Last weekend I was in Toronto as a Circle Coach for Quest, The Coaches Training Institute’s latest leadership program. In three days, it’s amazing to see the transformations that occur and the quests that participants have embarked on!
The concept of a quest is rooted in Joseph Campbell’s model The Hero’s Journey. In his research of ancient myths, Campbell articulated the shared path of ordinary people being called forth to do extraordinary things. Below is a great video that uses one of my favorite movies, The Matrix, to illustrate the steps of the hero’s journey.
Quests can be as grand as saving the planet or as close-to-home as creating shared community in your neighborhood. What’s most important is that the quest comes from your essence and that it’s making a positive impact on others. In your life you’ve probably had and will have many quests. Don’t get trapped into feeling like you must search for the one perfect quest that defines your life purpose.
A key to living “on quest” is to stay engaged and in action around your quest (even when you’re up against challenges, rejection and doubt). One of my quests is to create an Expressive Arts Coaching community. So, earlier this year Jamie and I submitted a proposal to present our perspectives on this emerging field. We were disappointed that we didn’t get selected AND it didn’t stop me from submitting another proposal for a new opportunity to speak next month. Living “on quest” means staying in it, course correcting, asking for help and celebrating your steps along the way.
One of the things that helps me stay “on quest” is to connect with other questers. I get energized witnessing others making a positive impact and showing up so fully in their essence. One of those inspiring questers is Doug Somers who is spearheading The Hero’s Journey Project, a collaborative initiative to create musical accompaniment for the hero’s journey. Take a listen! These magical songs will no doubt move you in your quest! And this week I heard from another amazing quester who just signed a book deal to write about creative women entrepreneurs. Exciting stuff is happening!! I can’t wait to see how the Toronto questers’ quests unfold!
What quest(s) are you being called to do? What will keep you living “on quest?”
At the end of April I took a short trip to London to visit with four of my dear friends from my leadership tribe. It had been about three and a half years since we were all together, so we were thrilled to have a mini-reunion.
The four bellas - a radiantly pregnant Tina, Lisa, me and Fiona - were happy to be together. We have been connecting off and on on the phone over the past several years and it’s always like a breath of fresh air when we’re all together. Fiona, being the fabulous idea generator that she is came up with a “development day” concept where each of us got time to share what was going on in our lives and get support, coaching, insights and feedback. Pretty awesome considering we’re all trained coaches who care deeply about each other!
Beks‘ son Callum and Fiona’s son Pierre meet for the first time. Too cute!
A gorgeous view from Richmond Park where we spent a warm, sunny afternoon with the boys.
All five of us together before heading out to dinner at a delicious Turkish restaurant.
We dined on yummy sweet potato and ginger soup in the lovely Petersham Nurseries greenhouse. Just heavenly!
A view of the Thames from the Petersham Hotel where we enjoyed high tea complete with finger sandwiches sans crusts and scones with clotted cream. A table near us had a group of gray-haired well-dressed women and we joked that that would be us forty years from now at one of our future reunions! I love to think of us continuing to make time to connect like that. These women are such an important part of my life and we have seen each other through lots of growth and transition. I am so glad I said yes to this spontaneous trip to spend time with dear friends.
The past 10 days have been a whirlwind of excitement, connection, fulfillment and fun! I visited Washington DC to be a Circle Coach for Quest, returned home to lead a dream box workshop at It’s Yoga and then flew out to Cleveland for our Ladies Who Launch leader training. I had a great time at all the different events. And this weary traveler is happy to be home (where it’s not snowing!).
Quest was amazing. What an honor to help shepherd our Questers on their journey of discovering their leadership essence and taking action on their inspiring Quests. I look forward to seeing how they each continue to make their unique impact on the world!
The icing on the cake was meeting up with my friends John and Marie last Saturday night in DC. I hadn’t seen John in about three years and this was my first time meeting Marie in person. What a treat!
Had one day back home to make dream boxes with the yoga teacher trainers including students from Mexico, Israel, Japan and all across the US. I’m always so moved by what the participants dream of and create!
Next up, Cleveland! On our first day there, Launy, Corinne and I ventured to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’m no music buff, so much of the paraphernalia was beyond me. But I did get a kick out of seeing a letter that Madonna wrote to a friend while she was at the University of Michigan, Jim Morrison’s report cards from grade school and drawings that Jimi Hendrix did as a kid.
California girls Launy, me, Corinne and Claire braving the snow. It was so much fun to be at the training with these smart, savvy gals. And we’re so excited to bring all our launching energy back to our fellow Bay Area launchers.
Oh, and I just had to take a picture of the infamous chocolate cake that magically appeared after every meal. Good thing we had yoga class Friday morning to work off such decadence.
