As a leader, a great deal of your personal and professional development will involve addressing your self-sabotaging thoughts, or saboteurs.

While others might be lamenting the loss of their quick-fire problem-solving abilities, those who embrace their crystallized intelligence find themselves becoming increasingly valuable in different ways.

This post is a continuation of Part 1 and includes the final 5 reasons you deserve an executive coach. If you haven’t read Part 1, start here. As a refresher, executive coaching implements a holistic approach that goes beyond traditional coaching by helping executives and leaders achieve balance and synergy between their professional responsibilities and personal goals. 

In today’s always-connected, perpetually-hurried life, rest can be elusive. It’s hard to stop when everything and everyone around you seems to want to go, go, go.

Many of us are operating in a state of disconnect. We’ve learned to psych ourselves up to deal with life’s mundane challenges; we’ve become experts at going through the motions even when our hearts and minds are elsewhere. We can cook a meal, keep in touch with friends and family, succeed in our work, all while mentally and emotionally feeling a little…meh.

"Meh" doesn't mean depressed or burned out; you still can have hope and energy and be surrounded by good people. The technical term for "meh," coined by sociologist Corey Keys and popularized by organizational psychologist Adam Grant, is languishing.

There are two universal laws that have the power to change your entire life. They are the law of attraction and the law of vibration.

You may already have heard of the law of attraction: that you attract whatever you give your energy, focus, and attention to, good or bad. As much as we may want it to be, this isn’t some sort of magic process. You don’t just think “I want a more fulfilling career” one time and boom! There it is. As with many great things in life, the law of attraction isn’t a quick fix.

Think of it more like gravity.

You may or may not have the word “executive” in your job title, but your life and career can still improve dramatically from working with an executive coach. Executive coaching is an asset for all sorts of leaders. Just as great athletes don’t hesitate to call on coaches, trainers, hypnotists and spiritual advisors in order to maintain their dominance, it’s a mark of wisdom and strength for leaders from all walks of life to seek professional guidance and support.

Resilience is a psychological quality that allows some people to weather adversity and come back at least as strong as before, perhaps even stronger. Rather than letting challenges, disruptions or failures overcome them and drain their energy and resolve, highly resilient people find a way to pivot, emotionally heal and continue moving forward towards their goals and dreams.

The only people who get upset when you set boundaries are the ones who benefitted from you not having them.

Boundaries are important in every facet of life and they are especially important in business. While saying yes (or, not saying no) to an unaligned request might not hurt your business, in the long run, always saying yes--whether coming from a feeling of lack or fear of being disliked--runs a large chance of negatively impacting the health of your business in the long run. When you are running a business you are responsible for what gets done and what doesn’t. That includes what you say “yes” to and what you say “no” to. What you do always comes at the expense of something else.

Setting boundaries is not an option, it’s critical to running a successful business. It’s important to determine what’s most important, set boundaries accordingly and take the necessary actions to enforce those boundaries. Doing so sets up your business for success.

Affirmations are positive statements that help you to challenge self-limiting beliefs and negative thoughts. When you become intentional about incorporating affirmations as part of your routine, you can start to feel their power and begin to make positive changes.

Some people think that affirmations are too new age-y and unrealistic. I encourage you to shift your thinking and reframe affirmations this way: many of us do repetitive exercises to improve our physical well-being, and affirmations are no different. They are exercises for our mindset. Affirmations can reprogram our thinking patterns and as we practice we begin to think and act differently.

Here’s a quick and dirty list of how to use affirmations…