No Kidding

Heading into the holiday weekend, I'm reminded of my earliest memory of cracking a joke and getting a laugh.

As I remember it, I was sitting shoulder to shoulder in a car full of kids (seat belts being optional back then), on our way back from a classmate's birthday party. Out of the blue, one of the kids announced he had a toothache, after which another groaned of a headache, yet another chimed in declaring an earache, and on and on it went. Before long, all major body parts had been claimed. Not wanting to feel left out, I proudly announced I had…an Easter ache! 

That' right, I was telling Dad jokes before there were Dad jokes.

If your intention is to make people laugh, it's easy to gauge how you're doing. The feedback is immediate. But what about other areas of your life? 

Material progress can be tracked, but metrics aren't always clear if what you're working on is less tangible, like leadership skills, decision making, or establishing boundaries. 

My question for you this week is no laughing matter, and it's this: How are you measuring your progress?

Whether you're goal is about asserting yourself as a leader in your field, being more efficient with your spare time, or practicing patience with your back-talking teen, what markers are you looking out for to make sure you're on the right track? How will you stay motivated if it isn't clear that what you're doing is working?

As your coach, I won't set those markers for you. What I will do is help you identify what progress looks like, based on what it is you are trying to achieve. 

Together we will determine what steps you will take, when you will take them, and what the desired outcomes are going to look like along the way. The progress can be slow, the steps are often small, but the gains can still be significant.

Reach out and tell me what it is you're working on, and if developmental coaching might help you get there. There is no charge for a consultation, and I promise it's pain free.

Ready to get hoppin'?

North Star

When I was little, neighborhood friends and I used to wander into the forest behind our house and get lost. We did it on purpose, just for fun, turning the test of finding our way home into sport. Is this what separates the young from the not-so-young? When getting lost is now the opposite of fun?

A few years ago, not long after we moved to New Zealand, I bought my husband a telescope for his birthday.

The telescope turned into a bit of an ordeal. Thinking I had purchased a beginner model that could serve a secondary function of upscale, conversation-worthy living room décor, what we got was delivered in a box the size of a coffin with instructions that required a degree in structural engineering.

Like a true scientist, I turned to the amateur astronomers of YouTube for some homemade tutorials and eventually got our mini-Hubble aligned and ready to go.

Setting up a telescope with an equatorial mount means aligning one axis to the Earth's celestial pole. In our case, it's the South Pole.

For almost a year at that point I had been looking up at the sky, searching for familiar constellations like the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, just as I was taught to do as a kid. But being in the Southern Hemisphere, these constellations aren't visible. It hit me like an asteroid to the head.

My question this week has nothing to do with stars, your sign, or the timing of the next solar eclipse (it's in April). It's this: Where are you now?

Put another way, where are you now in relation to where you want (or need) to be, and what options does that create or eliminate for you?

Are you at the beginning, the middle, or nearing the end of your career? How many more years do you plan to keep working?

How long until your youngest leaves the house?  Then what?

Maybe it's your physical location we can talk about, living in one place but wanting to settle or retire in another. What will it take to get there?  

What's keeping you where you are, both personally and professionally?

As your coach, it's not for me to say where you need to be heading. What I can do is help you get your bearings, and align your plans for the future with where you actually are in the present. Together, we can take a look around you and see what's relevant to the plans you're making. 

After all, I'd hate to see you sitting in the Southern Hemisphere searching hopelessly for the North Star. Been there, done that. 

Ready to get started?