Coaching, reloaded - Coaching question of the day #48. - Cats in the sack & small achievements

A famous Italian figure of speech, probably well-known above all because of the inimitable Italian football manager Giovanni Trapattoni, goes like this:

"Non dire gatto se non ce l'hai nel sacco!", which literally means: "Don't say cat if you don't have it in your sack!" and that is used in the same context as "Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched!" in the English language.

What does it actually mean? Don't get your hopes up, don't celebrate your victories too soon, don't take something for granted too early.

[Cats in the sack... 

A new name for your small achievements]

Being careful is a good asset.

Still, celebrating all the steps in-between and all the small achievements that bring to bigger ones is a very powerful habit as well. Even while leaving cats in peace, that's it.

Coaching question of the day: 

"How can you celebrate one small achievement of yours today?"

Tags: Coaching question, Self-coaching, Self-awareness, Small achievements, Celebrating your victories

What to read next:

How do you reply when someone asks you about yourself? Do you do something or are you something? Feat. my own "I'm really good at" blogging game

Visiting the blog for the first time? Aloha!

Where to start, if you are new

Is being afraid the easiest thing to do? My cat and Jedi Master Yoda are not on the same page on this one...

"Do or do not; there is no try". This is what Jedi Master Yoda thinks and teaches.
The most successful people are the ones that, at some point in their life, consciously or unconsciously, decided to adopt Yoda's mantra as an important part of their everyday routine, by doing something and doing it over and over again, in order to become better through practice and/or to get what they want.

You control your thoughts, you control your choices, you control your actions, you control the results.

Judi Perkins

[Kim is blurry...
or how incredibly difficult taking a picture of her is]

My black cat Kim Novak doesn't agree at all with the Grand Master of the Jedi Order from Star Wars and I can see it regularly every week. For some reason that is absolutely inexplicable to me, she - unlike the famous Japanese cat Maru - is afraid of the vacuum cleaner.
As soon as she sees it - even before it is actually on - she just runs away as fast as she can. And she can be really fast, believe me.

Why? I have no clue. I can't remember any bad moment involving her and the vacuum cleaner, but no matter how hard I try to show her that there is no reason to be afraid, she is already gone as soon as the vacuum cleaner is in sight.

Are we so different from her?
Or are we used to let fear stop us from doing what we want, too? From achieving what we desire or from changing our lives? Is it, in fact, easier to be afraid and run away or does it only seem easier?

Tags: Kim Novak, Black cat, Fear, Angst, Yoda, Quotes, Being afraid with no reason

What to read next:
Quotes about cats for cat lovers Feat. Kim Novak - #1. Albert Schweitzer

Three words in four languages for my 2011, because failure is just the beginning

A new year is about to start, and it is going to be kind of unique.

Probably not an easy one, and yet for sure a cathartic one.

[My Kim Novak in Purple]

2010 has been tough and, from the outside, one could think that I've experienced failure every single day for the whole year, while living in a different country, in a different culture, in a different language.

But. But even if I have been sometimes overwhelmed by fears, sadness, or just millions of cultural misunderstandings, I kept going. No matter what.
Maybe sometimes not so fast or not so confidently as I would have wanted, but I kept going anyway.  And that's what matters.

In Chris Brogan's style, my three words for 2011 are going to be:

#1. Courage (Mut, courage, coraggio)
#2. Perseverance (Entschlossenheit, détermination, determinazione)
#3. Quality (Qualität, qualité, qualità)

Tags: Three words for one year, Self-awareness, Self-mastery, Emotional intelligence, Perseverance

What to read next:

Coaching, reloaded - Coaching question of the day #79. - Setting goals like a she-devil

Visiting the blog for the first time? Aloha!

Where to start, if you are new

Quotes about cats for cat lovers Feat. Kim Novak - #1. Albert Schweitzer

If I would ask you who Kim Novak is, you would reply that she is a wonderful, sexy and talented Hollywood actress, very popular in the Fifties and the Sixties and also famous for being a total catch and a sex symbol. She is indeed absolutely glamorous and mysterious in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and so with your answer, you would be right.

[Kim On Blue, 

or why for some reason the paper trash can is so incredibly interesting]

And yet Kim Novak, just 'Kim' for friends, is also my cat. A funny, a little bit crazy and for sure absolutely spoiled black cat that moved to Berlin with me. From now on, she will be featured in a series of posts with quotes for cat lovers.

Es gibt zwei Möglichkeiten, vor dem Elend des Lebens zu flüchten: Musik und Katzen.
(There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life - music and cats)

Albert Schweitzer [1875-1965]

The first quote is a funny one, by Albert Schweitzer, able to recognize that it is not possible to be in a bad mood when cats are around. I always thought that animals can feel how we feel and can adapt to our mood and cats are very good at it.
Just when you are having a very bad day, they come to you and want to cuddle. You have to smile, there is no other choice.

[Kim's name comes from Bell Book and Candle

If you don't know it, you should put it on your list]

Feel free to let me know your favorite quotes for cat lovers in the comments!

Tags: Quotes about cats, Albert Schweitzer, Kim Novak, Cat lovers quotes, Black cats

What to read next:
Is being afraid the easiest thing to do? My cat and Jedi Master Yoda are not on the same page on this one...