Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Knock Knock!
There it is again. Who's there?
Knock knock!!
(hmmm is it opportunity knocking or a stranger looking to do me harm?)
Knock knock!
Well I'll never know until I open the door will I?
This is exactly what I have been going through for the past 24 hours.
An opportunity has come to my doorstep.
Had this opportunity come 2 weeks ago, I would have jumped at it.
I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. 
In the last 2 weeks however my circumstances have changed. 
If I were to take advantage of this opportunity as it was presented to me, I would have to make some adjustments and give some things up.
Hence something to lose.
While the upside has some very tangible pluses, I am feeling really uncomfortable over what I would be giving up.
Passing on the opportunity does not feel like a particularly sound decision either especially from a financial vantage point.
How would I work with a coaching client in this situation?
I know I would ask them to listen to the tension.
What is it that is troubling to you?
No matter what the first answer is, 99 out of 100 times there is something that still needs to be uncovered!
I would suggest maybe we keep talking, we keep digging, we keep peeling the onion.
Eventually I might suggest folding a piece of paper in half . And then in half again the other way,creating 4 separate squares.
On the left side the pluses and minuses of the change.
On the right side the pluses and minuses of the status quo.

So that is what I did for myself. 
About half way through this exercise I had an epiphany, a break through of sorts.
What would have to happen to have the best of both scenarios?
In a very short while, it became abundantly obvious to me that there could be a way to have my proverbial cake and eat it as well.
What would have to happen for this to take place?
Well the first thing would be to have an open and honest discussion with the other party laying out a possible alternative to what was originally proposed.
Was their original offer one that was etched in stone?
Is there the opportunity to make some kind of adjustments to the plan?
What are my needs?
Have I made them aware of this?
How would they react to this?
You don't know until you ask!
I do know that from my vantage point, my revisions would certainly work for me.
As luck would have it....as I was typing away here, my phone rang. It was the aforementioned other party.
I took the opportunity to broach my alternate scenario.
While it was not met with a resounding "of course that will work for us" it was not completely dismissed either.
In fact, their initial response was "I'm not sure that will work but let me mull that over a bit and in the meantime let's continue with our due diligence."
Not the perfect outcome however exactly what I expected might happen.
For now I have a course of action.
No decision needs to be made just yet. 
I am okay with that.
Like any negotiation, it's a process.
I can only deal with what is directly in front of me and that is exactly what I will do.

Like any good knock knock joke we have to wait for the punch line!