ARE YOUR TIRES PROPERLY INFLATED?
Posted on May 18, 2011 by John Meggiolaro, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
How the need for balance in one's life is important.
One caution that is contained in every automobile owner’s manual is the caveat of maintaining proper air pressure in the vehicle’s tires. Tires that are not properly inflated can wear more quickly, promote a less than smooth ride and can lead to a dangerous loss of control.
To help prevent this, car owners are often encouraged to purchase a tire gauge. A tire gauge is a rather simple, inexpensive device that is placed onto the tire’s air nozzle. Once applied, a slide-rule like measuring stick releases from the bottom of the gauge identifying the amount of air pressure currently in the tire. All in all, a tire gauge is a highly effective and valuable tool to have on hand.
Unfortunately, there is no tire-like gauge for our other two tires. The tires I am speaking about are your “life tires”; they are the tires that make-up your personal and your professional life. Think of it much like a bicycle. You have two wheels or tires that form the essence of the bicycling experience. The mechanics require that both tires work in sync. Yet, if one or both are not properly inflated, your ride could be less than enjoyable and quite possibly very dangerous. The same is true for your life tires. If one or both are not properly “inflated” there is a strong likelihood that life’s journey will be less satisfying and more likely fraught with potentially serious consequences.
Your personal and professional life tires each come with spokes that are designed to provide stability and value to your day-to-day journey. Your personal tire spokes might well include your financial, mental, physical and social
well-being in addition to family status. Also included could be your sense of ethics and beliefs. Your professional tire spokes might touch on such key aspects as your people skills, sales/influencing skills, time management and ability to be productive. Similar in design to the bicycle, both life tires and their respective spokes must be properly maintained if you want to truly maximize your life’s ride.
All of us have worked with or for someone who has brought some particular aspect of an under inflated personal tire into the work environment. Under inflated personal tire people tend to be seen as grouchy, irritable and short-tempered while using a loud tone of voice and employing a short span of attention. Similarly, under inflated professional tire people might be known to be quiet, brooding, absorbed, uninterested in family matters or considered workaholics.
So how do you check to see if your life tires are properly inflated? Probably the best and most effective approach includes employing one of more of the following steps: 1 ask yourself if you are truly satisfied with your current personal and professional worlds, 2 honestly assess whether you are able to separate your personal and professional lives (i.e. not carry poor or negative behaviors from one aspect of your life into the other), and 3 seek out trustworthy feedback from people in your professional and personal lives that can help you obtain an objective assessment.
If the answer found in steps 1 and 2 is “no” and this is validated by feedback as recommended in step 3, then it is quite likely that the time has come to find some help that will lead to pumping up your tires.
There is certainly any number of resources that could be utilized. Some people have found self-help books to be useful, others have sought out professional psychiatric or marriage counseling, while still others have turned to religion as their guiding source for comfort and contentment. Each has its merits and may be viable options depending on the severity of one’s situation.
Another way to inflate your life tires is to seek out the help of a professional coach. This is an individual that has been trained to focus on your needs, wants and desires and to help guide you through a formal process of renewed discovery. Devoid of criticism, a developmental coach or life coach can serve as your alter ego, the “ying to your yang” by helping you rediscover what is important for you in order to be happy and satisfied. More importantly, it can be a life-altering experience built around a relationship that has only you in mind.
Simply put, a coach can be the gauge for your life’s tires.
