Opening to the Possibilities

Have you ever had the kind of day where everything exceeds your expectations?  Today was like that for me.  So many great connections, new ideas, insights, opportunities; it was overwhelming.

My instinctive reaction, in situations like this, is to start trying to make it all make sense: to chew over all that’s happened and try to make myself understand and absorb it by force of will.  But I’ve discovered over the years that – for me – that’s really just a nervous twitch, and not very useful.

When I have a day that really blasts open my preconceived limitations, I’ve finally learned that the best thing to do is simply relax and let my brain and spirit integrate the new reality.

So tonight I had a long talk with my husband, then went to the gym, and then came back to my hotel room and did some cross-stitch while I watched reruns of Medium.  Nothing too mentally demanding.  And I can feel myself somehow expanding to accommodate all that I experienced and learned over the past few days.

I’ve noticed the same phenomenon over the years when we coach executives: during  a two-day coaching session, there’s something that we’ve come to call “the overnight effect.”  On the first day, people can struggle to open up to news ways of thinking, or different approaches to managing or leading, or an expanded understanding of themselves.  But quite often when they come back the next day, their discomfort and resistance have disappeared, and they have a new, clearer sense of themselves and of what’s possible.

I suspect I’ll wake up tomorrow morning with more capacity: ready and able to operate from a new perspective.

Such an exciting journey…