Author Archives: Steve Coxsey

Will You Be a Champion for a Child?

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. It’s the time of year we’re asked to think about the work that some people do all year, helping families at risk of abuse and neglect and helping children heal from the trauma of abuse. That means it’s the time of year for me to talk about The Parenting Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Child abuse prevention isn’t very glamorous. Working with children who are victims of abuse is tough, demanding, draining work. People don’t want to think about that. This makes it really challenging to come up with a way to ask for donations. But I still want to ask you – will you be a champion for a child?
Continue reading

Collaborative Groove

I came away from my coaching group yesterday with a powerful idea. I’m posting it mainly to remind myself, but also because I hope it resonates like a great big gong for someone else.

Here’s the snapshot version: A ballroom dancer can’t find his or her calling to be a dancer without dancing. The calling is an interactive one, so the person called to dance needs a partner to discover dancing. Without a partner, the dancer won’t find dancing and learn that it’s a good fit.
Continue reading

Resistance Whisperer 03-12-10

Barbara Sher is well-known for books like Wishcraft, Live The Life You Love, and Refuse To Choose. She has been working with people for decades on uncovering their natural gifts and expressing them, primarily through self-directed careers.

She’s written and spoken extensively on resistance as a natural response meant to protect people from change. She tells us resistance is a primitive sort of fear so it can’t tell healthy change from destructive change. It just resists all change.

Barbara knows what to do with resistance. She gives it a voice, invites it to the dance, and then watches it deflate when it’s brought into the light. She’s worked directly with people who struggle with resistance. She knows her stuff. She’s right.

Recently she wrote a blog post explaining why she disagrees with Seth Godin on resistance. Seth’s post is here.

Barbara’s much more helpful and on-target response is here.

She made a similar point on the same topic regarding a review of Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art. She posted her response to the review on her blog.You can find her comments at this link

Edited for spelling errors 03/23/2010. Blushing!

Jobless Guy Shows Up During Career Week

This week is career week for my son’s elementary class at his Montessori school. Several visitors have been to the class so far talking about their jobs. Ugh. “Job” is a word that can feel small and heavy at the same time.

When the teachers asked me to sign up to present, I decided I would do more than talk about being a consultant and coach. I decided to talk about how I help people find ways to work at what they love and make a living without a job. Guess how that went!
Continue reading

Time To “Go Big”?

A couple of weeks ago one of the members of Valerie Young’s Profiting From Your Passions creative career consultants group posted to our group’s forum looking for other people who are ready to “go big.” I applauded her for putting intention and initiative into her dream, and especially for reaching out to connect with other people in a Mastermind group for mutual support. Making plans and gathering a resourceful tribe is a very entrepreneurial thing to do.

But I also feel strongly that it’s important to explain why “going big” isn’t the best choice for everyone at this time. Some of us don’t need to go big, and some of us aren’t ready to go big yet. I am not a good candidate for a “going big” group right now, and I want to explain why to help other people struggling with this part of life and work design.
Continue reading

In Your Spare Time…

I got the link to this video from my friend andsmall business coach Janet Slack. She posted it on Facebook.

It shows an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine, one of those things where a single action sets in motion the next action and so on, and they involve levers and rolling balls and often dominoes. This one is spectacularly choreographed so it’s a blast as a piece of staging, as an artistic composition, and as a little piece of film.

Demonstrates how massive projects can be broken down to one step at a time, because that’s how the machine progresses. Shows the focus of purpose and intention and the creative power of playfulness. Enjoy!