 
- You hide your light, because
you feel guilty about owning your personal power.
- You allow yourself to be
limited by other peoples’ limitations and find
yourself participating in your own demise.
- You feel bad that your light
sometimes withers other people, so you dim it down.
This self-abnegation short-circuits the realization
of your dreams and the fulfillment of your destiny,
which in turn diminishes your impact on the world.
- You fear the potential responsibility,
overwhelm, and danger associated with living as a
big spirit.
- You don’t fully express
yourself—you erase yourself before others can
do it—to avoid being attacked by people who
are freaked out by big spirits.
- You go unconscious and live
a life based not on your own, but on somebody else’s,
agenda and values.
- You live in a world of “shoulds”
rather than in the world of “I AM.”
- You are emotionally, spiritually,
and psychically drained by having to constantly suppress
who you really are and go out of your way not
to make a difference.
- Sometimes, to numb the heartache
of not being yourself, you turn to alcohol, other
drugs, overwork, overscheduling, and other adrenalin-driven
behavior (busy, busy, busy, wash, wipe, mow, shop,
repair), or get caught up in stories and “drama.”
- You are made edgy and uncomfortable
from the friction of rubbing up against something
other than your own skin, and the internal pressure
of unrelenting existential crisis.
- Beneath the surface of your
ostensibly “successful” life, you feel
restless and glum, no matter how much you accomplish,
how much others admire you, or how much you buy—without
knowing why.
- This last one’s the
biggie: You’re afraid that if you live through
your big spirit, if you live your truth and shine
that big light, you’ll leave other people behind.
(And, yes, you probably will. You will also inspire
some of them to come with you.)
And
you cut through all this how?
When the big spirit
in me talks to the big spirit in you, anything can happen.
 What,
exactly, do you do?
I help people connect to their big
spirits, and I help big spirits connect to their greatness—to
who they really are and why they’re here—and
thereby change the world, one spirit at a time.
You’re kidding.
No, I’m serious.
What’s a big spirit?
A big spirit’s the part of you
and me that’s directly wired to the source of
life, at the level of creation, and therefore always
knows exactly what’s up.
Um, help me out a little here.
I believe that all human beings, by
our very nature, are creative, and I mean creative in
the most profound sense of the word. If you happen to
take your cue from the Bible: It says that each of us
was created in His image, in the image of the Creator
Itself, who made of us miniature gods—creators—of
our own worlds. That's what human beings are, that's
what we do: We create.
I’m listening. Tell
me more.
So, okay. By our very nature, what
we do is create—and I mean create all
the time, with every thought, every word, every action.
And what we’re creating all the time is the landscape
of our lives: our relationships, our work, our environment,
our play. The fact that most of us are largely unconscious
of it—sleepwalking, if you will, through the creation—only
means that what we manifest will more often than not
reflect random, rather than focused, thought, feeling,
and action, and delude us into believing that we are
victims of circumstance rather than makers of circumstance.
How
can I know where I fall in that spectrum?
If you want to assess the degree
to which you're unconsciously creating your life, then
look around at that landscape and take stock of what
you've made there.
How
can I tell if I’m living in my big spirit or not?
Just ask. Whenever a circumstance
arises that calls for a decision, ask yourself, What
would my big spirit do?™, and see if that’s
what you would’ve done if you hadn’t asked.
So this is life. Sometimes
my eyes are opened, sometimes they’re closed.
What difference could a coach make?
That depends on how serious you are
about living the life you really want to live. The incredibly
cool thing is that you have all the tools.
All the knowledge, all the power, is already within
you, waiting to be acknowledged and directed! A coach
helps you to liberate what comes naturally. I guarantee
that the transformations that arise from being intentional
in your creating, rather than unconscious in your creating,
can be profound.
But
how, exactly?
I hate to talk about coaching—most coaches do—because
the only way to really get it is to be coached. (For
a complimentary trial session, e-mail
Marguerite here.) It’s different for everybody,
and part of the fun is making it up together as we go
along. But, in general, coaching is an action-oriented
collaboration, in which I am at your service in co-creating
a life vision, and a strategy for manifesting that vision,
that is unique to you.
Can you be more specific?
You may want to explore your life's
purpose or "right placement" in a career.
Align your choices in the outer world with your inner
values. Finish unfinished business with close associates
and family members. Figure out what "the next step"
is. Or just have more fun. You may have a dream to start
an international organization to advocate for human
rights, as does one of my clients, or find a way to
break into radio, as does another, or publish a nonfiction
novel, as does a third, or switch careers, as does a
fourth. The coaching process is designed to clear away
from your life, bit by bit, all the stuff you’ve
been tolerating that depletes your energy and disables
your big spirit—and then to create the life you
really want to live and that only you can live.
Take one more shot at it.
I’m here to help you figure
out who you really are and how to get what you want
based on who you really are. Then I hold you
accountable to your visions and dreams and to the plans
I help you devise to achieve them. I’m like a
personal trainer for your life. You don’t depend
on me so much as use me—as a resource and a presence
in your life.
But
what’s the real benefit?
