Day 17–100 Days Being Visible
I declare my gratitude for my life
I had a short conversation today with a coach (Deanne Duncombe, writer of 100 Days to Becoming an Online Course Instructor) about my sense of heaviness about the work commitments going into my calendar. Halfway through answering the first question she asked (I have forgotten what it was) I was struck by the realisation of what is missing from my way-of-being about my work and my approach to my being-visible project.
What is missing is being grateful.
As soon as the word ‘grateful’ occurred to me I started to relax. I saw that I have the huge good fortune of coaching people who trust me enough to speak about their challenges and who give me permission to perturb their thinking with my questions, models, and anecdotes. What’s more, I am paid good money for the incredible privilege of coaching them.
Today I am grateful for the work I am getting, for the opportunity to meet these wonderful people and for the ability to support my family. I am grateful that it is possible for me to take the best part of a day a week to develop a new product (and to practice becoming visible). I am grateful for all the people and circumstances that have been my teachers over the years and given me the skills and attitudes that enable me to do what I do. I am deeply grateful for my family.
I have been incredibly lucky in life and recently I have had the incredibly good fortune to be offered as much work as I need.
From the perspective of being grateful, my calendar today looked very different than it did yesterday. I saw I had an abundance of opportunities to connect with people and see them learn.
I also suspect my coaching was at a new level as (with explicit consent) I was courageous in the questions I asked and the observations I offered.
This evening, on a more personal note, when I sat down to write this blog I was joined by my wonderful stepdaughter who suggested we chat. My first inclination was to say I needed to write and do work. I caught myself (hiding, not being visible) and accepted her suggestion. From the perspective of gratitude, this interruption to my writing looked very different. I switched from frustration at not being able to write to gratitude that this special person in my life wanted to chat with me. We had a delightful conversation for over an hour and while I am now tired I am thankful for the connection we had.
Knowledge
Knowing and doing are very different things. Today I did some things that I know can be very helpful in living well.
- I asked for help.
- I asked for help from a skilled coach.
- I engaged in self-reflection with the help of my coach.
- I put what I learned from my coaching into practice during the day.
- I took notice of the part of me that could see it was more important to connect with another person (to be visible to them) than it was to get work done.
I am grateful for today and for the help of my coach in seeing that gratitude was missing in my way-of-being.
Progress
I have written two blogs today (this one and a micro-blog on my website). I have shifted to a more resourceful way-of-being. I have been more open and vulnerable in my coaching. I have been being visible. I declare my gratitude for this incremental progress.
17/18/100 (Number of days goals met/ number of days into project/ 100)
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