This issue: I explore the experience of Going Sane and share some ‘learnings’.
CREATIVE CAREERS
UNLEASHED!
The online Career/Life/Practice
Development Newsletter
For Creative, Eclectic,
Multitalented Independents
From Lyle T. Lachmuth
The Unsticking Coach(TM)
Please forward this newsletter to creative,
multitalented, and eclectic professionals in your network.
Want to subscribe? Send a blank email to ccu-ezine [at] aweber.com
==============================================
GOING SANE!
Thanks for your kind words about my last newsletter
on "The Power of Commitment".
I ‘borrowed’ the title of this newsletter from a
section heading in Chapter 2 of Julia Cameron’s best-selling, "The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to
Higher Creativity!"
I started reading her book about a week ago and
have implemented her Morning Pages practice: the idea of starting every day by
writing 3 pages; just write, whatever comes up, no edit, no censor.
This past Thursday I started reading
Chapter 4: Recovering a Sense of Identity
and the light bulb went on! I had an answer to why my life seemed to be so up
and down . . .
WANT TO LEARN TO BLOG? IT’S
TIME FOR YOU TO EASY BAKE IT!
If you’ve always wanted to learn how to Blog, then now’s
the time!
The maestro, Andy Wibbels – author of the Amazon
best-seller BlogWild! – is back in the kitchen whipping up a new Easy Bake
Weblogs class.
Tune in, today, January 31st for a Preview Call
to learn just how easy it is to start blogging with Typepad.
Click here for details: Easy
Bake Weblogs.
=========================================
GOING SANE
The time: March 2006.
I was working flat out doing a consulting contract that
paid well but that required me to perform tasks that didn’t suit my personality
preference. It’s not that I can’t do detailed work or sequence, track, and
manage many small tasks. I can. It’s just that doing a lot of that kind of work
and doing it constantly is very demanding and stressful for me.
I had been at it for 15 months and one day I said to
myself, "I’ve got to quit this. I can’t
do this anymore. It’s wearing me out." But,
I didn’t quit. I kept going. Two months later my body/mind shut down!
My Fibromyalgia came on gang busters and I was in
excruciating pain for days on end – sometimes 6 days a week. I had no choice
but to quit! I simply could not do the work.
Fast forward 8 months. I’ve managed to survive 4 months of
hellish pain and finally get better by focusing on growing my coaching business
and working with an Energy Coach. I reasoned that if I was going to experience pain
anyway, I might as well do what I loved so I got some joy in life.
I believe that, in large measure, it was my commitment to
DO MY WORK that resulted in the significant reduction in my pain levels and in
my being able to get back to working.
It’s now November and my coaching business has been growing
steadily. I have several new challenging, exciting, and fun clients. I’m
working on a new group coaching program. And, I’m still doing a bit of contract
work in Change Management. Work that is far less stressful than before and that
up until now has been very enjoyable and rewarding for me. Then one day it
happens!
I hear THE voice, "It’s
time to quit. I don’t enjoy this work any more. My heart’s not in it!"
I
resolve that THIS time it will be different. I’m going to make a conscious
decision to quit, a conscious plan to leave. I’m not going to be forced to quit
by pain. I’m going to be in control.
Ha. Ha.
I really believed that if I was conscious about my
decision, that if I Consciously planned and made the transition it would be pain free. Well, it has been and it hasn’t.
I should know
better. After all, I’ve specialized in coaching and consulting on TRANSITIONS.
I knew the theory. I’d experienced significant life, work, and career
transitions. Yet, blissfully I expected this change to be different.
Lesson #1: Transitions
Are Different
My first mistake was thinking that what I was about
to do was simply make a change. Not so. I was about to embark on a Transition. "What’s the difference", you ask.
I think of the difference this way. Change is about the
alteration you want to make, e.g. I wanted to change the content and focus of
My Work. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Transition is about the journey of change.
Somehow I hadn’t seen that I was really planning to make a
major transformation in my life. I thought it was a small change but it was a
BIG change. And, whenever you plan a major transformation, you’re ‘planning’ on
going through a Transition – like it or not.
The Journey of Transition has 3 phases: 1) Letting Go of
the Old, 2) Moving through, what noted Transition expert William Bridges calls, the Neutral Zone,
and 3) Embracing Your New Beginning.
Bridges so called Neutral Zone is anything but Neutral.
This is the time when moods become exaggerated; when you feel like you’re going
crazy but in reality are Going Sane as Julia Cameron calls it; and when you discover
. . .
Lesson #2: Control is a Myth
Okay, I admit it! I really thought I’d be In Control. As a
Recovering Control Freak I’ve worked hard to really, really KNOW that Control
is a Myth. I’ve had many, many lessons from the Universe that we really can’t
Control much of anything. Yet somehow I fooled myself into believing that
somehow I could direct, manage, control this Change Process.
Daily I’m getting reminders that I can’t.
And, that’s the beauty and joy of Transitions.
We Envision the Outcome. We Set the Intention. We make the
Commitment, and, then the Universe takes Control – setting the path and putting
her plan in place.
All I know is that I am somewhere in that bloody Neutral
Zone – what I prefer to call The Desert or Crazy Time! One day feeling giddy
and on top of the world. The next: depressed, discouraged, and despondent.
Definitely NOT in Control!
Lesson #3:
Commitment Is More Important Than Ever
It’s 2 a.m. I’m awake. And, discouraged as hell!
Everything is dark. My life feels like sh-t. It feels like
nothing is going according to plan. This change wasn’t supposed to be so
freaking painful!
I just want to chuck it all! Go back to what I was doing.
Or, maybe become a shelf stocker at Safeway! At least that way I’d feel useful.
It’s Crazy Time.
And, it’s time to remember my Commitment.
I DID commit to this change. It WAS me. Not somebody else
who embarked on this path. I can’t blame anyone else for being here.
And, I MUST remember that my Commitment was to see this
through. Even if the path and experience isn’t what I PLANNED.
That’s right. When you’re in the middle of that Transition,
it’s time to revisit your Commitment. Time to recommit. Time to stick with it. Even
though it feels like getting the hell out makes a lot more sense.
Let’s
sum up: When you commit to a Big Change you can expect to experience the roller
coaster ride called Transition. The good news: the Roller Coaster feels out of
control but its not. And, the ride does come to an end!
==============================================
GENRE BUSTING(TM) – Move Your Square-Peg-In-Round-Hole
Career From Stuck To Thriving!
Do
you feel like a square peg in a round hole?
Do
you think your talents are being wasted in a dead-end career?
Do
you yearn for a fulfilling career and a rewarding life?
Would
you like to know exactly how to design and live the career and life of your
dreams?
Then
it’s time to do some GENRE BUSTING(TM)
Please
JOIN ME starting April 3rd, 2007 for "Genre Busting(TM) – How to Plan
and Live Your C.R.E.A.T.I.V.E. Career!"
Genre
Busting(TM) is a 10-week program designed especially for you
creative, eclectic, and multitalented professional. The program details are still
being finalized but here’s what I can
reveal.
receive ongoing information on the Genre Busting(TM) program, send a blank email
to genrebusting [at] aweber.com
Until
next time,
Lyle Lachmuth MS
(Organization Development)
The Unsticking Coach(TM)
Your Talents > Your
Career >> Your Life >>> Your Way! (TM)
Turning Point
Strategies
Box 72140 RPO
Glenmore Landing |
Calgary,
AB
CANADA
T2V 5H9
E: LyleTLachmuth [at]
Gmail.com
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Copyright 2006 Lyle T. Lachmuth, All Rights
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