Friday, December 31, 2010

Fortune Cookie Exercises - Working on Personal Strength

In more than two dozen posts so far, I've featured something I call "Fortune Cookies."

These aren't the kind of fortune cookies you get in oriental restaurants, which never reveal anything plausible about your future. What I'm aiming for with these bits of wisdom are conditional promises that if you exercise a particular personal strength, you'll reap a benefit in the future.

I've written over 500 of them. Why? Well, there's a story behind that, if you're interested.

It's one thing to enjoy a fortune cookie. There's far more benefit if you learn from it and apply it in your life. To that end, I created a special fortune cookie exercise. Here's a sample....

First, read and think about the Fortune Cookie below. Then answer the three questions...



Do your best work, and people will want you to do it again and again.


1. What does this promise mean to you?



2. How will you benefit if you do this?



3. PLANNED ACTION - What will you do now to make this happen in your work or life?


Go ahead, give it some thought and complete the exercise. You'll see that the benefit you derive from it is quite different from simply enjoying it.

My new online virtual coaching system, ProStar Coach, has over 500 of these exercises. It's like a virtual gym, with eight exercise areas for working on any of 40 different personal strength. All the completed exercises are stored in a confidential archive.

Of course the next step is to carry out the planned action. Then we have a virtual coaching tool  to help you learn from that experience. Which leads to another planned action. Then it might be a good idea to use our virtual personal trainer in the FAR Workout area....

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2010. Building Personal Strength .

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