Transitioning from Learning to Living

Mind the Gap
Mind the Gap

Effectively going from learning to living is a juncture full of potential and pitfalls. As I reflect on Israel’s experience, (as recorded in the Bible, Exodus to 2 Chronicles) they were freed from Egypt, led through the wilderness, and taught the law by Moses. I'm sure there was plenty of excitement for living in the Promised Land but they ended up getting stuck in the desert. Even after the 40 years of wandering and the repeated teaching of the law (Deuteronomy), the Israelites experienced many challenges in Canaan. And these challenges eventually resulted in a failed monarchy. So we see that 'Learning to Living', especially in God’s ways, is not something easily achieved. This is most true when we get serious about love - loving God, self, and others. Because to truly love like God, we will need to be whole hearted people. Have you tried it recently? If yes, you know how incredibly and profoundly difficult it is because you WILL encounter conflict and hostility along the way; you know, the things that cause you to spiral out of control and drive you to your unrelational coping mechanisms. If not, nothing else needs to be said, lol! We need help and lots of it. And we need to be intentional about rallying this help because it can be a real battle against enemies like busyness, distractions, and fatigue. And let’s not forget the emotional ones (the real nasties) like fear, worry, and discouragement. Like any huge endeavor, a team is absolutely necessary.

A coach should be an essential member of your team. He or she will help you grow clarity, courage, and accountability. With a coach, you have a partner skilled in listening, questioning, and trust building – the exploration tools which will keep you focused on vision, mission, values, and actions to live out what you've learned.

Why Get Coached?

life-coach-change-1
life-coach-change-1

As you looking over that cloud of aspirations, which ones really resonate with you? Many leaders, companies, and media sources are discovering the power and value of life and executive coaching. This following list of quotes is taken from International Christian Coaching Association's website, http://iccaonline.net/2014/01/02/everyone-in-the-media-is-talking-about-coaching/

"Everyone in the Media is talking about Coaching!"

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Dwight

“You will never maximize your potential in any area without COACHING. It is impossible. You may be good. You may even be better than everyone else. But without outside input you will never be as good as you could be.” – Andy Stanley

“If you want to build your business and at the same time have a rewarding personal life, you call a coach.” – Denver Post

“Today’s managers, professionals and entrepreneurs are hiring coaches to help them with time management, a change in career or balancing their work and personal lives.” – Fortune Magazine

“Who, exactly, seeks out a coach? Winners who want even more out of life.” – Chicago Tribune

“Got a nagging feeling that your life could be more fulfilling? Want to change direction but aren’t sure how to do it? Here’s how to jump start your new life today? Hire a personal coach.”- Modern Maturity Magazine

“People who want to stand out at work or face a job crisis increasingly turn to career coaches.” – The Wall Street Journal

“The number of executives hiring personal coaches is rocketing as more and more professionals turn to outside help for advice in how to manage their day, dollars, employee’s, develop better leadership skills and maximize effectiveness.”- London Evening Standard

“Recent studies show business coaching and executive coaching to be the most effective means for achieving sustainable growth, change and development in the individual, group and organization.” – HR Monthly, (published by The Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI)

“If you’re thinking of overhauling your career to achieve a more fulfilling life, consider joining the estimated 100,000 Americans who annually enlist the help of a personal coach each year.” - Money Magazine

“Managers that underwent a managerial training program showed an increased productivity of 22.4%. However, a second group was provided coaching following the training process and their productivity increased by 88%. Research does demonstrate that one-on-one executive coaching is of value.” – Public Personnel Management Journal

“Coaching is an action-oriented partnership that, unlike psychotherapy which delves into patterns of the past, concentrates on where you are today and how you can reach your goals.” – Time Magazine

“Once used to bolster troubled staffers, coaching now is part of the standard leadership development training for elite executives and talented up-and-comers at IBM, Motorola, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and Hewlett Packard. These companies are discreetly giving their best prospects what star athletes have long had: a trusted adviser to help reach their goals.” – CNN.com

