“Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. ”
As a coach I work with each client to uncover her/his deepest aspirations and to design meaningful, realistic practices and actions towards fulfilling them. What does this mean?
Most of us consider coaching because something is not working, we're facing uncertain choices, or we want to create something new in our lives. I appreciate that I’m often working with clients at crucial crossroads moments - when the choices we make (or don't make) are likely to shape the arc of life. Sometimes these moments are career or leadership related, sometimes they arise as we face any existential life crisis. At that same time, the range of available possibilities may seem fairly narrow. Many of us don't allow ourselves to dream big or outside the box. We may be overwhelmed by the apparent chasm between the default life we're drifting through and a life we don't dare consider. Therefore, as a coach my intention is help my clients open their dream boxes and figure out how enact their potential.
This is not fanciful. I've learned that the lives we lead, and the outcomes of our actions are framed by the container of our projections and assessments (what we judge to be true about ourselves and others), our emotional states, and our embedded patterns. These are also embodied and often amplified by the ways we live within our skin. When things don't turn out the way we desire, we typically do more of the same - only harder. But the fundamental results rarely change. To actually change, we need to shift the way we see ourselves and the ways we work within our lives (personally and professionally). This is eminently doable.
The aim of any coaching relationship is to discover, observe, question, and change opaque recurrent patterns and blind spots you haven't known how to avoid - to reveal your big dreams and aspirations, and discover consequential steps to realize them.
My job as a coach is not to fix, tell or even advise you what to do. My job is to help you see yourself as you are and as you can be. Only you can come face to face with your root assessments and core beliefs (your story the way you believe it) that sculpt the worldview you live within. As your coach I will support and guide you to say to yourself what no one else would dare to say, to articulate and declare your essential objectives, and to design the practices and imaginative actions that can get you there. Let's call this your fearless discipline.
A strong and steady foundation is needed to build great things in life, to show us what needs to be done or to get us into action in a new way - to consciously transform and design our own lives. This what my meditative tradition has called 'making friends with ourselves', acknowledging whatever is limiting us, expanding our view beyond those boundaries and opening the space of possibilities and rich relationships. To hell with circumstances. Create opportunities. Love the hard parts.