James M. Lynch is a Chief Potential Officer for hire. As a CPO he looks for companies and individuals who are interested in living each day to the fullest, honoring themselves and others. He provides transformational and traditional business coaching through JMLynchTraining.com and free life coaching in a 'do it yourself' forum via http://www.doityourselflifecoach.com which includes a community option for forums, chat and groups to grow and encourage each other.
His 'Star of Your Own Life' seminars and 'My Life is Working' groups encourage growth, passion and joy, as he does in his book, The Hamlet Secret: A self directed workbook for living a passionate, joy-filled life.
He can be contacted via James@doityourselflifecoach.com or on Twitter as YourVirt2lCoach.

Blog Entries by James M. Lynch

Dickensian Slavery: The Real Expense of the Recession

1 Comments | Posted November 8, 2009 | 06:36 PM (EST)


About 18 months ago I got the appointment notice to meet on a Friday morning with the president of our small company. No 'early warning' sign went up that it was a Friday morning meeting with no 'subject' line and it had come via email, not personally. We worked closely...

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The Hamlet Secret: Joyful Living!

6 Comments | Posted October 9, 2009 | 12:35 PM (EST)


This week I'm 'out and about' so I'm sharing a chapter from my book, The Hamlet Secret: A Self-Directed (Shakespearean) Workbook for Living a Passionate, Joy-Filled Life.

The format of the book includes quotes from the world's most famous play, as if the world's most famous playwright did in fact...

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Are You an Internet Addict?

11 Comments | Posted September 23, 2009 | 03:14 PM (EST)


I went to the movies the other day and noticed that instead of just the usual courtesy request for people to turn off their cell phones during the movie, additional wording has been added to prohibit texting during a movie. I immediately thought that somewhere in the movie theatre some...

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Health Care Reform: The New Promised Land

8 Comments | Posted September 7, 2009 | 09:12 PM (EST)


The other day I missed a notice on Facebook to paste the following onto my FB status page: "No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick." I don't know if this virtual social activism achieved anything, but it...

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1000 Journals and the Capacity for Hope

2 Comments | Posted September 1, 2009 | 12:51 PM (EST)


What can one person do to change the world? How about add inspiration, beauty and create a community at the same time? Not bad for "some guy," eh?

A few years ago a friend handed me a partially finished journal and told me it was a collaborative journal being written...

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Cooking Up the Success You Want

6 Comments | Posted August 19, 2009 | 03:35 PM (EST)


I work as a coach and one of my many 'recharge' hobbies is cooking. I consider a meal very similar to a work of art and am concerned not only with the tastes but the presentation. My goal is to get a 'wow' from my dinner guests and I'm most...

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100 Things to Do While Alive

4 Comments | Posted August 3, 2009 | 10:32 AM (EST)


Maybe you saw the movie The Bucket List or have heard about a list of 'The 100 Things to Do Before You Die' from someone already, but I've been using it in an altered form for many years. My list is called 'The 100 Things to Do While Alive'. I'm...

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I Am a Big Fat Jerk

8 Comments | Posted July 28, 2009 | 02:28 PM (EST)


Even though today started off nicely, an early bike ride with my 9 year-old son, I was fuming by mid morning. Road construction, busses and SUVs cutting ahead in the opposing traffic turn lane, more road construction, bickering backseat passengers, more road construction and an overturned cement mixer blocking traffic...

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Today's the Day

Posted July 20, 2009 | 02:31 PM (EST)


One of the most constant conversations I see on the social and professional networks I belong to is which networking support group is best to join for 'transitioning'. In case you haven't heard, 'transitioning' is the euphemism now being used for 'out of work and looking (desperately) for a job'....

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Saving the World in One Day - Shabbat Around the World

11 Comments | Posted July 11, 2009 | 02:55 PM (EST)


It's Friday mid-afternoon and I'm winding down my week, finishing my calls, making final notes and shutting down my computer in preparation for 25 hours of recharging. We call it 'Shabbat' and I follow all of the rules that come with it: no TV or radio, no driving, no lighting...

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Complaining About Complaining

7 Comments | Posted July 6, 2009 | 01:28 PM (EST)


First let's define complaint in the context I intend it today: it's neither good nor bad. As Shakespeare's Hamlet says, 'There's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so'.

Complaining, for our purposes today, is voicing a negative opinion about a situation either as a 'what's so', which...

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Don't Should on Me!

10 Comments | Posted June 22, 2009 | 11:35 AM (EST)


I have to admit that I am particularly susceptible to people giving me advice or telling me what to do; it can rankle and rattle me and is a part of my 'story' (see What's Your Story). One key to knowing your story as a story is to identify...

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What's Your Story?

8 Comments | Posted June 17, 2009 | 03:43 PM (EST)


Caterpillar: Who are YOU?
Alice: This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. I -- I hardly know, sir, just at present -- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.

...
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Blowing Smoke

8 Comments | Posted June 10, 2009 | 12:47 PM (EST)


I just drove home from a team coaching meeting and feel like I need a detox bath. For about a mile I was next to or behind a car that sent so much blue smoke out of its exhaust pipe that I thought dancers and a magician would appear on...

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Simon Cowell: A True Friend

6 Comments | Posted June 1, 2009 | 10:55 PM (EST)


I want to be clear, I don't know television's Simon Cowell and don't interact with him but I do occasionally watch him on TV. I also watch Gordon Ramsay and BBC's The Hotel Inspectorand The Apprentice: UK. I don't enjoy the entirety of many of these shows, just the moments...

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Memorial Day: Sound the Sirens

2 Comments | Posted May 25, 2009 | 11:10 AM (EST)


I'm writing today to honor the heroes and to create a new possibility. This is not a dip into politics; it is about living in our culture and society and honoring the heroes who died for our country. I'm asking for your help to create this simple furtherance of our...

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Star of Your Own Life

4 Comments | Posted May 15, 2009 | 05:54 PM (EST)


Some dozen years ago I had a life altering realization, an 'aha' moment, in which I realized how much all of the self help, personal growth, transformational courses and books available were similar to the work I had been doing in my 20 years as a professional actor, director and...

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Finding your "Passion Statement"

8 Comments | Posted May 6, 2009 | 06:11 PM (EST)


As a breakthrough performance coach it's important for me to get to a "passion statement," the "why I do this" or "why bother" statement that is at the core of any undertaking. It is the statement from which all other action and strategies begin and it is a core building...

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Paying It Behind

4 Comments | Posted May 6, 2009 | 06:03 PM (EST)


A couple of times a month I play a game in the Starbucks drive-through lane. When I get to the cashier I pay for my coffee and the coffee of the person in the car behind me. The configuration of the drive-through makes it easy to hear the car behind...

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