“People are looking to coaches as sounding boards and motivators who can offer a fresh perspective on career and life problems – but without the conflicting agendas of a spouse, family member, or even a mentor.” – Fortune Magazine

“How do you define success? For some, obviously, success means money. Others rate emotional happiness as being more important. Yet others rate popularity above all else. Regardless of how you define success, an emerging specialty called ‘success coaching’ (also known as personal and professional coaching) offers the chance to visualize your highest goals and stay on track to achieve them.” – Central New York Business Journal

“For years, business people have used corporate coaches to help their companies work more effectively. Now, an increasing number of individuals are turning to coaches for help in finding balance in their personal lives.” - The Spokane Spokesman Review

“Coaching can certainly help you strengthen your sense of self-worth, focus on your goals – and get there, fast.” - The London Daily Telegraph

“The hottest thing in management is the executive coach – part boss, part consultant, part therapist. Coaches are everywhere these days…Corporate coaches are in such demand that they can charge from $600 to $2,000 a month for three or four 30- to 60-minute phone conversations.” – Fortune Magazine

“Coaching is not about the past or figuring out why and how life got so complicated or overwhelming. It is about moving forward on the things that matter most to you, dissolving barriers and blocks to your own success, and designing a life that you love. A personal coach is better than a best friend.” – Sausalito Networking, Inc.

“Part consultant, part motivational speaker, part therapist, and part rent-a-friend, coaches work with managers, entrepreneurs, and just plain folks, helping them define and achieve their goals – career, personal, or most often, both.” – Newsweek Magazine

“Coaching started in the business world to help stressed out executives cope with their professional and personal lives, and it still thrives in the corporate environment. But, increasingly, individuals are turning to coaches for help with every sort of problem.”- Boston Globe

“Coaching is the number two growth industry right behind IT (Information Technology) jobs, and it’s the number one home based profession.”- Entrepreneur StartUps Magazine

“Coaches aren’t just for sports: They goad you, guide you on the road to success” – Seattle Times

“Coaching simply speeds up a process of change that would most likely occur anyway if an individual had enough time. Without a coaching program that forces a client to focus and make time, people sometimes miss the real issues they need to focus on.” – The Ivy Business Journal

“Part therapist, part consultant, part motivational expert, part professional organizer, part friend, part nag – the personal coach seeks to do for your life what a personal trainer does for your body.” – Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune

“No matter how strong a person mentally is, without proper mental nourishment he or she will crumble. Personal coaching is one of the best ways to help you get that nourishment and to keep you stay focused.” – BeingLive.com

“In the next few years, coaching will become the norm in the business world.” – Washington Post

“What exactly is a coach? Part personal consultant, part sounding board, part manager. For a surprising number of people, it is now the coach – not the boss – who pushes them to hire, to fire, to fine-tune a sales pitch, to stretch.” – Fortune Magazine

“At a time when companies are downsizing and at a time when boomers are facing retirement, coaches are easing traumatic transitions.” – Long Beach Press-Telegram

“A coach maybe the guardian angel you need to rev up your career.” – Money Magazine

“The goal of coaching is the goal of good management – to make the most of an organization’s valuable resources.”- Harvard Business Review

“Coaching usually refers to a relationship between an individual and a trained professional who work on a set of pre-defined objectives with the aim of achieving particular goals or targets. Coaching protagonists believe that as a result of this relationship, greater results can be achieved and an individual can go on to do things that would otherwise have been impossible.” – Journal of Management Development

“Coaches are everywhere these days. Companies hire them to shore up executives or, in some cases, to ship them out. Division heads hire them as change agents. Workers at all levels of the corporate ladder are taking matters into their own hands and enlisting coaches for guidance on how to improve their performance, boost their profits, and make better decisions about everything from personnel to strategy.” – Fortune Magazine

“The leaders of organizations such as Alcoa, American Red Cross, AT&T, Ford, Northwestern Mutual Life, 3M, UPS, American Standard, the federal governments of the United States and Canada are convinced that coaching works to develop people and increase productivity.” – C2M: The Journal of Management Consulting

“Across corporate America, coaching sessions at many companies have become as routine for executives as budget forecasts and quota meetings.”- Investor’s Business Daily

