Why Coaching Raises Your Standards and How to Get Beyond Standard

Why Coaching Raises Your Standards and How to Get Beyond Standard

How do you get beyond standard? How to you carve out a new life that is rich in value and lives up to your dreams?

Today I responded to a lovely lady from the UK who needs some help growing her business and came to me for coaching. But she’s painfully sitting on the fence; not making a decision.

It reminded me of where I came from and what I had to do to change my life and get beyond standard. It was 2004 and I was $70,000 in debt and had only $27 in my bank account. Doing the ‘standard’ things just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I had to do something different.

Here is what I wrote to her after she made no decision:

Hi Sue (name changed to protect her identity),

Okay. Yes, your response is a bit vague. In fact, there is no decision in it. Would it be okay if I shared with you what I’ve learned in my 20 years of coaching? What took me from a massive debt to become a millionaire?

I know you want success, so I’d like to share with you what I’ve found that my most of my successful clients do.

They raise their standards by making a new decision and then four things to gain ultimate success. This is how you get beyond standard.

The decision?

Make a commitment to do whatever it takes to get whatever you want.

Say YES to your dreams, even if right now, you just don’t think you’ve got what it takes. Then…

1. Work out/decide/dream up what you really want from life, then

2. Work on devising the best possible strategy to get you there

3. Work out what you need (skills/tools/systems/connections/attitude) to make the strategy work, and

4. Take massive action on that strategy and remove any neural patterns that gets in the way of that action.

I know that sometimes it’s hard to make a decision because we don’t know what the future holds – and that’s acceptable to most, because that’s how 95% of the population live their lives. It’s standard practice. However, to get beyond standard, to really create a magical life of freedom, you have to do (most often) the opposite to what the large majority of people do.

To be extraordinary, ‘standard practice’ is no longer an option for you

Most people don’t realise that they’re making ‘standard practice’ decisions.

Last week my Singing Coach was whining about a speaker she listened to at a conference that she attended. She loved the speaker by the way but was annoyed that the speaker was paid $10,000 for a short keynote talk. Then she said, “You speak! Do you get paid $10,000 a talk?” I stupidly replied yes at which she immediately said, “And you’re paying me $35 an hour for singing and you get paid $10,000 an hour!” She was obviously offended.

But while she was sitting there stewing, I’m thinking – “I could coach her so she could increase her rates or become a singing speaker. That opportunity is there for her right now, but she’s too busy getting all bent up about it.”

I said, “Money and time are two illusions, and some people do much less for more – but they did much more to get there. And no, it’s not fair.

But everyone has the same opportunities in front of them, though let’s be honest here. Some decide to put up their hands and say, ‘let’s go for it’ while others sit on the fence; standard practice.” She of course sat on the fence and kept doing what she knew to do – and continued teaching me to sing. But she could have been singing a whole new tune.

Does this make sense to you?

Opportunities are all around you, but you won’t see them until you want to see them. So we just keep complaining.

It’s going to take many mindset shifts to get you to sing a new tune too, because we favour our patterns. We love our comfort zones. It’s why the world is getting fatter and sicker.

To get out of our patterns it’s typically uncomfortable, uncommon, weird, different – but ultimately it will become your new normal and your new normal will be what others see as a life beyond limits.

You will be admired, lauded, applauded – and hated by some as jealousies rise. My job as your future coach is to challenge your thinking until we break those old patterns that are keeping you stuck in an average life.

You’ve got to keep untraining your brain, until you become your future you. If you want it, it’s right in front of you… A richer way to think is not standard practice.

If you would like a complimentary consultation with R!k Check out his coaching page here or enjoy a solutions session with R!k here.

How To Be Confident In Yourself In ONE Simple Step!

how to be confident in yourself

Today I would like to show you how to be confident in yourself in one simple step. You can get an instant confidence boost in less than a minute? I know that’s a pretty brash claim, but I can prove it to you.

Confidence is one of those things that we all seem to want more of. Regardless of how much we have. There’s always a next challenge, another goal to reach, isn’t there? 

How you feel about yourself determines everything you will or won’t do. I won’t go into it fully now, but confidence, when you can summon it in an instant, is truly bankable. 

Your confidence that you project builds trust from others.

Your confident communication shows certainty and makes teams more productive, and inner confidence makes one feel more vital and alive. How to be confident in yourself comes down to how you feel. So how to you change how you feel?

Here is how to get a quick and obvious confidence boost.

The first thing you’ll need to do is to measure where your confidence levels are right now (in your head). How do you do that? Simply check in with yourself as to how you feel (it sometimes help to close your eyes).

