He was practicing flying fast like a falcon and making progress, but had a hard time controlling his wings in their tucked state. He worked at it and had some success, then on his final dive he lost control and plummeted into the water causing some damage. He decided to give up because what he was doing wasn’t natural and who was he to think he could do what the others weren’t doing. He started to fly back to his tribe, using the laborious wing flap that was his ‘nature’ agreeing to just be one of the flock. Early in to his flight it dawned on him that he was flying at night, and Seagulls don’t fly at night!

Jonathon looked at that and that inner light came through and he re-affirmed that there was more to his life than the flock recognized. He flew back up in to the sky and started diving again, and had his greatest success to that point, as he was able to hold his wings and scoop through the air like no Seagull before him!

My Super Hero combines those traits of Jonathon with my desire to remain a kid and have fun with this whole process. I am Boundless Truth Living DUDE! The boundless refers to the lack of a box to live in, or my willingness to step outside the box when I run up against one. Truth Living refers to that Jonathon-like ability to seek and live my truth, no matter what. I still don’t espouse many universal truths and don’t impose my truths on others, but I’ll be damned if anyone or anything is going to impose their truth on me, either! Finally, the DUDE part is to remind me to enjoy the ride and remain childlike, curious, willing to explore, to not know, to discover! I am Boundless Truth Living Dude and I will continue to rock my world!

When asked what I wanted to achieve in these last few weeks, I wrote, “To be what I teach. To have my own personal Playbook by Choice. Lastly, to have my materials finished and presentable, all twelve modules.”

What I found interesting is that, although I really want to do the workshops, and will, I’m recognizing that me living these truths is even more important and a cornerstone to a successful workshop career. I know that I will teach far more by who I am that by what I say, and truthfully, I want to be what I am presenting. Having recognized this, I also recognize that the next step is to market myself and the series, so my Red Phone activity for this week is to contact all of the Unity and Religious Science Centers here in the Northwest and using my Super Hero shamelessly promote myself and provide them with the opportunity to experience Mike Gifford and his message of empowerment.

I shared this momentum with Christine and we set up a reward, from her to me, that is so awesome only a fool would let fear or doubt stand in the way. Lets see how much of a fool I am NOT! Let’s see if I can fly like a Falcon even though I am in a Seagull suit. Here’s to a great and powerful week, no matter what happens around me!

Another Example of the Universe Blessing me through Others

My dear friend and Pit Crew Member, Wally Vlasik, has been talking with me every week after our Tuesday meeting. He always has incredible insights for me, as do my other Pit Crew Members. A couple of weeks ago he talked about a lady who had had an NDE (Near Death Experience) and had written a book, Backwards.

This week I received a DVD of a series of interviews with Nancy Danison, describing her NDE experience and explaining her life view and beliefs. As I watched the interview and listened to her words, I was blown away by how common our beliefs seemed to be!

Many of the concepts that are in my Playbook Series could have been taken straight from her talks. It confirmed for me that there is a universal source and that when we tap in to it the results seem to be the same.

I was so impressed with her and her desire to spread the message that I sent off an eMail to her and asked if she had any interest in collaborating and/or combining effort. I haven’t heard anything back yet, but am confident that we both have something of value to share with humankind. Wow, it doesn’t surprise me to hear me talking like that about her, but 4 months ago it would have been totally out of character for me to affirm my own value like this. I like how I am playing these days!

Week 10 RE-Create

One of my favorite authors, Neal Donald Walsh says:

“The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out who you are, seek to determine who you want to be.”

“Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do."

In my opinion, this is a big part of this week’s session. Add to the above, the playfulness of children and you have our adventure at Re-Creating. Our momentums for this week our about remembering who we are and who we want to be, and being childlike and having fun doing things like we used to do as a kid.

I’m going to list my affirmation and momentums here and then I’m going to share a very personal example of both that I got to experience this week with some of my Samoan friends.

Affirmation:
I am in High demand, as I Passionately present the Playbook Series with Authenticity from my Heart.