“To get the most out of yourself you need to tune yourself regularly, just like a musical instrument needs regular tuning. Personal coaching is one of the best ways to help you improve yourself and stay focused.” – BeingLive.com

“The demand for Executive Coaches has skyrocketed over the past 5 years- today’s executive coach is intended to help leaders and potential leaders across the rocky, wild, and challenging road of organizational growth in today’s dynamic and unstable work environment.” – The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

“Asked for a conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from the coaching they got, these managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the coaching had cost their companies.” – Fortune Magazine

“I absolutely believe that people unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities.” – Bob Nardelli, former CEO, Home Depot

“What’s really driving the boom in coaching, is this: as we move from 30 miles an hour to 70 to 120 to 180? As we go from driving straight down the road to making right turns and left turns to abandoning cars and getting on motorcycles? The whole game changes, and a lot of people are trying to keep up, learn how not fall off.” – John Kotter, Harvard Business School

“We’ve done lots of research over the past three years, and we’ve found that leaders who have the best coaching skills have better business results.” – Tanya Clemens, V.P. of Global Executive & Organizational Development at IBM

“I never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching process to draw out the skills or talent that was previously hidden within an individual, and which invariably finds a way to solve a problem previously thought unsolvable,” – John Russell, Harley-Davidson Europe Ltd.

“People who are coached will be the norm because other people won’t get promoted.” – Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric

“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” – Timothy Gallwey, author

“Corporations believe that coaching helps keep employees and that the dollar investment in it is far less than the cost of replacing an employee.”- David A. Thomas, Harvard Business School

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I hope this gives you the nudge to try out Family Connections Coaching. Experience growth in your profession and more importantly, in your relationships. It is an invaluable investment that will produce highly significant and satisfying returns, financially yes but more importantly, with the people who mean the most to you to have a life you love!

Getting Clear About Wants And What's Best

Getting clear is so essential, especially when it comes to what we should want for our families. With our demanding careers, busy schedules, children’s education, extracurricular activities, do we really know what we should want for those who are most precious to us? It’s been said that good is the enemy of the best (or somethin’ like that). Good job, good kids, good grades, good life…but what might be the very best? Could we be missing out on it as we strive for the bazillion good things we’re striving for?

In other words, “What’s most important?” We need clarity on our vision and core values. We do this for business. Why don't we do it for our families? We promised our spouses, till death do us part. I hope we never make that vow to our work!

And along the same lines, “What’s most important right now?” Here, we need clarity on our mission. What we do daily that will get us to our vision of the future we desire. Most people only think about the tangibles but if we courageously desire the best, we must give equal or more attention to the intangibles. That won't happen without getting clear about what we want and knowing how to weed out the good to get to the very best.

Get clear about wants
Get clear about wants

I'd be interested in hearing what you think is most important and what's most important right now. No clue? No problem, message me and let's talk.

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Why Be Vulnerable? Part 3

Freedom-in-heart-Vulnerability_edited-1
Freedom-in-heart-Vulnerability_edited-1

Why do we need to be vulnerable? Because we need to be free!

Stop and think about what controls you, hangups and habits that consume your time and money, while alienating you from others, God, and even yourself. Need some help? Here's a bunch:

Anger

Coffee

Finger drumming

Ice cream

Pets

Self-improvement

Approval

Comparisons

Fishing

Images of God

Pimple squeezing

Sex

Attractiveness

Competence

Food

Intimacy

Pistachio nuts

Shoplifting

Art

Competition

Friends

Jealousy

Pizza

Sleeping

Being good

Computers

Furniture

Knowledge

Politics

Soft drinks

Being helpful

Contests

Gambling

Lying

Popcorn

Sports

Being loved

Death

Gardening

Marriage

Popularity

Status

Being nice

Depression

Golf

Meeting expectations

Potato chips

Stock market

Being taken care of

Dreams

Gossiping

Memories

Power

Stress

Calendars

Drinking

Groups

Messiness

Psychotherapy

Sunbathing

Candy

Drugs

Guilt

Money

Punctuality

Suspiciousness

Cars

Eating

Hair twisting

Movies

Reading

Talking

Causes

Envy

Happiness

Music

Relationships

Television

Chewing gum

Exercise

Hobbies

Nail biting

Responsibility

Time

Children

Fame

Housekeeping

Neatness

Revenge

Tobacco

Chocolate

Family

Humor

Parents

Scab picking

Weight

Cleanliness

Fantasies

Hunting

Performance

Seductiveness

Winning

Self-image

Work

Worthiness

Need more? Maybe you've got ones that you deathly try to avoid:

