It Is a Choice

There is always a choice! Sometimes we forget that which is when we feel stuck. Choice is a good thing to remember … and often easy to forget. Interesting how selective we can be in our remembering and forgetting. Somehow we are quite able to focus on whatever it is that defeats us … remembering things that no longer serve us is often easy; forgetting things that do serve us more challenging.

It is said that to change a habit (shift) it takes 30 days of persistent action in a new direction. To make a shift several things must be in place:

• clarity about the shift itself
• identified benefit for making the shift
• clear value about the shift and
• desire to make it.

If I choose to live in an “unstuck” place re my career, the following steps may be helpful:

• clarity … using the kite, I want to see myself as about to launch vs. stuck in the tree
• benefit … launching will inspire me to investigate new career opportunities
• value … I fulfill my life purpose in a career position that fulfills me
• desire … I’m ready to feel rewarded, fulfilled and make a difference in the work that I do

For the next 30 days I forget to remember a stuck kite; I visualize the kite soaring to heights as far as I can imagine … and beyond!

Or I can choose to hold on to the “stuck in the tree” story … the narrative may then be no matter what I do, I will never find a job that fulfills me; I’m too old (or young), I’m a poor interviewer, and on and on. This is the story I’d suggest remembering to forget!

Glittering

What is glittering around you?
A visit from family?
A new iPad?
A lovely romance?
Does it distract you from what needs doing or does it put things in perspective?

This image supports my reflecting on all of those things and takes me much deeper into what I can glean from each of them.

Joyful Place

Ahhhhh!

I love how this woman inspires my finding my joyful place. Images can support us in shifting our emotions from one place to another. Whenever I am feeling “joy-less”, I pull out this image card, move myself into this position and just smile. My day can turn on a dime!

Different Views

What do you see first in the image?
The fading light?
The calmness of the water?
The boats tied up for the night… or is it the light of dawn?
What emotion arises for you in this image?
Peace with the pause of time?
Fear of what lurks beneath the pier?

It amazes me how differently each of us views an image… our lives at any given moment… a situation that appears before us. What always comes to mind for me when this happens is that we have a choice in creating our reality in any given moment. What do you choose today?

Double Rainbow

The summer showers often end with a gorgeous rainbow or even two. Every time I see one I’m amazed anew. Using images to reflect more deeply often clears the clouds so people can see within themselves and/or a situation. The rainbow from the image can lead to more possibilities. What team or group that you know might benefit from letting images take them to the “heart of the matter”?

Prickly Situation

What prickly situation has found you this summer?

We try to avoid these… but they sometimes find us. Can you stop and just be with whatever it is? Then, can you find what beauty lies within it? When we accept a situation and allow it to be, we often find a key to letting it go by actually seeing it with new eyes. How might this work for you right now?

Focus

A student who was referred for coaching reported that at the beginning of her work with a coach she was not focused on what was right I front of her in the moment because she was fixated on the past.

As she was supported to focus and move forward, she reported seeing things from a new view; she’s become focused, content and happy. Success! Images evoke feelings that express much more than words.

Inspiration

This image chosen by an educator reflecting on how coaching will inspire her to approach teaching differently, inspired an interesting reflection. At first she was not sure which way was UP … she realized that she was seeing a reflection and that it did not matter. Developing coaching skills has broadened her awareness that there are multiple ways of looking at every situation. She will allow that awareness to penetrate how she looks at each student.

Remember to Forget

Transformational Testimonial...

Sometimes I don’t want to forget … like sharing Laura Gilbert’s work! Laura’s organization, Back to School for Grownups, is a coaching and consulting firm that helps adult learners succeed from start to finish by clarifying educational goals, identifying strengths and challenges to educational achievement and creating a workable plan to connect education to career growth.

So, if you are someone who has been toying with the idea of further education (it is back to school time), you may want to forget all the reasons that get in the way…

• the stories that interfere with taking a step toward exploration or
• completing the application or
• worrying about making the right decision.

So many times it is the things we remember that get in the way … most things we forget cannot hold us back
because without a list of reasons why something will not work, we are free to try new ideas or possibilities.

So, what do you want to remember to forget? If it has to do with continued learning for adults, check out http://backtoschoolforgrownups.com so that you can see with fresh eyes. And, if not related to that, what would serve YOU to remember to forget (or to forget to remember)?