We all have untapped resources, and when those resources
are tapped, our work becomes more authentic, our lives
take on a new meaning, and, in general, we feel a sense
of ownership and freedom of choice. We enjoy our work
and we enjoy our life, which is the whole point. If
you don’t want that, then stay right there; don’t
move.
So, give me an example. Who’s
a big spirit?
It can be a captain of industry, but
doesn’t have to be. A rock-and-roll star, an actress,
a teacher, a writer, a business owner. A friend of mine
who’s a plumber is a very big spirit. So’s
the woman who got me into coaching, a marketing consultant
and onetime life coach, who uplifts every person she
comes in contact with. The electrician who coaches my
son’s baseball team has one, as does an old friend,
a landscape architect, who, the last time I checked,
was bound for Cambodia to help build an orphanage. Big
spirit is a state of mind and being that is characterized
by innocence, open-heartedness, self-awareness, courage,
and the capacity to act immediately on intuition.
Who
are your ideal clients?
Anyone who realizes they’re
capable of much more and wants some alert company while
they molt and then reinvent themselves. They can be
people who have achieved great success in their lives
and now want meaning; they want to stand for something
and leave a legacy. Leaders who have discovered that
the climb to the top has left them isolated, unfulfilled,
and out of balance, with nobody to talk to. Entrepreneurs
who need a sounding board. Creatives who have lost connection
to their creative force. Basically, big spirits of all
stripes who have decided, the hell with it, I’m
going for it.
Specifically, though.
As a newspaperwoman and freelance
magazine writer, I coached the subjects of my articles;
as an editor, I coached reporters; as a college teacher,
I coached my students. My clients have come from most
walks of life. Most recently, they have included a poet,
a newspaper columnist, an Ivy League professor, a public
relations executive, a coach, a nurse, and a waiter.
What
am I going to get from you that I can’t already
get from my spouse, a family member, or close friend?
There’s a lot, so I have to
use bullets.
- I promise to offer perspective, insight, inspiration,
acceptance, compassion, patience, clarity, a trained
ear, complete honesty at all times, and just enough
tough love, when called for, to coax you out of your
comfort zone and keep you focused on your path.
- I will ask a lot of questions—sometimes seemingly
dumb, sometimes seemingly deep—and really listen
to you.
- I will not judge you.
- I will keep things light.
- I will always point you toward self-awareness,
fulfillment, and balance.
- I will be your sounding board, helping you to clarify
your goals and to devise a customized life process
for achieving them, on your terms and on your timetable.
Meanwhile, the idea in the back of
my mind, all the while that you’re distracted
with the crush of daily life, is how do I bring out
the best you? A you that you can’t even conceive
of, as you sit here right now reading this. Imagine
having someone in your life who knows that you were
born great, who believes in you and expects you to be
great, and who will do whatever it takes to get you
there. If you’ve got someone like that in your
life, then no, you don’t need me.
What makes you think you’re
any good at this?
Let me have others tell you. See
testimonials.
Why not a
therapist or a consultant?
There are key differences between
therapy, consulting, and coaching, all of which have
merit depending on the practitioner, the client, and
the circumstances.
- Therapy: One difference is that
the coach is always asking for, and expecting, action.
Unlike in therapy, I will not delve very deeply into
your pain and your past so much as help you devise
strategies for moving purposefully into your future.
Coaching differs from therapy in that coaching is
not necessary in order for the client to function;
coaching is for well people who want to excel and
to live personally extraordinary lives.
- Consulting: Most people spend their
lives figuring out what they want and how to get it.
As soon as they get what they think they want, they
go right into figuring out what they think they want
next. Consultants largely focus on the what
and the how, which can be very useful in
the business environment. As a personal strategy,
though, the unrelenting what-how cycle can be debilitating
and stressful.
- Coaching: Coaching focuses mainly
on who you are. Once a person’s focus
shifts from what I want and how do I
get it to who I am, clarity emerges
and stress dissipates. Consulting is content-oriented.
Therapy is past- and discussion-oriented. Coaching
is action- and process-oriented; it’s about
self-recognition and determining one’s purpose
in life. Once you know who you really are, then what
you want and how to get it tend to become self-evident.
I help you to decide what’s really important
to you, and then I provide the structure to keep you
focused on creating the life you really want to live.
I already have a lot of people trying
to influence my life. How are you any different?
Look, you’re the hero of your
own life. The agenda is yours. I'm not here to tell
you what you ought to be doing—I’m here
to seat you in your own power. It’s kind of like
this: You’re Princess Lea or Luke Skywalker, I’m
Obi Wan Kenobe. You’re Lewis and Clarke, I’m
Sacajawea. You already have everything you need; my
job is to help you reveal it to yourself, and, in doing
so, to arrive at a more effective personal process that
will continue long after the coaching relationship ends.
The answer really does lie within you. What you're paying
me for is my access to your intuition.
I'm still not sure if coaching is
for me. How can I find out?
You can contact me for a complimentary
trial session. Call me at 215.884.7328, between 9am
- 5pm Eastern time, or e-mail
me here.
|
