Archive for the ‘coaching’ Category

Choose Your Friends Wisely

Written by on 26th January 2011

This is Part Six in a Six-Part Series about getting to the stuff that matters this year. If you missed the other parts, start here.



We all know the people closest to us have a significant effect on our lives. You’ve likely been hearing about this since you were a child when your parents weighed in on your peer relationships. More recently, research has even shown that your choice in friends can make you fat.

Our relationships also effect what we believe is possible for us, what’s important to us and whether or not we’re likely to act on those possibilities and values.







Take the Olympic athlete I heard about recently who was coming out of retirement for one last contest. When her father didn’t believe she’d make it, she cut him out of her inner circle. In order to achieve this difficult goal, she knew she needed to weed out negative influences and, pain her as it might, her father was being a negative influence.

When you think about getting to the important stuff in your life, do you find that you are surrounded by the right people? Do they believe in you, support you, encourage you, challenge you, speak the truth to you? Do their own journeys inspire you?

Integral to the design of the upcoming 6-month coaching group, Jumpstart What Matters Most 2011, is community. Participants will benefit tremendously as they build an intimate creative support group that stays connected, in touch and as they serve as cheerleaders and fellow travelers on the journey. If you are looking for that kind of support, consider joining us for our start in one week! The group will stay small, but can accommodate one or two more people.

Isn’t it time you started getting to the stuff that really matters?

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Live a New Story

Written by on 21st January 2011

This is Part Five in a Six-Part Series about getting to the stuff that really matters this year. If you missed the other parts, start here.



A few years ago, in the 40 or so days prior to Easter, I decided to participated in the age-old tradition of Lent. Now I don’t come from a family that ever even gave a nod to Lent and the bulk of my religious experience has been devoid of such strong connections to a church calendar. In my childhood memory, Lent was for Catholics who needed to fulfill their masochistic tendencies through self-deprivation, primarily by way of giving up soda, candy or ice cream. And we were not Catholic.

But I am a sucker for ritual in petite amounts, so when the idea to do something differently for this limited amount of time popped into my brain, I couldn’t shake it. I wasn’t, however, interested in deprivation. The mere thought of abstaining from anything made me feel depressed and full of cravings. I figured I’d be better off adding something in rather than taking something away.

My choice? Yoga. Everyday for the 40+ days leading up to Easter. Daily yoga was something I always meant to do, but never got around to actually doing. Something I knew would have a positive impact in my life, but easily got pushed to the back burner. (This was also before I had a yoga room.)

My Lenten experiment was successful. Amazingly, delightfully successful.

I’ve been sharing these last two weeks about a process to get to the stuff that really matters to you this year and actually living the new story is where the rubber meets the road. We can identify what matters, clarifying the narratives that are holding us back, map the gap between where we are and where we want to be and craft the elements of the new story we want to be living. But all of this comes in service of living and working differently.

My Lenten experiment provides some guideposts for successfully stepping into a new way of being that I’d like to share with you:

1. Forget about forever. If the mere idea of moving forward with something leaves you seeking out any other diversion, give yourself a time frame. Had I said I was now someone who does yoga everyday, I never would have started. Daily yoga for just 40 days? Done!

2. Focus on only meeting the minimum requirements. My only “rule” for Lenten Yoga was this: everyday you must get on your yoga mat. I didn’t commit to five minutes, 25 minutes or one hour. If I wanted to do five sun salutations and then get back to work, five sun salutations it was. If I wanted to lie in corpse pose until I’d drifted off to sleep, corpse pose it was. Giving myself this permission ensured I’d actually do what I wanted to do and more often than not five sun salutations turned into a full practice.

3. Tell other people. I didn’t tell a lot of people about my plans, but all I needed was a handful. I knew no one was affected one way or the other, but there’s something about speaking your intentions out loud to those who care about you and who will remember your goals that brings the motivation up a notch or two. I chalk it up to pride.

