Just when we think we have things all figured out…life hands us a curve!  Last May, the Board of Puget Sound Coaches Association (PSCA) chose to step up and create a regional conference to address unmet educational and public awareness needs.  The conference leaders asked for volunteers to jump in and support the effort.  I enthusiastically joined the ranks and we began preparing. 

Just as the conference was announced in October the economic storms began to hit people’s pocket books and psyches.  As in this situation, we are frequently confronted with “life’s storms” that seem and often do interfere with our plans.  How do we respond to those situations?  As midlife women we have experience to guide us and using coaching principles and practices can help.

 The conference was named “Conscious Choice, Conscious Change.”  And even when things had changed significantly in the outer environment and the enrollment numbers seemed to be impacted by the gloomy economic news and the holiday hubbub, the leaders, Janet Harvey, President, Tammy Redmon, Vice President and Co-Chair of the Conference and her Co-Chair Karen Steckler, kept pointing the way. Their commitment was to stay the course and have a splendid conference.  That conviction and commitment confirmed mine.  Together we would step up yet again and make this conference happen. And, the conference did happen on February 5 with a stellar outcome.

How do we deal with events that seem to take us off track?  Sandra Taylor, one of the keynote speakers, reminded us that we always have the opportunity to consciously “step up and step into" an alternate reality when the one we are in doesn’t serve us.  The portion of any change that we can control is our response.  So when events, people, or our reactions to them seem to be dragging us off course, we can take a deep breath and respond.  We can “clear our mental and emotional screens" and step into a new way of being in that moment.  The conscious choice may be from terror to manageable fear, or from fear to curiosity, or from a “no, this can’t happen,” to a “yes, it will!” 

How have you weathered a recent storm by creating a new NOW?