Are You Overdue for Some Changes in Your Life?
Author: Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach

“The Life Coaching professionals at the Life Coach Clinic helped me beyond measure,” says Dr. J. Jordan, a senior management consultant,” to achieve those overdue changes in my life and provided the foundations for successful new directions and personal fulfillment.”

It’s for sure life isn’t static, and the one thing we can count on is change, but there’s so much talk these days about difficulty adjusting to the amount and rate of change these days, have you considered it as an exciting, fulfilling and proactive choice?

I just got off the phone with a client in another country who has been asked to do a keynote address to an organizational group. It’s a professional conference for this group, but in the coming weeks, many of them are going to be transferred or given packages, as they downsize, a story that’s being played out in many companies around the world right now. She’s been asked to say something inspirational about change to these individuals who are about to have change forced upon them.

Life Coach Victoria Butterell (www.LifeCoachClinic.com) would have lots to say to a group like this. She knows all about the positive aspects of change. Not long ago she suffered a near-fatal car crash and was forced to retrain from her former position. “It changed my life,” she says, “and it changed it for the better. My car crash was a major wake-up call. I had ignored previous, smaller signs that I needed to change my life. The crash convinced me not to waste another minute of my life and, fundamentally, that I wanted to enable other people to make the most of their lives, too.” She’s in an ideal position to help people awaken to the transformational possibilities in change, so much so she now advocates intentional change and helps other people make the changes they need and want to, or weather the ones they must.

EMBRACING CHANGE

How about that? While most people are lamenting the constantly accelerating pace of change in today’s world, there’s a proactive position to be had: get out there and make change happen. More radical than that, try changing yourself.

Dr. Jordan is one of Victoria Butterell’s former clients, and he now realizes the changes created in coaching in his life were “overdue.”

How about you and your life? Are you overdue for a change? Have you thought about it that way?

Life has a way of making us change, when we don’t get active and choose our own changes.

SENIORS REGRET NOT HAVING MORE CHANGES

When people over 65 were asked, in a recent survey, “If you could live your life over, what would you do differently?” they answered:

1. I’d take more time to stop and ask the big questions.
2. I’d be more courageous and take more risks in work and love.
3. I’d try to live with purpose – to make a difference.

THE CAUSE OF HAPPINESS IS … RISK

The wisdom seniors are sharing gels with recent research findings that the primary ingredient for finding happiness is being willing to RISK.

Dr. Jordan, with the help of his coach, Victoria, has learned to embrace change.

What does it take to embrace this “stressful” occurrence in your life and reap the benefits?

Part of it depends upon the individual’s personal predisposition to change. This is ingrained is us because it comes from how change and ambiguity were handled when we were children. According to Holmes and Rahe, inventors of the now-famous stress scale which rates “life change units,” life is 44% more difficult now than it was 50 years ago. This means for all of us there was less change years ago when we were kids, so probably most of us need an adjustment in our predisposition to change.

Changes are exciting when we choose them ourselves, and when we bolster our resilience – our ability to handle change and bounce back from adverse events. Some of the things we can do are learning and practicing a positive attitude, having a strong and supportive social network, and working with someone who’s experienced in transitions, such as a coach.

Victoria’s philosophy is “Action from Adversity.” She would add these things to the list:

1. Trust your intuition, completely. You’ll know what you need to do with your life while friends and family may not.
2. Never give up. This is an inspirational quote from Winston Churchill - “Never give up. Never. Never. Never.”
3. Be brave. “Change can be scary,” says Victoria. “Bite the bullet and go for it. Don’t regret the things you haven’t done in life.”

Why “action from adversity?” You must take action. A useful metaphor is a cork in the ocean. We’re in the middle of our lives, like a cork on the ocean. The cork appears to move as a wave passes from left to right, but its position actually never changes other than a slight rotation. In other words, that cork is not going to wash up on shore eventually one day, it’s going to stay right where it is, forever. If you want to get somewhere, you have to TAKE ACTION.

A COACH IS INVALUABLE AT SUCH A TIME

“Completing the transition was tough,” says Victoria. “Most of my friends and family wanted me to 'get over the crash' and 'get back to normal' – my 'life' as it had been before. I had to keep my determination and resolve, to change my life and keep changing it. I had to find the strength to take actions which were very scary, well out of my comfort zone and risky, but which would give my life greater meaning and fulfillment. A coach is invaluable at a time like this.”

THIS ISN’T YOUR DRESS REHEARSAL

“Life isn’t a dress rehearsal,” Victoria tells her clients. “Don’t wait for that wake-up call, make the most of your life, NOW.”

IF THE SCRIPT ISN’T MEANT FOR YOU, RE-WRITE IT

You’re the star in the greatest show on earth, and all the world’s your stage!






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Victoria Butterell is a life-changed and life-changing coach. In a former lifetime, she was a railway manager. Visit her on the web at http://www.LifeCoachClinic.com and mailto:LifeCoachClinic@aol.com if your life is derailed—or needs to be. Written by Susan Dunn, www.webstrategies.cc/articles.htm.

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