You are already aware that it’s not always easy to take your ideas – whether they are about our creativity, vocation, health, relationships, etc. – off the back burner and begin taking action on them. If you’re looking for a supportive environment in which to make that happen, I hope you’ll hop on over to Jumpstart What Matters Most 2011 and consider filling one of the final spots of this telephone coaching group. The series runs for six months and is going to empower you to get the stuff that matters. I promise!

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Create a New Story

Written by on 18th January 2011

This is Part Four in a Six-Part Series about getting to the stuff that really matters this year. If you missed the other parts, start here.

We have come to the next step in this series that deals with the construction of a new story, something that participants in Jumpstart What Matters Most 2011 will be doing as part of their group coaching experience. Of course, constructing your own story is something you either passively or actively participate in whether you’re aware of it or not. As often as possible, I vote for active participation!

What I haven’t really articulated, however, is a response to the question, why story? Story is the thread running through all aspects of this series (and my work at Get There From Here) and, while it’s likely made some sort of connection with you already (you’re still reading, right?), I’d nonetheless like to be explicit on why the focus is on creating a new story and not a new plan/life/vision/system.

Open Sky

Let me start here: there are myriad frameworks to use when supporting others to grow and change. There exists a plethora of helping professions. Additionally, each coach brings something different to the table. For me, taking a narrative approach rose to the surface in terms of effectiveness and personal preference.This is not to say that the language of plans/life/visions/systems is never used in my work; it’s simply to say it falls under the larger umbrella of story.

This is partly true for the simple fact that humans are hardwired to be meaning-makers and have been making sense of themselves and their world through narratives since the beginning of time. In other words, story is a natural entry point for coaching . Story also tends to laser in on the root of many issues, such that constructing a new story is less about changing habits or setting goals and more about becoming someone who can sustain change and traverse the path toward what’s envisioned.

Perhaps most obviously, for individuals and organizations who are already predisposed to approaching the world while tapped into their creativity, a framework of story is undeniably rich and attractive. Artists, creative entrepreneurs and writers easily grasp and benefit from this work.

But there are other reasons that I’d like to quickly enumerate.

1. Using story provides a universal language. Especially in groups, we move out of individualized, jargony self-help language and into something easily understood and accessible.

2. Story provides safe ways to revisit the past. Taking a narrative approach helps you stay in the present while exploring your history, making it less intimidating and, importantly, less rigid or fixed.

3. Story captures the imagination. Coaching through the lens of story not only engages your most creative self (incredibly important when solving your complex problems!), it also has a way of opening up the pathway for new possibilities.

4. Story provides distance and objectivity. In addition to removing the burden of having to “work” on “yourself” (you work on your story) using a narrative approach gives you power to choose what kind of meaning you will make, how you will interpret the facts before you.

Story creation is an important, powerful process that enables you to step fully into the life and work you desire. It is a gateway for getting to the stuff that matters. And when you find that you can rewrite your story, you discover that you are operating from an incredibly powerful place.

Don’t believe me?

Read these stories.

If you are ready to create a story that enables you to get to the stuff that matters, I encourage you to connect with me. I’d love to have you join the small group of other creative/entrepreneurial folks who will be participating in Jumpstart What Matters Most 2011. The group starts in two weeks, so drop me a line ASAP and we can decide together if this is a natural next step for you. Call (215.764.1615) or email today!

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Map the Gap

Written by on 14th January 2011

This is Part Three in a Six-Part Series about getting to the stuff that really matters this year. If you missed the other parts, start here.

So we’ve talked about what really matters and about discovering your current story. All this to share more fully with you about how you can effect change in 2011. It will also help you better understand the process for the upcoming six month group coaching series, Jumpstart What Matters Most.

Here’s the third part: mapping the gap between the stuff that matters and your current story.

