One of the more creative aspects of life coaching is implementing or designing exercises that will help nudge a client closer to answers or clarity on her goals. I have been known to tweak some Ive learned from others, to invent some on the spot and also to get ideas that I fine-tune and develop more slowly.

In the latter category is one I call Witness Protection. Just as it sounds, it is based on imagining oneself having to enter the Witness Protection Program and being given the chance at reinvention. The idea is to dig into your existing life with questions along these lines: Aside from having to sever significant relationships in your life, what would be most challenging? Does the idea of being yanked out of your current life and thrust into a new one bring up excitement or dread?

With the recent release of the movie Hit and Run where a character risks his new identity to help his girlfriend get to Los Angeles, I thought it would be timely to mull this and see what emerges from the exercise.

The idea for this first came to me when I was an avid viewer of the USA Networks In Plain Sight. I was initially drawn to it because I loved the sassy, smart main character of Mary Shannon (so well played by Mary McCormack), a deputy U.S. marshal based in Albuquerque. But as time went on I became intrigued by the way each character handled bungled? embraced? -- the transition into Witness Protection.

What would be your greatest challenge? What would you do?

OK, Ill go first.

How would I make a living? Well, I write in this life. Would that still be possible in a situation where Im trying to keep my identity hidden? Clearly there would be no column that includes my picture. But I wonder if even my writing style would tip off someone, some linguistics expert hired to track me down because I testified against the wrong person. Public writing might have to go. Maybe I could keep it to local features for newsletters or the like.

And then theres coaching. Could I still do that? Again, there would be no website promoting my work that contains my photo. No professional events where coaches gather. No conferences. No advertising my services. What if another coach Ive met through my networking and columnist duties in this life made contact?

Part of me thinks Id resign myself to a mundane money job to pay the bills and then just read myself into a frenzy. The UPS guy would be at my house non-stop delivering packages from Amazon as I went from Virginia Woolf to Philip Roth to Anais Nin. There would be the poetry of Hafiz and Mary Oliver and then maybe Id enter a Janet Evanovich haze.

Did you see what happened there? I didnt learn a darned thing about what Id do to earn a living. That became secondary as I let the fantasy go forth into a stream of consciousness place. What did I learn that I can apply to my current life? That while I am fairly well read, I want to be really well read. I am jealous of voracious readers. What is stopping me from being one? Carving out more time for it. And to boot, when I do it feeds my writing. Win-win.

Continued here:
What Would Your New Identity Look Like?