As a follow up to a previous post (“What Are You Freakishly Good At?” and why I hate the question) the opposite consideration deserves, well, consideration!

I have a client who IS Freakishly Good At (FGA) saving peoples’ lives.  She is an actual Life Saver.  She also is FGA keeping families (and support staff) from falling apart in a time of crisis. 
She laments about not being exceptional in the area of, shall we say, being a 50’s housewife.  In my most skilled, professional Life Coach manner I very ‘indelicately’ responded with.
“So??!  Are you nuts?!  You save lives!”  After she recovered from the hearing damage, she dazedly replied, ‘oh, I never thought of it that way.’

Someone somewhere wrote: your weaknesses are what make you weak; your strengths are what make you strong. Exactly.

Being a 50’s housewife makes my client bitter, angry and resentful.  Saving lives makes my
client feel powerful, happy and frickin almost able to fly.

Like I said in the “What Are You Freakishly Good At?” post, I did not know I was taking the path of Life Coach while I experienced and pursued the things I have/did in my life, but the more I followed what was fun, easy, interesting, the clearer my path became and the healthier I became in body, mind and spirit.

Coaching is a way to align your ‘knowing’ self with your ‘accomplishing’ self in order to get to your perfect destination – which for everyone is fulfillment, happiness, joy, purposefulness…and a whole bunch more nesses.

Therefore, if you are FGA one thing and are lamenting the lack in other areas of your life, stop it. There is someone, somewhere who can do those other things and believe it or not, loves
it.  Hire them.  You will both be fulfilling your destiny of being fulfilled with happiness, joy, purposefulness, etc.

I've just returned from an awesome vacation.  Did you miss me?
It was the celebration of a milestone birthday (50th) and milestone anniversary (25th).
I told my husband (a year and a half ago) that I wanted a trip to celebrate - not any big parties.  He loves to organize/arrange vacation travel, so he was 'in.' 
We spent 7 days on the coast of Connecticut at a beautiful resort.  We toured a nearby casino and happened upon Barry Manilow performing!  We spontaneously bought tickets and thoroughly enjoyed Barry's trip down memory lane!  The next night we went back because The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was performing in one of the lounges.  It only cost us about 2 hours of time standing in line and then saving a table.  Totally enjoyed their concert.  Our winter break was long over due, so we reveled in the rest and relaxation of being seaside.  I fell in love with the sound of the ocean.  I sat outside and just listened to it.  I slept the best 7 sleeps in a very long time.  There was an incident that marred the perfection however.  The resort coffee pot broke in my attempt to make coffee and the glass sliced my foot.  11 stitches prevented further seaside strolls.  The bright side is I will now have a permanent mark of the occasion!
Then it was off to Manhattan, the very heart of New York for 3 jam packed, action filled days and nights.  The highlights:  Time Square at night. Central Park.  "The Book of Mormon" broadway musical.  Shopping at Joe Fresh on 5th Avenue!  Tour of NBC stuidos - sat in Late Night with Jimmy Fallon studio and the set of the final SNL show of the season.  Riding the subway.  Pizza by the slice every night!
We packed in as much as my poor feet could handle.
I did nothing of my regular routine - exercise, eating, sleeping.  And that's ok!  It was such a great break from my 'regular' life.
If you want to see all of the highlight photos, you can friend me on Facebook (Jen Washington, Calgary, Alberta).  'just tell me you are a blog fan and I will 'friend' you back.
I missed my cat, my pillow and my electric toothbrush.  'Back to my 'regular' life and letting my stitches heal and feet recover.
I am very thankful and grateful for all the experiences on this trip.
I am also very thankful and grateful for my regular life!

What are you freakishly good at?
I hate this question. I am tired of hearing it, of asking it and of trying to answer it.
Not One Thing! No Thing! I am NOT freakishly good at any one thing.  I am reasonably competent at  whole bunch of things.  I suck at quite a few things.  As I used to tell my daughters, We are the Queens of Quite A Lot of Things.

I can’t help, in my fertile imagination and the frequent out of body meanderings of my mind, wonder if I am freakishly good at something I’ve never tried – like bobsledding or trap shooting.  Or what if there’s something I don’t know exists yet, like Astral Travel Personal Shopper (where I go into the future or the past to get you a consumer item), and at this I would excel? But, how do
I access that?

I see people on the t.v. talent shows.  They know what they are good at. 
Juggling while uni-cycling, sword swallowing, up-side-down underwater basket weaving.  There is obviously some ‘urge’ triggered inside of these people that makes them think, “hey, I wonder if I could…..(fill in the blank)."  Then, also something from inside of them, makes them practice fiendishly until they master their crafts.  Or what about singers with actual great voices who can sing the phone book and make it sound heavenly?

I am quite certain (as close to 100% as I’ll allow myself certainty) that I have investigated most, if not all of my urges.  When I have the urge to sing, for example, I sing, but it does NOT sound like any heaven I want to live in!  At the very least, I’ve considered each urge. No One Thing.

I do know that I love coaching.  I would even say I have a natural talent for it. It is easy. Toot, toot! (that’s the sound of my own horn.)  It seems to combine all of my past experience, with my study, with my particular urges, passions and curiosity.  It is one of those jobs that did not
exist when I was growing up to ‘be’ something. I just kept on following things that made me feel excited or curious or urgent about.  I could never have orchestrated every skill, class, piece of information and types/methods of practice I would need to do the job of Life Coach.  But,
magically, ‘Life’ knew exactly the ‘courses’ (paths, routes, roads) I needed.

If you have no ONE Thing, that is o.k. just keep on following what ‘feels’ good, natural and easy and you will arrive at your perfect ‘job’ when it is ready to exist.