Moving On - 5/22/2008

5/22/08 Well, yesterday I finally started taking my own advice. It wasn't easy and it only happened when what seemed like a bad thing turned out to be a good thing instead. I got to a point where my old coping mechanisms just weren’t cutting it anymore. As a result, I was forced to get more support! Of course, I had gotten to this place before, but this was a whole new level of delegation I finally put into place. I just had too much for one person to control at work, especially as a person with my challenges as well as my strengths. Most importantly, I got to a point finally where I wasn’t willing to spend so much of my time and way too many of my resources in frustrating and ineffective activity instead of channeling them in much more fruitful ways. I realized, if I were to continue to move up toward my strengths, I had to move over and let someone else move up also by taking on new challenges.

If you want to move up and toward your gifts, you have to give up some things you are good at or have mastered in order for you to move on. When you do this, what happens often, is that others get a chance to develop and grow as well.

I remember one client who was doing great work, serving on many worthwhile boards for many years. In order for her to take on new professional challenges at one point, though, she had to figure out which commitments it was time for her to give up. When she did this, someone else less experienced who was ready to move up, was able to take on these challenges and grow as well. This is the natural order of things, we are all interdependent.

When we act in healthy ways for ourselves, it has rippling effects for others that aren’t always apparent. In hopes that it may be helpful to some of you, it occurs to me that as I start this new venture, I can use this blog to reflect on my progress on how I cope with all this new incoming information!

Stay tuned. Sari