Travel for Work and Pleasure

Over the past two weeks I've been living work-travel life that really suits me. Rhode Island for a conference, then DC for a family visit. A few days later travel by train to Sacramento and hotel stay with a colleague to present a training session. Later in the week an overnight out in the Marin Headlands and a retreat facilitation. Now to get some of this travel into the international arena. Plus, how to store my luggage without dragging it around all day. I'm sure there must be some secret that consultants know about storage options. Starbucks could make some money with this added service.

Retreat to Move Forward

The title of this post - Retreat to Move Forward - is a quote I once heard and it always sticks with me when I facilitate a retreat as I did yesterday for an arts organization. We were out in the Marin Headlands and it was the ideal setting for our session. After lunch we took a hike out to the beach and it was totally inspiring.

Prior to the hike I asked the group to think about goal setting - comfort, stretch and panic goals. As we walked I asked them to notice if there were times that they were in any of these zones and if so, what were the signs that alerted them that they were either in comfort, stretch or panic. As I hiked I realized that sometimes when I facilitate retreats I move in and out of all these zones. It is quite a challenge to facilitate an entire day, keep it flowing, finding the connections and having all the answers as to how to get un-stuck and move forward.

Thinking about this I realized that I need to figure out tactics that I have on hand to pull me back into the comfort and stretch zones in any challenging situation. All of us need these little comfort anchors - affirmations, reassurances, tools to keep us grounded in moments of panic. A friend posted on her Facebook update: To do something new you have to try something different. That's what I help my clients do when setting goals and I am going to take some time to challenge myself in the same way.









The title of this post - Retreat to Move Forward - is a quote I once heard and it always sticks with me when I facilitate a retreat as I did yesterday for an arts organization. We were out in the Marin Headlands and it was the ideal setting for our session. After lunch we took a hike out to the beach and it was totally inspiring.

Prior to the hike I asked the group to think about goal setting - comfort, stretch and panic goals. As we walked I asked them to notice if there were times that they were in any of these zones and if so, what were the signs that alerted them that they were either in comfort, stretch or panic. As I hiked I realized that sometimes when I facilitate retreats I move in and out of all these zones. It is quite a challenge to facilitate an entire day, keep it flowing, finding the connections and having all the answers as to how to get un-stuck and move forward.

Thinking about this I realized that I need to figure out tactics that I have on hand to pull me back into the comfort and stretch zones in any challenging situation. All of us need these little comfort anchors - affirmations, reassurances, tools to keep us grounded in moments of panic. A friend posted on her Facebook update: To do something new you have to try something different. That's what I help my clients do when setting goals and I am going to take some time to challenge myself in the same way.

Four Wheeling... soon?

Now that I'm committed to staying in the Bay Area I'm starting to crave four wheels. I think that because work was my focus, two wheeling was fine because I would go into San Francisco for meetings and then back home. Now that I'm invested in staying here my life is expanding out past this back and forth commute.

Earlier this week I used City Car Share twice and unfortunately the second time my special key wouldn't work when I was leaving the Marin Headlands. This meant I was stranded for a few hours and ended up getting home at 10:30pm. The lock didn't work because of the keys getting run-over last week when I dropped them. This experience in combination with the bike fall on Monday are pointing me towards getting a car. Also, showing up at meetings all sweaty and bike-greasy.

I'm thinking a used Miata - cute an sporty! Probably some good deals out there.