Archer Coaching

Coaching you on your path to joyful abundance.

Archive for category Creativity

Making Space

May 18

Posted by Laura in Appreciation, Coaching, Creativity, Mindfulness, Path, Powerful questions, Uncategorized, balance, blessing, change, choice, clarity, planning, time | No Comments

When there is something big you want to create in your life, how do you make room for it? If you want to start your own business, get married, travel a lot, have children, start a new hobby, and so on, how do you create space for it? I’m talking beyond just wedging it into your calendar, saving money, or clearing out a corner of your home.

I’ll give a personal example. For a long time, I’ve held space in my heart and in my dreams for motherhood. In talking with my husband about having a child, he asked a great question: “How will we have a kid when we’re so busy as it is? How will we fit it in?” I realized then that something that large and life-changing doesn’t just get “penciled in” to our existing life. We must create space for it, giving up certain things and changing others so that we might be healthy, whole, and ready.

So I began paring down my responsibilities, specifically by deciding not to step up for officer roles in various professional organizations I belong to. I did some reading about fertility, learned how to chart, started taking prenatal vitamins, and tried to eat better and exercise more. I had some appointments with my doctors to deal with various issues I was concerned with. I put some money in a savings account to use during maternity leave.

I’m going through a similar process of making choices with my business right now. I am evaluating my commitments and side projects, winnowing some down so I can focus on my core interests and my best work. It’s a little bittersweet at times, saying goodbye to something that was fun but no longer moves me in the direction I want to go. But it opens new doors of opportunity, and that’s quite exciting to me!

I’ve blogged before about setting a goal and making sure it is SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timed). Coaching is a way to help people set goals, figure out a plan, and track toward achieving it. Making space is a critical step that might get overlooked by some. We can’t keep cramming our lives full of stuff to do without occasionally weeding some things out and changing others.

What do you do to make space? What do you make space for?

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Should You Hire a Life Coach?

Mar 17

Posted by Laura in Appreciation, Coaching, Creativity, Making an impact, clarity, confidence, experience, planning, success | No Comments

I am absolutely tickled pink about an article a former client wrote. Some time ago, I donated three coaching sessions as the door prize at a Toastmasters conference. I very much enjoyed working with the recipient. She let me know that she just wrote an article about hiring and working with a life coach.

So here it is: Life Coach: Should You Hire One?

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A Bigger Game

Mar 13

Posted by Laura in Coaching, Creativity, Dreaming, Making an impact, Mindfulness, Powerful questions, Uncategorized, blessing, change, clarity, joy, momentum, performance, planning, resistance | 2 Comments

Recently I completed some fantastic training on Energy Leadership with iPEC in New Jersey. Like most coach training, we learn techniques and concepts and then practice on each other, which opens the door for a lot of new learning, breakthroughs, and transformative thinking! A major takeaway for me from the weekend was this: It’s time for me to play a bigger game.

I have been stagnating in a few areas of my life and not stepping up to the plate with my true potential. I’ve been playing it safe, going with “good enough,” and making a lot excuses for not going bigger. I dug a comfortable little hidey hole in my complacency and fear. I have allowed certain beliefs and thoughts to hold me back.

The experience of new training and new thinking challenged me in these areas. It was really uncomfortable, and I felt a lot of resistance at first–which means that is precisely where I need to grow. Once I realized that I was playing small, it became more and more evident to me based on some feelings (and actions) I have had lately.

Now I’m completely energized and excited about the next phase of my life game.

So I hereby make this promise: I promise to play bigger. For myself, for my clients, for the world.

How will you show up for a bigger game in your life?

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Thinking Bigger: The VA Experience

Feb 19

Posted by Laura in Communications, Creativity, Uncategorized, change, clarity, experience, momentum, planning, professional image, success | No Comments

Loyal blog readers may remember some time ago that I posted about the three D’s of task management: delete, defer, and delegate. Well, I’ve had some serious experience with delegating recently. I hired a virtual assistant (VA) several months ago. The different in my business, my approach to it, and my personal growth has been startling! I want to share my experiences here, partly to sing the praises of VAs and partly to show how a simple change can bring about profound learning.

Virtual assistants can do all kinds of support work for a businessperson. Without getting into too much detail, they can offer administrative support, some Web work, design, event planning, phone calls, documentation, you name it. I found my VA through a local networking group, and we signed a contract by which she provides me 4 hours of her services each month. How I ask her to use the time is up to me. So far, I have had her work on both of my Web sites (which were recently relaunched in Wordpress), design promotional flyers for and assist with some training events, optimize my profile on some business networking sites, make phone calls and perform some research, and create a PowerPoint presentation from some extremely raw text. I plan to have her help me with a newsletter, more slide presentations, and some marketing tasks in the future!

