Do you need a Machu Picchu in your life?
You don’t have to endure a four-day hike over Dead Woman’s Pass — complete with altitude sickness and a “middle-years” crisis — to achieve an amazing personal or career transformation.

In 1999, an accident left me at the mercy of caregivers for several months. That same year, I marked 10 years in a financially secure but toxic corporate position that gave me little pleasure or satisfaction. During my recovery from the accident, my son said, “This accident is the greatest thing to happen to you. Now you’ll have time to figure out what’s important to you and where to focus your energies.”

Out of the mouths of babes!

That was my first informal introduction to what would become my second career. Soon after my son’s comment and a heavy amount of old-fashioned soul searching, I left my financially secure corporate position and started my own coaching business — something I love! I also accepted a full-time position as a professor in an MBA program where I could interact with students in a nurturing environment.

All was going well and in 2003, I decided to hike with a group of people over the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru. Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian Inca ruin located at an elevation of approximately 7,710 feet — after you climb several mountain passes situated at 14,000 to 15,000 feet. The ruin is located above the Urubamba Valley, 44 miles northwest of Cusco. In other words, to most Americans, it’s out in the middle of a beautiful nowhere!

Like the tortoise in the fable The Tortoise and the Hare, I was the oldest person in the group by 10 years, as well as the most unfit and slow moving. I was the only member to experience altitude sickness, which includes symptoms of drowsiness, general malaise and weakness, as well as headache, insomnia, persistent rapid pulse, nausea and vomiting. I was also the only hiker to fall off the steep side of the trail.

On a positive note, I also served as an inspiration to the other very young women on the trip. Throughout my journey, they were protective of me, encouraged me and became my personal cheering section.

What lessons can you learn from what, at first, sounds like a horrible vacation?

Day one lesson: A poor attitude makes a bad situation worse.
I spent most of day one trying to figure out how to stop hiking and get back down the mountain the easiest and fastest way possible, take the train and meet the group at the Sun Gate, the entrance to the Machu Picchu ruins, on day four. I was enjoying nothing about the hike. It was the most difficult thing I’d ever done. I was convinced I couldn’t go any further. I questioned why I’d ever decided to attempt such a difficult task during my middle years.

Fortunately, though I didn’t think so at the time, there was no easy, fast path down the mountain, so I continued to hike slowly. That night, as I lay in my tent exhausted, I decided that my mental perspective was holding me back. I promised myself on day two, when we’d climb the highest point over Dead Woman’s Pass (and hoping I wouldn’t be the “dead woman” at the end of it), I was going to think positively and focus on making it to camp that evening.

Day two lesson: Altitude sickness trumps everything — almost.
As if being sick isn’t bad enough when you can curl up on your own sofa, imagine being sick in front of strangers in a foreign country with no indoor plumbing while climbing up and up and up! My sleeping bag never looked or felt so good that evening in camp, which I joined, you guessed it — dead last.

Day three lesson: Laugh and the world laughs with you.
Intimidated but undaunted by the altitude sickness, I renewed my resolve to make it to camp today and have fun in the process. Everyone else on the hike had great fun laughing at me when I fell off the trail into a heavy “pool” of moss. After 10 hours of hiking across two mountain passes and climbing down very steep mountain steps, my legs refused to stand straight. By the time I reached camp, I could barely walk and truly wondered how I would ever be able to hike two additional hours in the dark on day four into the Machu Picchu ruins. After all these struggles, the group gave me the endearing nickname “Rubber Legs Billings.”

Day four lesson: Survival is invigorating!
I awoke at 3:30 a.m., pulled on my hiking boots and… kept up with everyone as we hiked to the Sun Gate. Granted, I had to crawl up the last 30 steps, but I made it!

Three years later, the march to Machu Picchu has given me:

• Confidence to accomplish anything I set out to do — more confidence than I had the first 60 years of my life.
• A sense of calm and strength, physically and mentally. Not much ruffles me after my transforming four years, which ended (or began, depending on your perspective) with the Machu Picchu hike.
• Credibility with my coaching clients. I know about transition and change and I can walk the talk of helping people move through and emerge.

Are you ready to hike to your own Machu Picchu transformation? As a coach, I can help
I offer the following case studies of some of my clients who’ve overcome their own Machu Picchu experiences. As your coach, I promise you won’t suffer through altitude sickness, fall into a moss pool or suffer from rubber legs. Please note: I’ve changed everyone’s name for privacy.

Case study 1: Paula’s personal transformation
Paula was struggling with guilt, doubts and fears about leaving a dominating husband whose main goal was to intimidate her into thinking she couldn’t exist apart from him. Her greatest worry was that she couldn’t survive on her own financially.

