"Moments of Joy"

Isn't that a great term?!?

Heidi ho, poppits and Happy Monday to you!

I am coming off of a FAB-U-LUSS weekend where I attended a Coaching Skills "Boot Camp" by "kick-ass" coach Dorothy Greenaway. She rocked and the weekend was AWESOME! As to be expected after spending a weekend with eight other coaches, I came away with some great self-awareness and learning. I also came away feeling better about my coaching skills and excited about the coaching conversation again. I was reminded of how much I really like listening and being curious.

As you know, 'cuz I mention it OVER AND OVER AND OVER again, I've been really trying to get my "mojo" back around losing weight and exercising. Whenever The Evil One asks me the question "but WHY can't you control your eating?", I never seem to have an answer for him. That has been a never-ending source of frustration for me. I've narrowed down when I eat (happy, sad, bored, not bored, hungry, not hungry, yada-yada), but haven't figured out the WHY behind it. This is the question I took with me to solve over this past weekend.

Was I able to "dig deep" and have a magical "a-ha" moment to answer the elusive "why"? Um, not so much, really. BUT I was able to remind myself of the "greatness" I wanted to achieve. That "greatness" being my crazy, impassioned desire to help people tap into their strengths and realize all they can be. By writing this blog, for example, my hope is that people will see the simple message I bring...if I can do it, ANYONE can do it. "It" being whatever huge obstacle they need to move.

Let's face it, people, my struggles are not the prettiest or easiest to have to witness and I thank you for sticking by me. But I've done what I set out to do - climb The Inca Trail. This weekend I realized that I really CAN do whatever the heck I want to do. I just need to get over myself! Have I seen any results? Well, I'm back to eating within my 8-hour window and have seen a serious reduction in carb & sugar intake. I'm back to feeling good about what goes into my mouth and that makes me happy!

One of the things we did was The Canopy Walk over The Haliburton Forest. Let me quote you from the website the description of The Canopy Walk...

"The canopy boardwalk is the ultimate highlight of this outing. Over half a kilometer long - and as such the longest of its kind in the world - the canopy boardwalk winds through the treetops some 10-20 meters above the forest floor. A platform suspended from the treetops above, becomes the gathering place where you can enjoy a leisurely snack while your guide elaborates on the forest environment surrounding you. A spectacular view across the lakes and forests becomes a fitting closure to your tree top tour."

Sounds lovely, doesn't it?!? What they DON'T tell you is that the "platform suspended from the treetops above" bobs & weaves like a drunken sailor on his way back to the ship from his shore leave!

Throughout the "ultimate highlight" that was The Canopy Walk, I found myself hugging trees as I hooked the clasps of my safety harness from one set of ropes to another; moving forward faster in a panicked state as my two partners progressed more confidently in the walk and I pulled up the rear; laughing hysterically (and I mean tears flowing, gut wrenching, face aching hysterical laughing) as I almost missed the GIANT first step that transitioned one suspended platform onto another; and tripping TWICE because my foot got caught on the rope at the side of wooden planks that was my boardwalk. Folks, I'm here to tell you I was FREAKED OUT!! The point of the walk was to get the "meta view" of the forest and to align that view with a coach's objective to always hold our client's meta goal in site for them. It's a lofty objective and one that Dorothy meant well in setting for us. But, all I know is that, for me, I couldn't see the forest because of all the fear I faced. Admittedly, I was able to feel better about my skills in transferring the safety clasps from one platform to another, but everytime I tried to look down and see the forest below, I felt a wave of nausea that caused me to grip the side ropes harder and make me walk a little faster to get the end!

Facing fear is a good thing, especially when you've got safety harnesses to back you up. However, you don't realize that until AFTER you've faced & conquered the fear. What's up with that?!? Too bad all fears didn't have crystal balls into which we could see us conquering whatever the fear was we faced. But then again, what fun would that be?!?


I'll wrap things up, but before I do, I want to share a tidbit from a coaching conversation I had with one of The Inca Chicks. She's the one who coined the phrase "Moments of Joy". During our conversation, she remembered being at Dead Woman's Pass (the highest point of our journey on The Inca Trail) feeling complete joy every time one of our team members arrived at the top of the Pass. Knowing how difficult the journey was, made her joyous EVERY TIME one of our team members reached the top. She said she decided to retire on top of that mountain because she wanted to find more "moments of joy" like the ones she experienced at Dead Woman's Pass. WOW!!

So tell me, poppits...What constitutes a "moment of joy" for you? And how often do you have them in a day?

Hmmmm.....

NOW tell me... what are you going to do to get more moments of joy in your life?!?

Wishing you "kick-ass" conversations and MANY moments of joy!
(a)yt xox