With these two coaching exercises you will discover what your locus of control is, how this affects your ability to cope and how to take control over stress. For more info, full coaching webinar: http://www.slideshare.net/mirianbsanchez/how-to-take-control-over-stress-coaching-webinar-62547783 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1EnonxezaM

1. Coaching Exercises
to take control over
stress.
with Mirian B Sanchez
www.mirianbsanchez.com

2. 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.

3. 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

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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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 3
possible
solutions that
would help me
to solve/deal
with this.
1
2
3
4
5
6

9. 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.

10. Thank you
With love,
Mirian