It’s my pleasure to welcome you to my way of staying in touch. This is my first blog entry and I hope we will be spending much time together.
If you are here, it’s because you share a love of growth and adventure. I’ve chosen to use the Inuksuk image as a symbol of your time on the path. The Inuksuk points the way, protecting you from getting lost as you move ahead. While there are many paths for different times in our lives, there are ways to figure out if your current one is authentic for this particular time.
Taking risks to begin a new path can be overwhelming and scary. We usually appreciate the familiar, the status quo. When what we have and who we are is no longer working as before, the courageous look ahead and make a commitment to try something else.
The people I work with are often part way out the door of one life and wondering what’s next. You’ve probably experienced those times when you lack investment in your current work, relationship or lifestyle. I remind people that it’s much easier to know what you don’t want than what you do.
People are hungry to discover what’s best for them, but the process can be messy. William Bridges of Transitions calls this in-between time the “neutral zone”, when you’ve left one chapter and haven’t found the next. It is similar to the trapeze artist who has let go of one swing and hasn’t yet grabbed onto the other.
The thrill that comes from finding a great fit in career and in life makes all the hard work and uncertainty worth the effort. So I encourage you to take the first step.
This year I participated in a coach training program based on the book Becoming a Life Change Artist by Fred Mandell and Kathleen Jordan. One exercise to increase focus and clarity is to make a collage representation of your current life by pasting images, words and objects to a poster board. When completed, you can take a photo of that Current Life Collage.
Then think ahead toward the horizon of your future life. What is different there? What’s important to include and eliminate? When you have a vision of what’s desired, make another collage of how life looks in one, two or five years. Take a photo of this Future Collage.
My clients find this vision board provides a structure for where changes need to be made. Continue to use a collage as a living guidepost which develops as your desires do. Just like with clothing, we have to try on many options before we are pleased with the results. Our interests and ambitions continually change as we grow and develop.
Feel free to send me the photos of your collages and notes on what they express. Stretch yourself more by creating an original mantra for your future, like “the best is yet to come” or “I can do anything”. Find ways to stretch and surprise yourself.
See you on the path!
