Stuck in the hallway

I blog best when I have a glass of wine, so welcome to room 305 of the Hilton Garden Inn in Greenbelt, MD where I've been since Saturday evening. I've used the same issue for 12 mentoring sessions in my Advanced Coach Training and two interviews for our open positions--my lack of work life balance and my fear that I will transfer these crazy behaviors to my life post-EY. A coach today reminded me of the saying, "when one door closes another opens...but it is hell in the hallway."

I've been attending the November meeting of the Conference Board's Executive Coaching Council. Today we had a presentation from two facilitators from Heart Math (www.heartmath.org). Something to think about in the hallway. When was the last time you stepped back and asked yourself, "how crazy is my lifestyle?" We learned some interesting coping mechanisms today but the biggest take-away for me was asking the question, "is this REALLY a threat?" We go into crisis mode and dump noxious chemicals in our bodies when we feel we are threatened. Real threats are related to saber tooth tigers, which our ancestors didn't worry about, by the way, until they smelled them! Some of the "saber tooth tigers" we identified today as a group were:

• email from boss with unreasonable request
• sideways look from a colleague
• flight delay
• missing shirt button
• inability to find document

and my personal favorite

• text from husband saying "don't buy that high-fiber bread again"

Seriously.

So, entertain me--what were your saber tooth tigers this week? Hint: laughter is restorative!