Bolder!

Break Out

Last spring, as our economy tanked, my coaching practice soon followed. As budgets tightened,  priorities shifted. I totally understood but over the course of just 4 weeks my practice almost disappeared until one afternoon I found myself with no foreseeable income and wondering what to do next.

I considered going back to corporate work but dismissed the idea almost as soon as it flitted through my brain. I know from experience how hard it is to get out of those golden handcuffs and the culture of Big Business was not one I wanted to support again. The nightly news of lost jobs, vanishing pensions and shattered lives convinced me of that.

I then thought seriously about working at the local coffee shop until the economic storm blew over. I knew I could leave that behind easily enough when my practice got busy again.

But when you KNOW you are doing what you're supposed to be doing (coaching in my case) how do you just stop? I absolutely knew coaching was what I was meant to be up to. I just needed to find someone to coach again.

I had to get my thinking out of that proverbial box and try something completely different.

First I got clear on WHO I wanted to BE - which is a "Support for people building their personal version of a successful life".

Next I visualized finding a way to do this without charging and still earn a living. (My husband, bless his heart, simply said was "Good luck with that.")

Two weeks later I found my answer in the most unexpected place.

With a clear intention (and such a crazy notion) my radar was on high alert looking for a solution. So when an opportunity appeared I didn't dismiss it out of hand as I might have done in the past. Instead I took time to explore it and educate myself. After all, how can you intelligently say no to something if you don't have the facts?

I found exactly what I'd imagined - a way to make a difference using my skills as a coach and mentor as I earned an income that didn't have to come from my clients. Six months later and I still have to pinch myself to believe it.

As the economy recovers, my "normal" coaching practice is picking up again, for which I'm grateful. And now I have a whole new revenue stream in my business which I'm also grateful for. I'm proud of what I'm building and the difference it's making in people's lives.

On top of all that, I find myself living boldly again. I've finally got time for what feeds my spirit. I'm writing, painting and sculpting again. More on that to come.

WHAT I KNOW...

I first had to get clear on how I wanted to Be and then I had to let go of how it should look. If I'd been tied to my old ideas and ways of doing things I might have kept the door closed when opportunity dropped in.

So ask yourself this - "Who do I want to be?"

Then find your way to be that in the world.

Peak of Success

My daughter was once fascinated by all things Everest so we watched a lot of movies and read a lot of books. We can learn a lot from experienced mountain climbers.

For instance, I learned that those who summit Mt. Everest do it in stages. Just getting to Base Camp is a big deal. From there they move on to other camps at gradually higher altitudes. The purpose is acclimate to the thinner oxygen at each camp before climbing higher. They wait for their body to catch up to their ambition.

Work hard, yes, but take some time to acclimate. Don't rush the process and don't de-value the quiet moments. They provide the fuel to carry you to your dreams.

Another thing I learned about Everest climbers is that not everyone who goes to Base Camp defines success in the same way. Many people go along as the support system. Their goal isn't to reach the summit but to make sure the climbers get up and back safely. They succeed only when everyone is back off the mountain and the party begins.

Appreciate your support team in your own climb. Not only will they help you up the mountain, but they'll make sure you get back in one piece! And it's not as much fun celebrating without someone to share the moment.

From Everest I also learned it's all about where you put your focus. I attended a lecture by a young man who had summitted and the picture he showed of crossing an aluminum ladder over a crevasse with spiked boots made me shudder! When I asked how he did it, he said it all depended on where you focused. Looking past your feet was to invite paralyzing fear. See only your feet and you can ignore the gaping maw of ice below you. (Well, he could. I don't know if I could!)

Choose your challenges, define success for yourself and climb on. Let go of your excuses and focus on what you know to be true. Then celebrate.

It's a great recipe for success.

Perspectives

Our back deck faces west, out over Lake Scugog. We enjoy some incredible sunsets where the sky and water are drenched in vivid pinks, reds, purples and golds. The picture to the left captures one of those moments. (Yes, that's the view from our back deck and I'm constantly grateful for it.)

This past week, I felt the urge to sit in the middle of all that glorious saturation so I paddled out in my kayak and turned to face the far shore as the sun went down. An osprey glided overhead looking for his last catch of the day while behind me, the quiet murmur of a neighbour's conversation  carried to where I drifted. To them I'm sure I was simply a silhouette against the fiery horizon. All in all, a peaceful end to a busy day.

When the light show finally faded, I turned my kayak around to paddle back to the dock and stopped mid-stroke. Dusk lifted from the eastern horizon, darkening the sky as it grew. At the leading edge of the deepening shadow glowed a full moon, seemingly caught high in the branches of a birch tree. The subtle beauty of nightrise caught me by surprise.

I've been so dazzled by sunsets that I missed something lovely taking place right behind me my whole life. I had just never turned around before. 

I had to ask myself, what else have I missed? Where else could I turn around and surprise myself? How about you?

What new ways could you look at life and all it offers?

One truth I've learned as a life coach is that there are always other options. Life is rarely just about either/or choices. If we're patient and wait for it, we'll be offered alternatives and different perspectives.

The beauty of the nightrise didn't reveal itself until the sun slipped below the horizon. That was the element of waiting. The surprise was...well... a surprise. But there were also choices made and action taken.

Nightrise happens whether we're there for it or not. You have to choose to turn around and look in a new direction to discover all that life offers.

The Price of MultiTasking

Seems a Stanford University psychology professor noticed a lot of people multi-tasking, something that he understood to be impossible because of how our brains function. And yet, here were people all around him, talking on cell-phones while surfing the web and carrying on a conversation across the table and....

You get the picture. You've probably done it yourself. More than once.

So the professor and his pals got curious. How could this be happening? Were our brains being re-wired by technology? Was this another step in our development as human beings?

To find some answers, he and his students created a series of simple tests. What they discovered was fascinating and went completely opposite to what you may have expected.

It seems that people who are HMM (heavy media multitasker in research jargon do not pay attention, cannot control their memory and cannot switch easily from one job to another as adeptly as people who concentrate on one job at a time.

Basically we're assaulting our brain with so much information that it becomes overloaded and can't cope. We lose the ability to filter out the unimportant and irrelevant.

Can you spell s-t-r-e-s-s?

"High multitaskers can't keep things separate in their minds."

Is it any wonder we feel  'information overload'? The remedy?

"Try to do less," Professor Ophir said, which is something that he does in his own life. "You can check your e-mail, but make sure you have periods of focus. Cut to your calendar later."

We think we're being more productive when in reality, we're not.

As my own little experiment, I tried single tasking this week. It's a skill I have to re-learn so there were a lot of false starts and stops. First, I made a list of things I needed to accomplish and then went through the list ONE THING AT A TIME. What I found was this - I got more accomplished and I FELT that accomplishment. I lost the uneasy feeling that I was dropping the ball somewhere.

I challenge you to give it a try this week.

If you want to read more about the study click here. It's fascinating! (You might want to send the link to your boss, too. )