Assess Current Reality (Chapter 2)

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, which is why we call it the present.”
​ ―Bill Keane

In my Mine the Past post, I introduced the first of the five-chapter process for living your best chapter. Mining the Past is where you uncover those golden nuggets to help you build a sturdy, stable bridge from the past to the present and into the future. And that brings us to the second step - Assessing Current Reality (AKA the present).

The path that led me to coaching started with the work of Robert Fritz and his program and book called Technologies for Creating. What I learned from Fritz is that we create a tension when we get real clarity between our starting point and our desired outcome. It’s as though we’ve stretched a cosmic rubber band between point A and point B. Fritz believed, and I have experienced in my own life and with my clients, that while vision is important, this vision gets refined as we move closer to it. The closer we get, the more our vision comes into focus… but current reality, where we are in relation to the vision, is the most critical factor for crafting an accurate course.  

---

“On any long journey, if you alter your course by one degree when you begin, where you end up could be changed by a hundred or a thousand miles.”
-Alan Cohen

---

Assessment of Your Current Reality

Here are some of the important aspects to evaluate in terms of your life as it is right now in this moment:

---

1) Take the opportunity to do a fearless assessment of this transition itself. 

• What’s working well? 
• What's not working as well? 
• What you might you do differently to ensure a smoother more effective transition from where you are now to where you want to be (hint: your best chapter yet!)?

---

---

2) Conduct a fearless inventory, including: 

• Getting curious about what you learned as you mined the past and in what ways the past is still influencing your present beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and actions, causing you to stay stuck in the present,
• recognizing what needs to be left in the past in order for you to move forward,
• noticing what activities you do (or have done in the past) that enliven you, bring you joy, and fascinate you,
• acknowledging what you are grateful for,
• identifying areas of struggle or suffering in your life right now,
• assessing your health and wellbeing,
• identifying your gifts and how well you are using them,
• determining your Core Values, and,
• defining your Life Purpose (now).

---

What Trusted Others Think About Your Current Reality

I wonder if you, like me, sometimes find it hard to see your own reality accurately. I love the quote, “I’m not sure what fish talk about but I’m pretty sure it’s not water.” It’s a good idea to double-check your own perceptions at each chapter of this journey and solicit the perceptions of others who know you well and whom you trust.

---

Here are some good questions to ask:

• On a scale of 1-10, how well do you think I am managing this transition? What might I do differently/better for a smoother transition?
• What do you see as my gifts? How well do I use them?
• What do you and others appreciate about me when the going gets tough?
• What is something you know about me that I don’t know?
• If you wish one thing for me in the next year that would absolutely come true, what would you wish?
• What do you think I am missing (about myself and/or the situation) as I think about this transition? What else? What else?

---

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.”
―Eckhart Tolle

---

---

Moving Forward

Each chapter of this journey is an essential step in moving toward living your best chapter. In order to move to the next chapter and third step, Charting the Course, it is necessary to know exactly where you are now on the journey. Having a trusted guide, coach, mentor, or friend can give you a much-needed reality check at this critical juncture. 

---

Time Required

The labyrinth at Serenbe

Moving through this chapter of your transition may take longer than expected for many reasons because it is definitely not a linear process. In many ways it’s like doing a labyrinth walk, which is designed not to get you lost, like a maze, but to help you get to your center as you get to it’s center. There will be twists and turns along the way, but if you just follow the path and keep going, even when it feels like you are backtracking,  you won’t get lost. You will eventually find your way to the center, which symbolizes the end of the past and the beginning of the future. The structure of the labyrinth slows you down so that you are forced to reflect. The one pictured here has stone seats in the center to encourage you to pause and contemplate what you are leaving behind, where you are now, and where you want to go. 

---

---

“The only person who can solve the labyrinth of yourself is You.” 
-Jeremy Deng

---

Stay tuned for the next chapter, “Charting the Course,” the third in this series of the Five Chapters that lead you to making your next chapter your best chapter. ​

If you or someone you know is in the process of a major life transition (or contemplating one), I would welcome the opportunity to offer support and wisdom. If you are interested in having a no-pressure conversation with Rebecca to learn more, please click HERE.