As we reach the end of the year, the decade even, the opportunity to blog also presents the opportunity to reflect – and what a year it’s been!
We seem to be ever more at odds in our society, our politics, our lives, with the main casualty seemingly being truth – who knew fake news would be a thing?
And, as I’ve touched on before, we’re further away than ever from the “dream” existence that we’ve been sold.
When the overriding emotions in society seem to be fear, or worse still, hate we’re one heck of a long way from Kansas, Toto. So, what to do?
I guess in most instances, the standard procedure is to mourn the lack of leadership in our society and call for a new type of leader, who can rise above the pettiness, but what if that leader – those leaders – already exist?
The answer is with you
The golden rule of coaching is facilitation, the ability to enable the qualities of the subject to rise to the surface, by gently encouraging them to find the answers from within. It requires skilful questioning, patience and most of all the belief that the answers are there in the first place.
And that’s the key – more often than not, it’s in there, it just needs teasing out…
There’s an old Buddhist saying that “the path to true enlightenment starts by returning to the place you never left”. In essence, focus on allowing your true self to come out. It’s the one thing you can control.
Self coaching
As we head into a new year, a new decade, perhaps our best hope is to start a course of self-coaching. If we all set aside some time, each day, to patiently reflect and ask ourselves some important questions, like:
- What do I stand for? And is that what the world sees in my actions?
- How do I present myself to those around me? Am I authentic or do I take the easy road, the path of least resistance – and impact?
- And perhaps most importantly, how am I stacking up against the standards I set myself? And how do I respond when I fall short – because we all do.
Make a difference
Faced with everything that’s wrong with the world, and the enormity of what it’s going to take to put it right, we should focus on what we can do – and were we can make a difference.
What did Ghandi’s famous quote ask of us? “To be the change you want to see in the world”.
Over to you, coach…