After learning about my trip to Peru, she told me, “If you can do that, I can leave my 30-year marriage and survive.” She did. Now, she lives alone happily, has a successful job and is saving for her retirement, which she plans to do within the next few years. In addition, many of her physical illnesses disappeared once she left her marriage.

Case study 2: Michele’s high-level career change
Michele, a high-level marketing executive, hired me to help her create a career transition plan. Her goal: within five years, she plans to retire and start her own company. We’ve been working together for a little over a year and, to date, she’s exceeded her goals. She’s started her business early, written a book and is now on the fast-track speaking circuit to promote it. At the same time, she’s been promoted in her marketing position. She paid me a very nice compliment when she called me an “energy detector.” (Much better than Rubber Legs Billings, don’t you think?.) As her coach, I give her a sense of when she needs to vent, be held accountable or re-focus.

Case study 3: Pat’s high-level career adjustment
Pat, a high-level executive in the pharmaceutical sales field, has held his position for almost 30 years. At this point in his career, he’s studying very different options, which include:

• Applying for the president’s position, which will be available next year.
• Downsizing his position to part-time and beginning to look for other options outside his organization.
• Quitting his job and starting his own consulting company.

The action plan we created examined Pat’s values and how they’d changed over the years. It looked at Pat’s strengths, weaknesses and possibilities within his organization, as well as in other aspects of the pharmaceutical sales industry. It also included a business plan for his future. By the time he was ready to choose one of the options, Pat had painted a complete picture of each option’s possibilities and risks.

Let me be your professional coaching champion
If you’re ready to begin your hike to a more rewarding career and/or personal life, it may help to have an experienced, professional coach as your personal champion. I’d be happy to serve in that role for you. Please contact me at donna@reachthetop.net.

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all events are blessings given to us to learn from.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

The Labyrinth
How strange
At the beginning
To shed the day
And come so close
To the center
Only to turn away
And return
To the outer edge
Then weave again
The path in close
But not quite there
Until a final turn
Brings you to
The center
To learn
How long you must stay.
There is only one path
It is the path there
It is the path away.

Pat Janus
Rochester N.Y.

The labyrinth is a powerful symbol and metaphor for transitional, transformative times. When you enter the labyrinth, you can't imagine how you’ll reach the center. If you haven’t walked the labyrinth before, you may sense you’ve taken a wrong turn. But if you continue to put one foot in front of the other and stay focused, you’ll arrive at the center to pause and meditate — then leave knowing the course will lead you out and away.

Coaching can help you find the labyrinth’s entrance, take the first steps into it, continue to put one foot in front of the other and maintain your focus on career and personal goals. For more information on how I may help, please contact me at donna@reachthetop.net.

Ask yourself the following questions: *taken from Michael Bungay Stainer’s book. See below.

Q: What are my self-imposed limitations?

Q: How often do I say I can’t do something?

Complete this sentence:
Because I’m __________, I can’t ______________.

Now ask yourself:
Q: Is the preceding sentence really true?

Q: What if it isn’t true? What would be possible?

Q: What’s the next action you need to take to move forward?

Q: What are your unlimited possibilities?

Q: What would you truly LOVE to do, but can’t bring yourself to do because you’re afraid you’ll fail?

Let’s talk! Contact me at donna@reachthetop.net to see if coaching will help you throw off self-imposed limitations and embrace unlimited possibilities!

Deanna Beisser, Is It Time to Make a Change? Positive Thoughts for When Life Presents You with a New Direction, Blue Mountain Press, Boulder, CO. ISBN: 0-88396-451-1

Deb Koffman, The Soul Support Book, Storey Publishing. ISBN: 1-58017-286-5
See: www.debkoffman.com

*Michael Bungay Stanier, Get Unstuck & Get Going … on the stuff that matters. Order from Box of Crayons Press www.getunstuckandgetgoing.com

About Donna Billings and Reach the Top

My firm helps key leaders:

• Define and identify meaningful work.
• Craft strategic career development plans.
• Hone and develop leadership and management competencies, including embracing cultural diversity.
• Transition to a fulfilling retirement.

My leadership coaching and development practice is called “Reach the Top.” We all climb many mountains over the course of our lives — some are physical, some are mental, some are emotional. Sometimes we are successful. Sometimes we are not. Through coaching and leadership development, we help you reach powerful, new heights as you traverse whatever life transition you’re now experiencing. Together, we will form an alliance that is mindful of where you are on your journey right now.

To supplement my coaching practice, I am affiliated with the Center for Leadership Studies, one of the premier leadership training organizations in the world. We are committed to helping people develop their inherent potential as leaders and to helping organizations succeed and prosper.

A publication of Reach the Top and Donna Billings. To reproduce or reprint information contained in this e-zine, kindly contact me at donna@reachthetop.net.