So today has been a better day. I have reflected a lot from what I experienced yesterday.
My job as a coach is to help others achieve their goals, ambitions, dreams or desires. I am also here to help others over come their hurdles, or any challenges they may face on their journeys. Sometimes as a coach you have to help your clients address any fears, behaviours or habits they may also want to change. It has been, and still is the most rewarding job I have ever had. To call it a job would be drumming it down; to me it’s a vocation, that’s what I love about it. As I wrote yesterday though, sometimes it can be hard and every now and again I have a wobble.
One of my clients described his coaching journey as taking the scenic route. He knew where he was heading, however the journey was not as simple as going from A to B, he went the long way around. That led him to many destinations he loved, he enjoyed and also where he learned a lot about himself. There were other destinations he stopped which he wasn’t keen on didn’t like what he saw there or what he experienced there. That was the hard part. As he finished describing this to me, he said that if he had of taken the easy route, then his journey wouldn’t have been as meaningful and significant as it was. His scenic route took him on a rich journey of self-discovery.
I believe life is here to challenge us and test us on a daily basis. If we didn’t have these challenges then I suppose one may say life could be dull. I also believe if you look upon everything through tunnel vision, i.e. glass is half empty ‘syndrome’, how can you ever see things when the glass is actually more than half full?
So today I woke up refreshed. The early night and moment to chill, relax and reflect helped me focus my vision back to where I need it to be. The blurriness had vanished and, through clear eyes, I began to see the world better than I did yesterday. The difference today is the grounded reality I’ve discovered about my task in hand.
Like my client, I too will be going on a journey of self-discovery, there’ll be many destinations I stop that I won’t like, and I am sure there will be many I do. The goal I’ve set myself is a stretching one, especially as I want to do this in an authentic way and in a way that is congruent with me.
So as I, literally, took the scenic route to the gym this morning, I had the opportunity to deliver an act of kindness. The road was busy, blocked with bumper-to-bumper traffic and the rain thrashed against the windscreen. Fellow drivers were becoming impatient with the temporary traffic lights only allowing 2 cars at a time to pass though before changing back to red.
When it was my turn to run the gauntlet of the lights, a man and his daughter, soaked to the skin, hovered on the pavement. I had my chance to go through the lights, momentarily green, and I knew if I hesitated they’d change back and I’d be another 5 minutes. The little girl looked frozen, so I made my decision to allow them to cross the road and get the shelter they needed. I heard a number of beeps from the cars behind me, and a cyclist wheeled by, two fingers firmly extended in my direction. However, the man and his daughter smiled, waving as they crossed in front of me, lights just turning back to red again.
As I looked over to where they stood, now covered by the bus shelter, a man who owns the local green grocers came out and offered them a towel to dry themselves. The beeps continued until the lights turned from red to green. I didn’t care though, I was happy that; not only had I shown an act of kindness but someone else had to. If only everyone else could have seen it that way, the world would be a better place, I’m sure.
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