Airplanes

Boredom

Dirt

Intimacy

People who are addicted

Slimy creatures

Anchovies

Bridges

Disapproval

Mice

People who are competent

Snakes

Anger

Bugs

Doctors

Needles

People who are fat / thin

Spiders

Animals

Cats

Embarrassment

Open spaces

People who are ignorant

Storms

Being abnormal

Closed-in spaces

Evil spirits

Pain

People who are neat / messy

Strangers

Being alone

Commitment

Failure

People of different beliefs

People who are rich / poor

Success

Being discounted

Conflict

Fire

People of different class

Public speaking

Tests

Being fat

Crowds

Germs

People of different culture

Rats

Traffic

Being judged

Darkness

Guilt

People of different politics

Rejection

Tunnels

Being overwhelmed

Death

High places

People of different race

Responsibility

Vulnerability

Being thin

Dentists

Illness

People of different religion

Sex

Water

Being tricked

Dependence

Independence

People of different sex

Sharp instruments

Writing

Birds

Blood

If any of these inhibit human freedom (yours or others), they are stopping you from loving in the way that God commands, not suggests but COMMANDS. Why do we need to get vulnerable? To be free from these addictions and be able to give real attention to truly important things, like the things that are killing our marriages, our kids, our communities, and even our nation. There is so much time and money wasted on things that rob us of real life, love, and family.  Worst of all, addictions are directly related to depression. And when we're depressed, we aren't able to connect - the very thing for which we're hard wired for. What would life be like if people were free from those deleterious attachments which stops them from daring to love greatly for the betterment of mankind?

Where will liberation come from? Those who follow in the steps of Jesus Christ, those who humbly deny themselves, courageously take up vulnerability (the cross), and follow Jesus to empathetically redeem those lost in shame and despair, ie. addictions. By the cross, Jesus said to the despicable, "I get you and I love you. With Me, in Me, and through Me, you can be healed and strengthened to be all that My Father desires!" We need to be vulnerable to Jesus and the Father's will for us. Through embracing / owning our shame and despair with Christ, we get on the road to restoration and renewal. And even greater and more complete is our freedom and healing when we help others do the same.

Perfect love is God's destination for mankind. This life is a journey of choices which either free us towards that place or keeps us enslaved to imperfect love, which ultimately is not love at all but selfishness and evil. When we fail to be vulnerable, we are choosing to be slaves. When we courageously choose vulnerability, we are daring to fight for freedom which is actually a big part of being free.

Why do we need to be vulnerable? So we can deal with the stuff that God has shined the light on (check out the lists again) - the nongod things that control us and stop us from the freedom to love as He loves.

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."  Galatians 5:1

That's great reason to be vulnerable and it also happens to be what empowers great coaching to happen!

God wants to leverage you!

Have you ever done something where the results were better than what you expected? How did that come about? Luck? God showed up? Coincidence?

Usually it happens when the thing we did lined up with who we are. When we engage in activities that draw from our inherent value and worth, we will experience better than expected results.

But why should we focus on ourselves like this? Well, better than expected outcomes are not only about our satisfaction but actually, they are indicators of our calling. God did not wonderfully create us only to benefit ourselves. We have profound purpose which is intended to bring meaningful blessing to those around us and even the world. We all have a transcendent calling. This calling becomes clear when our inherent value and worth (our design / purpose) connect with the significant needs of the world. Our passion driven skills are channels for inspiration, redemption, and transformation. It is essential to really know who you are, what you're worth, and what your life is intended to be about, so that you can show up in the world to do according to what you were made for.

