As the year draws to a close, I am grappling with how to make sense of uncertain and unpredictable times. I don’t think I am alone in this endeavour. 2018 has been a tough year for many of my clients and friends.
On a macro level, we seem to be living through particularly disruptive times. There is a lot of bad news to digest every day. One friend told me recently he has stopped reading the news altogether.
On a personal level, my husband had a head injury last spring that left him unable to work and engage in many of our regular activities. The recovery process was slow and unpredictable, with no road map to follow.
The constant uncertainty of life has challenged my personal resilience and optimism. Sometimes it’s just easier to prepare for worst case scenarios and anticipate obstacles at every turn. But that’s an exhausting way to live and not how I aspire to be as a transformational leadership coach!
How can we embrace uncertainty and learn to thrive?
According to the research in positive psychology, we do have the capacity to learn the skills needed to thrive even in the face of the most challenging of circumstances.
We can start by appreciating our personal strengths and finding ways to use them daily. In tough times, we often lose sight of the best in ourselves and how to access our own wisdom.
This isn’t as simple as telling ourselves to be more positive. Refocusing the mind takes regular practice – noticing default thought patterns (often thinking about worst case scenarios) and choosing consciously to tell a different story (what’s the best case scenario?).
Activate your Strengths!
It was difficult for me to see my own inner resources, even when people around me were trying their best to remind me of my strengths. Sound familiar?
I decided to revisit the tried and true VIA Character Strengths for some “objective” data about my best qualities and inspiration on how to embrace the change around me.
With the shared wisdom of my two associates, Catherine Chang and Victoria Mlynko, I engaged in a strengths-based conversation when I needed it most. I learned two key things:
- Activating character strengths is like getting a daily jolt of adrenalin. It felt great to be reminded of the qualities that come more naturally to me and gave me the courage to face the daily challenges of life; and
- Identifying an important lesser strength is transformative. Taking a look at one of mine (hope) pushed me to activate this hugely important and less familiar quality and gave me a new way of responding.
Questions for you to consider:
- What are your top character strengths?
- How are you using one or more of these to live your best self?
- What is a lesser strength that is needed in your life right now?
- How can you start to use it on a daily basis?
Coming in 2019…
Group Coaching for Personal Transformation
If you are interested in joining a small group to share experiences and accelerate personal growth consider signing up for group coaching with Lianne Krakauer in 2019.
The group will be limited to 8 participants with a focus on achieving a personal transformation goal. Members will contribute to setting the agenda for the group conversations and have 1:1 sessions with Lianne to supplement the group work. We will meet monthly between February and June. Click here to complete a short survey and to be kept informed.
Take the VIA Character Strengths Survey
Book a coaching session in January to debrief your results with one of our experienced coaches.
Please contactlianne@krakauer.ca for more information about our coaching packages.

Wishing all of you a holiday season filled with peace, love and good health.
With gratitude and hope for a happy 2019!
And they call, can’t you hear it?
Roads of the earth
And roads of the spirit
The best roads of all
Are the ones that aren’t certain
One of those is where you’ll find me
Till they drop the big curtain”~ Bruce Cockburn, Child of the Wind