Last week my friend and fellow Life Coach Bobbie Caskey and I had the pleasure of being the "adventure of the evening" at a Women's Adventure Club in St. Louis. I knew nothing about adventure clubs but I was intrigued by the concept. This group was made up of 11 women. They are each in charge of one month, and their job is to bring an adventure to the group that costs $50 or less per person. And, the super fun part is that it's a secret to everyone but the organizer! Then in December (the 12th month where no one is in charge), they all go out to dinner and recap their year. How cool is that!? I was immediately impressed that all of these women showed up at my friend Julie's house without having any idea what they were in for. They made time for themselves and committed to a group where they would learn and try new things. They tried to guess what Bobbie and I were doing there before the surprise was revealed. Dancers? (HA! I am the worst dancer. Bobbie could maybe pull that off!) Wine tasting? They did not guess Life Coaches!

Their past adventures have included ax throwing, attending a drag show, making their own perfume, and trying their hand at acrobatic silks. Pink makes it look so easy but they reported it was pretty dang hard!

I wanted to share this with you guys because one of the things I always encourage is time for yourself, just for fun! Joining or starting a community of women who also make time for themselves just for fun would be a benefit to everyone involved. These women inspired me! It was a great evening.

So what did Bobbie and I teach this group? We presented a workshop called "An Adventure Into Your Mind" and we taught the concept of our essential self vs. our social self. Our essential self is who we are born as. It includes the personality we were born with, our preferences, passions, and things we're naturally good at. Our social self is the version of us that follows social cues and norms to allow us to navigate life. For example, if your natural most energetic time of the day is 10 pm to 1 am, and you'd like to sleep until 9 am (your essential self), your social self is the one who helps you set the alarm for 6 am anyway, to get yourself ready for work and get your kids to school. When the essential and social selves work in conjunction with one another, it can be a perfect pairing. When one is too dominant, your life feels out of balance and exhausting. We worked through some exercises to get to know our essential selves better and came up with ways to bring more of our essential self into everyday life.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to focus on yourself, your own preferences, and what you are good at. It feels almost indulgent. However, we know all of these things about our kids and spouse, so why not learn it about ourselves?

The Adventurers left the evening with a journal and some questions about their next steps. We overheard plans of women who were planning big changes like going back to school, and starting a new career. Some talked of life style changes like going zero waste. Another decided her best bet was to read a book on the topic of getting to know herself.

All in all it was a wonderful time and I thoroughly enjoyed this smart and open minded group of women. Thanks for inviting us!

PS I am looking for other places to present this fun workshop! If your women's group is looking for a personal growth opportunity, I'd love to work with you!

Ax Throwing and . . . Life Coaching?