And finally, a beautiful shot of all 14 leaders in training from across the US and Canada along with our awesome trainer Stella. What an amazing group of women!
In the half hour before leading a call today about Expressive Arts Coaching, a wave of anxiety came over me. Gremlins were hard at work grilling me… “What makes you think you can talk about this or that anyone would be interested in what you have to say? Do you even know what you’re going to say?!” and on and on.
Instead of getting sucked into the fear, I allowed myself to express it on paper in the form of colors and lines - a way to be with it, honor it and release it and, in fact, practice an exercise I was about to take the participants through on the call. I scribbled the nervousness and doubt and then did some movement around it. I then wrote the words “angst, confusion, scared/pit of stomach” on the back of the drawing.
Flipping the paper over again and looking at it anew I saw, instead of inner turmoil, a glowing fire with sparks flying. I laughed to myself realizing that we titled the call Firing up Coaching with Expressive Arts.
My perspective shifted to see my fear as passion and excitement as I stepped into something new and invited others to play with me. The image evolved more into a celebration and I found new words to describe my experience of it, “release, passion/fire, disseminating, firing it up, sparks, flow, dynamic.”
My friend Jamie and I had been exchanging e-mails this week about Natalie Roger’s book “The Creative Connection” and her concept of using the interplay of creative modalities like visual art, dance and poetry to deepen our experience and self-exploration. How each medium builds on the other and gives us new perspectives. This was so helpful for getting me in the right space to lead the call. And when we did the exercise together as a group, it was fun and enlivening for all. I’m excited about the community that’s gathering around this idea of consciously weaving expressive arts into coaching to move ourselves and our clients forward.
Also had my last session of the felted baskets class tonight. I still need to finish decreasing and then of course, try my hand at felting. I can’t wait to see what the end product looks like!
[tags]National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo, Art Every Day Month, expressive arts coaching, art visioning, coaching, knitting[/tags]
I’ve had a magical past 24 hours. Last night I led my first Ladies Who Launch Incubator here in Oakland and it was such fun! I love this work and am so inspired by all the amazing, creative projects that each woman is launching.
I felt like I did when I was a kid on Christmas Eve - having sooo much fun at the Christmas Eve party with all my cousins, playing games, having fun, not wanting to go to bed and excited to get up first thing in the morning to open presents. I couldn’t sleep because of all the energy from the Incubator AND because I was anxious to hear this morning about a position I had applied for a couple of weeks ago. Well, I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been selected as a Quest Circle Coach for the Coaches Training Institute and will now be part of the CTI family, which has been one of my dreams!
To top it off, I had lunch plans with my friend/mentor, Caroline, at her whimsical house boat in Marin. My art project for today came spontaneously as she shared her latest passion of stringing colorful beads. As we finished up a scrumptious lunch, she spread out her rainbow of beads on the table. I was a kid in a candy store! I made a serene strand of lovely green/blue beads accented with a yellowish gold. Like in knitting, I enjoyed how the pattern naturally emerged as I strung each bead. A reminder to just trust the creative process.
Once I was done, Caroline found just the right spot to hang it from her sea shell chandelier. This one-of-a-kind, gorgeous jellyfish-like fixture is adorned with several strands of beads handmade by her and many of her friends and family that visit. What a cool community art project and a way to honor the important people in her life!
[tags]National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo, Art Every Day Month, The Coaches Training Institute, CTI, Quest, Ladies Who Launch, Incubator[/tags]
Last Friday through Sunday Brighid and I co-led the third retreat of the 2007 Cheryl’s Dreaming Big leadership program in Indiana. Our retreat kicked-off with some intense storming (literally - lots of thunder, wind and rain; and figuratively - lots of group tension and unresolved issues). I must say it was pretty exhausting and challenging to hold the space for this natural, yet difficult, phase in team development.
One thing that helped me get through it was walking through the labyrinth at the retreat center. Before entering the path, you can hold an intention or inquiry. For me it was around how can I stay with the mess of the storming phase. With every twist and turn, I questioned, “How much longer? When will this end? Where is this going?!” And then I relaxed into it and trusted that I would find my way to the center. I leaned into this insight throughout the weekend. Labyrinths are a great meditative and focusing tool. There’s this really cool portable labyrinth that I imagine would have a similar effect.
The other take-away I had from the retreat was remembering that the program we created is a great laboratory for learning and practicing leadership, not only for the participants, but for myself as a co-leader as well. Brighid kept reminding me of the lessons from an insightful book called Leadership and Self-Deception. This powerful parable reminds us to relate to people as people with hopes, dreams, needs, wants instead of objects or obstacles that our in our way. By shifting my perspective to being “out of the box” I was able to rise above the muck of the storming and group dynamics and reconnect to who these wonderful people are and what they have to offer. The other thing I kept coming back to was the idea that from the crap of group storming comes the fertilizer which nourishes the ground for a beautiful garden to grow. It’s a natural cycle.
