Now What?® Coaching

from Laura Berman Fortgang

Inspiration to Follow Your Blueprint

Is is time to start charging for the advice you give?

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A question we always ask in Now What? is: What do your friends, family, and colleagues come to you for?  This is often a major clue to the type of work that would be a natural fit for you.  As you’ll see in today’s article, this is exactly the way that Lisa Dietlin realized that philanthropy would be the next step on her career path.  When her friends started paying her for the advice she was giving them, it became clear that it was time to start a business.

“She Made a Business Out of Giving Back.”

 

Influential Conversations

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Today’s article raises the question: What conversations have influenced you the most over the years?  Things you are told as a child often become so ingrained that you don’t fully realize the extent to which they affect how you see yourself and the world.  Likewise, throughout your adult years, the messages you receive through others will either solidify or challenge the beliefs you hold and what you see as possible.  
 
As you read today’s article, raise your awareness during the everyday conversations you have with coworkers, friends, and even strangers.  What are others reflecting to you?  What rings true?  What within you is being ignited?
 
 

Trust the Path

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by Ginny Kravitz, Deputy Editor

Lessons from the Labyrinth

Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.Last Wednesday, while on a self-guided retreat at a local spa, I came upon a labyrinth, designed to inspire a walking meditation. Unlike those high-hedged corn mazes which, based on my sense of direction, would likely have me wandering through the hedges forever, this labyrinth was entirely in view. I set my bare feet on the warm pavement and began walking what first appeared to be a simple spiral. This spiral, however, was not comprised of evenly spaced, concentric rings and that’s part of what makes it a labyrinth.

As I walked the path, I didn’t need to concern myself with figuring anything out. I was certain where the labyrinth led. I could see that it would ultimately bring me to a pile of stones, artfully arranged in the center. That’s the thing about labyrinths: you can’t miss the center. At one point, it seemed the path was taking me farther away from the stones, but I kept walking, and moments later was closer to the center than I would have expected, having just been so far away.

Wouldn’t it be something if we could live our lives like that: trusting the path and remembering that our goals may be closer than they appear?

full article here

Money Shouldn’t Hold You Back

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By Kirsten Meneghello, Now What? Facilitator
 

Most clients I work with have some issues around money. An issue might be raised upfront, when the client says he/she can’t afford coaching; or it may show up later in the process, when the client feels he/she can’t transition into another field because of fear around money. “Is there enough money?” “Can I afford this?” “What if I run out?” “I’m afraid of dealing with money.” “I’m no good with money.”

I recently attended a talk by a financial coach who said that our beliefs about money are solidified by the time we are five years old and mostly stem from watching how our family dealt with money. What most of us don’t realize is that we each have a set of beliefs about money and these beliefs are what drive us to make the choices we currently do. Let’s examine a few of the more common beliefs.

“I can’t afford it.”

The belief that you cannot afford something stems from a sense of scarcity and the belief that there won’t be enough to go around. The reality is you are not making the potential purchase a priority in your life, leading you to believe you cannot “afford” it. You can afford to buy lots of things, but you choose not to. By changing the language to “I choose not to at this time,” you take ownership of your decision and you claim your power. When you say, “I can’t afford it,” you are acting as a victim of circumstances and you give away your power. Read full article here.

Who do you think you are? Your TRUE identity is the building block to your right path.

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By Jill Berquist, Now What? A-Team

To figure out WHO you are, examine what you are living for.

Thomas Merton said: “If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. Between these two answers you can determine the identity of any person.”  (Thomas Merton was a monk, and one of the best Catholic authors of the 20th century. He also sounds like the consummate career coach:-)

It is easy to live in the more superficial level that Merton describes.  Just yesterday morning, as my daughter shook sleep off her 13-year old body around 9:00 a.m. to get ready for a Bar Mitzvah service for a friend, she was a billboard for outer layer concerns.  As are the masses of tween and teens in the world. Is my hair okay or does it look ugly?  Will people think I am wearing the same dress too many times?  But teens are not the only ones concerned with this.  Issues of status, appearances, compensation, lifestyle, and career titles (attorney, sales director, consultant, controller) –the outer layers of one’s existence, are huge for many and certainly many of my clients in transition. We get very attached to that element of ourselves…sometimes it really feels like our identity.  Figuring out what lies beneath this is not easy. Yet, if you are here reading this, consider yourself in the small percentage of soul identity adventurers who at least dare to attempt it.  article continues here

Keep Listening

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by Ginny Kravitz, Deputy Editor

When changing directions, often all that’s needed is to find the entry point of your new path vs. having to map out the entire route. What happens after you take that leap of faith and you’re a few steps down the new path?  In today’s article, we learn the answer from three clients who recently shared their thoughts on this question: How do you listen to your life?  full article here