One of the niche areas I focus my coaching practice on is working with individuals who want to reduce their environmental footprint; to learn new choices or approaches that create greater planetary health. One area I am particularly passionate about is food. It is part of my personal mission to help people understand why and how to make different food choices; choices that include understanding the terms sustainable, organic, conventional, etc., exploring traditional (“old-fashioned”) food preparation methods, building relationships with local farmers, and having the peace-of-mind of knowing where your food comes from.

Do you know where your food comes from? And I don’t mean the grocery store. Looking lower down on the food chain, where were the ‘raw materials’ making up your food grown? In what manner were they cared for and produced? How did they get from their place of origin to your grocery store? If you’ve been following the sustainable food conversation happening for some time now, you probably already know the importance of seeking out and purchasing food through local sources.  This is important on many fronts, including economic, environment, and health, to name a few.

Economically speaking, and stated simply by USDA Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan,  “by connecting local consumers with their local food producers, local wealth stays in local economies, and rural communities get revitalized.” This is also the intention behind the USDA’s recently announced initiative, “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food.” Among other aspects, the initiative will provide funding and assistance for schools to partner with local farms in providing healthy, fresh food for school lunches. Read a news article and view a short video about the initiative here: http://www.kticam.com/news/agricultural/50733a14-cdc5-4b96-a6eb-81e9c80c67b5

For a sustainable food fanatic like myself, this announcement is exciting, yet frankly sounds a little “too good to be true” and is raising a lot of questions for me. I’ll continue to explore these and report back here. I’d love to hear your questions and comments as well. Stay tuned as I’ll write about the environmental and health impacts of local food economies in my next blog posts.

Until then, a question to consider: what resources do you have in your community to help you find and purchase locally grown and produced meats, grains, eggs, produce, dairy products, etc.?

Not sure? Let me know. I’d love to help you get started. www.SherpaDeCoaching.com

Last month, I was honored with the opportunity to be interviewed by Dafna Michaelson, Journey Woman. Dafna is on a yearlong journey to meet and talk with community problem solvers in each of America’s 50 states. I was selected as a community problem-solver in the state of Pennsylvania where I live and work. I will share more about the current community project I am involved with in a later post.  But first, a little bit about Dafna and her journey, called 50-in-52 Journey.

1 single mom | 50 states | 52 weeks

A journey to find the people moving America forward

Dafna’s tagline above declares her purpose.

I asked her how this all began for her. She said it started as one of those “what would you do if you won the lottery” conversations. Her lottery-winning plans would include traveling around the country to meet with each state governor and find out what is being done to create a better, more connected America. Well, she didn’t win the lottery, but the idea would not leave her alone. And rather than meeting with state governors, the idea appealed to Dafna’s to take a more grassroots approach and seek out the individuals who are doing the actual work of moving America forward. So each week for a year, Dafna is visiting a different state (thus the name 50-in-52 Journey). She is finding people who are identifying opportunities or needs and taking initiative to create a more desired future for their community. Her website has videos, blog posts, twitter links, and more where you can meet the people Dafna’s visited thus far and hear their stories. http://www.50in52journey.com/

You can watch the video of my interview with Dafna at (and let me warn you ahead of time that I am Italian and find it nearly impossible to talk without use of my hands):

http://www.50in52journey.com/states/Pennsylvania5.asp

Dafna really inspired me with her vision of what she’ll do when this journey comes to an end. She has seen firsthand the possibilities and potentials for our country, as well as the heartaches of current reality for many people. Dafna, being a community problem-solver herself, has a vision for connecting people from different locations around the country through a program she plans to start which will include: bringing people with similar needs together to create a “community of practice”, facilitating dialogue within the community-of-practice to identify steps forward for bringing the desired changes to life, and helping the community-of-practice create a business case for their plans, acquire funding, etc. I hope to have the opportunity to be involved in helping Dafna plan and facilitate these community-of-practice conversations.

A question to leave you with: Think about where you have noticed a need in your neighborhood, school system, municipality, or community. What is your community calling for now and what might your role be in creating that calling?

My last blog entry talked about an approach or method for creating positive change called Appreciative Inquiry (Ai). In addition to its usefulness as an organization change tool, Ai is also very effective for creating positive change in individual lives. Often called Appreciative Living, the idea, simply stated, is a daily focus on what is already working in your relationships and in your life, building upon these areas to create more of the life you want. Following are two familiar concepts to illustrate the basis for Appreciative Living.

You reap what you sow. If you sow tomato plants, you will reap tomatoes. If you sow creativity, you will reap innovation. If you sow the belief that the result you want is impossible, you will reap something less than that result. Make sense?

See if this makes sense too. Have you ever noticed that you will always see what you are expecting to see? When we expect someone to behave in a certain way, for example my mate to behave impatiently, we will almost certainly be presented with that behavior. It’s not that other behaviors have not also presented themselves, we just may not have been watching for them and we may miss them or ignore them.

If you find some truth in the concepts above, then consider how they apply to your own life, your relationships, your work, your goals. You can use the exercise below to illuminate areas for more Appreciative Living.

1)     Spend time noticing what you notice. What do you find yourself focusing on, being drawn to, or paying attention to in your environment and your interactions? Spend a day or two simply noticing what you notice, and write it down.

2)     Then spend a day or two focusing on what’s working, what’s good about your situation, what you admire about your mate, what you love about your children, what you appreciate about your co-workers, etc. Go looking for it intentionally and see what you find. Write down what you notice.

3)     Review what you wrote about in step 1. As objectively as you can, read through what you noticed and see if you can identify any limiting beliefs or negative assumptions that you are making (about yourself, others, or the situation). Set an intention to let these go. You can replace them with greater open-mindedness and more curiosity about yourself, others, and the situation.

This type of self-reflection, honesty about beliefs and assumptions, and the willingness and courage to try something new is not commonplace behavior. Nor is it necessarily easy. I do know, however, that the outcomes can be powerful and very positive. Let me know if any of these ideas raise your interest or curiosity. I would really enjoy exploring new possibilities with you.

www.SherpaDeCoaching.com

I am writing this from a weather-beaten Adirondack chair while enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. My chair and I are sitting on the sandy shore of Lac Pytonga, a pristine and secluded lake out in the wilds of Quebec, Canada. My family and I have been here for just 3 days now and it is hard to remember what else I do. That is, what else I do besides sleep-in, swim in the crystal mountain lake, go for long boat rides, and enjoy unscheduled lazy time with my husband and children. This amazing place and time provides much to be appreciative about; which actually reminds me of one other thing I do; I appreciate.

I bring an appreciative paradigm to my coaching and organizational development work. This is an approach that focuses on possibilities, not problems; on what’s working or what’s good about a situation, not what’s broken; on what those involved want to create together to move them towards their desired future, not on what’s “in the gap” that needs to be fixed or enhanced. This approach is called Appreciative Inquiry (Ai).

Ai is one of today’s most recognized approaches to creating positive change. It is used in businesses, community organizations, and social systems. Ai is the cooperative search for what’s working; what we are already doing well that we can build on to create what’s desired next. A key principle of Ai is that sustainable positive change must be truly co-created. It is “whole system change,” meaning we involve every person within the system at some level, making sure every voice is heard and considered. There are several inspiring case studies publicly available that demonstrate the power in this work. Here are links to a few:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Growth Journey (an oldie but goodie)

Canadian Tire Team Values (an even older goodie)

Fostoria Community Schools Revitalization

I’ll be writing more about Appreciative Inquiry with ideas and exercises for integrating aspects of it with your work and your life. I hope you’ll return to learn more and experiment with the possibilities an appreciative paradigm might create for you.