Arbutus Coaching’s Blog

Welcome to Because Life Isn’t a Dress Rehearsal, a blog written by life and business coach Kathy Santini, owner of Arbutus Coaching. This blog contains coaching tips and advice to help you become the most self actualized, effective person you can be, both personally and professionally. If you’re serious about “growing your possibilities,” and transforming your life, then you’re in the right place. My goal in writing this blog is to help you create a life that is easier, bigger, richer and more rewarding than the life you’re living now. So let’s get started shall we, because life isn’t a dress rehearsal and time’s a wastin’.

• About Kathy Santini

« Cancer Survivors – Life After Cancer, Living a Life without Regrets | Home | A Workshop for Women In Victoria, B.C. about Money. Empower Yourself Financially – A Five Step Plan to a Richer Life »

As a business and results coach I say follow your bliss in the world of work. And if you can’t do it for yourself, do it today for the Afghan people as it’s their election day.

By arbutuscoaching | August 20, 2009

     Two of my worlds – the past and present – overlapped this morning, with the news of Afghanistan’s presidential election and a conversation with a dear friend. Four years ago next month I was in Kabul, Afghanistan, covering that country’s first parliamentary elections in 25 years. It is one of the highlights of my life, as I watched Afghan women vote, many for the first time.

     Fade to today, Aug. 20 and a telephone conversation between me and dear friend, who was talking about trying to figure out what was holding her back from stepping into her power, from doing what I believe she was meant to do in this incarnation, be a healer. The conversation got me thinking about the opportunities that we have here in the West, what we take for granted, the kind of things that most Afghans would kill to have the opportunity to do. Like doing work that stirs our soul, that expresses our unique individuality, that is a pure and true expression of what we’re meant to do this time around, which holds the gift we have to give the world that only we can give.

     Four years ago in Kabul there weren’t many options for the women there, despite the defeat of the Taliban government. Many were still dressed in the sky blue coloured burkhas that are customary for that region, as there is little room for individuality. I met a woman at a wedding reception who told me she was an exception because her parents had told her that they wouldn’t arrange a marriage for her, that if she married it would only be for love. She was an anomaly in a culture where mothers pick their sons wives.

     But back to this corner of the world.  As a cancer survivor who knows to the last cell of her body how precious and fleeting life is, and as a life, business and results coach, I hold that it is not optional, but our responsibility to maximize our talents, our strengths and our inherent gifts that the world is crying out for. Raising the bar in one part of the world benefits all – even if only and I use that word lightly – as an example of what possibilities exist and what life can be like. The fall of the Berlin wall and the Soviet Union are two great illustrations here. 

     So the next time you feel yourself procrastinating about whether or not to take action and to follow your bliss, stand tall and just do it, as the Nike ad says. And if you can’t just do it for yourself, do it for your sisters and brothers around the world who are looking to us privileged Westerners, for a peek at what is possible.  A good book on that subject is Rosamund and Benjamin Zander’s book, The Art of Possibility, Transforming Professional and Personal Life. 

     I would give almost anything to be in Afghanistan today, covering this historic election. But glancing at my photo of me dressed in a helmet, flak vest and head scarf with my press credentials around my neck will have to do.

Topics: work |

Comments