In twenty-something years of coaching and facilitating, if I've learned only one thing, it is that people can almost always find their way to their own answers. My job is to create the space within with they can engage in their own courageous thinking in order to hear their own courageous answers. The right question, at the right time is an invitation to step through our own inner doorway and into that space so that we can hear ourselves think. I can tell when I've posed the right question to a client or a roomful of clients, because there is almost always a look of "knowingness" that crosses their faces. They know the answer because they've been asked the right question.

The questions we ask lead to the answers we find.

Close your eyes for a moment.

Imagine yourself at the trailhead. (Hint: If you need a little help, open one eye and peek down at your feet. It's right there. The trailhead is always right there.) With your feet pointing straight ahead, think about your trajectory. Over time, if you keep heading in that direction where will you end up? If you are on track, heading where you want to go, then by all means keep on keeping on.

However, if your direction could use a bit of adjustment, you've drifted off course, or find yourself stuck in a familiar rut, imagine stepping your feet ever so slightly to the right or left so that they are pointing in a slightly different direction. You don't have to do an about face (unless you know that you actually do) or make a ninety-degree turn. I'm talking just a smidge here. While this very small adjustment changes your trajectory in a very small way today, over time your path will gradually diverge from your current course, and that small step to the left or right will lead to a big shift in direction.

What is one small step, in a slightly different direction, that might shift your course to point you in the direction that is calling to you?

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