What can one person do? God showed how He can leverage one person through His Son, Jesus Christ. Yes, He was and is divine but the Bible reveals that He is the first-fruit of God's renewal of mankind. God showed what happens when His Word becomes flesh and blood - it changes the world! Through Christ, we too can be part of God's renewal of all things; we are the harvest of which Jesus was the first-fruit. And this harvest is exactly what God intends to leverage for His purposes.

So practically, how do we become a lever for God? The answer plain and simple - abide in Christ. Remain in Him. The times where we experience better than expected results are when we have abided in Him. The times when we get lost and out of control are when we decide to do things outside of who He is, one fully loved and accepted by God the Father. Those times are when we forget the precious truth and listen to lies which tell us we're not enough, we're alone, we're small and insignificant, that no one cares. Those moments are the ones that kill us. Those lies make us feel angry, betrayed, hostile, depressed, dejected, and painfully lonely. When we listen to those lies and believe them, we are not abiding in grace and truth. So this actually brings us to the place where we must decide what do we really believe and what are we going to choose - life or death? This is a critical junction because it will determine whether we live out our high calling or resort to die for the lie.

So it does boil down to belief. We're saved by grace (God's part) through faith (our part) so that God can leverage us, the real us, hidden in Christ but revealed as we daily abide in Him. Because we may have heard this message too many times, it seems too simple. But don't mistaken simple for easy. It isn't easy. Real belief in Jesus and abiding in Him when the other voices are screaming at us, is serious, heavy lifting. It is being in the war zone of our own liberation, bullets / arrows are flying all around us. It requires incredible courage and compassion to navigate this battle field. It can't be done without prayer and it can't be done alone without another person in whom the Word (ie. Jesus, God's grace and truth) is becoming flesh. We will need to revisit painful, shameful history but with divine objectivity in order to see things truthfully rather than through the bitter, deceitful lens of atheism. We all have that lens and use it when the persecuting voices raise their ugly heads. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us authentic objectivity to view human pain and shame as things to embrace because of their ability to drive us towards perfect love and freedom. When we courageously and vulnerably risk to believe in this amazing truth, the real us shows up.

This is God's passion! He wants to leverage you because He knows if / when the real you shows up, you are not only in His image, but your heart, soul, mind, and strength will be one with His and together, the two of you will continue to do things with better than expected results!

"When You came down long ago, You did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how the mountains quaked! For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!"       Isaiah 64:3-4

Why be vulnerable? ...continued

Why be vulnerable? Because we need to be connected! Connections are absolutely essential for life. If we're not connected, we die or we are dying. For obvious reasons, we need to be connected to things like food and shelter. To make a living, we need to be connected to sources of monetary income. But more importantly, since we are more than just a body, we need to be connected to people so that our insides (mind, soul, emotions) are getting what we need to be healthy. Most importantly, we need to be connected to a place where we often overlook or maybe totally ignore: our passion and identity (our spirit). If we're going to live dynamic lives of love, we seriously need to be connected to that level of being. That also happens to be the place where God wants to connect with us. Whether we believe it or not, our passion and identity are places of great creativity, change and innovation. It really behooves us to tap into that tremendous resource, especially in the areas of greatest challenge, the places where we are stuck and can't seem to find a solution. Maybe it's a goal or project at work. Perhaps it is an ongoing tension / conflict with our spouse. Or, it is with our adolescent child whom we can't figure out at all. Or maybe, we have a huge dream that will transform the world! In every one of us, there is the potential for benevolent, transcendent greatness because we are created in the image of God. But often it is not realized because something (ie. fear, shame, etc.) prevents us from going to the source of all transformation. That's where vulnerability comes in. It is the way to effectively and consistently get free from the things that get us stuck, that cause us to spiral out of control. We need to be vulnerable to restore our ruptures, renew our attitudes, and reframe our motives/ challenges to move forward in the most meaningful areas of our lives. Being vulnerable is the only way we will reconnect on a regular basis with those deep places of the heart and gut to give real attention and care to others and ourselves.

