Announcing the Christian Coaching Magazine

Hey everyone, I'm excited to share with you a new magazine for coaches, leaders and anyone who is interested in improving their own leadership skills. The Christian Coaching Magazine is an online magazine that you can subscribe to and have delivered right into your email inbox every two weeks. I'm happy to say that I've been subscribing for quite awhile. Before when it was called the Journal of Christian Coaching, I actually had my first published article printed. Wahoo! That was cool. Now it's changed just a bit but still packs a whole lot of great content into an easy to read format. And...I'm writing two professional profiles for some great coaches I know.

You can check it out at: www.christiancoachingmag.com. Click on the "us" button and you will find out all about the magazine, the staff and how to subscribe. Happy Reading!

Walking in Faith

I've had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow coach for a profile piece I get to write for the Christian Coaching Magazine. Joe is someone I met while just beginning my training to become a life coach and I've thoroughly enjoyed the time we've spent together. His willingness to allow me to ask all kinds of probing sort of intimate questions will only serve to enrich the profile, I hope. He was a good sport and I'm excited to write the piece.

One of the highlights of interviewing Joe was to see how complete and unwavering his faith is. He shared with me in detail how he left his job and answered the call on his heart to become a full time life coach. By the world's standards what he was doing sounds a bit crazy but to me it is inspiring and reminds me of when Jesus called to Peter to get out of the boat. Joe got out of his boat and has been walking in faith ever since. Without giving to much away I just want to say "Thanks" to Joe for being an example to me, for obeying the call, and for continuing to seek God in everything you do. You are an inspiration!

Lots of Change Over HERE

I'm not a big fan of change. Never really have been, but I'm learning to adjust. I don't think of myself as being rigid, that's such a negative, but rather flexibility challenged. That has a much more positive ring to it. Shows there is room for improvement and I'm okay with being challenged.
I'm a planner, an organizer a structure junkie if you will. Quite simply, I like to know what's coming around the next corner. Sometimes I wish I could be just a little bit omniscient like God so that when change comes it wouldn't rock my world so much. I know, not gonna happen but still I wish it were.

In the midst of change I end up feeling like I'm two steps behind. Two steps behind my work, or two steps behind my kids, or two steps behind what's happening in my friendships...you get the idea. I can see and feel that something is different but I can't quite put my finger on it until Voila! It hits me, it's CHANGE.

It's strange to me that I struggle with change, maybe it comes from all the years of Grant's illness. Or maybe because of my family dynamic growing up. In any case, change is something I've come to understand isn't to be feared, instead it usually signals growth, and huge opportunities to learn.
I love to learn, and if I can look at the change monster through that lense of opportunity then I'm much more open to it. Change can be a good thing, and ultimately I think God uses it in our lives to show us that He's always on the move. Leaning into Him through the changes that come helps me with my innate desire to turn around and walk the other direction. I am human afterall, it takes an act of my will to seek God and ask him to help me with these things.
So today I'm asking God to help me understand the changes, asking him to expand my ability to roll with it and asking him to remind me that in the words of Sheryl Crowe, "A change will do you good."

How do you handle change?

They each know someone with bipolar...

Here's what I find so interesting...Well a few things really but let's start with this. Every single person I've talked to personally about the book I'm writing says this to me, "Oh, I know someone who is bipolar" or "Oh, I have a family member who is bipolar." That just amazes me. Even though I know the statistics say approximately 6 million people have bipolar, it still just boggles my mind that God continues to bring me people who validate what it is we are doing with this book.

So the second thing that I find so interesting is how God uses struggles in our lives that we never, ever anticipated using ourselves. I've always wanted to write books, but never imagined that I would be writing a book on bipolar and marriage. Of course, I never imagined we would be dealing with this illness but here we are right in the thick of it, so why not write a book about it?

The third thing I find interesting is how God has given us peace through this process. I mean when I think about where we were when this whole thing got started, to where we are now...again, it just boggles my mind. Not only have we written a book that chronicles very intimate details of Grant's diagnosis and treatment, but we've also shared some significant marital strife because of his illness. And we haven't had one disagreement about it. Grant's 100% on board saying, "If one person is encouraged by this, then it will have all been worth it." That is a miracle in my opinion, especially since he's a guy and guys don't generally want to share their stuff, especially not with potentially a whole lot of readers.

God has used this process to continue the healing in our marriage and in each of us as individuals. Oh, how I never would have imagined being where we are today, and can only say that I'm amazed at how God works and how he uses things in our lives.
It could have been so different for us. Grant could have died that day, leaving me behind to grapple with an illness that I really knew nothing about. But instead God intervened, and carried us through the most horrific storm we could ever have imagined. To try and sum it all up in one final chapter feels almost impossible...the story isn't finished yet so how do you say, "the end".

And so that leads me to the fourth thing I find interesting. Maybe we don't say "the end". Maybe we say "the beginning" instead. Because that's exactly where we find ourselves today...at the beginning of something new, something wonderful and bright and alive with hope. We are at the cusp of some new chance at love and life and we want to embrace it fully, living here in this moment knowing that tomorrow is in God's hands, trusting that He will provide and meet us right here right now.
So, I can't say, "the end", because it's not the end...it's the beginning. And I'm so thankful for that.

Understand or Misunderstand?

Here's what I'm thinking today...It's easier to poke fun at that which we don't understand, then it is to admit that we don't understand at all.

Profound? Probably not, but an important truth...yes, for sure.

What do you think? And how do you feel God's leading when you find yourself in the midst of something you know you don't quite qet? Do you fake it or do you make fun, or do you actually admit it and go seek the truth?

I'm curious...what do you do?

Just so you know...I don't have it all figured out.

"So you're a Life Coach?" She says with a question behind her blue green eyes and then politely waits to hear my response. I nod my head and with a smile say, "Why yes, I am a Life Coach." Her eyes blink as she digests my reply...you can almost see the wheels turning in her head as she carefully tries to find the right thing to say next. I wait expectantly wondering what she will say next, and then sure enough out it comes. "Well, does that mean you've got life all figured out?"

Woop, there it is...the quintessential question of the hour. "Does that mean I've got life all figured out?" I've heard that a few times since I finished my Life Coach training and it makes me smile every single time. First of all let me be the first to tell you that, No, of course I don't have life all figured out. And second of all, let me just say that I would never pretend even for one second that I did. It just isn't possible, doesn't work that way and besides, how much fun would that be.
No, Life Coaching isn't about having it all figured out, or having all the answers or telling people what to do. And it's definitely not about condescending to people as you try and put yourself in their shoes. There is no way to do that, no way to even begin to understand the paths that other people have walked and to pretend or attempt to do that would really be presumptuous and egotistical. Let me assure you that my closest friends would tell you that I'm my own piece of work, all crafted and twisted and convoluted...and I'm just waiting to figure out what God intends to do with my puzzle as each piece gets pulled out by the daily grind.

My job as a life coach is to be a support, an encourager and to help people shift their focus onto what they can do about their situation or their predicament. My greatest joy is to work with someone who has been knocking their head against the wall about some big issue and when they finally have a break through you can just hear the heavens open up and the angels all applaud. It's awesome! That's what coaching is about for me. It's about helping people find their purpose, and about believing they have what it takes all along to figure it out for themselves.

And sometimes in those break through moments I am reminded that good things do happen, that sometimes we do get the answer we are seeking and when all the pieces in the puzzle fit together...well, that's just about the best way to celebrate and give glory to God. It's an honor to be a part of something like that. That's why I love being a coach, even if I don't have it all figured out...God does.