an assignment

I attended a group coaching session today. It's part of the leadership program I am taking at work. This time there were four of us meeting together with our coach Christina. We reflected on our experiences with our course work so far, and our fear of the unknown and tasks that make us feel unsure of our capacities. I realised how close we have become as students working together in the course. This closeness, along with Christina's coaching skills, enabled us to have a pretty intense and open 2 hour talk session.

We talked about our individual responses to feeling fear, the experience of worrying and how we handle it, how to listen at empathic and intuitive levels and how to ask powerful questions. We discovered that we share common feelings in work and social situations where we are called upon to behave in a coaching manner. We're learning coaching skills ourselves, as well as benefiting from the coaching we are receiving.

Christina asked what it would be like if everyone in the world wanted everyone else to succeed, and behaved accordingly. If everyone was open, genuine and supportive with one another - wouldn't that be something? Then she asked if anyone would like to join her in spending one whole day of wanting everyone else to succeed. So I'm going to try tomorrow. I'm not sure what it will look like or feel like, but I'm going to try.

I know that I can't make everyone succeed, or even know what success means to the people I meet. I do know that this is not something that I can decide. With the people I am close to at work and at home, I can be curious, open and genuinely supportive of what they are saying, feeling and doing. I think I'm this way a lot of the time already, but it will be interesting to be intentionally so. For the people with whom I have short encounters, I will try to do something, even if it's just a feeling of awareness and respect that I have while I am interacting for the moment. Maybe they will feel it, or maybe not. I'll know it's going on.

Mostly I will try to tune in to my intuition about what people are feeling and saying. I will also try to listen to myself, and figure out what I am feeling in awkward or intense situations. It will be a day of exploration and experimentation.

If you see me or talk to me tomorrow and I seem weird, please go along with it. I will probably be feeling weird, and I'm going to try to embrace that weirdness. And if you talk to me about something that is important to you, I will likely listen like you have never felt me listen before.

Wish me luck!

question: have you tried any assignments lately?

mompoet - wondering and wondering