All coaching deals in part with “the gap.” After all, between where we are and where we want to be, there is space. If there wasn’t, we’d already have what we want, be doing what we want, be relating the way we want, be thinking the way we want, be living the way we want. We’d be there. But for most of us, there are important areas of our lives where the gap can feel pretty big, where the path to “getting there” appears long and full of travail.

Embarking on the journey to live our lives in line with what matters most to us is its own kind of hero’s journey, the archetypal pattern described by Joseph Campbell. It is an ancient, mythic, ubiquitous pattern. (Realizing and embracing the ubiquity of this narrative can ultimately prove helpful and provide fuel for the journey.) Even the most cursory glance reveals that the path to “getting there” is often a serious and challenging one:

Of course, as you already know, when something is truly worth going after, it is hardly as easy as stepping over a few pebbles in the road. Indeed, when we examine the “why” of being stuck, there are good reasons. We are often confronted with our own past, our limitations, our psychological hang-ups or habituated responses. The gap between where we are and where we want to be can feel insurmountable and undesirable. After all, I don’t know anyone who actively seeks out an abyss.

But there is tremendous good news! News that forms the foundation of my coaching philosophy: when you are truly ready for the journey, when you feel it is time, deep down, you will have what you need. And if you do not have every piece that you need before embarking, you will receive it just in time. This goes for both internal resources and external resources. You will discover you have the courage the moment you need courage. You will discover you have the life-changing question the moment it needs to be asked. You will discover that you have the community the moment you need relational support.

You are the hero in your own journey and, ultimately, moving through the entire process is a choice you get to make. Your journey may look like the archetypal narrative above, or it may follow a different arc. Regardless, you get to be an active participant in the creation of how you close the gap between your current story and a new one that reflects what matters most to you.

If you are feeling called to step into your own hero’s journey this year, I invite you to join Jumpstart What Matters Most 2011, a small coaching group starting February 2 designed to help you take those creative and entrepreneurial goals off the back burner. It will provide you with the resources you need to begin moving forward in a powerful, new way! Click here to reserve your spot today!

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Discover and Understand Your Current Story

Written by on 12th January 2011

This is Part Two in a Six-Part Series about getting to the stuff that really matters this year. If you missed Part One, start here.




At the very end of December, I blogged about orienting your life around its most important elements, whatever they are to you. I also invited you to take stock of 2010, exploring what did or did not align with your priorities. This was a prelude to the launch of an incredibly exciting group coaching series that starts on February 2.  As I wrote in December, Identifying What Really Matters is the first step in the series.

Today I want to share more about Step 2 in the group coaching series: Discover and Understand Your Current Story. To do so, I’m going to start with a story you’ve heard before, the story of the half-mad, starving artist.

The half-mad, starving artist is talented in his work. He may have a primary way of expressing himself artistically or he may have several. His profession is very often in the creative economy, where he experiences success, but he frustrated because he’s not getting to his own projects. He can’t ever seem to get the right structures in place or develop the discipline to get things done. His self-esteem is low and dropping, a problem exacerbated by the fact that he is generally underpaid and overworked and has alienated those around him with erratic behavior and “forgetfulness.” He understands this to be part and parcel of being an artist.

As a coach, I am immediately drawn toward five or six different areas when presented with a client in a similar (though undoubtedly less archetypal!) situation; however, the most effective one rests in identity.  Said another way, it’s all about the story he tells to himself about himself.

If this artist tells himself that being an artist = being irresponsible and impoverished, he is trapped in a perpetual cycle of disappointment. He can either be responsible and solvent OR he can be an artist. He can either get to the stuff that matters OR he can be an artist. But he cannot be both.

Each one of us faces this conundrum in myriad ways all over the fabric of our lives and work. While often less obvious, we naturally tell ourselves stories, many of which actually help us get to where we want to be, many of which don’t. Maybe yours sound like this:

  • I can’t make a difference and make money.
  • Since I’m so even-keeled, I must not be very creative.
  • Success is something that happens overnight or it doesn’t happen at all.
  • If my ideas were good, someone would have noticed by now.
  • No one makes a living doing what they really love.
  • What’s the point of starting; I’m never going to finish.
  • I can’t be an artist and be business-savvy.
  • If I were really devoted to my business, I’d be working 24/7.



