Arbutus Coaching’s Blog

Welcome to Because Life Isn’t a Dress Rehearsal, a blog written by life and business coach Kathy Santini, owner of Arbutus Coaching. This blog contains coaching tips and advice to help you become the most self actualized, effective person you can be, both personally and professionally. If you’re serious about “growing your possibilities,” and transforming your life, then you’re in the right place. My goal in writing this blog is to help you create a life that is easier, bigger, richer and more rewarding than the life you’re living now. So let’s get started shall we, because life isn’t a dress rehearsal and time’s a wastin’.

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Afghan 2009 Elections, Business Coach’s Advice for Afghanistan’s President On How To Handle His Current Situation

By arbutuscoaching | October 19, 2009

This just in…. as reporters used to say. CBC reported this a.m. that because of apparent voter fraud, there may be a runoff in the Afghan elections, because President Hamid Karzai was not able to obtain over 50 per cent of the votes from the election held in August. President Karzai is reported to be “not amused,” a term they often use to describe Queen Elizabeth’s feelings when things don’t go her way.

As many of you know, four years ago when I was working in a war zone in Kabul, Afghanistan as an editor I reported on the first parliamentary elections held in Afghanistan in 25 years. It was one of the highlights of my life. Since I’ve worked in Afghanistan, I find myself keenly interested in the country’s politics.

I’m not only writing solely about this news story because of my interest in Afghanistan, but because it illustrates a coaching principle that I often make with my life and business coaching clients. While we can’t control all of the events that happen in our life, what we can control is our response to them and this impacts the outcome. Or, to put it mathematically, e + r = o.

Using the Karzai case, the event is voter fraud, which some speculate may or may not be part or in whole his doing. How he responds will impact the outcome. For example, he may take a page out of a South American dictator’s book, scrap democracy and declare himself president for life. That response could have a number of outcomes, including sanctions from the U.N., withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan and/or a return of the Taliban to power.

Another response might be keeping to democratic principles and going ahead with the runoff. The outcome to this response might be his loss of power and his rival becoming president, or his winning the runoff. Following the democratic process will keep world leaders and countries invested in Afghanistan’s future.

Food for thought: While you might not find yourself in the straits that President Karzai finds himself in, is there another situation in your life where you might want to rethink your automatic response, in the hopes of changing the outcome? As I tell my coaching clients, events happen, but our reaction determines the outcome. And while it might not look like it, we always have some discretionary room in whatever response we choose.

Over the next days and months, the world and I will be watching the situation in Afghanistan closely, to see what response President Karzai chooses. I wonder if he needs a life, business and results coach to remind him, if he’s forgotten, that the event plus his response equals the outcome, or to put it in Einstein speak, e + r = o.

Topics: Business Success |

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