May 2005

Greetings All –

With spring and summer upon us, it's a great time to think about fun things to join or creative ways to vacation. Not to mention goals you can tackle that you've been putting off for months or even years.

Contact me to discuss ways we might partner to help you put a spit shine on your life or maybe just one area of your life. It might be a few coaching sessions to jumpstart your writing project or perhaps a 12-week life coaching series. As for a creative vacation, try this one on for size: The Taos Writing Salon. Co-directors James Nave and Allegra Huston promise an opportunity to enjoy "amazing conversations, beautiful surroundings, good food and a creative exploration that will engage your writing for months." Call 877.994.8267 for more information and please tell them I sent you!!

Scroll down and enjoy the message.


WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY?

The bride-to-be disappears just days before her wedding. A frantic search ensues. Her fiance, family and friends make public pleas for her safe return. The fiance undergoes a lie detector test and passes. Seemingly miraculously, the missing bride-to-be calls the fiance and says she was kidnapped while jogging. Soon after, she recants, admits she lied. She took a bus to Las Vegas, then went to New Mexico. She couldn't take the pressure of getting married, the big wedding, the hoopla. Who knows what else.

We don't know the bride-to-be and we don't need to in order to take a lesson from her story. Why do we so often fall into line with what others expect of us? Do we convince ourselves the best thing for us is to do is what everyone else is doing? Do we even think about it first? Sometimes we're like robots stumbling through what we see as the preconceived stages of life. College for the sake of college. Marriage for the sake of marriage. Kids for the sake of kids. Instead of college to expand our intellect and overall growth. Marriage because we're in love and want to make a lifetime commitment. Kids because we've given a great deal of thought to parenthood and all the joys and perils that come with it.

Here's a woman who had an impulse to flee and followed it. Think about times you may have been at the point when you've wanted to just bail out. Did you resist the impulse? Or go with it? What was the result? Have you created the life you want up to this point? If you're prone to escapist fantasies, extremes or resentment, the answer is probably no.

Look at your life. Analyze where your time is spent. Rate the areas of your life on a satisfaction scale of 1-10 – relationships, health, career, social life, creativity, travel, money, religion/spirituality, community, organization. Revel in the places you're getting it right and see what areas clearly need work. The idea is not necessarily to go extreme on this, just to gently assess. You are the only one who can make changes in your life. Use this exercise as a wakeup call where you need it.

The alternative? Six hundred people primed for a wedding celebration. Fourteen ushers and bridesmaids at the ready. A radiant groom. Proud parents. And a bride beating it out of town on a bus to Vegas.

Is placating everyone else really worth all that?


Thank you for all the wonderfully supportive feedback on my new website. I am proud and delighted to have it as my showcase. Please visit regularly and check out what's new!