Time to Blossom!

A cursory look at my career timeline would tell you that I’ve made a lot of choices…shifts and changes…along the way.

In the beginning there was community action…meetings (many meetings) about fair housing and other civil rights issues. When that didn’t change much in my community, following the example of those who were serving on the town council in hopes that a label would make a difference in whether my voice would be heard, I headed off to law school. When I graduated and no law firm would hire me, I found a partner and we started our own. My practice of law consisted of representing clients who, I like to say, were getting divorced. These were husbands, wives, and children…and employees and employers who were ending their relationships mostly in catastrophic and very expensive ways.

Over time I began to realize my clients did much better for themselves, financially and emotionally, when they had a stake in the process beyond wishing to “win”…because no one ever really does. And so I began to use the mediation tool thinking this was “the answer.”

Gradually, mediation led me into the consulting services I provided for years for large corporate and not-for-profit organizations. There I noticed that often when my programs were complete, many high-level executives moved on. Hmmmm… While there were better outcomes for the organizations I served, I continued to seek different…innovations that would create openings for individuals…sooner. As I explored other tools, a number of which contributed to both me and my clients, I morphed into serving as a Life Coach…a perfect fit for me and my clients with my strategic background from law.

I continued to seek ways to help people. “Why,” I wondered, “do people have to be in such emotional pain before they are willing to ask questions and begin the search for something else?”

I began to create my own tools. At the time I was a volunteer working with inmates at a Maximum Security Prison. Over time I came to realize that this was my laboratory, in the sense that it was a place for testing, experimentation, and practice…for both me AND the inmates. When what I developed had a positive impact, I used it with clients. The shifts and changes have been delightful. What a gift I receive as I watch awareness grow in those with whom I have had the opportunity to work.

Today, whether as a Life Coach or No Regrets Coordinator, I’m all about fostering awareness and creating opportunities for people to choose what they would like in their lives…NOW…not later This is not just a one time thing. We all grow, shift, and change…all the time! We are like a flower. The seed is planted, nurtured, buds, grows, and flowers. Yes, just like a flower, we all die eventually. In the meantime, we have a life to live…to live how we choose to live it. We are here to explore, create, contribute, and, yes, have fun doing it.

Will you give yourself permission to choose you? I’m in…are you? As Anais Nin put it:

And then the day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud was more
painful than the risk it
took to blossom.