What surprised me in the process of making use of this support is how much it helped me grow! The lessons ran deeper than I could have imagined (and are still revealing themselves to me). Here are some of them.

  • I was pushed (in a good way) to let go of something and trust another person to handle it. I’ve been self-employed for 14 years, and because I’ve always had to handle everything, it’s fair to say I became a bit of a control freak. I’m so used to handling it all–it was a challenge to let something go. When I was able to do so, a lot of new, exciting opportunities for my time and energy opened up!
  • I became more engaged in my best work. Because I now have support around the details and busy-work of my company, I have more of my brain power and heart invested in the actual work–that of coaching. I no longer have to fret over details because I have a trusted person to handle them for me. I can truly focus on serving my clients.
  • I opened the door to more profitability. I was shocked when I realized that my VA could spend 1 hour on something that would take me 4 or more hours (and a lot of frustration) to get done. I can use those 4 hours to do billable work! Also, because she can support me with excellent work, I’ve accelerated my plans on a lot of my business-building ideas, which will bring more clients to me.
  • I began to see more possibilities in my business. As I was challenged to come up with tasks for my VA (she works so fast!), I started to see a lot more opportunities for myself and my business. Currently, she is developing a slide presentation for me from very raw text and images. This will be published on SlideShare and available for free to anyone who is interested. Before I met my VA, I doubt I ever would have considered this. I don’t like slides, and I don’t know how to use PowerPoint well, and it would have perpetually been put on the back burner. Now it’s happening! More creative ideas are coming to me all the time, and I’m energized to attack them.
  • I started thinking like a bigger company. Suddenly, I have “people.” I can take on bigger projects, bigger commitments because I have support in other areas. I feel more professional. I’ve widened my playing field. This has opened up even more opportunities, and I find I’m incredibly excited and engaged with my business all over again!

Obviously, I recommend a good VA if you need or want some support in your business. As you think about the cost of hiring someone, weight it against the immediate benefits of getting things done, and remember to think about the bigger picture advantages!

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Love

Feb 11

Posted by Laura in Appreciation, Creativity, blessing, holiday, joy, love | 1 Comment

One of my favorite holidays is fast approaching: Valentine’s Day! Why do I love it? Because I love love itself. I like to celebrate love. And I am continually challenged to do so in a meaningful way. It occurred to me lately that the point of such a holiday is about showing love, not proving love.

Valentine’s Day is the feast day of Saint Valentine. Not much is known about Valentine, except that he was martyred in the third century. He is the patron saint of engaged couples, happy marriages, love, lovers, and young people (among other things). He is represented in pictures with birds and roses.

Somehow, the observation of a saint’s feast day has turned into a marketing whirlwind of products. They start to appear immediately after Christmas–whole aisles of things that are heart-shaped, red and pink, and cutesy-poo (sometimes nauseatingly so). Much like the commercialization of Christmas, Valentine’s Day has been seized by marketers as a way to ram more needless “stuff” down our throats. I’ve seen people (men, mostly) coming out of shops on V-day with armloads of flowers, chocolate, balloons, and stuffed animals. It makes me a little ill, frankly. I can’t imagine demanding that of someone. You don’t really need that stuff to show someone how much you love them.

So the challenge becomes how to celebrate love in a meaningful, heartfelt, and thoughtful way. My husband and I made a pact to just do something together. Some years that means we hand-make Valentine cards, sometimes we cook a nice romantic dinner and eat it by candlelight, sometimes we cuddle on the couch and watch a good movie, other times we head to art museum to get some culture.

I am truly curious to hear some great ideas from my loyal readers. How do you show your love in a way that’s meaningful to you? What Valentine’s Days past do you treasure in your heart?

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Snowbound

Feb 1

Posted by Laura in Appreciation, Creativity, Mindfulness, Uncategorized, blessing, nature, weather | No Comments

As of today, I have been snowbound for three days. We got a rare heavy snowstorm starting Friday night, and about 6-8 inches of accumulation. It’s absolutely beautiful! Luckily, the power has stayed on, so we have “weathered” (hyuk hyuk) the storm in great comfort. We had plenty of groceries, and even got a new snow shovel before it arrived.

I have reveled in this break from the busy-ness of everyday life. My calendar was mostly cleared of appointments–the two remaining ones have been rescheduled. I had lots of work to do here at home, plus some cleaning projects, a full TiVo, and a stack of books to read. I haven’t been bored at all, nor have I had cabin fever (I credit that to many, many snow days with no TV when I was growing up). I welcome the opportunity to slow down for a few days. It’s a rare luxury.

Think of Henry David Thoreau, who isolated himself from mainstream society for over two years at Walden Pond. (He still received visitors and made visits himself; he didn’t live as a hermit.) His time there inspired his classic masterpiece, Walden, which covers his thoughts on self-reliance and simple living.

