Navigating Awkward Moments: 3 Tips For Success

Living today is, let’s be honest interesting.  For many of us we are energetically up one day, and down the next.  Life can be a bit of a roller coaster. Each day we have more and more things flying at us than we ever had before.  Just this week in fact I had conversations with people on the following topics:

• Negotiation of a new career with how do I let go of the old
• Conversations around a pre-nup, in a world where role models never did a pre-nup
• Letting go of relationships after inappropriate behavior occurred

While this list may seem “normal” In each conversation we came to the same conclusion. There is no “rule book” for how to do life these days.  What were once easy answers are now more complicated. When do you tell your boss you are leaving and how? When is it right for both parties to do a pre-nup?  Telling friends you dis-approve of their behavior.

To live today we have to fully recognize it’s not always our “doing” that will save us. Often times it is stepping back and figuring out how we are to “be” in the situation that serves us better.

Are you navigating awkward in an area of your life?  Here are three things to choose being over doing.

1. Center – Centering in the process of pausing for a moment to feel into your body.  What is the truth of what you are feeling in that moment? What can you become in the moment? Are you able to be kind, compassionate and listening vs choosing anger, fear and close minded.  Center and choose.
2. Ask a Question – As children we are conditioned that we always have to have the answer to everything.  Living in today’s times of rapid transformation. Let’s be real. More often than not we don’t have the answer.  Accept that. Stand in the question. When I am navigating awkward I intentionally come to the awkward conversation with a question as a place to create an answer with the other party vs the answer.  Great questions transform awkward try these – Why are we having this experience? How can we use this awkward experience to grow? What are we going to choose to do/be as a result of this awkward thing that happened.
3. Commit to a positive compassionate new solution – When navigating an experience you don’t know what to do or what I call navigating awkward recognize the strangeness of the situation.  Do steps one and two here then commit to a new solution. When we honor that we don’t have the answer, ask a question and commit to a new solution you will be surprised what shows up.

Navigating awkward is more normal that any of us want to recognize.  Life is happening fast. Rules are changing. We have more options to make us fearful and faithful than we have ever had before.  When you find yourself navigating awkward do these three things to become the person mindfully present in the moment to create a better solution.  Navigating awkward is about choosing to be kind to yourself first, to the other party second and create a compassionate solution that works for both.

Join me for my fall group-coaching program.  In this program we will creates a safe place to explore navigating awkward.  The program provides a valuable resource for creating the solution wherever you navigate awkward in your life.  Click here to apply.