Being astonished! cookers, cleaning and power tools

Being Astonished! cookers, cleaning and power tools.  A couple of weeks ago I was off work with a virus, it was the sort of virus where you feel okay for about two hours and then you experience the effects of the bug washing over you, draining energy and making you feel the need to lie down immediately! As I was at home wondering just how I was going to manage this and perhaps do something useful during the high spots I noticed just how dirty my cooker was. That’s not to say that I hadn’t noticed it before, I knew it was greasy and horrible and also knew that it was take ages to clean. Having time on my hands and thinking that it was a do-able job  given my state of health, I decided give it a try, after all, there’s only so much feeling sorry for yourself that I was willing to allow myself. I figured it was a good way of distracting myself from the – oh aren’t I feeling poorly routine!  I had brought a new cleaning product and thought I would give it a test drive.   So I started in a small corner and worked on a three inch area of the glass door. Well I was impressed! I decided that cleaning the door would be my “poorly project”, something I could tackle and then feel good about –the cooker was something I had over looked for years. You see, the cooker was bought second-hand for thirty quid, it was not exactly sparking clean when I got it, and as it was just to, get by for a while, type of cooker, I neglected it and tolerated its shoddy state. This undoubtedly had a knock on effect towards using it and cooking terrifically healthy meals on it.  One thing led to another and during the following three days I unscrewed bits of the cooker and gave it a thoroughly good clean, including pulling it out and cleaning behind it. This normally only gets done when I am moving it to decorate once every four years!Well! was I pleased with myself? you bet! I could now run my fingers over the cooker and feel the cleanness instead of lumpy bits of grease.   HAVING THE RIGHT TOOLS  This got me thinking … I had got the right tools for the task in hand. This was a new product and different to the old trusted product. There are many new products on the market to make cleaning easier and I had completely over looked them, preferring to stick with what I knew and what I had used and not step out of my comfort zone.  How many times do we do this? Stick with the same pattern of thinking? the same way of doing things? using the same old tools for the job even though there are better ones out there? In coaching we use an array of tools and pick the right POWER TOOL for the right person. In a coaching session we may use a number of tools. Power tools are exactly that… very powerful! They help clients to:-  §         find a new empowering perspective§         identify areas in their lives that they tolerating ( just like me and the cooker)  §         explore areas that have been neglected  §         empower the client to use the right tools for that particular challenge these might be  §         Truth v Fraud – Was it true that I had neglected my cooker for five years? was it truth that I had been stepping over the issue?  §         Action v Delay – What obstacles were standing in my way to not do this job? What thoughts and feelings needed to be stepped over to do the task?  §         Game v Significant – how could I break the task down into small steps to stop me getting overwhelmed and depressed about the time it was taking out of my life?  §         Responsibility v Blame – whose cooker was it? Who used it? that would me than!  §         Commitment v Trying- I had the time, the opportunity, and the desire to improve this appliance even though it was old and cheap.  §         Response v Reaction- Was I carrying around an Underlying Automatic commitment UAC? Yes I think I was; I was probably feeling sorry for myself about not owning a really nice stainless steel cooker and having to put up with this crappy, cheap, dirty white one. Where was the CHOICE here? I was planning to have an extension and have a large kitchen and then I was going to spend my hard earned cash on a new one.  §         Trust v Doubt – I trust that I would have new one sometime and then I would celebrate!  Evaluation of outcome.   By committing myself to the project, breaking it down into small steps, stepping over the obstacles and seeing it through, I now have the pleasure of a really clean cooker. The difference is that I keep it that way now – using my new cleaning products. We too can keep our emotional intelligence in good health my applying new products or tools – all in all it makes life easier and leaves us with more time just to enjoy our precious time.  Just like committing to coaching as I committed myself to getting the cooker cleaned by giving this area time I am now blessed with positive effects of the effect it took. MY CHALLENGE TO YOU – is to look to see if there is an area in your own life which you have been putting off and putting off. Collect the right tools break it down and then as the Nike advert says Just Do it! I would love to hear from you about this and what you did. Of course if you would like some support take advantage of a FREE 30 minute coaching session with me.  For those who are interested I went on to the ASTONISH website because I was truly astonished with this product and wanted to know what else they did. Well a few days after my cooker cleaning marathon I went to visit a friend and got chatting to his Mum about Astonish and there I was… I suddenly felt that I was on an advert for Astonish because she took me into her larder and showed me what looked like the full range ‘cos she too was impressed. Needless to say I now have the full range and continue to be astonished. I tried the carpet shampoo and that was good! For those of you like me with “compulsive wiping up syndrome” this is the site for you…  www.astonish.com