Today (+/- a week), if we're honest about what's been really going on inside us, what emotions might we find? If nothing comes up, it's probably because we're on some kind of anesthetic. To not feel the  stress, pain, fear, disappointment, and despair, we've excessively worked, shopped,  played, eaten, drank, or medicated ourselves to numb the bad feelings. Why be vulnerable? So we can be aware of what we've been feeling, good or bad, in order to get better connected to reality. Once aware, we have opportunity for great courage to go where we need to go to find healing and freedom! Then we are in the land of the living and being alive means we can give attention to what's going on, to enjoy, to repair, to prioritize, to change what we do and even who we are.

Will you embrace vulnerability? Take emotional risks in the midst of uncertainty, and exposure. It will fuel our daily lives with real strength, security, and significance as we get deeply, meaningfully connected to God and others.  Vulnerability is the greatest expression of courage and love. No wonder it is the birthplace of creativity, innovation, change. In its absence, we become vain and desperate as our efforts to find satisfaction and happiness become futile.

Why be vulnerable? It gets us to talk about shame, to get it into the open and take away its hold on us. When we courageously expose what we are ashamed of (to people we trust),  we can know what's really stopping us from being who we really are to pursue what we were made for. According to Dr. Brene Brown, we have to walk through the swamplands of our souls. It's the scary, dirty, messy place where  we may feel we are a mistake, that we're never going to be good enough, or perhaps we'll hear accusations of "Who do you think you are?" All that tries to make us feel small and weak, driving us to hide the shameful person we believe ourselves to be.

If we could confront these accusations with courage, compassion, and connection, we could live whole hearted lives to experience ingenious creativity, dynamic innovation, and healing change for ourselves and those we live with. The important things become truly important and we are free to give them their due attention and care.

If we don't get vulnerable, we are on the road to becoming a person who lacks the ability to connect and empathize. The destination of that road is being a sociopath, a person with no capacity to care for another human being. He / she will destroy self and others without remorse. Why would we even want to be near that road (which leads to hell)? That is a downward spiral leading to hopelessness and utter confusion and chaos. We need to be vulnerable because it is the upward path of belief and love. It is the way to desiring and receiving the ultimate freedom for which Christ died and rose.

The precious people we touch with our lives are in dire need for us to be courageous, compassionate, and connecting. They may or may not be aware of this incredible need but it's there. God made all of us with desire for closeness and warmth, not distance and cold isolation. He also gave us the mysterious gift of pain to drive us to each other. Vulnerability enables us to properly use these 2 gifts to meet our loved ones needs. He has both demonstrated and commanded this in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why should we be vulnerable? Lastly, because it opens us up to God's grace which frees and empowers us to be wise peacemakers, like Him. What does the Gospel of grace tell us but to believe we are infinitely loved by God who did everything to reconcile us to Himself, justifying our worth on the sole basis of Jesus' death and resurrection, a two fold act where He vulnerably embraced our shame, embodying our sicknesses and mortality, only to overcome it all by being raised from the dead. Through faith in the Peacemaker and His peace making act, we become children of God. We are reborn from a belief focused on the vulnerable God-Man, the Prince of Peace. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Following Christ's footsteps, we are most like our Father in heaven when we courageously make peace by taking the risks to boldly go where pride tries to prohibit, where lust tries to lead us away from, and where fear attempts to force us to deny. It is exactly where Jesus went as He healed the blind, lame, and diseased. It is exactly where Jesus went emotionally while on the cross. It is where He desires to minister to us today by the power of the Holy Spirit. Be vulnerable and get connected!

Why be vulnerable?

Today, a friend (thanks brother J) sent me a video link to Brene Brown talking about the power of vulnerability. Right here if you're interested: Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability What a great way to start my Friday! Here's some thoughts I took away.

Vulnerability is divinely powerful; like raise-the-dead powerful.

It may not be of interest to everyone, but those who desire to live wholeheartedly will resonate deeply with this. If we want to be true to who we are, we must be fiercely vulnerable. For to be vulnerable is to be truly alive. What will it take to be vulnerable?  Brene shared 3 C's - courage, compassion, and connection. I love how she unpacked them:

Courage: Telling your true life story with your whole heart; having the courage to be imperfect.