Looking in the rearview mirror is something I want to remember to forget. While the past can inform me, there is nothing I can do to change it. I want to look forward with open eyes forgetting the “what ifs” and “might have beens”.

What practice will support you to remember to forget? I’m holding the rearview mirror as my reminder. Each time I peer in the rearview mirror, I repeat … “remember to forget what no longer serves me”! Share your “remember to forget” mantras with us.

Forget to Surrender

Image This...

The idea of forgetting intrigues me because when I’ve had “senior moments”, in the past, I have, at times, beaten myself up for forgetting. What I have learned is that letting go of forgetting serves me in a powerful way. Most often when I let go and accept that what I need will show up … whether in the way I expected or thought I knew it, what I forgot most often comes back. I like to think of it as confirmation that ‘what goes around, comes around’!

We have everything we need if we choose to be accepting. Whatever you think of as the “greater power”, whether the Universe or God or the Great Spirit, provides us with all that we need to thrive. What gets in the way many times is control which almost always has an element of resistance.

Think about resistance as you focus on this image.

• What outcome will occur with resistance?
• How will the outcome differ if you surrender?
• What do you want to forget so that you can surrender?

Right Time to Forget

Creativity in Action...

This may not seem like the optimum time to forget what you already know … as a new school year is about to begin (even if o you will not be starting school, you are a student!). And, perhaps it is JUST the right time.

If you assess yourself as lacking creative writing ability, you’d likely be more inspired if you forgot that assessment. We all have creative genes that when activated blossom. Most of the time creativity is cut off by some limiting belief that we hold. Someone, along the way, made a negative comment about something we wrote that we’ve embraced as true. Once we hold it as truth, we “write the story” that corresponds … so often it is just that … a story. How might your creativity blossom if you choose to forget that you hold yourself as not creative?

Since everyone can be trained to sing in tune (if somewhere along the way they lost that ability), “I cannot sing” is a story. Somewhere some of us were told we sang off key or could not carry a tune which laid the foundation for the story that supports that belief. If vocal creativity were encouraged to blossom, that story would be dismantled. Research substantiates that we all have vocal chords that can be “re” trained … if necessary.

And, how might it serve me to reserve judgment (forget) about the opinions of others regarding a teacher (or co-worker)? Accepting opinions as truth often causes us to interact in ways that interfere with our success. How might my experience be different if I choose to meet each person forgetting all that I have heard? Or even forgetting prior experiences with that person?

As you ponder Mr. Einstein, how might forgetting serve to allow your creativity to flow as you enter a new school year, aka, adventure?

Forgetting What We Know

Our Journey...

I was struck by Stacy Allison’s (first woman to summit Mt. Everest) comment in her book, Beyond the Limit, that in her early rock climbing days she decided “to forget what I already knew for the sake of everything that I needed to discover”.

WOW! I began to wonder how that practice might impact me on a daily basis.

What would it be like if I forgot how to use the cards in this image?

What new creative use might I find for a deck of cards or how might I interpret “aces” differently?

Then I considered, what would it be like if I forgot how to complain?

Or how to ASSUME I know what a friend or relative is thinking or why they are acting in a certain way. The old story about the man on the subway train with the wild kids is a good reminder.

As the story goes (I believe when I heard it I knew it to be true; doesn’t matter)… a man on a subway train with four kids was oblivious to their wild behavior. Another passenger who was especially annoyed by the shrill screams, taunting each other and bumping into her (rattling her newspaper), finally said to the man angrily, “don’t you have any control of your children?" The father asked his kids to calm down, quit the wildness and then explained apologetically to the other passenger that they were returning home from a nearby hospital where his wife, their mother, had just passed away.

The previously upset passenger turned compassionate instantly and realized that she had made an assumption … had judged the dad as an unrefined, incompetent parent.

How differently might she have responded had she forgotten what she thought she knew?

Where would it be helpful if you could forget what you already know?

What might you discover?

Old Ways

An administrator, with 40 years experience, reflected that this image was reminder that the old ways will not take us where we want to go. She committed to being open to staying up with new ways, being open to trying new things and continuing to be present to change. Aren’ t those teachers, students, and parents she touches so fortunate!