How are you with conflict and tension? What are some ways that you move through the storming in your life? How has going through the muck helped new opportunities to blossom for you?
[tags]labyrinth, leadership, leadership and self-deception[/tags]
I’m always raving to people about Ladies Who Launch. I just love the positive, creative vibe of this vibrant group of women. Last night was the Launch Party for the Silicon Valley chapter. There was a great turnout at the Bryant Street Gallery and a buzz of excitement in the air.
Allie is our fearless Bay Area leader and she has enough energy to light up San Francisco. When she asked me last month if I was interested in leading the Oakland chapter, I was certainly intrigued! I went right away to pick up the Ladies Who Launch book to refresh myself on the Incubator experience and get an even deeper look at what the organization is taking a stand for. I devoured the book in less than a day. With every page I turned I said, “Yes! This is such good stuff! I love it!” Their message of feminine leadership and intuition so resonates with my coaching and creativity work.
According to the founders’ research:
“Women want to feel fulfilled, have fun, enjoy their femininity, and not sacrifice these desires for financial success. Women are redefining the very notion of success as they incorporate many elements, not just career or family, and want to be able to celebrate their personal creativity in whatever manifestation that means… Women are natural connectors, they derive fulfillment from relationships, and use them to move forward and execute ideas…Women tend to treat creative projects and new businesses like their children: they become emotionally attached.”
Their approach to embracing the feminine gives us permission to really go for our dreams, ask for help along the way and celebrate the process!
Allie invited the four Bay Area leaders together this afternoon for our first team meeting. I’m super excited to be collaborating with these savvy, fun gals! I know I’ll learn a lot and will have a blast along the way. And I can’t wait to get started sharing with other women the magic of the Ladies Who Launch Incubator program! I’ve been saying to my husband that I’m always having to drive into the city for cool networking events. Well, as they say a complaint is usually a request in disguise, so I’m loving the opportunity to bring this nationally acclaimed way of “launching” to women in my neck of the woods.
[tags]Ladies Who Launch, Incubator, women entrepreneurs, Oakland[/tags]
The second retreat of the Cheryl’s Dreaming Big Leadership Program took place this past Thursday through Sunday in Michigan. The retreat focused on developing the skills of connection, communication and collaboration to facilitate dreaming with others.To prep for the retreat, we had a staff day on the ropes course the day before the participants arrived. That’s my co-leader and dear friend, Brighid, and me almost 30 feet in the air! This element is all about leaning into your partner in order to get across the wires. Brighid, Allen, Wallace and I had a great time swinging in the trees and learning about our group dynamics along the way!
The participants arrived on Thursday evening and we had a jam packed weekend of practicing new concepts and tools through experiential exercises and dialogue. To help the participants build trust and to get the learning “in their bones,” they also did a ropes course together including using teamwork to climb over a wall and doing partner activities in the trees.
Rain drizzled down on us through the treetop canopy, soaking our clothes but not our spirits. The group really rallied together to balance both the tasks at hand and the relationships despite slippery surfaces and tenuous interactions. By the end of the day, we all were exhausted and exhilarated. I was so inspired by the courage, collaboration and inner strength I witnessed in the participants as they faced their fears and overcame challenges.
By the end of the retreat, the group was really embodying all the concepts we covered ranging from checking out assumptions to having really difficult conversations in the service of deepening relationships. From now until August, the group will be doing partner projects to put their learnings into practice. I can’t wait to see what they each create from their collaboration!
[tags]leadership, Cheryl’s Dreaming Big, mental health, ropes courses, team building, life coaching, co-leading[/tags]
This past weekend was the first retreat of the year for the 2007 Cheryl’s Dreaming Big leadership program. Our plans were to head off to the retreat center in Michigan so we could do ropes courses on Saturday. We ended up staying in Chicago and holding the event at Brighid’s due to the severe weather in Michigan - 20 degrees F and below 0 windchill factor! We got creative and transformed her place into a “retreat center” complete with a Quiet Room, Library and a Cozy Corner.
The group is absolutely fantastic. They have already totally bonded as a community and are calling each other forth powerfully. Each of them had huge transformations in just the few days we were together. They even called Brighid and me forward by challenging us. It’s definitely busting my assumptions of what these retreats are “supposed” to look like and opening up new perspectives, which is great for me. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the year goes in the program.
[tags]leadership, Cheryl’s Dreaming Big, mental health, co-leadership, personal growth[/tags]
