My horoscope for today reads: Everything, even the air you breathe, is a gift. This is all very much in keeping with what I have been reading and studying and preparing to go ahead with, and it makes me think that the Universe is in tune with me, or rather, vice versa, and is telling me to go ahead and do what I want to do. I have been studying the method of Appreciative Inquiry in business coaching, and Appreciative Living to use in my coaching practice with individuals. I have learned why in our practice, we say "Words create worlds", because our lives and how we see them is created around the stories we tell about it.
If you have two people who have seen the same accident, and one is horrified by it and its surroundings and its outcomes and aftermath, and one who sees it and is heartened by all the people who rushed in to help, and to bring comfort to the victim's family, do you have two people who saw different occurrances, or do you have two people who saw the occurrance through different lenses? What we focus on becomes our reality, and while there might be both a positive and negative to every situation, it is what we choose to focus on that sets the stage for us. "We do not see things as they are, but as we are" to quote Anais Nin. One of the things I am learning is that our reality is created as we speak of it, so if we focus on what was good, if we keep in mind what we want more of in our lives, and when we concentrate on our strengths and how we contributed to making the situation more of what we want, we are already looking through more positive lenses.
When I am angry, or sad, or disillusioned, or, I am learning to think "what is the good in this situation?" It is a very gradual process, and I don't yet always find what is good, yet. But since I am already immediately looking for the good, I am sure to begin to learn to find it.
Starting with my horoscope today was not accidental. It reminded me that I have resolved to keep a small gratitude notebook. I refrain from calling it a journal, because it connotes more of a commitment than I am willing to commit to. On a page, marked from Monday through Sunday, I have committed three spaces for things from each day that I am grateful. I take from 3-5 minutes, and I have committed to doing it at the same time each day in order to make it a habit. So for today, being reminded that the air that I breathe is a gift, I am grateful for that. The other two things that I am grateful for today is the pleasant lunch that I shared with my husband and daughters in a favorite old haunt that we haven't been to in a long time. Having grown daughters, it is not always possible to meet together as a family for a meal. And the third is that while we have been worried about health concerns of loved ones, some things are looking up.
So, I am asking my readers to start a gratitude notebook, committing only 3-5 minutes to some things you have to be grateful for, and putting a more positive turn on your outlook. Remember, it is a slow process to view life appreciatively, because we are natural problem solvers, but we get more of what we concentrate on, so concentrate on what you are grateful for and see what happens.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Sorry I've been gone so long
You've been on my mind, and I've been thinking about so many things. Right now, my family is going through some rough terrain, but keeping in mind that things can always be worse, and having a sense of gratitude for our strengths, our happiness in spite of rough times, our ability to pull together is making the way a bit lighter.
I am an appreciative inquiry coach and I can help you, with the use of a simple blueprint, embrace change in the most positive ways, in ways that will enhance everything you do by building on what is already working well for you.
Do you reinvent the wheel for every new endeavor? No, of course you don’t. Think of all the changes you have made in your life without even thinking about them: the change from baby to toddler. You didn’t dwell on the fact that you fell down after you took your first step, did you? You built on that successful experience until walking was an automatic activity. How about when you changed from pre-school to Kindergarten? New school, new teacher, maybe new kids—what did you do? You took what you knew that worked and built on it. You said Hi to the kid on the playground, and you played the games you already know how to play and perhaps used some of the skills you had learned at other games to get good at the new ones. College was pretty different from high school, but again, you used some of the skills you learned there to fit in, to pass tests, to party. Think of all the life changes you have made, single to married, couple to parent, perhaps employee to entrepreneur or even to job hunter.
Some of those changes encourage us to accentuate the positive, like using what you already know from experience to solidify a promotion, and some of those changes make us think of ourselves as losers, like a job loss.
By using the four step process of Appreciative Inquiry, you can positively influence the way your organization does business, and the way your family relates to each other. If you would like the widgets you manufacture to do better in the marketplace, there is an approach you can use to get you there. If you would like your family to wee life from a happier perspective, there are ways you can do that. Stick with me and I will help.
The only inevitability in life is change. How do you approach the changes in your life? With fear and loathing? Or standing on the shoulders of your successes? Each forward step we take in life, in time, in space, involves change from the time and place before. How have you learned to deal with that change?
I am an appreciative inquiry coach and I can help you, with the use of a simple blueprint, embrace change in the most positive ways, in ways that will enhance everything you do by building on what is already working well for you.
Do you reinvent the wheel for every new endeavor? No, of course you don’t. Think of all the changes you have made in your life without even thinking about them: the change from baby to toddler. You didn’t dwell on the fact that you fell down after you took your first step, did you? You built on that successful experience until walking was an automatic activity. How about when you changed from pre-school to Kindergarten? New school, new teacher, maybe new kids—what did you do? You took what you knew that worked and built on it. You said Hi to the kid on the playground, and you played the games you already know how to play and perhaps used some of the skills you had learned at other games to get good at the new ones. College was pretty different from high school, but again, you used some of the skills you learned there to fit in, to pass tests, to party. Think of all the life changes you have made, single to married, couple to parent, perhaps employee to entrepreneur or even to job hunter.
Some of those changes encourage us to accentuate the positive, like using what you already know from experience to solidify a promotion, and some of those changes make us think of ourselves as losers, like a job loss.
By using the four step process of Appreciative Inquiry, you can positively influence the way your organization does business, and the way your family relates to each other. If you would like the widgets you manufacture to do better in the marketplace, there is an approach you can use to get you there. If you would like your family to wee life from a happier perspective, there are ways you can do that. Stick with me and I will help.
I am promising here and now to help you learn how to make change more successful. I will be publishing a minimum of once a week, so watch for me and learn how to tackle life in a new way.
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