Saturday was the third and final workday for the Self-Expression and Leadership Program I’m coaching. It was an amazing day!

The way this course works, each participant — and each coach — creates a project in a community in their lives, and then causes the project to happen during the ~4 months of the program.

On Saturday, people shared where they were with their projects, and some of the people just blew my mind. One of the people I’m coaching originally created a project to have 200 children get healthy meals through the federal summer meal program, and to hire teenagers to prepare the meals, giving them work experience and teaching them about nutrition and healthy cooking.

Saturday she announced that she’s up to 1150 kids in the program! And they are still taking new day care and summer camp programs.

Other people are seeing more results in their personal lives — parents acknowledging their adult kids and asking them to be responsible for settling their estates when the parent passes away; landlords finding themselves in the middle of police-tenant drug busts and handling the situation powerfully and with ease; and the less dramatic power of people relaxing and handling the stuff life hands to them.

That’s what I’m getting the most out of coaching this program. Knowing that I had to be in communication with my participants and fellow coaches helped so much when I was upset and coping with learning that Wanda, and then Liz, died, and that I couldn’t go to either funeral.

I was NOT in the mood to reach out, and left to my own devices, hiding under the covers seemed very much like the thing to do. But knowing that I could still make a difference for others, and that they were there and wanted to make a difference for me, was a lot more productive.

Now, there’s still the matter of my project, a fun fair of activities for the kids in my neighborhood. I’ve been being pretty lazy about that, which doesn’t work. I’m going to call the HOA Pres tonight and get the ball rolling on that.