Here are 8 Things I Believe
1
There is no roadmap. And that’s an exciting reality.
We are all on wild, intricate, one-of-a-kind paths, with no map or instruction kit. We’re light on answers and heavy from expectations. We can get easily set up for disappointment and failure based on what we have heard from others, seen on the big (or small) screens, and felt or done in response to it. We tend to create our own narratives about our satisfaction with and our place in life in order to meet or ignore these expectations. But the truth – and magic – is that we get to map it out ourselves, in our own ways. It is our path, after all.
Decisions aren’t big or small, good or bad. They lead us to the next one.
2
A decision is always followed by the opportunity to decide again, and therefore, it’s hard to label them good or bad. Decisions come in all shapes and sizes, and there’s always another decision to be made. It’s rarely one single grand decision that has the greatest impact. A series of individual decisions can collectively add up to something quite radical. A decision can be as seemingly “small” as deciding to go on a hike or as “huge” as deciding to leave a job. In all cases, they lead you where you’re going next. The first step is choosing to decide.
Living is creativity. And everyone is creative.
3
Including you. One of my favorite definitions of creativity comes from The School of Life. They believe that creativity is “spotting an opportunity to improve things that already exist — and then creating something that is new and better out of them.” Our lives are a series of acts of creativity. Decision-making itself is a creative act. In order to decide, we draw from past decisions we’ve made, things we’ve experienced, what we observe and learn, and what we know to be true to create something new and better for ourselves.
We spend so much of our time hunched over our worries, our fears, and our devices. But when we look up, even for a minute, we can see something new. A different perspective, the green leaves of a tree, a burst of yellow, an opening. We feel connection when we notice. It’s so essential and easy to do, and even easier to ignore.
Look up to reconnect.
4
It usually takes a one inch shift to connect — to ourselves, our pathways, and especially other humans. And we are all starving for connections. Lightbulb moments. Feeling instantly plugged in. A connection is always an inch or less away, but we’re often too distracted, consumed, or afraid to realize it.
There’s a one inch rule.
5
The tastiest food comes from cooking without a recipe. A good life does, too.
6
I find recipes useful to a certain point — they're kind of like a sketch or place to start. And I like to cook like I like to live, which is also how I like to write, and especially how I like to coach. I start with a recipe – some direction and some structure (training and education). Mix in a bit of this (work experience), add a bit of that (life experience), some intuition, put it together and it tastes good. Or it doesn't and I adjust it until it does.
Change doesn’t only have to come from an exit or rupture.
7
It can. And sometimes that might be the best way. But there's also an alternative, really powerful path to find a different way to relate to your job and create the life that you want from there — starting now vs. waiting for it later.
I have an eyeroll-free commitment to my clients. I don’t use words just to use them or sound like a coach. I try to coach, communicate, and write how I live – as me as possible – not in the mold of how anyone else does it.