On one hand, these are all just stories – a particular reality to a particular interpretation of the facts. Unfortunately, if what we want fits outside that interpretation, we cannot have it, do it, get to it, change it. End of story.

A Mayan Ruin

© Jennifer Gleeson Blue

Understanding your own story might sound as difficult as reading ancient Mayan hieroglyphics, but it’s not – I promise.



Consider the stories you tell yourself. Where do you think they come from? Do they help you or hinder you? When it comes to getting to the most important stuff in your life, are they in the way?

It may be time to draft a new story so you can take those goals/dreams/projects off the back burner and finally breathe life into them. If you’re ready for that, I invite you to join Jumpstart What Matters Most 2011.  Space is super limited (maxing out at 6 people) and it starts February 2. Reserve your spot today!

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A New Chapter

Written by on 27th October 2010

Ta-da!

For months, I have been teasing the fact that Get There From Here was going re-focus around story in an bigger way. Today, after nearly a year’s work, it officially has, and I’m so pleased to welcome you to the updated site that reflects this re-orientation. It’s all about helping you get to the stuff that matters through the creative power of story!

There are some obvious changes. The website copy has changed. The font is easier to read. There are beautiful new images on each page. This is all good stuff and I hope these changes will make getting the support you need an easier proposition. You might be particularly interested in a few specific spots:



Check ‘em out!

I also think the following interview of me, filmed by the Empowerment Group to help kick-off their Power of Story event, will provide some nice context for this shift. It’s the story of my business and of me as an entrepreneur. At the very least, you can appreciate the creepy image of me that YouTube chose as the still.





As Get There From here has grown over the last 3+ years, I have so valued the deep learning clients and readers of this blog have enabled me to to experience. In other words, thanks for being here. It makes all the difference.




I’d also like to offer a shout-out to Alx Block, Lula Jones and Scott Gleeson Blue who worked tirelessly to get the new site up and running.

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Transitions

Written by on 11th September 2010

Transitions is the theme for the first ever free Open Mic Coach Night coming this Monday, 9/13 at 7pm ET.

Our lives are always in flux. It’s part of the big picture, like birth and death, as well as part of the everyday small pictures, like breathing or changing jobs. Sometimes we “manage” transitions well and sometimes we resist, struggle or get lost in the upset.

I was thinking of this yesterday while visiting a friend and her two young sons. The older lad went out to play with a friend while the younger one was relegated to being watched by the adults. Inside. Not quite able to talk, you could hear him get antsy at his brother’s impending departure and then start to whine and breathe rapidly as the door closed in front of him.

My friend watched her youngest process this transition, knowing he might quickly adapt or he might resist, struggle, get lost in the upset.

At just that moment, a ball was sighted, and all apparent thought of the older brother was gone. Adaptation had occurred.

© Scott Gleeson Blue

As adults, we’re aware of transitions in a new way. It’s not just older brothers going outside to play. It’s roles, careers, beliefs and identities that are changing. It’s big stuff.

If you  find yourself struggling through a transition, or just want some outside feedback, I hope you’ll join Monday’s Open Mic Coach Night. Three to four people will receive on-the-spot coaching and, importantly, we’ll be learning from one another, expanding the possibilities and deepening the collective awareness.

I hope to see you there!

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Asking More of Me

Written by on 10th August 2010

I have a love/hate relationship with yoga, by which I mean this:

  • I feel amazing when I practice
  • I’d really rather not practice

When I do practice – which over the last year has varied from once every other week to about three times per week – I practice at home. I even have a “yoga room,” which is almost entirely empty and painted orange.

