Showing posts with label Jill Douka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jill Douka. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Fun in Business? Managing Change at Work.






Have fun at the doing zone! 
 Today's guest blog post is from Jill Douka
Over the past decades, while working in the field of personal development, I had the opportunity to observe the same, repeating behaviors at myself and our clients.

As an example, there is a great pattern in the process of change, one of the most important ways for someone to be developed.

You take actions with the aim to make a change, to follow a different path and as soon as you make such actions, you wait…for the results. There is a waiting stage. Just at this stage, it is essential to insist, to wait with patience and faith, to be there and not give up. Even more, if you think about it, during the waiting stage, we learn, develop and become better people.
Before  taking action, we think about the problem and we may discuss it with people we trust. In other words, we knew that there was something that needed to be changed, even if we were only hearing a “gentle” inner voice that confirmed that.

Further, when we get to “the edge”, when we are fed up with things, only then we move towards change. We make this essential step, leaving the past reality, get into the “effort zone” and we pass into the actions area. Within this area our boundaries are pushed and we don’t feel at ease. That is, we are in our “out of comfort zone”, the doing zone.

Imagine that you are about to jump. Not anything fancy, you’ ll just leave the floor. You prepare yourself, you bend your knees and then, you are in the air, there is a second of suspension. During the time you are in the air, there is a mixed feeling. On one hand, there is the pleasure of experiencing a new state, its fascinating and on the other hand, there is the fear of falling down. You may think, what if I fall and get hurt?

Still, the seconds that you are in the air is the moment you are developing, learning, evolving. That is the doing zone and yes it is both uncomfortable and full of benefits at the same time. For example, consider the moment once you are off the ground and once your jump is already finished. All these thoughts (is it the right thing to do?) or the doubts (is there a better alternative?), where are all these when you touch the ground? Nowhere! They disappeared!

Indeed, how often do you rejoice about the learnings you acquired during a process? How often do you reward yourself because of a step you made and brought you closer to change?

The answer is: Rarely. It is in human nature to think: “and then, what? What is the next move?” right there we may see the energy and the beauty of human nature: at the fact that we keep moving forward and looking for the next step once we have achieved our jump! 

 Actually, change fascinates us…

What are you really planning to change? Bear in mind: the ding zone may be uncomfortable, but full of rewards at the same time! Accept the out of comfort zone and enjoy the rewards!

Enjoy the experience of changing!

Be Unique!




Watch Jill's presentation on TED
 
Jill Douka MBA, ACC is a Life Coach, international workshop leader and author.
She is Greek Canadian and has trained, coached and mentored thousands of individuals in Europe, USA and Asia. She is considered to be one of the most acclaimed coaches in Greece by the press and is one of the first European women invited to speak in a TEDx event in Asia. Vice President of www.uniquenessdevelopmentgroup.com she supports people to successfully cope with change by unlocking their strengths, energy and goals. Some of UDG clients are Kraft, Microsoft, Iiberdrola, Peiraios Bank. Founder of www.BetterLifeDay.com, the global educational platform commited to solutions worth knowing, is looking forward to living in a world where lifelong learning tools towards collective better living, become mainstream and are accessible to all. Ms Douka was chosen as a mentor at the European Business Mentors network and is an active philanthropist.



Monday, December 10, 2012

How can you make failure work… for you?



How can you make failure work… for you?

Today's guest post is written by Jill Douka is a Life Coach, International speaker, author and founder of Uniqueness Development Group.

 
How can someone achieve something that he/she really wants? What kind of tools can one use? What to expect, when your dreams and goals, do not become real? I am sharing my experience with you, hopefully it will help you achieve your dreams and goals!

It is a great honor for a speaker to participate in a Tedx event.

Tedx events, initiated by Ted, a non-profit organization that was founded in 1984 in California, are prestigious speaking events that take place in many countries around the world and aim to spread ideas that are worth spreading. In December of 2012, one of my new year’s resolutions I set with my colleagues was to speak in a Tedx event.

The first thing we did was to contact with the leaders of Tedx events in Cyprus and Greece, as I am Greek- Canadian. We did not hear something from them. In March of 2012, I noticed that the selection process of the Ted speakers in California 2013 had started. The first requirement was to send a one-minute video of your proposed speech to Ted and wait until your speech was chosen among thousands of applications, in order to talk in one of the events which would take place in 14 different cities and in 6 different continents. I picked the Tedx event in Amsterdam (the closest destination). If your one-minute video was accepted, then you could perform your speech there for 4-6 minutes. I thought: “It’s ok! I have nothing to lose!”

I could never imagine how hard it would be to prepare a one-minute video so “amazing” as to please first of all… myself. I had been working for over 4 weeks to create the main body of the speech. The difficulties started when I finally was ready to video the speech. To be more specific, I shot the video more than 60 times! Keep in mind that I have been working as a professional speaker for over 9 years. Two months later, having achieved a good result, I asked for feedback from worldwide-recognized speakers who I knew from the Global Speakers Summit. I did many changes. After 15 more shootings, the video was good.

You could imagine my disappointment when I received the rejection email concerning my application for Ted. In their email, they suggested to attempt next year. I wandered; do they send the same answer to everyone?

In May of 2012, I was talking with a dear friend from my mastermind group. She shared with me how thrilled she was to be one of the speakers in TedxChennai in India. I asked her how she got invited to speak and she told me that one of our friends form a workshop we did together at Jack Canfield’s event in Arizona was a member of the organizing committee. I asked her ‘Do you mind if I contact her because I would, also, like to participate in this event? -Of course not!’
 
So I contacted my friend in India and she informed me that there were already many applications to look over and that I had no time to prepare my speech outline for the event as the deadline was in some days. I sent her the video and my speech within10 minutes! The one I had prepared for TED. She told me that she would present my nomination at the committee and they would contact me.

On the 30th of September, I talked about “Our Unique Failures” in front of an audience of 1200 people together with 16 world class speakers form 10 countries and 5 continents. I explained that failure is part of the success. Failure exists only when you give up or when you keep on trying in the same way. My participation in TedxChennai is a living proof.


Jill Douka is a Life Coach, International speaker, author and founder of Uniqueness Development Group. She has done coaching and training seminars to thousands people in 4 continents. Her goal is to support people to unlock their strengths, energy and their goals. You may view her TEDxChennai talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQKTaJt48Bw&feature=plcp