Dead Phone

My iPhone unceremoniously died yesterday and while I know I must replace it for many reasons business related, there is a part of me that was happy to see the blank black screen, unresponsive to my button pushing and prodding. It crossed my mind that the phone can be compared to some clients I have worked with~no amount of prodding, encouragement or super amazing powerful questions lit them up~the battery appeared to be dead and unresponsive, and I was working too hard in trying to recharge them, defibrillate them back to life.  As coach, a cue that things are going sideways is the feeling that I'm working too hard.  This takes me in two directions:  am I working too hard because I have my own agenda for the client OR am I working too hard because they don't want to?  Change is painful and powerful, not to mention rather uncomfortable.  Highly motivated clients forge forward, acknowledge the pain and keep their eyes on the prize, taking sometimes baby steps, periodic huge leaps and bounds, to get there, wherever their there happens to be.  My phone sits quietly in its deep perhaps much needed sleep, and I grin knowing that it is not my first, nor my last client, I mean phone.  

Gentle Brush Stroke

Ancient tells~this means "strata (layers of occupation of a city) of dirt and cultural debris compacted together into mounds over the millennia". This is what archeologists carefully dig through to learn about the ancients and while they dig, they find artifacts, buried treasure, hints of a way of life gone by, and more stunningly, they also find the wisdom of the ages. While digging, there is a clearing away of dirt, a brushing gently off of what covers exciting precious and inspiring finds. Man has always been naturally creative resourceful and whole, this is our birthright. It is the piling on of dirt and debris, the angst that comes with fear and doubt, self recrimination and projection deflection self protection that covers up the treasure of who I really am, who you really are until there is a brushing away, a gentle inhale and breath blowing away the rubble of life to reveal the majesty of the human soul. Age old wisdom was discovered, and has been rediscovered with every human that craves and asks for clarity of thought and mind...it isn't new, we are imbued with this natural craving for the good and lovely, the beautiful and washed gently clean. My eyes are bathed, fresh sight is mine because God is digging me out of the debris, one gentle brush stoke, one gentle breath at a time.

Follow

I'm creative, inspired and smart...I just said this outloud a moment ago after a giggle over a metaphor I came up with in the spur of the moment. I enjoyed the feeling of being clever and felt grateful for it and quickly said out loud again, to God this time, "sure I'm those great things, because you made me this way".  I'm not taking credit for what God has created, I'm benefiting from it and purrrrrrely enjoying it!  If I am brilliant in the moment, it comes in an inexplicable flash, a moment of connecting with the divine, the God breathed wisdom that the Holy Spirit provides for those that seek Gods face. I am NOT the Divine, I am His beloved created daughter, a minature version of Him in human form, an image of what He is like in spirit and nature, when I so chose to follow Him and His example. Jesus never hesitated or doubted, he cried and bled and felt and transversed the road less travelled and He never once forsook His Father in Heaven, He remained unfaultering and faithful, trusting Himself as God and Son...when He speaks it is with the authority of knowing, Truth in the flesh for all to witness.  If I am at all like Him, I'm alright...better than alright when it is His calling me forth and I am wise enough to follow. 

Surrender To Purpose

With a purpose, a reason for being, there is a life waiting to be discovered, the one each of us is called to live and fulfill. This means that we can not be all things to all people, in all places at any given time...what this day brings, this draws the eye and attention and speaks to current calling. If my heart hears and heeds an urging, to reach out and touch someone, then THAT is the must do, must act, live on purpose cue to action.  In surrender, the sweet wooing voice and gentle nudges of look here, go there, listen, look up, send love, pray replace the I have to's, I should's and I wish I had's.  Free flowing purposeful action is mine and it came from giving up the tight grip of perceived and deceptive control over my environment and my ability to manipulate outcomes if I just try a little harder. Letting go allows flow, I am a wave on the ocean cresting and falling and loving the ride as it takes me where it knows I am meant to go. I am in The Light. 

Warm & Fuzzy

How can I possibly love coaching more every day you ask? The answer is I just can't help it! It's like the best chocolate or best workout or best of the best of whatever you pick! Hearing clients break free from thought traps and chains, knowing that they look at themselves and what they have to offer the world with fresh, wide open eyes of appreciation is a thrill. Feeling and hearing the building of confidence in their voices, and than loving the life affirming stories of steps in personal faith, faith in knowing that they are grand humans with something to say AND an audience waiting to hear them~how can I NOT love coaching? The premise is simple and unmistakable, live life on purpose. I could go into the how's and whys and wherefores of coaching but I think the on purpose part says it all...ok I'll go into it a little. What do you want? What is in the way of you getting it? What are you willing to do to to have what you want? Coaching is the stuff inbetween the questions, it's the answers to each persons burning questions, once asked, then answered that brings a person to purpose. Sometimes those answers are found, become slightly misplaced and are waiting for rediscovery. The longing to know is a good indication that something fantastic is sprouting, waiting to burst forth and break ground and say "I'M RIGHT HERE, LOOK AT ME!". Coaching is one of life's greatest pleasures, it is giving and receiving richly and each time I experience being coach or being coached, I feel a love for my fellow man that wraps me up nice and warm (and fuzzy!). Coaching is good.

Surrender

My friend Keli has been encouraging her coaching clients to pick a word for the year, something to remind them of their intentions.  It got me to thinking, what is my word?  I started out with the word structure, because I want to be less accommodating and more planned. I'll explain. When I don't have scheduled client appointments, I get stuff done, that's at least what it seems like, kinda like fitting in life around work.  Not uncommon, to be sure. The missing part in all this is a plan, a way to know that I am hitting my top priorities, the things I value the most, and ditching the non-essentials whenever and where ever possible.  If I write out my priorities, I get slammed with the reality that they are not always reflected In the choices I make throughout the day.  Days become weeks, weeks become years and we all know how that story goes, I, me and you, we, end up somewhere but we aren't quite sure how we got there and we can't imagine how it happened that we got so far off track.  As soon as I think of structure, I begin to panic and think I must hit my calendar and start planning my time...today, a different word came to me , and it was surrender. Surrender my heart to the good stuff, God, Family, Work & Friends...my plan came without me having to use a calendar of boxes, holding me to a structure, it came in a wave of confirmation that if I "seek yea first the Kindom of Heaven, all else will be added to you". God, I surrender to You, I am Yours. 

Today

The past is just a story we tell ourselves.  I heard this line in a movie and it made me think about how much time I have spent ruminating about the past, a wasted pass time with little return on my investment. The pull of the past has often seemed wrought with regret and thoughts that led to self recrimination.  Do I have happy memories, of course I do, but those aren't the ones that pull me back.  Coaching has changed this in so many ways.  I have learned that my thoughts, feelings are never a mistake, how I express them or have in the past is a reflection of my perspective at the time. With narrowed eyes, vision can be solyptical, rendering the seer unable to look past the self.  All mistakes were horrendous and shameful, torturous to recall and relive, but that was a persepction, not based in reality. The fact of the matter is, mistakes, happy, sad, silly, funny, angry, high and crazy moments of accomplishment all make up the me that learns and grows and evolves and none of it is wrong or right although I have been both many times. It's my intentions that count, the person I know I am that matters. Do no harm, help, heal, hope, love, these have meaning, this is what is significant and is the essence of life.  As my vision broadens, I see the now, the future that awaits, and the past fades and loses its hold with every day I enjoy today.