Sometimes the road in front of us can seem overwhelming.
I often get asked “how can I impact more people and make more of a difference? How can I show people what they can’t yet see?.”
The reality is you can’t change anyone, and someone will only look at what you’re showing them if they want to. Until we see through the illusion of our beliefs and thought systems, looking in a different direction can look pretty scary.
I’m about to embark on what is the highlight of my career, to mentor coaches through the very first certified coaching program within the . I’ve been involved in creating the curriculum, and starting next week I will be directly involved in the program over the next 10 weeks.
It’s a huge thrill and has already been a massive learning journey.
Coaching is an art that we evolve over time. Like most endeavours we undertake in life, we generally want to use our intellect to learn all the knowledge we can. But in coaching, it’s different.
I’ve seen that it doesn’t matter how many degrees you have and what you know. What matters is the impact that you have. That’s what I will be showing these coaches, how to set the stage to have impact.
Somewhere along my coaching path over the past 5 years I came across this story that resonated so much with me. Because I know there are many in my world helping others, and sometimes the path ahead can seem so hopeless, I thought you might resonate with this story too.
The Old Man and the Starfish
A young boy went down to the beach and saw thousands of starfish stranded on the beach.
He saw an old man throwing them back in to the water, one by one.
The young boy went up to the old man and said, “old man, why do you bother throwing the starfish back in? There are thousands on this beach, and you can never possibly save them all.”
The old man stopped and looked at the boy.
He said, “yes there are many and I can’t possibly save them all… but I can make a difference to this one.”
And he threw the starfish back in the water.
When the road ahead seems unclear, difficult, or dangerous terrain, ask yourself where your focus is. Often we are looking at the whole beach covered with thousands of starfish. But if we can keep it to what is in right in front of us – to that one person or people right in our immediate world, we will see that we can indeed positively impact every person that comes across our path.
Tracey xx