How we easily mistake life and work for a race, against each other
More context on a Linkedin post & a relationship with coaching
A stellar coaching training
In my last Linkedin post, I talked about how we often mistake life and work for a race against each other.
I got the inspiration from my recent coaching training with Integral Coaching Canada, where they offered us the poem “Working Together” from David Whyte, as a metaphor for the coaching danse.
It was so very powerful in depicting how they train us to be. Trusting. Co-building. Crafting.
Trusting the intangibles for a danse
Indeed, what if we were more "trusting of the intangibles"? The poet encourages.
By giving the example of the plane, so heavy yet supported only by air, Whyte in his poem "Working Together", touches on the invisible forces that shape us in our moving forward.
We often think we are fully agentic. Sometimes we think quite the opposite, that we are mere victims of life.
Whyte actually depicts a third way, a way that acknowledges the presence of both.
A way where we act on the world, and the world acts back on us, in a dance.
One that emphasises the journey and the shaping of our selves by cruising through life.
This is a particularly good image for coaching. It shows how intricate the two people are in a coaching relationship, how each influences the other, how each of them has to trust that something will emerge. How it’s ok to stop a coaching if there is no alchemy between the two people (and the method).
New beliefs
In a tentative of using less metaphoric terms, I wanted to attempt at giving some evolved beliefs from those we most have, in particular in the business world:
We are not alone and can rely. On others and the world. In particular to give us hints about where to go.
We are not done, we are constantly evolving, and we are not stuck in a way of being. We are fluid.
There is such a place you are going to. There is something to craft, a jewel about yourself.
Personal development is key, and in particular one that recognises the intimate interdependence with others and the world outside.
I think we would avoid a lot of neuroses if we lived by those beliefs 🙂