The beta round of my group, Level UP, is at its halfway mark. The group is quite literally in the thick of it, with all the ups and downs, frustrations and joys that come with this point in the process. At this moment, group members are really being tested to dig in to the work, and to say NO to their old ways of doing (read: not doing/avoiding) challenging things.

And it’s hard.

A couple of weeks into the program, a group member was placing a lot of her attention on what was missing for her, specifically time. Not enough time to focus on what she wanted more of in her professional life. Plenty of time for a myriad of other things and activities, but not time for that. She was beating herself up about this, as well as her inability to set priorities to focus on the things that had motivated her to sign up for the group in the first place.

The early modules of Level UP focus on time, and specifically, where the heck it’s all going. The idea being, how can you change anything if you have no idea what’s really happening? So we dive right in there. And it is tough work. Tough work that shines a spotlight not only on sabotaging behaviors and avoidance techniques, but also on how time just slips away from us, sometimes in massive quantities, by spending precious hours on stuff that is fundamentally not important.

Why? I believe we do this out of fear. Getting organized with our time means we’re going to lean in to something bigger, something or several somethings we want more of, than to be stuck in our comfort zone. The issue is that our comfort zone is, well, comfortable! Seductive! It takes intentional effort to step out of it.

After talking through her resistance and avoidance on our call, this group member went for it. She embraced my coaching tools around use of time, and after applying them for a few days, she sent me a message saying that the technique ” . . . definitely upped my efficiency/focus on getting stuff done that I might have been putting off.” Score one for the win column–she’s been on a roll since.

Barriers and blockages are issues du jour in coaching, and most clients reach various challenging points in the process when they feel stuck, get frustrated, and feel like quitting. This is normal. Change is a process, and unfolds in interesting and, typically, unexpected ways. Engaging in the process, doing the work, creates the opportunity for change to be possible.

And it’s hard.

And yes, you can do hard things.