And you don’t need to do anything with your understanding.

In March this year I visited someone who helped me deal with a problem I had in my head. I’d had it for months, maybe it had been festering there for years and I only recently became aware of it.

He took me into his little room, sat me down and asked me a few questions, then he did his thing, and when I walked out of that room about thirty minutes later the relief was palpable.

It took a few days for the real benefit of that experience to settle out, for a while there was some discomfort, but as time went on I became more amazed at the transformation. Previously where there was pain, now there was just space. Space in which healing occurred.

Now as much as I appreciated all that he did, I have never once thought to myself ‘Wow, that was amazing, I’m going to start doing that too!’ Because the guy who helped me performed a tooth extraction. He’s a Dentist!

Of course, if I really did want to be a dentist, there’d be quite a path to follow, and it’s unlikely I’d be able to simply jump straight in and expect to create a prosperous career overnight.

I shared this story in a recent episode of The Coaching Life Podcast, to illustrate that to become a prosperous coach does indeed require us to train and study, to develop, to grow, and most importantly, to practice. Whilst the nature of building a coaching practice is much more variable than building a dental practice, the principles of experience and practice are the same.

Yet how often do we come away from some enlightening experience, a training event, a conversation, a session with a coach and start telling ourselves we MUST do something with what we have seen?

As an example, 'The Three Principles' are not there for you to do something with. They simply describe how you have been experiencing life, as well as how you are experiencing life and always will.

I don’t feel the need to do anything with my understating of gravity, although I will help prevent someone tripping over if I can when I am with them, (unless I happen to have my iPhone in hand in video mode.)

If you feel absolutely compelled to be a coach, sure, hit me up, I’ll willingly explore with you and share my experiences of the past thirteen years.

But you don’t NEED to do that.

Your understanding, of the principles or of life, will show up naturally, as you connect with people, without you trying. Your understanding becomes part of you.

And of course, what shows up will always be your current understanding, irrespective of how that might have looked in the past or will in the future. Good to acknowledge that too.

Nothing to do, just let it be.

When someone crosses my path who wants a good dentist in my vicinity, I can recommend one. I don’t need to strive to do that, wonder how I can do that, or find a way to do that. What I know and my experiences become part of our conversation, naturally and without effort.

And if someone crosses my path who wants to have a conversation about their experience of life, a similar thing occurs. I share what I know, share what I see, and perhaps even more importantly, share what I don’t know, without trying, without effort.

It just happens. Naturally and without pain. 😁

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Photo by Daniel Frank on Unsplash