Want to Create Meaning as You Make a Difference in Other People’s Lives – and Your Own?

Like you, I spent much of the past year at home and “seeing” clients on the phone.?As I listened to them and to my own friends, I began to hear a consistent theme emerging about how this virus has so gravely impacted our seniors, not only in?terms?of physical health but also clearly in mental health.?The problems are real and intense: isolation; extraordinary loneliness; losses to family savings; missing holding grandchildren; the complicated nature of many in a family trying to live together; what to do about staying in senior facilities and, of course,?the endless anxiety.??

More and more, as result of this pandemic, I also heard another theme emerging: many of us have been questioning many things about our work: where do we work and do we need offices, with whom do we work, and does what I do really matter.?For many this leads us to ask this important question: How do I create meaning from my work?

Having been forced by COVID to alter our schedules, rhythms, locations of work and even unemployment, much of what we used to think of as “normal” is now up for review and, frankly, re-consideration.?Many of us are now seeking to “pull up the reins" over our lives and careers in order to find work and relationships that are more meaningful.?

Perhaps you too may be asking,?like so many others:?do I really enjoy how I currently earn my living??what else might I do that will be meaningful for me and provide value to those around me? how else might I spend my time?

I am a?Master Certified Parenting Our Parents (POP) Family Coach, a situation?for which I feel truly fortunate. I get the chance to coach?(via Skype and other communications platforms) some?terrific inter-generational families who’ve chosen to do what I call POP (Parenting Our Parents). And during these times where so many of us are filled with anxiety and so much uncertainty, these coaching services are highly in demand, now more than ever.

This?Certified POP Family Coach program?has allowed me both immense satisfaction and a sense of meaning by helping to transform ordinary and even troubled families into supportive ones.?As a result, these families - who are facing the?challenges that 1 in 4 Americans who are part of aging families must face - are able to resolve those challenges effectively and harmoniously.?In all my years of doing this work, I’ve never heard a family member say they wished they’d not done POParenting.?

And in addition, I’ve had the satisfaction of helping career-changing professionals, people who wanted to create more meaning, learn to develop additional skills.?

POP Family Coaching clients acknowledge that there will come a time, or it has now already come, when their aging loved ones need "more help".?They understand that “crisis planning” often is disastrous.?They?recognize the value of bringing on board a professional coach who’s experienced in guiding families through completing all that will become necessary. They want the end result that this become a Journey of Love and family commitment.?From their Certified POP Family Coach, they get specific help:

• Preparing for “The Conversation” regarding POParenting;
• Creating a POPteam to formulate a specific and workable POPlan along with senior parents, whenever possible to include: help with obtaining or creating needed legal documents;?health care decisions; reviewing the advantages and risks and timing of moving parents out of their home; bringing in help that’s appropriate; arranging for the “stuff” to be distributed, stored, and so on. Unfortunately these days, too many families are limited to doing “crisis Planning,” but, with guidance, that can be reversed;
• Monitoring and when necessary tweaking the POPlan to see that its solutions are useful and being followed;
• And then… the encouragement and desire to go have family fun together again!?

Therefore there is an extraordinary need now for more Certified POP Family Coaches to join our existing cadre across the country. Even before this outbreak of coronavirus, 1-in-4 American families was struggling, most without a clue, figuring out how to execute the steps described above. Today that number is growing, even more frighteningly.?

If this time of staying at home has resulted in your re-examining your life, reflecting on what’s most important to you and you’re considering what you might do differently, this might be the right time for you to?become a Certified POP Family Coach.?I’ve been afforded such joy from seeing the healing in families I’ve coached.?You can be part of creating meaning by making the world a better place one POP Family at a time – find out more?here?and join us!