Inspiration runs two ways

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I have been coaching him for a long time - 18 months - and we have been on a real journey together. Today, he started out by saying that he really didn't know what we should work on, and that he had learned that I would inevitably ask him exactly the questions that he most needed to ask. So I did. As always, I started by asking him a bit about what was happening in his life. He has just been made redundant from a very big position in a global company and is now exploring what to do next. He has the most fantastic attitude of positive curiosity, of seeing where life leads him and of being open and maintaining his own integrity at all times. After a bit of coaching around ways of following up on his impressive networking activities, I followed my intuition and took a blind leap of faith.

 

'There is something there', I said. 'Something that is a discord - something that is stopping you from enjoying the journey, the moment that you are in'. Deep silence at the other end of the line. And I left him to it. Simply listening at my end, holding the possibilities open and allowing him to go where he needed to go. And he went - straight to the root of the problem, sharing with me some of the challenges deep within himself, challenges that melted away as soon as he directed his attention at them. 

 

'I feel so free now!', he said. And I realised that the freedom was mirrored in myself. That purely by being completely present with him while he worked through his blockage and released a tremendous amount of energy, I had the humble experience of sharing in that energy. Of being truly inspired, humbled and impressed by the ability people have of moving way, way beyond where they think they can go.

 

I am a very fortunate woman. By virtue of my calling - and it is a calling, make no mistake of that - I get to experience the greatness of other people. I get to see them develop into THEMSELVES - those true and honest people that we all admire and want to spend time with. Think about a person that you hold in deep respect. What is it about them that you respect? That you like? That you admire? How much of it is that they are true to themselves and that who they are on the inside is reflected on how they behave on the outside? And how wonderful would the world be if there were even more of these people around?

 

The impact of it all is - that we can all go there. We are never more inspiring and admirable than when we rest comfortably in ourselves, trusting in our instinct and in our own values and direction. When we rest comfortably in ourselves, we allow space for other people to be who THEY want to be. Because we are looking within, not trying to identify who we are by the mirrors that people hold up before us.

 And it is when we truly find ourselves that the inspiration goes both ways - from you to me - and back again.