Round Trip with Wendy McGean

My biggest win from the last 12 weeks is definitely found in the fact that I feel more present and more intentional as I move through my days. I catch myself about to say yes to something that I don’t want to do. And find myself saying no as a reflex only to reconsider upon reflection. And I find myself a little sad about things that I cannot fit in that I really want to. I cannot do everything an...

Both The Artist’s Way and It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again conclude Week 12 with the topic of Faith.   As a coach, I believe that all people are complete and whole and capable of acting on their own behalf. That we all know, on some level, what to do and what choices to make. And, at some point during the last 11 weeks, it has been reaffirmed that things just seem to work out – I now have tremen...

I am very excited about this week’s topics – Adventure and Autonomy - and just finishing a long overdue adventure – 5 days off to visit friends. Julia Cameron often speaks of synchronicity in her pages. This trip was planned months ago and how interesting is it that it coincides with this week’s topics. Both speak to breaking day to day habits and getting out of our comfort zones. When we seek to...

Self-protection is an interesting topic and, for me, it relates back to last week’s topic of motion. I have frequently kept myself busy to avoid doing something – I fall squarely in the workaholic camp or least I did in my past life.   And vitality – wow. I can only say that the way that I live my life now means that I have more energy for the things that I love than I have it 20 years. It amazing...

Week 9 – we’re ¾ of the way through this program. I started a new notebook which shows how much I have written to date and the plan is to spend the week thinking about motion and compassion in my own life. What projects and activities need me to take specific actions? And then, showing myself some Love over not doing any of that up until now.

With joy we are open to new experiences and new possibilities. And really – if happiness is not one of our goals – what on earth are we doing? If there is no joy in your day, perhaps it’s time to look for it – seek out ways to bring it to the surface. We can find whatever we are open to discovering.   The strength that she speaks of is really the effort required to begin creating after, often year...

At issue with connection is the right attitude to create. For me it’s about mindset. The topic is framed differently this time as I read about Perfectionism (basically a refusal to let myself move ahead) and Jealousy (which is typically a mask for fear). According to the American Psychological Association it “resilience the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging l...

Often, when we approach some new challenge or goal, we consider, and are sometimes sabotaged by, thoughts of “I’m too old”, “I don’t have enough time”, “I don’t have the skills”, I don’t have the capital… inventing any number of obstacles that prove that we are simply not enough or do not have enough.  Humility - This for me is the courage to suck at something new! Seriously – I have been motivate...

This week’s topics are Honesty and Possibility. Getting honest is not always easy. For me, the world is full of possibility.

Finding your purpose can take a little time. Consider what you love and what is important to you. Imagine your best possible self and think about that you are grateful for. I think that core values exercises are a great place to start. Integrity, for me, is living in alignment with my core values. 

Connection was the week 3 topic in “It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again”. There are so many good memories from the thing that I’ve done in my life so far and, even with all of that, I had a period of time in my life where I had lost my connection to myself.  Disconnection is common as we often live our lives on auto-pilot. Self-awareness is a great first step to reverse the slide. From the Artist’s...

“Trusting our creativity is a new behaviour for many of us” says Julia Cameron as Week 2 kicks off in the artist’s way. For me, I had let any intentional form of creativity lapse for years. I have a good supply of canvases and wood, brushes and paints and I can always use more. I learned to paint in my 20s and picked up the brushes sporadically over the years. The urge to paint and then the practi...

The topic this week in It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again is “Re-igniting a Sense of Wonder”  Socrates said that Wonder is the Beginning of Wisdom. If you are following along with the Artist’s Way book, your theme is “Recovering a Sense of Safety”.

I will begin working through the Artist's Way program this week. My goal is to work through the program and offer a chronicle to my listeners about what I am uncovering about myself through this exercise. And for fun, I’m inviting you to work alongside me if you like. I will hold space through a 30-minute Zoom call once per week starting Monday, January 8th at 7pm Eastern. The purpose of this...

We live in a world where we have a tendency to reduce people down to the lowest common denominator –we glean something about a person and then we make assumptions about the whole person.  It’s how our brains work - we categorize and file away that person “a” is like this and person “b” is that. Think political affiliations, career choices, wealth or poverty or almost any attribute. I was listening...

As I navigate changes in my own life, I get curious about when big feelings overwhelm me. This weekend, I was walking my 15-month chocolate lab with my husband. The dog, still really a high energy puppy is a handful.  I’ve gone through one round of training with him and there is still much work to be done. 

Last week, I spoke of the need to have a couple of crucial conversations of my own. There is one in particular that is long overdue with a family member.  I have vacillated between clearing the air and being irritated by the fact that I cannot think of any specific crime that I could have committed to have this person basically ignore me. I went from complete heartbreak and confusion to anger and...

I’m re-reading a book called “Crucial Conversations”. It’s co-written by a group of 5. The basic idea is that a conversation can be dubbed crucial when 3 things are present: 1) there is a difference of opinion, 2) the stakes are high and 3) emotions are high. The real reason that they are crucial is that they can have a significant impact on our relationships or results. I’m quite sure that all of...

I once saw a thought provoking definition of fear as an acronym False Evidence Appearing Real. Now if you’re on a hike and it’s bear - fear is an appropriate catalyst to do something. How often however do we fear some event or outcome that never manifests? And what does that fear do to us? In my experience, it shuts me down, I contract and become a little less than I was. Fear is a powerful motiva...

A is for Act. I spent a life time wondering if I should do the thing, how should I do the thing, why should I do the thing instead of just doing the damn thing – whatever the thing is! Which is probably why I occasionally simply jump in with both feet without considering much of anything. In those moments, I’ve been called impulsive and I think that it was meant as a word of caution. But you know,...

One of the things that took me years to truly understand was that it is impossible to “love” myself when I am externally referencing. You know, when we compare ourselves in every way shape or form to what we’ve come to believe we should or have to be. Only to find – that we NEVER measure up – the playing field keeps changing and we flit off in another direction of self-improvement so that we can f...

I learned a new word this week - liminality – and I love it! It’s a special word for uncomfortable life transitions and I came across it as I finished reading Arthur C Brooks book (that sounds like a tongue twister) Anyway, it’s called “From Strength to Strength” and it talks about high achievers transitioning to the second half of life.  He says that it “means the time between work roles, organiz...

  One of the first things that I do with new coachees is talk about self-awareness surrounding their core values. We tend to live our lives on auto-pilot and some of our activities may not reflect what is truly important to us. We habitually think the same thoughts and do the same things. And we don’t even realize that we do! Think about waking in the morning- 71% of us grab our smart phones as so...

People seek out coaches for all sorts of reasons.  Some want to excel at work, others want to build or repair relationships with the important people in their lives and others want to reach a specific goal like writing a book or losing weight. What they all have in common is a desire to change something. The strength of the desire is something that is explored when I first meet with a client. Some...

Our body & mind craves homeostasis and attempting to change habits, beliefs or anything else requires us to go through a period of discomfort when we mindfully learn to make new choices like regular reading to learn or going to the gym. According to Psychology Today, change can be made more difficult by changing too many things at once or seeing that one change prompts a multitude of other cha...