So even though I’m not the most disciplined student, I’m both experienced and routine enough to feel comfortable walking into about any studio class. Which is exactly what I did yesterday, when I discovered:

  • I’m really not that flexible
  • I’m really not that strong
  • I’m really not that focused

As I was pondering the disparity between my home practice and the studio practice and noticing how little I challenge myself when I’m at home, I began to feel a little discouraged and, well, lazy. I mean, clearly you can’t get loose hamstrings by holding adho mukha svanasana for 10 seconds with your knees bent! It seems I’m not as likely to get where I want to be when I go it alone.

There are many reasons I “showed up” more fully and worked with a stronger intention at the studio class. There was a teacher to correct me and fellow students to keep up with. But mostly? Mostly, someone just asked more of me than I had asked of myself.

This got me thinking about my clients, who essentially ask me to do the same for them. And I felt all aglow that I have this privilege, that I get to experience people who are willing to put themselves out there, knowing I’m going to ask them to go a little deeper into a twist or repeat a vinyasa.

It’s asking a lot of yourself to ask someone else to ask you to go further, or deeper or longer than you would on your own. It takes courage and self-awareness and humility.

Plus, you can pretty much rest assured that you’re going to be sore the next day!

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Your True Story: A Pilot Coaching Program

Written by on 26th July 2010

Stories are everywhere.

There is the story of your day, your week, your first love, your career, your professional development, your body. Since the beginning of time, we have been making sense of our world through story and we use stories every day to inspire us, hinder us, explain ourselves, understand difficult concepts and more.

At this very moment, you are in the process of writing your own story.

Because your story is integral to how you experience yourself and your world, I am SO excited to be launching a pilot coaching program to help you create your most powerful and authentic story!

Click here for pilot program details.

After you read the program details, my guess is that you’ll quickly have an inkling if this is the right program for you. The following list of reasons might also help you decide:

  • You’re feeling stuck
  • You keep experiencing the same problem over and over again
  • You have similar symptoms in many areas of your life
  • You’re ready to take a truthful look at your situation and take action based on what you discover
  • You have the time and energy to devote to a powerful, life-changing process
  • You want structure and end dates
  • You always wanted to experience coaching
  • You like significant cost-savings without a decrease in service
Keep in mind that this pilot program launches in August and that I’ll only be signing up participants (who are getting a deep discount!) through the end of this week. If you are ready to craft your own true story, schedule a time with me to talk. I would LOVE to support you in this process!

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Career Seeking = Research

Written by on 6th July 2010

Every once in a while you encounter someone with a whole lotta gumption. You know the type. Someone who really takes the bull by the horns and gets after what she wants.

Olivia Lindquist is one such person. In the midst of a career search while teaching English in Korea, she dropped me this note:

As I’ve been working on my grad school applications due this fall, something was keeping me from being fully invested. Finally I realized that going to grad school for English literature, even though it’s absolutely something I want to do, feels like closing a door on the possibility of pursuing a career in holistic health.

So Olivia decided to figure out how teaching English and a career in holistic health might work together. She’s in the midst of an interview series, bringing to her blog readers the responses from several women in different, related fields. I – representing coaches worldwide (okay, maybe I’m just representing me) – recently responded to Olivia’s questions which she posted last week. If you’re interested in learning more about coaching as a career from my perspective, click the image below to read the full interview.

Additionally, tool around Green Junkie Living. There are other careers highlighted and you just may find some answers you’re looking for. If nothing else, I think we can all learn from Olivia and her gumption. She wants something. She’s not exactly sure what it is. And instead of sitting back and hoping it magically appears, she’s taking an active, holistic approach. She’s asking herself the hard questions. And she’s asking others, too.

For Olivia and all you other career seekers out there: may you uncover what you already know.

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“I had the good fortune of being in the audience as Jennifer gave a presentation to the Philadelphia Area Coaches Alliance. She did a great job helping us to understand the differences in the generations and how that shows up in the workplace. She's funny, engaging and articulate. Couldn't ask for more out of a speaker!” – Jerry Wistrom, Hartford, CT