Momentums:

1. Go walking by myself on Wednesday, Friday and Monday, next week. I will walk at least an hour and will enjoy pushing while listening to my iPod and smelling the roses.


2. Christine and I have declared this Sunday to be Me day. From midnight Sunday morning until midnight Monday morning we will leave our phones home and spend time together and separately feeding our souls.


3. During the feeding our souls day we will be staying at one of the Marriott properties and I will take Christine to dinner and she will pick a movie for us to attend (maybe even at full price, although that is pushing a little) and we will share popcorn.


4. I will make a serious dent in my Success Book and be prepared to share it with the group on Tuesday so that they know what an incredible family I have and what an incredible life I have had.


5. I will create my Passion Board, with pictures representing my purpose in life, my ideal results and my passion. I will also have it ready to share at our next meeting.

So, here’s the story I promised to share that I think amply illustrates being childlike and doing something because it represents who you are; simply living and being that which you are.

I lived in Samoa from early 1966 to mid 1969. My dad taught at the Mormon school there and I got to attend school with Samoans and be a kid (11-14). I came home from school every day and got to decide, ”Do I want to go swimming in fresh water or salt water, or do I want to go play in the plantations of elephant grass and climb the trees.“ Did I mention that we had the best Mango tree on the island in our back yard? Oh, and that I could cut Sugar Cane, or pull a Cocoa Pod as we walked along and enjoy incredible food too?

As cool as that was, I also was surrounded by Samoans that showed me unconditional love, respect and admiration. While some of my American friends who lived in the village with us would sometimes tease or make fun of me, the Samoan kids never did. We always had fun together and they supported a healthy belief in who I was.

During this same time I was going through some internal struggles that were building the foundation for the addiction that was to come. Yet when I finally faced my addiction and came forward with the truth about me, it was my experience with my Samoan peers that gave me the courage to try to do recovery. In case it doesn’t show, I have a very special place in my heart for Samoans and Samoa!

Anyway, I’m attempting to paint a picture of a people who don’t put a lot of stock in the clothes you wear, the money you have, or any other external ‘things.’ Instead, they look for your heart and judge by your willingness to be true to it. The also tend to do a very good job of living in the now. We had a hurricane while we were there and it devastated much land and many of there homes. I remember driving from our home to Apia shortly after the hurricane and seeing grown adult men out ‘playing’ in the several feet of water on their property. I was somewhat surprised that they didn’t seem depressed or upset, until someone explained to me that the water would soon recede, so they wanted to enjoy it while it was there!

All of this leads to my experience of last Wednesday and Friday nights. Many of these Samoan friends were in town in conjunction with the LDS Conference so they had a reunion at Sundance. Christine and I joined them on Wednesday night. We ate a great meal, which was a combination of an American Thanksgiving Dinner and a Samoan Luau. The Thanksgiving meal was okay, but the Samoan food was even better for me.

After the meal, they went through a series of questions, about people married the most years, most kids, etc, etc. There was lots of competition, as they were giving away prizes, but there was absolutely no meanness and tons of laughter. One contest was to see if any of us had a bigger gut than Hans, the host. In a normal American setting, I would have shrunk and hoped that no one noticed me. Instead, I went out in the middle of the room with my friend Vaitu’u and promptly won a wind breaker! There was laughter and support, but no shame or judgment for my size. I even forgot to judge myself while I was up there with my friends!

At the end of the drawings they took the last several gifts and walked around the group making sure that every one had something! No one was to go home empty-handed. The first Samoan potluck that Christine went to with me was at my friend Selena’s house. Christine brought a casserole dish. As we were leaving Christine noticed that they were scooping our food out of the dish. She was a little surprised until she noticed that they were placing some of all the other food in her casserole dish, and then she was really surprised. Again, they wanted to make sure that everyone got some of everything!

