Upcoming Life Maps Courses:

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Course:

     5:00pm to 8:30pm
     $90 per person (small group setting)
     Offered Wednesday, September 10th and Wednesday, October 8th.

Women’s Personality Goal Setting Course:

     9:00am to 2:00pm
     $425 per person (small group setting)
     15 hour course beings Saturday, September 6th

To reserve your seat in a specific course, please mail a check payable to:
Life Maps
Beth Abel
1008 Mopac Circle #200
Austin, TX 78746

Interested in CEUs for counselors and mental health practitioners? Beth will be the course instructor for “Ethically Building Your Private Practice” at the University of Texas in October.  For course details, here is a link to the university website.
http://www.utexas.edu/ssw/ceu/workshops/F0804.pdf (PDF: 33.1KB )

Life Maps office re-opens August 26th. Remember, a well lit path has life direction. Mark your calendar for August 26th to set your free consultation appointment and begin your journey of a goal directed life.

Having spent several days futilely looking for a piece of the Maine Appalachian Trail (AT) to hike, I’m now preparing to bring the ’08 adventure to a close earlier than planned. The southern section of Maine is devastated with a record breaking snowmelt and rainfall, the worst since the 1960s. Steams are so flooded that they’re dangerous to ford on foot. In some instances, mountain side sections of the trail are demolished by huge boulder and mudslides destroying countless hours of AT volunteer maintenance work. There are many sad stories of hiker misadventures as they grapple with the unpredictable elements of nature. Maine encompasses the most difficult trail conditions that I’ve encountered in the 1,000 miles of the trail that I’ve hiked. It’s difficulty is a combination of ever present black mud bogs and granite boulders the size of a car. A tremendous degree of concentration and technical skill is constantly necessary to avoid injury. Enjoying the mental relaxation of “zoning out” is a luxury one cannot afford.

In these last several days of mountaineering, additional life skill lessons have become apparent. I used one life skill most frequently because is pertains to coping with unpleasant experiences. One trail life example was the constant experience of wet, muddy feet and boots. In a common life situation, it might be coping with a negative person in your daily life. This life skill is useful in any ongoing unpleasant experience outside of your control.

Tuning-In and Moving-On Life Skill

Step One.   People usually skip this first step of “tuning-in” and it comes back to haunt them later. Use of denial and avoidance are short term solutions to situations where there is an ever present problem. In on-going unpleasant situations, remaining undecided about what you truly need is self destructive. By remaining undecided, ultimately life unfolds and you never claimed your real needs as a part of the actual outcome. Know what you need so the bad situation will eventually become as bearable as possible. We humans have some bottom-line needs such as safety, security and a bit of control. My trail life example of using step one was when I accepted the reality of the poor trail conditions. Accepting this truth forced me to assess my personal level of safety. Of course, this assessment caused me to note once again that I am not the typical young adult one sees on the trail. I am old! This “tuning-in” to the situation and to self is not an easy life skill. Once you know what you need in a given situation, then claim it with strong attitude. Be ready to live with that attitude so that you can do step two.

Step Two. Be ready to enjoy the new reality you have created which now meets your needs to some degree. The common failure on step two is succumbing to regrets and looking back to what might have been. Stop that fretting and stewing. Stop that second guessing yourself. Remember that creating happiness in your life by recognizing your needs and addressing them is your primary life job. This is what you did in step one. So now it’s time to celebrate the positive outcomes your created. Use that strong attitude. My trail life example for step two is how I lived with getting off the trail earlier than planned by doing step one.  I felt some shame as I told people the trail was too dangerous for me, therefore I was leaving early. But I quickly discovered that some people fully understood my reasoning. I also noted that the new plan to become a Maine tourist enjoying lobster boils and the coastline made the change easier! So, the step two happens more easily when you have a new plan to embrace and enjoy.