Welcome to Health Coach and Image Coach International’s weekly E-zine, developed specifically for people who want to create better and healthier lives for themselves. Please feel free to forward this issue to friends, family and associates!



Dear Friend

In Singapore and perhaps every other part of the world, our education system focuses on correcting weaknesses rather than developing strengths. When a child is weak in mathematics, inevitably the parent will seek ways how to get the child to improve in that area, get a math tutor, for example.

The traditional education system is set up to reward students it deems as smart (i.e. can answer exam questions the way we want them to), while systematically weeding out the undesirable, “less intelligent” students.

Yet, as we all know, getting top grades in school does not guarantee success later in life. Instead, getting focused on your strengths and being the “Tiger Woods” in your chosen area of strength, will lift you out from mediocrity into excellence, and not only the big bucks, but also the satisfaction of a life well lived. We see so many living examples before us, people who may not have done well in school and yet make more money and impact more lives than their fellow high-achieving classmates put together – the Bill Gate’s, the Tony Robbin’s, the Oprah’s of the world.

So let’s get the Strengths Movement going and growing, starting with our world – ourselves, our kids, our colleagues, our friends and family…. Let’s applaud and give encouragement when we observe people doing well in certain areas.

THIS WEEK'S LESSON:
Discover your unique set of strengths, develop and use them.

Similarly, in the area of image, we tend to focus on and complain about our weaknesses or “liabilities”, I like to call them. “My hair is so frizzy – I hate it; I’ve spend thousands of dollars trying to straighten it, but it just gets worse.” “My eyes are too small; that’s why I can’t be bothered to use makeup.” “I’m overweight and don’t look good in anything, so why bother?”

Instead, what I encourage my clients to do is to focus on their strengths or “assets” instead. Do you have great teeth? Or a beautiful nose? The asset we can all have is of course, a great SMILE!

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” – Archimedes

THIS WEEK'S ACTION STEP

So how do you get started in discovering your strengths and your “assets”? Here are some suggestions for the week (and days to come):

  • Look at yourself in the mirror, and start looking at all the things you like about yourself. Don’t allow yourself to focus on the parts you don’t like; just look for what you do like.

  • Armed with a list of your “assets”, work out how you can enhance them and draw more attention to them, so little or no attention is given to your weak areas or “liabilities”.

  • Do a self-assessment for yourself, asking questions like: “What am I best known for?” “How am I different from my peers and colleagues?” “What am I good at and that I enjoy doing?” “What makes me unique?”

  • Then get an assessment done by people you trust to give you honest feedback, asking similar questions to the list above.

  • For more advice on this area, watch out for future issues or write to me at coach@imagecoach.com.sg

    I'll see you next week!


    To find out more about Image Coach International, click here.