I recently discovered a website at www.freecycle.org, which provides a free exchange of goods between people who have things they no longer need and people who need things they don’t have.  I was thrilled to find this site, as I am at a time in my life where I am ready to reduce the amount of “stuff” in my life.

Last night I was sharing the website with some family members.  I began to read out loud an entry someone had posted about a woman and her 2 year old daughter who had fled their abusive home and landed at a local safe house.  They left abruptly with only the clothes on their back; coming from a warmer climate and wearing summer clothes.  I immediately knew I had to help this woman.

Here’s where the story gets interesting.  My nephew and the daughter of his significant other were listening to me read about this woman.  The daughter is in 6th grade, and she immediately became interested in helping.  She began talking about ways she could personally help.  She said “I wish it was after my birthday because I always get money and I could give it to her.”

Wow.

I reacted to her willingness to help by suggesting this could be a project we work on together.  I asked her to make a commitment that she would gather things and we’d get together over the weekend to get the donations to the proper place.  Her eyes lit up, and she said “this is karma!”

She has the right idea.  Her first instinct was to give – not just the things she might have that she no longer wants, but money too.

There is hope for us.

Coach Charrise

What do you want, and what are you willing to give up to get it?

Powerful coaching is a series of conversations, prompted by questions from the coach that aren’t always easy to answer.  This question, though it seems pretty straightforward, stumps many of my clients!

It’s one thing to know what we want.  At least we think we know what we want.  When we are faced with answering the second question, we are able to measure the intensity of that “want”.  When you consider what you might have to give up to get it, you may find that you don’t want it enough to give that up.

Sometimes, when we are totally straight with ourselves, we realize that there are things we are NOT willing to give up, in spite of those things being necessary to get what we want.  Suppose what you want, your big “WOW” is to become a famous musician.  In order to get there, you must practice your art 6 hours each and every day, no exceptions.  Perhaps this sacrifice is not worth the payoff.  You gain by getting clear about what you REALLY want.
It’s important to get really clear about what we want so we can create the life we dream of having.  If you can see it clearly, you can create it.

Coach Charrise

I know a powerful woman, and her name is Amy Clark.  She has as yet been quite unaware of her real power, as often happens with unassuming inner power.  Yesterday, she created something bigger than herself.  She is building the framework for “BIG GIVE” in order to help the enormous number of people in our local area who have come up against hard times.