Live Your Best Life - And Get in Good Trouble
"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."
— U.S. Representative John Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020)
I assume that everyone's noticed -- but you probably haven't at all.
It has been insanely hard to know what to write these last four months.
A struggle.
Every week.
We're going through a pandemic -- a global disaster that has profoundly impacted all of us. Loss, grief, isolation, trauma, unemployment, anxiety, uncertainty: This is only a partial list of the things that we've all been touched by.
We're also experiencing a resurging civil rights movement in Black Lives Matter in the United States -- a long-overdue reckoning for the killing of Black people and the systemic racism behind it. Death, more trauma, pain, violence, abuse, injustice: Another partial list.
Today, as I sit down to write, I'm angry. I only want to say two things, and I'm just going to let them rip:
1. Get federal agents out of my hometown of Portland, Oregon. Peaceful anti-racism protesters have been going more than 50 days strong in Portland, and I would be with them if I were there.
Black Lives Matter.
2. Donald Trump is a white supremacist. Get him out of office.
Six years ago when I started my life coaching practice, I don't think I could have imagined myself writing this and hitting "send".
But the world has changed, hasn't it?
So much even in only four months.
Here's what I know now though, that I didn't realize six years ago:
You know how on social media, everyone posts their poolside lounge chair photos or other luxurious experience and half-mockingly captions it, "Living my best life"?
That's what my profession -- life coaching -- is all about, isn't it? Helping everyone live their best life.
Across the coaching and personal development world, it often looks like this:
Photo by Hello Lightbulb on Unsplash
Yes, that's nice.
And, while poolside relaxation has its time and place, I also know that for me, and the people I work with, our best lives also include moments like this:
People come to work with me when they find themselves at a crossroads.
Generally that crossroads is between what they've always done (generally safe and in keeping with the status quo) and what they really want (free themselves to do what's more meaningful, more self-defined, and more scary).
Central to this work is the need for all of us to strengthen our ability to express our vision and stand up for it.
That's the work I'm doing here.
What's one thing you can do today to stand up for your own vision for your best life?
Power to you, my friend. 💪🏾
