• Home
  • About
    • Elizabeth: Personally
    • Education Certifications Affiliations
  • Coaching
    • Educational Coaching
    • Non-Profit Coaching
    • Executive Coaching
    • Leadership Coaching
    • Group/Team Coaching >
      • Sample Workshops
    • One-to-One Coaching
  • Testimonials
  • Media
  • Africa Project
  • Blog
Critchley Coaching
Contact Elizabeth
403.256.4164
​[email protected]

The Gift

10/17/2015

3 Comments

 
In my coaching practice I often use the tool of “Perspective” to help clients make change in their lives.  Sometimes the hardest changes are not things we need to but rather they are learning new ways to think about things.  Again, it’s the ‘being’ vs the ‘doing’.
 
Jim and I moved last month, from our beloved acreage where we had lived for 22 years, into the big city.  It was the right time, but it was a difficult transition.  I had convinced Jim that for this move, we (and our family and friends!) should not be doing the moving ourselves, and so we hired a moving company.
 
The day of the move was not what we expected.  Let’s just say that it involved damaged walls in both homes, scratched furniture and floors and one dropped and broken treadmill.  It ended with me firing the movers at 5:30pm after only one load had been complete.  Jim was sitting on the back deck of our new house, head in hands wondering what we would do.  I quickly texted a couple of friends, and they texted two friends and they texted....
 
When we arrived back at the acreage at 6:30 we were greeted by one horse trailer, 6 pickup trucks and about 20 happy, hardworking friends and family.  My friend, Susan, set up a table on the lawn, complete with a table cloth and served a dinner of burgers, salad, cookies and lemonade to all!  By 9:15 we were all standing in the kitchen of our new house with full stomachs, with every last piece of furniture moved and with the acreage house completely clean and ready for the new owners.
 
Later that night Jim mentioned that he felt just sick about having to ask our friends and family to help when that was what we had been trying to avoid by hiring movers.  I told him that I was looking at it another way.  To me, the evening had felt like an old fashioned ‘barn raising’.  We had needed a rescue and our friends were the ones to do the rescuing.  Jim and I both know that people love to be needed – and boy, were they needed that night.  In so many ways, the evening was absolutely perfect.  I am quite sure that each of them had a great story to tell at work in the following days about their adventure of rescuing us.  It was an evening that brought us all closer together, gave us a sense of community, a great story to tell and it reminded us that while we might be moving locations, our friends were steadfast.  It really was a gift.
 
Whenever I work with a client on perspective the magic question is, “What is the gift here?”  In every situation, there is a gift to be found.  We do not have to wait until the crisis passes to see it.  We can train ourselves to find it amidst crisis, amidst difficulty, amidst plans gone awry, amidst heartache.  The gift does not erase the challenge; the gift stands beside us as we face it.
This week my question for you is, “What is the gift here?”  May you find an abundance of gifts in your everyday life.
 
Learn how to find the gifts in your life through coaching.  Contact me for details.
3 Comments
Sheri link
10/18/2015 06:59:27 am

I love how you've taught me about perspective. You are so true when you talk about finding it,"in the now". We don't have to wait. We can pause to mull things over. The glass can either be half empty or half full.

Reply
Joan
10/18/2015 07:42:05 am

Thank you. Beautiful message.

Reply
Denise Rose
10/18/2015 09:54:05 am

Love reading your blog, Liz. It so reflects the person I know and worked with!!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Sign up below to have my blog delivered to your inbox weekly.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Elizabeth Critchley (CPCC, ACC) is an accredited, certified, Professional Life Coach who excels at helping motivated clients clearly define and work toward their goals, dreams and purpose.  She believes it takes the same amount of energy to create a big dream as it does to create a little dream.  She encourages her clients to dare to dream big.

    Archives

    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    Categories

    All

©2018 Elizabeth Critchley