I know that I struggled most of my working life in trying to find a role where I could be true to myself, the real me, without feeling the need to put on a façade. I tried teaching but didn’t value what I was teaching; I joined the police force but was naturally too trusting and believing in people; I moved into business development but lacked the passion and conviction to look someone straight in the eye and say “you really do need this!”
As a coach, I’ve discovered that apart from the contract that I have between myself and the client, I’m not playing a role any more – I’m the same person as I am in all other aspects of my life. I don’t need to leave ‘part of myself’ at home when I go to work any more and that is extremely liberating and fulfilling.
By bringing your whole self to your role, you become more fully engaged in tasks and with the people around you. As Mick Quinn explains in his book ‘The Uncommon Path’:
“The whole ‘I’ opens the possibility of living with purpose, power and grace. Power is the capacity to act effectively in complete engagement with life and in autonomous community with other people. True power emerges when all of you – the whole ‘I’ – is accessible.”
So, how do you start accessing this power within you? This is where a coach can really help you to – reconnect with your true purpose and passion; create a vision of how that will be expressed in the world; and take the necessary steps to achieve your goals and realise that vision.
The real secret here is ENJOYMENT! A goal without enjoyment can still be achieved through sheer hard graft but if there’s no real enjoyment there, it will all be just a ‘means to an end’ and the end when you get there, won’t be very fulfilling. When you are working towards goals that are aligned with who you truly are and what’s important to you, the ‘doing’ becomes an end it itself – you actually start enjoying the journey! Enthusiasm and creativity then course through your veins and you are fully engaged in life, an active participant, moving forwards at the peak of your performance!
Key Question:
“Are you bringing your whole self to work, heart included?”
