Explaining his work in the field of human functioning and self-awareness, Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method, invoked the Weber-Fechner law, which attempts to describe the relationship between the magnitudes of stimuli and our ability to perceive differences among them. He asserted that at a slower pace, with smaller movements—on a foggy day, maybe—we can get more clarity. If we slow down enough to pay attention, we can learn something new about how we move, how we put one foot in front of the other, what it takes to get us moving, how we find our way in a confusing environment.

Coaching is useful on those foggy days. Something interferes with your life and you need to get your bearings. Coaching can bring some light—not the high beams that bounce off the fog and create glare, but the low beams that focus on the ground right in front of you, the ground you might otherwise not have noticed. In coaching, we look at how you move, what propels you forward, and what slows you down. As daylight increases and burns away the fog, you can move forward with greater ease and grace because of what you’ve learned.

What’s interfering in your life? What creates the fog? Where might you shine some light and learn to move a little easier?

And in the process of telling stories, listening to stories, and asking and answering questions, new stories emerge and lives are changed. These stories are not fairy tales, where our heroes ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. These are real lives and real stories in which people move in new ways and in new directions. They live more happily, and the people around them get happier, too.

Thank you to all of you who help me to do what I love to do.

It’s so nice to complete a project and have it really complete. When you sit down to dinner, what a delight to have the kitchen already neat and tidy. When you spend time in the garden and allocate the last 10 or 20 minutes to put away your tools, you earn a moment to step back and admire your work.

After the parade
by Gika Rector

Whether your office is a place at the kitchen counter or an entire room, what a difference it can make when you clean up along the way. It’s the difference between a clear, clean workspace and a disastrous mountain of paper. Even when you go paperless, it helps to clean up along the way. A sea of computer files can be just as overwhelming as a mountain of papers.

And what about our personal interactions? Thomas Leonard, the father of modern coaching, said, “When someone is doing something…you must communicate immediately or forever carry the extra burden of your unspoken reaction.” How many people or groups of people do you avoid because of something you didn’t clean up along the way? What if you addressed issues as they came up?

What if you haven’t cleaned up along the way? What if you have some piles of stuff, or baggage, to deal with? Start with baby steps. Don’t try to do it all at once. Pick a place, tackle a few things—keep allowing time to clean up along the way, even in this process—and then get on with the rest of your routine.

Whatever you do, notice. Notice what it’s like when you clean up along the way. Notice what it’s like when you don’t. Notice what it’s like when you go it alone. Notice what it’s like when you find some assistance along the way. Notice what you notice.

if you’re facing a mountain of stuff and don’t want to tackle it alone, consider working with someone like my friend Gayle Goddard, The Clutter Fairy. She’s a brilliant professional organizer. Better than anyone else I know, Gayle has a talent for understanding our relationships with our stuff. She even makes it fun!

If you’re facing a different kind of mountain and don’t want to tackle it alone, consider coaching. Coaching is one way to clean up old ideas and stories and expectations, making room for fresh possibilities. It might look like baby steps, but coaching often leads to surprising transformation. Simple baby step: e‑mail me.