A Play By Play Of An “Off Week” from Coaching Clients

This is an “Off Week” from Coaching Clients and the next ten days (Saturday, May 27th – Sunday, June 4th will be a combination of Free Days & Buffer Days.

So this week’s Blog will be a play by play of a Coaching “Off Week”.

The concept of Free Days & Buffer Days comes from Dan Sullivan’s Coaching System.

Dan Sullivan’s Coaching System divides all time into three distinct kinds of days;

Focus Days?¢‚Äû¬¢

– Create financial results and opportunities
– Concentrate on top money-making activities

Free Days?¢‚Äû¬¢

– Rejuvenation and relaxation
– Free from business related activities

Buffer Days?¢‚Äû¬¢

– Preparation
– Delegate ?¢‚’stuff’ and acquire new capabilities

Saturday & Sunday May 27th and 28th

Laura and I spent the weekend chilling out in the country and doing a very minimal amount of chores which included grocery shopping for the weekend and a trip to the chiropractor for a routine adjustment.

The rest of the weekend was spent;

– watching a video ( Match Point – would not recommend – too intense )
– going to the Erlington Public Market – crafts and creations from local artists that included baked goods, jams and jellies, painting and pottery – ah the simple life of the artisan
– going to Coombs and to the Coombs General Store and the Coombs Emporium Frontier Town – the famed goats were not on the roof
– watching the Edmonton Oilers win a berth to play for the Stanley Cup – exciting
– going to Starbucks on Sunday morning – there was a car show of new and cars of yesteryear right across the street at Joe Cunningham Ford – a lot of fun talking to a guy that owned a 1956 Ford Crown Victoria
– riding our bicycles to get the cardio and muscles working – energizing
– sitting in our Adirondack Chairs in the sun – bliss

At the same time, from time to time, my ego noticed its Uncomfortable Voids of nothingness as I must admit that we have done a lot of work over the past 4 – 5 months with a major relocate and speaking right across Canada.

On these weekends off, Vancouver Island brings a serenity that takes some getting used to in contrast to how busy we have been. We took our weekend time off in the city but the drone of the city was still there and it was difficult to get away from it.

Now the sound of silence is all around us.

Monday, May 29th

Monday was a Buffer Day that included;

* Journaling – do I work on major projects like Vision/Planning or Web Site Upgrade or Speaking Folio or June E-Newsletter or 12 Day E-Course or Improving My Office Environment or Vision 2011 or ? I decided to work on more pressing items that included;

* A meeting with Laura to discuss priorities.

* Client follow by e-mail – extra articles, assignments and thoughts for extra care – It is a “coaching off week” you know and there are some things to offer that should be top of mind

* Client workshop planning – taking care of an upcoming workshop that included refining and systemizing the following documents;

– Thank you for completing your Values & Behaviors Assessments
– How to Implement Your Managing for Success Assessments
– Individual On-Line Team Interview Questions To Further Develop Outcome Statement & Identify Challenges & Issues

* Client accounting – the fun stuff, making sure that clients are getting full value for their investment

So was all this Client Work that took all day filling an Uncomfortable Void that is created by an Unmet Needs based habit of creating financial results and opportunities?

Perhaps.

You could look at it another way –

By taking care of clients first and foremost for the week I’ll have many days ahead of a Comfortable Void now that I know that clients are fully taken care of.

We finished the day off by going for an evening ride on our bikes.