Coaching Exercises

to take control over

stress.

with Mirian B Sanchez

www.mirianbsanchez.com

Discover your locus of control

– Answer the next 10 questions.

– You need to rate the degree to which you agree or

disagree, as follows: SA–1, A-2, D-3, SD–4

– If you strongly agree with the statement choose 1. If you

strongly disagree with the statement choose 4.

LOCUS OF CONTROL SA A D SD

1.- Our society is run by a few people with a lot of power and there is not much the ordinary person can do about it.

1 2 3 4

2.- Success hinges on being at the right place at the right time 1 2 3 4

3.- There will always be conflict in the world, however hard people work to stop it. 1 2 3 4

4.- There is no point in voting, it won’t change anything 1 2 3 4

5.- Everything which happens in life is predestined 1 2 3 4

6.- It’s a waste of time trying to change people, they will always stay the same 1 2 3 4

7.- Whether I work hard or not it won’t make any difference to how others assess my performance

1 2 3 4

8.- Leaders are born not made 1 2 3 4

9.- Luck and chance play a key role in life 1 2 3 4

10.- Most of what happens in life is controlled by forces that we do not understand and can’t control

1 2 3 4

Locus of Control

– People who score mostly 1 and 2 are said to have a high external locus of control, believing that what happens to them is largely outside their control and is largely directed by outside agents such us luck or fate.

– People who score mostly 3 or 4 are said to have a high internal locus of control, believing they have control over what happens through their own decisions and actions.

– In order for any form of significant change to happen in your life, you need to have an appropriate level of belief that you have an internal locus of control.

– The good news is that you can develop your internal locus of control.

Approach to develop a greater

internal locus of control

– The main approach to develop a greater internal locus of control is to realize that you always have a choice, even if you choose to do nothing or don’t like the choices in front of you, and even if that choice is limited to how you interpret an event.

– It is within your power to apply coping techniques to deal with our day to day life situations, not matter how difficult or unpleasant those situations are.

– Coaching sessions are the most effective approach to develop a greater internal locus of control and learn coping mechanism to build resilience.

– Today, I’m going to share with you a powerful problem-focused coping technique to take control over stress: A stress log.

Coaching Exercise – Stress Log

– You’re going to do a stress log: Write down everything that is stressing you out.

– Why? Because:

• Because writing it down, you get out of you all your stress demons. You get them out of your head and down to the paper. This opens the door for you to deal with your stress strategically instead of leaving it in your head or in your body.

• Because in the moment we write down what exactly is stressing us out all of the sudden that big thing that is stressing us out starts to become smaller than it was, while in our heads.

• Because you can take action. Right there on the paper you can start working out the strategies you can take to solve the problem.

• It gives you power: knowing that you have a specific place to write down your stresses and that you have a system to deal with them, gives you a sense of power and strength.

Coaching Exercise – Stress Log

– The idea is to identify the things that are stressing you out in your life, instead of feeling that your whole life is so stressful.

– When something stresses you out, write it down in the stress log. And while you write it down feel that you own it and that it can’t stress you out anymore. Self-understanding begins with self-observation.

– Keeping a stress log is an effective way to discover patterns and emotional stress and the strategies we can implement to deal with what is stressing us out.

Description of what is stressing me out

Date & Time of day

Where?Doing what?With whom?

What thoughts or feelings did I have?

What did I do in response to the stress

Identify 3possible solutions that would help me to solve/deal with this.

1

2

3

4

5

6

Home-work

– I encourage you to experiment with your own stress log. You can do it on

paper or digital or in your notebook. It doesn’t matter. But I’ll email you a

template after this webinar. Writing it down will give you the feeling that

you can do something about it. Whether you find a permanent solution

or you need to change your attitude or approach.

– Do your best to be as specific and detailed as possible.

– And remember: You are in charge of your life and have control over what

happens to you. And in the situations when you don’t have the control of

what happens to you, you can always choose how to respond.

Thank you

With love,

Mirian