Creating A New Story To Live Into

This past week I attended the first Coaching and Positive Psychology conference at Harvard, born through an initiative co-founded by the CEO of Wellcoaches®, Margaret Moore, of the same name (http://www.harvardcppi.org/). Here is a picture of the Wellcoaches® faculty that was in attendance. It was a sell-out conference and one that will have lasting impact for those who attended.

From l-r: Erika Jackson, Kate Larsen, Margaret Moore, Gabe Highstein, Me, Jessica Wolfson, Bob Tschannen-Moran

I have been involved with Wellcoaches® since 2002, and am so proud of the evolution we have taken, to gather scientific data about what we know works through this initiative! My pilot study with cancer survivors this last year was just the beginning of gathering important information about the outcomes and benefits of wellness coaching.

One of the most compelling presentations at the conference was by Ben and Rosamund Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and co-authors of The Art of Possibility.

They had an incredibly gifted quartet helping them with their presentation, demonstrating the art of possibility. One significant piece of the presentation was the idea that there were always two people playing the violin. The second person is the critical voice in our heads that can drown out the music. The voice in our head is always there. We have stories we tell ourselves that impact our performance and our interactions with all of those we touch. What we can do is change the voice and create a new story that breaks the old one.


An inspirational exercise in starting this journey , is to write a letter about this person (new story) you are wanting to live into. Instead of the letter being a goal-setting type of letter, it’s a letter describing and falling in love with the person you are becoming (the one you want to be).

What’s your new story? Fall in love with the person you describe in your letter!

I plan to write more about my take-aways from the conference, so stay tuned!