Big picture...little town

I just finished watching Barak's acceptance speech on YouTube. I must admit I was impressed but reluctant to hope. In coaching we work a lot with fulfillment and help people identify and live into their dreams and what they really want. I want our country to live into and realize it's potential so bad I could spit. I am so sick of Bush and his negative crap, that I fear I have been fully infected by the politics of despair. Just as I was writing this, my oldest friend called and we were reminiscing about going to see Bill Clinton give a speech in Albuquerque when he was running for his first term. It was the first time I had any reason to go here a Presidential candidate speak. We both were so hopeful and impressed. But were both disappointed as time passed and he became yet another politician working the machine (or being worked by the machine). I still think he was a great president and is doing great work now. It was just sobering to watch him settle, compromise and waffle. I will just do what I can in my life to make a difference and seek out different opinions, be curious and not judgmental.

So much of what he said resounded with me. Some of it is reflected in the community I have chosen to call home. There is a sense of watching out for each other, in spite of our differences, that he touched on. It's doesn't mean we are best friends or hang out, but we wave, nod and acknowledge each other. Truth be told, we also make fun of each other, shake our heads in disbelief at each others attitudes and choices. Still, we want our town to keeps it's character and wouldn't think of turning our backs on others in need.

As an example, when I first moved here, there was a big fire outside of town. Some structures burned, but no one was hurt. Everyone showed up with flat beds, horse trailers, pick ups, etc to help move treasured belongings out of threatened homes. Didn't matter if you were a hippie, redneck, coal miner or rancher. People set aside their differences to help out. Common good/sense prevailed. It didn't matter that those needed help were a hippie elk farmer, a Realtor or retired investor.

As I am writing, the neighbors (who live in a trailer...) are fighting again...so it certainly isn't paradise, but at least it's real. Think I'll head down to Revolution Brewing...

What is Confluence Coaching?

People have a depth and richness of experience in the lives they lead and the choices they have made. Many people joke that they had several lives. Father, Son, Banker, Construction Worker, Chief Bottle Washer, Class Clown, Solider…

What if you could bring all those lives together; the resonance, the joy, the pain, the grief, the humility, the discord…all of it…into a new and intentional life? A life that is a confluence of the past that made you who you are flowing into the future of who you truly are. Combining to create a life that is full, profound and thunderous. What if you achieved your wildest dreams and then redefined “wild” and realized those? What if you’re relationships had the depth, vibrancy and trust you have been craving?

How would it feel to bring the genuine you to the table, warts and all with an unwavering fierceness? In other words: be unquestionably vulnerable and brilliantly whole.

I have a natural ability to create a safe, fun, exuberant, courageous and irreverent place where we can work together to explore, rage, laugh, contemplate, choose, rearrange and celebrate. A place where no one gets to be wrong and epiphany, intuition and challenge are the currency. Settling, holding back and rationalization are simply not options, they can’t grow here. Life is a trip…set your own course.

(I wrote this at the request of one of my coaches. It was a stream of consciousness exercise. My "woo-woo" coach said I was channeling. All I know is that it came from my soul and it resonates)

First post-How I became a Life Coach aka Life Smackdown!

I am new to blogging...so here goes...

I got into Life Coaching after a series of jobs that featured spectacular rises to power followed by equally dramatic crashes. As in "may day, may day I'm going down, again, in flames" or almost as bad, settling for mind numbing boredom, just waiting to be fired, laid off, anything...

In all fairness to myself and my employers, I still delivered the goods and did a good job. They got their moneys worth and more. Just not the job I was capable of. I could rationalize it all day long, but the bottom line was that I wasn't into it. There was not enough resonance.

My last job ended so disastrously it would make a good episode of Jerry Springer. Drama, tragedy, betrayal, near violence and whole shit load of stupid. On everyone's parts. No one directly involved will be winning any awards for how it was handled.

So the universe finally smacked me upside the head hard enough that I had to pay attention. I decided to have a "mid-life crisis" and figure out what I really wanted to be/do. Much to the relief of my long, suffering wife, who all the time saw my potential and was agonized by my poor career choices.

One note on the term "mid-life crisis". I hate that term. I wasn't in a crisis, I had been stumbling along and wanted to figure out where I wanted to go, have some intention and confidence. From now on, I am calling it a "mid-life review" until I find something catchier and fun.

Like most good things in my life, I got the lead from my wife (she is really smart, not to mention hot). She turned me onto a colleague who became a life coach and thought it would be a good fit. The passion this woman had for coaching was impressive. I was intrigued and unlike other times in my life, actually paid attention to my gut. Short story long, I took the dive and signed up for the core training with the Coaches Training Institute . At age 46 I had another student loan and was starting over.

After the first session I knew I had found my calling. It was so cool it was scary. Little did I know the journey that was ahead of me. All I knew was that if felt like I was home after a long, weird trip. The words from Amazing Grace kept going through my head "I was lost, but now am found". I was also good at it, found it deeply rewarding and, this is important, fun! I don't so much if there is not an aspect of fun to it.

So now I am in a certification program that is taking my coaching to new levels and getting hints of the mastery to come. It is very cool. For the first time in my life, I can't get enough of my work and amazed by the endless opportunities for growth, fun, challenge and learning.