At Chapter's Turn

So here I am.  A certified, practising professional leadership and life coach, knowing I have a place in the world as some kind of a leader, having many conversations throughout the course of a week, mostly with myself, often with other, some more powerful than others and curious about how I'm doing.

What's the context of my curiosity?  Am I trying to benchmark myself against some third party standard of "what's right", or am I seeking to know MY truth?  Or is it something else?  My suspicion is the last one, because I have a sense that there is some fundamental common thread to what co-creates and maintains the safe, powerful, virtual space of transformative, leading edge coach-like conversations, and similarly powerful, transformative ways of living.

As a coach I often get my clients to look at their own definitions of what "good" or "success" look like, so here I am in this moment calling myself to do the same.  And I believe the answer is both "out there" and "in here".  "In here" I know stuff; I believe I know stuff, and I also suspect that this will be my piece of a much larger, more fundamental truth about the human experience of co-creative, powerful living. "Out there" is the opportunity to listen, and so I will be asking coaches of all ilks, both near the start of and at the top of their game, how they see it, how they feel it.

I want to see if it is possible to define some common thread or threads that crystallize into "the way of the coach".

"CoachingDo" is a playful reference to "budo", "the way of the warrior", from Japanese tradition, also a search for fundamental truth, through the practice of martial disciplines.

I'm starting my trip with some enquiries in my bag, curiosity and a sense of trusting that this will reveal something of importance.

Here's the enquiry, as it stands in this moment:

• What are core attitudes, practices and paradoxes that make the greatest impact on our world, as coaches?
  
• What might be fundamental to "The Way Of The Coach" (referred to hereafter as "The Way") that transcends "tradition" (e.g. sports vs life vs executive coaches, eastern vs western philosophies, religious beliefs, systems of connection with the divine, etc.)?
  
• What are impacts commonly felt by the Followers of The Way and their clients and what does that have to do with anything?
  
• What parallels might be drawn from other traditions that could serve to illuminate The Way (e.g. from martial arts, spiritual practices, philosophy, etc)?
  

My gut tells me to not only seek out those who've consciously been on The Way for a long time, but also those who are embarking on the start of their journey, who might have a sense of what's wanting to be in place rather than what is already there.

MY INVITATION TO YOU is to look into your own experience from great co-creative or appreciative moments in your own practice of life and share with me what comes to you from the questions I posed.  Write in and share.

I'll be posting from time to time as pieces of the mystery become apparent, or not.