Compassion: Having compassion for yourself; treating yourself kindly in light of your imperfections / mistakes / failures, ie. things that cause you shame.

Connection -  from wanting to be authentic, letting go of who you should be in order to be who you are.

My addition to her thoughts about connection is who we are is infinitely greater than who we think we should be. This is Jesus' call to discipleship. "If anyone comes after Me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me." Denying self is letting go of who you think you should be. Picking up the cross is embracing vulnerability. Following Him is becoming who God made you to be, the real you. Think about that. Today, there is someone hidden by your lack of vulnerability. But when you become vulnerable, that someone is brought to life and you discover that is who you really are, and it's not who you think you should be. You are actually so much more than your limited ideas of yourself!

Fully embrace vulnerability; what makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful and Christlike. Willingness to say I love you first. Do something where there are no guarantees. Invest in a relationship that may or may not work out. Wow, that is so real. Thanks Brene for helping me see.

"Vulnerability is the core of shame and fear and struggle for worthiness;  but also the birthplace of joy, love, and creativity." Brene, you are genius!

Brene went on to share that as she learned this, she had a breakdown which actually was a spiritual awakening. Funny, this just happens to match what Jesus taught in His Sermon on the Mount when He listed 8 attitudes for God's ultimate blessing. The first 3 identify the need to realize one's true spiritual condition, mourn and grieve it, then surrender to what God has shown you to be true about yourself and Him. Doesn't that sound like a breakdown, lol? It's amazing how this happened to a highly educated, intelligent, and extremely humorous 'research story teller', (that's how Brene wanted to professionally identify herself).

We can try to fight this universal power of vulnerability, but in the end, we will lose, like 6 feet-under kind of lose. Some of us fight by trying to numb vulnerability by getting into debt, becoming obese, or falling to addictions. But all that ends up happening is we become disconnected from reality. Others of us try to make uncertainty certain; we're driven to control and organize to get rid of the discomfort of chaos. And many of us blame as a way to discharge pain and discomfort. But in this fight, if we can lose to vulnerability while we are still breathing, we will win our lives back from denial, numbing lifestyles, pretension, hypocrisy!

So how do we lose to vulnerability? Just believe.

Each and every day, vulnerability is inviting us to believe the truth that 'You are worthy of love and belonging.' Vulnerability sure sounds like Jesus, the God and Savior which the Bible talks about.

Today, let yourself be seen, deeply seen. Love with your whole heart. Practice gratitude and joy.

Believe you are enough, even for God to sacrifice His only true Son for your forgiveness.

What does this have to do with coaching? It's the very thing that empowers the relationship to achieve your greatest, most meaningful goals. Any goal. The greatest life is lived when we are fiercely true to who we are. When our thinking is aligned with our passions and true identity, we will greatly inspire and impact this world with courage, compassion, and connection!

A potential first coaching conversation might involve...

  1. Your story
  2. What's worked well for you that has moved you forward? (i.e. faith, habits, traits, skills, relationships, etc.)
  3. What obstacles have hindered you?
  4. Who are your heroes? What do you admire about them?
  5. Are you big picture or detailed?
  6. Where are you headed in life? What goals do you have?
  7. What are you hoping to get out of coaching?
  8. What else do I need to know about you to effectively coach you?
  9. What do you need to know about me to better coach you?
  10. Are you interested? Send me a message [contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]

Why get clear?

Clarity will... Deepen and enrich your relationships!

Unlock your potential to maximize learning and impact!

Overcome challenges!

Empower you to achieve your most meaningful goals!

Grow your faith and life from the heart!

Free you to be and do what you were made for!

A great example is sunlight. This single, common energy provides so much for all of life. We're able to live and thrive to make the earth a beautiful and hospitable place to be and do. The clarity it gives us is not only visual but emotional. With the exception of extreme heat, the warmth of the sun creates a safe and comfortable environment which allows us to go about the businesses of life.