Photo by Lisa Helfert
I had a coffee date Friday with Lauree Ostrofsky, a former PR pro turned career coach and author who I met on Twitter because we have a few mutual friends.
Two hours flew by as we talked about our consulting practices, including what works and what challenges we face, as well as some of the darkest life experiences that have shaped each of us into who we are. If you find yourself have a conversation about brain tumors and bad relationship endings and career self doubt, all in the first time you meet someone, it’s less like a getting to know you meeting and more like a reunion with a friend you didn’t yet know you had.
Lauree’s blog is fabulously inspiring because she doesn’t just coach other people to take bold moves toward happiness. She walks the walk.
In one recent post, she wrote:
Who doesn’t need a fairy godmother now and then?
Good thing you have one.
You are your own fairy godmother when you decide to retell your story, and give yourself the happy ending you deserve.
We each get to tell our life story any way we want, though very few people actually do it.
They don’t think they can, they are afraid to, or they don’t realize they are living a story to begin with.
What does it mean to tell your story?
Things happen. When they do, we make up a reason for it, and everyone else in our life does too.
And when a story gets told about what just happened to you (whether you tell it or someone else does), you tend to believe it. So much so that you don’t question its validity.
Retelling the story involves stepping out of what’s been said, and seeing that you could just as easily tell it a different way.
What’s that mean? Well, for example, she decided somewhat impulsively to rent out her Washington, D.C. apartment, sell or giveaway many of her belongings and spend the summer housesitting and visiting friends. She’ll be taking on projects, promoting her book and working on a new book as she does it.
She’s sharing the ups and downs of this radical leap on her blog, inviting others to pursue their own change and examine the road blocks that keep them from getting there.
Lauree also wrote:
I hope my adventure encourages you to go on your own.
Or to see what’s happening around you as an adventure.
There is something wonderfully exciting about where you are right now, even if you don’t know where it will lead.
I feel strongly the adventures John and I have had living part-time in New Orleans and San Francisco have been transformative. They’ve introduced us to inspiring new people and shown us other ways to live. They’ve also helped give us a different perspective on our home in New York.
I’m all for taking bold adventures and am grateful Twitter helped me find a fellow adventurer.
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