After the drawings, we had a group prayer and they started a Siva (dance). Everyone got up and danced. I’m generally very nervous about dancing because I just know that when I step on the floor everyone is going to stop dancing and look at and laugh at me! That thought has never entered the mind of any Samoan! They are born to dance and sing and just assume that everyone is. As a result most of them have great voices and great rhythm! Everyone, including Christine and I, got up and danced. It didn’t even matter if you had a partner. If you were there, you were dancing!

After a couple of minutes dancing someone pulled out a camera and instead of running away from it everyone ran to it. They were laughing and totally present. These were adults my age (in their fifties), but no one told them that. They laughed and had joy and jumped in and out of pictures with abandon.

As Christine and I left the reunion, I turned to her and said, ”For our American friends to have that kind of fun and be that in the now, they would have to be drunk!“ These Samoan friends of mine had had nothing stronger than water and a little Coco Samoa to drink. They don’t need to loosen up. They take life serious, but they don’t take themselves too serious. They live in the now and are incredibly childlike.

I truly believe that one of the gifts God gave me to help through the rough years and through my addiction was three and a half years living among some of the most God-like people I have ever met. I have spent much of my adult life emulating what I have learned from them. I am truly grateful for the lessons that I’ve learned from my Samoan brothers and sisters. I will be using those lessons this week as I commit to Re-Create and Recreate. Things to my experience with Samoans there is hope that Michael Gifford will succeed this week!

How Peace and War fits with My Playbook Series

So, in my Playbook Series we talk about beliefs that are acquired from life and may not be conscious choice. Our premise is that it may serve us to challenge those beliefs and try on alternative beliefs. I also give several examples in the first (What We Know Can Hurt Us) Workshop. I lead the group down a certain path and ask them to seek an answer that lies outside the ‘box’ or path down which we have gone. Invariably, it is difficult for most people to step out of a path we start down together.

For example, Myrna gave me this one:
Do you understand Roman Numerals?
How do you create the number 10?
Answer: X
How can I add a single line and make it the number 9?
Answer: IX
Now, can you to add one more line and turn the number 9 in to the number 6.
This becomes extremely difficult for most of us because I have us going down two paths that don’t contain the answer. The first one is that we are thinking Roman Numerals. The second is that the line they added to 10 to make it a 9 was a straight line (I).

It takes someone really willing to step outside of the group think to come up with the right answer. The line that we add to 9 to create 6 is:

‘S’ ---------> SIX!

Hopefully, you understand the concept of Confirmation Bias (we only allow in to our senses those things that confirm our current beliefs). So, we played a game, which I won’t share with it, but to say that it started with this same mindset of thinking we knew what was said and acting upon it. We had a period of time to make a series of decisions in the two groups that we were put in to and achieve an ultimate goal.

Most of us made assumptions about being ‘us and them’ and acted accordingly. We started out the game trying to win at others expense. We all got in to auto pilot and did competition very well. There was also some victim stuff, some blaming and justification, etc.

Part way through the game Christine led her group to re-evaluate the direction they were going and have a Pow Wow with our group. It had never dawned on the rest of us to talk like that. We had the rules re-read to us and became clearing aware that we were not optimizing our efforts; that the rules never divided us in to an us and them for creating points.

After talking, we decided to trust each other and agree to work co-operative through the rest of the game. It was neat, and a sign of the quality of our coaching class that when we recognized where we had gone versus where we could have gone, we simply forgot the past, committed to the future and finished out the game with the maximum number of points that we could have earned from there out.

We were all sad and disappointed at our reactions and choices in the first part, but celebrated the second half when we recognized where we were and chose another path. Having said that, it was still a little shocking, to most of us, how quickly we went to war based on what we believed we were to do. There was even a little resistance to the suggestion that how we played the game was how we played life, but it quickly melted and we were able to apply the lesson to our lives and take away some pretty incredible insights.

Especially, given what I have been teaching, I was surprised at how quickly I went down the road I was led down, but was also proud of how quickly I recognized the path and sought another (the solution that I teach for confirmation bias). Neat way to play at an incredibly important message and get it in to my soul.