When we’re given a chance to slow down a bit, what can we do? What creativity comes forth? What do you notice about your regular life when you’re offered a respite from it?

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Winter Solstice

Dec 21

Posted by Laura in Appreciation, Creativity, Path, Resolution, blessing, change, clarity, experience, holiday | 1 Comment

Today is the Winter Solstice. We experienced the least amount of daylight for the whole year today. The Northern Hemisphere is at its farthest point from the sun. From here on out, the daylight lingers, taking up more of the day, all the way up to the Vernal Equinox, when sunlight and night are equal, to the Summer Solstice, where it begins to fade again. It’s the also the first day of winter, when things appear dead or at least hibernating, storing energy to burst forth in spring. Notable days like these make me think of cycles, seasons, and changes.

As the leaves fell and the rain came down this autumn, I was thinking of ways to shed unnecessary things in my life. Like the church season of Advent, I am preparing for the arrival of some changes. I make room in my life, trusting that the universe will fill it with what I am manifesting. As I let go of things that had a hold on me, I find a new lightness, a new energy, a new creativity. My email box is clean, my office is tidied up, a fresh new desk calendar awaits a year full of joyful events. I’m purging things from my home, reexamining my commitments, seeking experiences rather than objects.

Seasons change, solstices and equinoxes come and go, tides rise and ebb. The cycles of our lives are marked in more ways than sunlight or water. A new calendar year is coming. How are we changing? What are we becoming? What are we creating room for?

Authentic voice

Dec 2

Posted by Laura in Communications, Creativity, Mindfulness, confidence | No Comments

Since I launched my Archer Coaching blog, set up a Facebook fan page for my business, and even joined Twitter, I found myself struggling to find my authentic voice and express it. I began by doing what a lot (an awful lot) of life coaches do on social media: post thought-provoking quotations or deep questions. And you could hear the crickets chirping… Not much of a response. Usually no response at all.

One day as I struggled to create an appropriate “life-coachy” kind of Twitter update, I realized something: I was boring! I was bored by my own postings, and I can’t imagine that anyone else would get much from them. My own voice was not shining through. I thought, “I am way more interesting than it appears based on these lame status updates!”

So I have rethought my approach. I will continue to have appropriate blog postings and Facebook business page updates–not too many of them. But I will bring my real voice here. After all, who I am is more important, in the long run, than what I have to say. As I know from my personal Facebook page, being my real self is much more fun (and gets a better response) than trying to maintain a stiff facade.

So, dear readers, you might notice my odd sense of humor come through more in these postings. Not to mention my love of 50-cent words, fierce defense of grammar, occasionally snarky comment, my willingness to laugh a lot and love fiercely, and my appreciation for a really bad joke. I will try to keep the swearing to a minimum (sometimes my authentic voice can out-curse a sailor or a pirate).

In the interest of generating comments, please share how you find or use your authentic voice in your life or business.

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>Creative Impulse

Oct 28

Posted by Laura in Creativity | 2 Comments

>Lately, I’ve been working full-tilt on a number of quilts. I have a lot of friends expecting babies soon, so I have four baby quilt tops made, and a fifth to be done as well. I’ve also been working piecemeal on a few other full-size quilts. 

I’ve noticed something interesting when I’m quilting. I can be tired, cranky, and even have a headache… and when I start being creative, all of that goes away. I am actually energized by doing it! I get in a sort of Zen state, especially when I’m hand-quilting. It opens up my mind to new possibilities, and I get a deep satisfaction from having created something beautiful.
I’m not much of an artist. I played violin for 10 years, but no longer play (though I do miss playing in a group, it’s an amazing experience). I took fine-art photographs for a while (and would like to get back into it). When I decided to try quilting, I found something I could do well and thoroughly enjoyed–an outlet for my creative voice. 
Many people feel a deep-seated urge to create. How do you express this? How do you feel when you are creating? What do you like to create?

>Creative Impulse

Oct 28

Posted by Laura in Creativity | 2 Comments

>Lately, I’ve been working full-tilt on a number of quilts. I have a lot of friends expecting babies soon, so I have four baby quilt tops made, and a fifth to be done as well. I’ve also been working piecemeal on a few other full-size quilts. 

I’ve noticed something interesting when I’m quilting. I can be tired, cranky, and even have a headache… and when I start being creative, all of that goes away. I am actually energized by doing it! I get in a sort of Zen state, especially when I’m hand-quilting. It opens up my mind to new possibilities, and I get a deep satisfaction from having created something beautiful.
I’m not much of an artist. I played violin for 10 years, but no longer play (though I do miss playing in a group, it’s an amazing experience). I took fine-art photographs for a while (and would like to get back into it). When I decided to try quilting, I found something I could do well and thoroughly enjoyed–an outlet for my creative voice. 
Many people feel a deep-seated urge to create. How do you express this? How do you feel when you are creating? What do you like to create?