The other day, our family woke up to a winter wonderland, everything outside was buried in snow. My initial response was euphoria. This quickly turned into panic.
“How were we going to get the children to school, was I going to miss my plane, have to cancel my coaching session in Geneva, the roads will be blocked, the valley will be in chaos?”.
After half an hour of shoveling snow, I realized that this knee-jerk reaction was a waste of time; the children were throwing snowballs at me and I was getting nowhere with the snow. As far as I was concerned, at that point, the world had come to a stand still, everyone was imprisoned in their houses, there was chaos everywhere.
With the children in school, I called the snow-plough man. With relative ease, I was rescued; connected back to the world. Fearful of the chaos on the roads, I left the house immediately. As I worked my way down the Chamonix valley, the conditions got better and better and by Geneva, it looked like just a normal day, overcast and cold, but just a normal day.
My sense of foreboding lifted, the world was not coming to an end, people were going about their business looking distinctly bored; I felt relieved and a bit silly.
A few hours later, I was in a plane on the runway. We took off, shook a little through the clouds and came to an exquisite calm in the blazing sun shine. I had gone from struggling in my little snowed-in world to soaring in the macro-world of eternal sunshine. And this could not have been more relevant to my coaching session a few hours before.
My coachee was looking for clarity; wanting to explore all available options; see the next steps, both big and small - not just the four walls of the office, the well-trodden path to work, the mind-numbing routine.
So we looked at expanding his vision and his current circumstances; at taking him above the clouds for a different perspective. We talked about his passions and I asked him what his body felt like doing when he talked about these passions and he stood up like a big brown bear, arms stretched out wide and, after a minute or two, he started to well up with tears.
He had kept himself very small for a long time; he had been living snowed-in unable to connect to the blazing sunshine above the clouds. And now he was able to see, or re-see the things that mattered to him, that made his life worthwhile.
So how might we all rise above the clouds when we need to, to get that clarity that we sometimes seek?
Something practical
There are many ways to expand our vision and they need not be complicated. It might be a short walk in nature or a quiet moment playing an instrument. Here’s one that can be done anytime.
For this exercise, can I invite you to come with a little playfulness, curiosity and openness. Come from your heart, not head . And see what happens.
Stand up, close your eyes, hold yourself and say “I am me”.
Stay with your eyes closed, open your arms to hold your family and say “I am my family”
Now open your arms to hold your community and say “I am where I live”
Now open your arms further to hold the world and say “I am the world”
Now put your arms around the universe
Whether you are currently living in a micro or macro world is not important; what’s important is to know that you can expand or constrict when it serves you. In the mountains, you have to do this the whole time. In the same moment, you need to be aware of your next step as well as the weather pattern above your head.
Something new
If you are looking for some clarity, some “what next”, please feel free to give us a call. The way we begin any coaching engagement is to first have an informal conversation - to see if coaching and our type of coaching is right for you.
If you get the sense that you want to proceed, then we have a first coaching session with no obligations. If you want to stop at that point, no problems. If you want to continue, the first session simply gets rolled into the coaching fee - £750 per month. (this includes a minimum of 2 coaching sessions a month).
As you know, our approach is to use a learning experience as a framework for the coaching. And at the moment, there are many to choose from especially if you like the winter sports - snowshoeing in the mountains, cross country skiing, ski touring or a mountain traverse.
If this all sounds interesting, as well as unclear, just give us a call - and you may find that your head pops through the clouds into perfect sunshine.
Have a great Christmas and take care.
