July 08, 2008

Tomorrow's Life-Changing Experience

No, I don't have anything big or dramatic planned for tomorrow. If I knew it wouldn't bore you to pieces, I would have titled this post "Yesterday was a life-changing experience, today is a life-changing experience, and tomorrow will also be a life-changing experience. What will you do to make it count?"

Recently I have heard the phrase "It was a life-changing experience" with unusual frequency. And it's true, we have all had those experiences that completely altered the way we looked at certain things forever. I can think of several right away: The first time I visited Italy; the day I got married; the days I found out each of my parents had terminal cancer; the day I gave birth to my daughter. All undeniably life-altering.

But life isn't static, even if you sometimes feel like you're living Groundhog Day (in case you didn't see the movie, it means living the same day over and over). I would argue that each and every day is life-changing, if only for the simple fact that you are one day older and one more day is behind you. Changes like that are almost imperceptible, yet stack them up into years and you begin questioning "How did I get from there to here?"

A really neat thing I get to experience with clients is to see this principle begin producing positive results almost immediately. Often clients initially contact me because they feel stuck. They have some great goals and dreams, but don't feel any closer to making them happen. One reason for feeling stuck is that we sometimes view our life as one big unit rather than lots and lots and lots of choices, days, and events. And if our life unit is currently unfulfilling, it is easy to get overwhelmed by trying to fix the whole thing at once. Part of coaching is to break the dreams down into achievable pieces each week and move forward so that you get unstuck and on your way. This often begins to happen fairly quickly, in a matter of days or weeks.

My encouragement to you is to stop waiting for life-changing experiences and start viewing each day as a life-changing event. What will you become today? Whose life will you change by walking through? What single choice or decision can you make today that puts you one step further to becoming what you want to become?

If you're feeling stuck and having trouble finding the steps out and up, please call me. We can begin making each day a life-bettering experience for you.