Wick

Yesterday I had a wonderful conversation with a client who has essentially completed the entire coaching cycle. We were in the process of looking over his post-assessment and comparing it to his initial assessment.

When we finished talking, he talked about the changes that had taken place in him, his newfound outlook on himself and on his life. We discussed the fact that things that he didn't think were obstacles for him before we started have come to be things he can see as things getting in his way. He talked about freedom, and how he feels so much better about the real person that he is getting a chance to show himself to the world like never before.

You must understand, this was a very gratifying experience for me, as it confirmed to me why I chose this career and why I love it so much.

All this talk got, for some reason, got a song in my head:

Wick.

From the musical "The Secret Garden," I used to think this was a song about plants.

But now I can see, especially in the context of the story, that the song "Wick" is more about people than about plants.

"So grow to greet the morning,
Leave the ground below.
When a thing is wick
It has a will to grow and grow."

Henry B. Eyring of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints often speaks of an "upward pull" in all of us, a desire to make better choices, a desire to become better than we are, which is actually to be true to our divine natures.

All of us are wick. We just need to "clear away the dead parts so the tender buds can form, loosen up the earth and let the roots get warm."

Life. The Art of Sneezing. Linked as ridiculous concepts from which one can find joy.

The Business of Art & the Art of Business

Had a fun conversation today at lunch with a few friends in the business of creative media (mostly film/video production, we're hoping to get more musicians, photogs, painters, graphic designers, etc.) about the difference between art and business or is there a difference or how to manage the balance between the two.

There were some great comments from all present; for me, the most valuable comment had to do with identifying what value you bring to the world with your work and being accurate about that value when dealing with clients or prospective clients. Okay, maybe that wasn't the specific comment, but someone made a comment about value, and I made the connection myself and that was the big "aha" for me today.

The basic idea is that when deciding between art and business, some key considerations are the objective of the client (commissioned work) and the appropriate valuation of what you do. Balancing art and business is an art form itself, blah blah blah I don't want to go too much into what our discussion was today, but mostly wanted to bring up my "aha" cuz that's what I know and what I can share.

See, I've been approached by a couple of folks this week to either a) leave my fledgling coaching career behind to be a full-time sales guy (great company by the way) or b) commit 12 hours a week to helping some other dude sell his financial success system (opportunity costs and splitting my attention/focus seem to be the most significant drawbacks).

Today was also the first time I was asked to be a keynote speaker (paid, too!) for an employee group within a somewhat large organization here in Utah. Okay large to me because it's the first time I could be getting paid to be a motivational speaker. Kinda cool.

Which brought me back to being totally ACCURATE about value. What value to I bring to the table? Where do I create the most value for others AND for myself? The key is to be really honest about those kinds of questions, because it's easy to both overestimate AND underestimate (maybe not at the same time) one's value or the value of one's work.

I probably won't take up either offer. My career in coaching is just getting started. Why should I put that aside now? Perhaps sometime down the road, but I can't do anything about THAT right now. I can only make a choice to focus on what I'm doing in the HERE and NOW and just go for it.

Value, value, value.

Life. The Art of Sneezing. Linked as ridiculous concepts from which one can find joy.

Choice

"Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves--to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved." 2 Nephi 10:23-24

As a coach, I find myself reminding people that they always have a choice.

See, if a person's thought patterns are determining their actions (habits), how does one change? It begins with awareness, because if you don't know you have a choice, you don't have a choice. Until you know you can choose your thoughts, emotions, actions, despite whatever programming might be in place, you won't be able to exercise your agency to make the change.

There is an interesting paradox here, too. Our only real possession is our will, our ability to choose. Celebrate the power of choice, right? The freedom to choose is one of the founding principles of the United States, a principle that continues to be one of the core values of American society.

And yet, God is asking us to unite our choice with His, to "reconcile" our will to His will. What is God's will toward us? Why should I reconcile my will to God's?

I look at my own life and see the challenge of this, and the need to gain a greater understanding around these two concepts: 1) I always have choice, and 2) God and His will.

When I consider the people I've met who have been "well put together" or personify "success" in some way, I believe they have consciously come to grips with these two concepts. I consider my mission president, a man who has been financially successful and who has taught me many things. He talks a lot about making a choice, a long time ago, that he was going to be a millionaire. And yet he has also shown an understanding of his place within the greater scheme of things, his part in God's plan.

I recognize this may be oversimplifying things, but I look at myself, my life, my challenges, and can say honestly that when I accept the responsibility that comes with the choice I make as to how I will respond to life's challenges, and then make a choice that supports my efforts to be the best I can be (which is what I think God's will is for all of us), I will be successful.

Confidence (faith) + humility + action. And I have a choice with all of it.

Life. The Art of Sneezing. Linked as ridiculous concepts from which one can find joy.

The Power of GIGGLES

Have you ever had something like this happen to you?

I couldn't believe it. There I was, standing in poop water (at least it was my own poop) at my in-laws' house.

See, I guess I have pretty healthy sized poops, and often the toilet needs some help getting my poop down the pipe. This time seemed just like the others, a simple plunge or two would do the trick. Boy, did it ever.

For some reason, the plunge action activated the flush mechanism. So, every time I tried plunging, the tank would empty into the toilet. I'm no plumber, but that wasn't quite what I expected to happen. {shudder} I thought something was backwashing up through the toilet, so I kept trying the plunger method, only to find more water, etc., spilling over the side of the bowl. {shudder again}

Finally I got smart (and a little soiled) and turned off the water valve. Of course they put those things way down and behind the toilet. Did I mention there was already about a half-inch of murky water pooled around the toilet?

40 minutes of cleanup, 50 towels, and 2 bleach wash/wipe-downs of all affected (infected?) surfaces later, the word I most wanted to say was also the most appropriate for the situation, considering the kind of stuff I was dealing with.

My father-in-law, bless him, was THOROUGHLY ENJOYING THIS. When I came out of the bathroom, his question: "Can I start laughing now?"

Sigh.

My wife asked me if she could do that to me in the future, but astutely stated that she probably would get into deeper, ah, trouble (that word again, sorry, I've got images in my mind for which that word is so apt). I couldn't get angry at my father-in-law, he was having so much fun at my expense. All that was left to me was to join him, and after about a good solid minute or two of uncontrollable giggles . . .

Let's just say I have a better appreciation for Og Mandino's scroll, "I will laugh at the world."

"And with my laughter all things will be reduced to their proper size."

"... man is most comical when he takes himself too seriously."

Thanks, dad, for helping me laugh at myself.