Monday, September 19, 2016

Escaping the Waiting Place

Do you remember when the main character of Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go! arrives in the waiting place? Whenever I read this passage aloud to my children, it reminds me of how so many people are living their lives. Sometimes, you simply are in a waiting place - like when you are anticipating baby's arrival. Most times, though, there are just too many reasons for us to wait and get comfortable rather than making the changes in our lives that would allow us to thrive. 
You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig of curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
Luckily, our main character escapes:
NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

So what come's next? How do you get to those "bright places"? Do you have a roadmap? What would you like to achieve when you get there? What would be different about your life, your relationships, your health, if you reached it? (Let's set aside for the moment whether you actually consider boom bands an improvement.)

In coaching, most clients are still sitting in that waiting place. They might have an idea of where their bright place is, but they have not managed to find a way to reach it yet. Sometimes they know what they want to change but have not yet figured out how. Or, they have tried many times, and they just can't seem to be able to move forward. When using the ZRM® method (Zurich Resource Model by Drs. Maja Storch and Frank Krause), we tap into their deepest motivation, and often uncover values in the process. This is so important, because if you have been trying to reach a goal that (unconsciously) conflicts with your values, you most likely will never attain it. As you probably already know, that can be very frustrating! 

Based upon this new self-knowledge, you can then create realistic, attainable goals, and from there, strategies for approaching especially challenging situations. When done in a workshop, ZRM® draws upon the creativity and resources of all present. Each time I have experienced it, this has proven incredibly enriching and supportive for each participant. In coaching, I would work with you individually, joining in on the creative process and walking you through it so that in the end, you would have a motto and action plan.

To borrow the words of Dr. Seuss once more,
So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

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