When you look back on your life, how do you answer the question: “Have I done what’s important for me to have done in my life?” Or the question: “Am I absolutely satisfied with the results of what I have created in my life?”

If the answer is “Yes”…good for you!

If not…it’s not too late to remedy the problem.

First, you must be aware that you may not have accomplished all the things, or the types of things, you want to accomplish. The sense of having accomplished what you want to have accomplished may not look the way you might immediately assume it will, if that assessment is based on the most common definitions of “accomplishment”. This is what we call potentially “barking up the wrong tree!”

We tend to think of accomplishments as having to do with getting ahead in the business world, setting and attaining certain income goals, acquiring lots of…or at least “enough”…possessions to feel we have “made it.” At least we may think this way if we are not sufficiently enlightened to prioritize well, because…

These assumptions related to accomplishments may not be accurate. We may need to re-visit these concepts so that we are truly accomplishing the things that really, really matter!

Once we have flipped the switch of awareness regarding what we are focusing on in our lives, and where our energy is going, we are in a great place to make better decisions about what types of endeavors, activities, and relationships we are nurturing, and the direction our lives are going.

In shifting our thoughts and actions to what the vision for our lives truly is, we significantly reduce the risk of looking back on our lives with regret and with statements of “what if…” and “if only…” when it may be too late to make significant change…ie: death bed…or just before we realize we are senile…if that’s possible to know!

So pay attention to your life direction!  Re-assess if need be and change what needs to be changed. You won’t regret it, I promise!

Coach Char

Guiding You to Grow Your Legacy…One Blog at a Time!

Life is a puzzle…sometimes it feels complex and confusing, and sometimes so simple and unremarkable as to seem single faceted and uninteresting (ie: boring!)

Guidance and direction can be helpful in maneuvering through this adventure called life.

This can be especially true the closer we get to the time in our lives (age 50 ) when we contemplate what THE SECOND HALF of our lives will bring, as kids leave the home, as our own parents continue to age, and are perhaps in more need of our assistance and support, as we consider the possibility of stopping the work we are doing and begin to think about filling our days with new careers & passions long dormant…perhaps here-to-for alive only in our dreams , volunteer endeavors, hobbies, etc.

So much to think about!  So much potential for life transformation! WHAT A PERFECT TIME for a perfectly wonderful transformation!

I can help you navigate through it all and assist you in creating the life you want out of all the chaos, confusion, jumbled dreams, and myriads of possibilities, perceived obligations, emotionally draining beliefs about what is possible and what is impossible to attain for yourself before your life is over and done!

There are important aspects of life to consider as we move into this period of life. Let’s consider them one at a time…and see how they all fit into a retirement that brings joy and fullness to our lives!

REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE BORN? Well , probably not…but, in looking back on it now, you can probably recall that what you valued most at that time was making sure you had warm milk, a warm body to snuggle against, and a dry diaper to avoid a rash.

THEN YOU GREW, and became a toddler, and what you valued most was getting the toy you really, really wanted, and a feeling of safety & love.

AS YOU GREW, you began to value autonomy and a sense of feeling important and capable of doing things on your own…”please mom, I’d rather do it myself!”

THEN YOU BEGAN SCHOOL, and some of the things you may have valued were being popular, or looking smart, or doing the opposite of what adults wanted you to do, or having a best friend you could do things with…or boss around!

AS YOU PROGRESSED through the school years, you began to value your sub-culture of friends and activities more than those strange people at home called parents and family. You may have continued to value grades, either because you took pride in your school work, or because your parents “liked you better” when you got good grades, or because you wanted to get into a good college. Or you may have not valued grades & academic pursuits at all, but were focused on other things you valued more, such as socializing, dating, or getting into trouble in any number of ways orchestrated to wreak havoc on your parents’ sense of being in control of things!

THEN CAME COLLEGE. You most likely valued freedom and autonomy if you made the decision to attend a college or university. You may have valued grades and accomplishments. You may have valued having friends and having a good time. Your focus was most likely not on your parents or other family members, and you were beginning to value finding a career you could “do” for the next 40 years or so…

WHEN YOU DECIDED ON A CAREER, you probably valued being successful at that career, spending time developing your sense of who you were in relation to the adult professional world, and making money to support yourself, the activities you enjoyed, and perhaps a mortgage & family of your own. You may have valued being well-respected in your career & doing a “bang-up” job in your professional life. You may have even, let’s be honest…and if the amount of time you spent at each was an indication, valued what and how you did your career just a smidgeon more than you valued spending a lot of time with family, or maybe even the amount of time spent with friends.

NOW HERE YOU ARE. The kids have grown. Your relationship with your spouse is good, but not terribly close or intimate, and you may be wondering what you really value now. You may be reasonably well-off financially. You may even be well-known in your professional field. But you are not sure your time has been as well-spent as you judge that it should have been. What do you value now? Does what you have in your life mesh well with what you value, at this point in your life?

THESE ARE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS to be asking at this very important transitional time. It’s not too late, you know, to decide on what you value, and shift your life to coincide with what you most value. IF YOU DON’T MUCH LIKE THE ANSWERS you get when you ask yourself the the tough questions…maybe I can help. LET ME KNOW…OK?

We all have a past. When you look back on your past, are you pleased, energized, and proud of what you’ve done with your Life?

How would you feel if you woke up tomorrow morning, got the local newspaper off the stoop, and saw your past  headlined on the front page?

Would you be content with it? Would you want to cut it out, send it to all your friends, and start a scrapbook?

We need to take stock of our lives from time to time. All of us have moments we’re proud of, and moments we would just as soon forget!

When we look back at the types of decisions we’ve made in our lives thus far, and see the results of what we’ve created, we can make better decisions about what we want to change, what we want to keep the same, and what’s missing that we need to incorporate into our future.

We can only change what we are willing to acknowledge. We don’t always realize that what’s important to us changes over time, and what we value and want to put our energy into may be different now than when we were younger.

Our priorities shift as we acquire different skills, complete a  variety of different tasks, move through life-stages and are energized by different passions.

So take a quick look back.

You can use the foundation of what you’ve already done to insure that you are moving in the right direction now.

Your past can inform your future and insure that, in the present, you are creating a future legacy you can be proud of!

COACH CHAR

Guiding You to Grow Your Legacy…One Blog at a Time!

When life throws you a curve ball, what do you do? Do you panic, rise to it like any other adventure previously in your life, or somewhere in-between those two approaches?

I was confronted with that question this morning when I arrived to present my powerpoint workshop for a group in Lafayette only to discover that they had not received information to the effect that I would need a PC to allow them to view my delightful & well-prepared presentation from my Mac. Soooooooo….long story short….we had a lovely, and, I believe, just as useful roundtable discussion instead! You’d need to ask the participants personally to see if the “just as useful” part is merely wishful thinking on my part?

Being able to shift gears in life is important, when we think we know what is going on, who we are, what we are doing, whether we are right or wrong, what is going to happen in the future, etc. Staying flexible and fluid with what is happening keeps us off the crazy path of fear, immobilization, and sabotage. If we don’t accept what we cannot change, we will not have as much fun or be as available to our lives and to others…and whatever happens will still have happened…whether we like it or not!