I am mid-way thru facilitating a great SHIFT-IT Tele-group. Over the course of 7 conference calls, I’m working with a fabulous group of folks from around all over (England, New Zealand, Holland, U.S. and Canada), thru my SHIFT-IT Graphic Coaching Process. We are on Stage 3 of the process called ‘Investigate Your Now’. In this stage, having completed our Life Maps (Harvest Your History), we now turn to investigating our current situation … in anticipation of doing some hard core visioning work (Focus on Your Future).
As with the whole process, there are several graphic templates (or Merkley Maps as I call ’em — not too vain right?!) – that help people do their thinking. In this section, there are two: Focus On Me and the S.E.L.F. Inventory. On the call, I did a demo of how to use the S.E.L.F. Inventory, with one of our participants, David W. from New Zealand. David has graciously agreed to share his completed map … so you can take a look.
This map helps you think about and record what you have to work with on your journey ahead. What you have to draw upon in terms of supports (foundational support: bottom section), the skills and strengths you naturally carry with you (left section), the things you currently sense you will need to develop as you move forward (right section), and finally, the evolutionary whispers that you are receiving about the path that lays ahead of you (top section).
A nice preparation move for inching into personal visioning work.
Notice David’s whispers: he’s got a book/multi-media package brewing in him and some definite business partnerships that are at the edge of his horizon. Wonderful skills to draw upon already (counseling, social worker, etc) and a good awareness of some of the skills and areas he’ll need to develop in (particularly organization, converging and creating systems). He also has a strong foundational support in terms of his family (partner and children) and the natural environment he lives in – he loves being around nature and the sea and has situated himself in a geography that he really likes and feels good in – Auckland New Zealand.
As someone who also lives by the ocean, albeit on the other hemisphere, we had a nice interaction about the power of the ocean and how it feeds us as creative people. David sent some beautiful pictures of the area – now I feel even more called to check out that part of the world. I have a good colleague and friend in Sydney, Australia … and told David how I know I’ll make it over there sometime – hopefully doing some workshops on route, as people there seem to be responding very nicely to this visual/graphic way of working. These pictures are going straight onto my vision board – thanks for sharing David!
For more information on the above graphic coaching tool, see S.E.L.F. Inventory Map or the full SHIFT-IT Home Retreat Kit.
Cheers, Christina Merkley
The SHIFT-IT Graphic Coach