Imagine that high confidence in yourself is a ten, and a no confidence is zero. Perhaps you’re not really feeling like connecting with others right now. In fact, you’d prefer to be on holidays, swinging on a hammock? Maybe you’re feeling a little anxious about something that’s coming up? If you’re not at the bottom, you’re not a zero and if you’re not at the top, you’re not a ten, you’re somewhere in-between. Go ahead and give your confidence level a number now.

Go ahead and calibrate yourself now. This is our measure point.

Now that you have your number, at least you know where you’re starting from. I know this might sound strange, but confidence is just a decision. From over 38,000 hours of coaching high-level performers, I’ve discovered that confidence is a quick, unconscious body scan about how we’re feeling inside, followed by a decision. The decision is usually a black or white one, such as I’m confident or I’m not confident. However, we can change our confidence by instead of scanning internally, we can scan our timeline.

Such as, think of a time that you had the highest confidence ever! Again, it’s sometimes easier to close your eyes as you recall it in a picture. Now, hear in your head the sounds associated with that picture and finally, allow yourself to feel it again. Begin to notice how your decision about your confidence levels seem to change. 

Here is another way to boost confidence that’s quick and simple.

How to be confident in yourself can come down to a simple posture change. Confidence starts at your sternum. Why your sternum? No reason really. It’s just a good place to start to increase your confidence. Now, your sternum is just below the point where your collarbones meet your chest. Raise your sternum slightly, a few centimetres (a couple of inches) now and notice how you feel more alert, more confident and perhaps even healthier. 

Now. Recalibrate yourself. Did your number increase? Typically, when we raise our sternum, we immediately feel more alert and alive. It’s a simple trick we teach our Speaker students – after all, when you are going to present at a meeting or speak to an audience, you need to feel alert, alive and more confident.

Raising your sternum also makes you more upright and strangely, I’ve found over the 17 years of coaching, that the more mental pain one is in, the more likely we’ll lower our shoulders and arch our backs. Too much computer or desk work can do this too. So while you’re reading this, pull your shoulders back and lift that sternum and notice how much better you feel. I hope this simple little tip helped you today.

You’ve got this!



Here is how to get a quick and obvious confidence boost.

The first thing you’ll need to do is to measure where your confidence levels are right now (in your head). How do you do that? Simply check in with yourself as to how you feel (it sometimes help to close your eyes).

Imagine that high confidence is a ten, and a no confidence is zero. Perhaps you’re not really feeling like connecting with others right now. In fact, you’d prefer to be on holidays, swinging on a hammock? Maybe your feeling a little anxious about something that’s coming up? If you’re not at the bottom, you’re not a zero and if you’re not at the top, you’re not a ten, you’re somewhere in-between. Go ahead and give your confidence level a number now.

Go ahead and calibrate yourself now. This is our measure point.

Now that you have your number, at least you know where you’re starting from. I know this might sound strange, but confidence is just a decision. From over 22,000 hours of coaching high-level performers, I’ve discovered that confidence is a quick, unconscious body scan about how we’re feeling inside, followed by a decision. The decision is usually a black or white one, such as I’m confident or I’m not confident. However, we can change our confidence by instead of scanning internally, we can scan our timeline.

Such as, think of a time that you had the highest confidence ever! Again, it’s sometimes easier to close your eyes as you recall it in a picture. Now, hear in your head the sounds associated with that picture and finally, allow yourself to feel it again. Begin to notice how your decision about your confidence levels seem to change. 

Here is another way to boost confidence that’s quick and simple.

Confidence starts at your sternum. Why your sternum? No reason really. It’s just a good place to start to increase your confidence. Now, your sternum is just below the point where your collarbones meet your chest. Raise your sternum slightly, a few centimetres (a couple of inches) now and notice how you feel more alert, more confident and perhaps even healthier. 

Now. Recalibrate yourself. Did your number increase? Typically, when we raise our sternum, we immediately feel more alert and alive. It’s a simple trick we teach our Speaker students – after all, when you are going to present at a meeting or speak to an audience, you need to feel alert, alive and more confident.

Raising your sternum also makes you more upright and strangely, I’ve found over the 17 years of coaching, that the more mental pain one is in, the more likely we’ll lower our shoulders and arch our backs. Too much computer or desk work can do this too. So while you’re reading this, pull your shoulders back and lift that sternum and notice how much better you feel. I hope this simple little tip helped you today and this has shown you how to be confident in yourself.

You’ve got this!

R!k Schnabel is one of Australia’s most successful coaches with string of successful clients. He is the Director of Coaching with Life Beyond Limits. Would like to be coached by R!k? Here’s the link to enjoy a free discover session with Australia’s #1 Brain Untrainer: lifebeyondlimits.com.au/rik-schnabel-the-brain-untrainer/