The Art of Possibility is one of my favourite books….as much for the title as for the content. Coaching is all about possibilities. Looking for new ways of doing and being.
But in order to find those new ways of doing and being, you need to believe in the art of the possible.
I’m not a Pollyanna by any stretch of the imagination, but I am more of a glass-half-full kind of person than a glass-half-empty.
I’m optimistic that things can and will work out
I’m optimistic that I can and will find ways forward even when I currently feel stuck.
I’m optimistic that there will be a multitude of possibilities and options that I hadn’t even imagined before I speak with a coach about whatever the blockage is.
You might be more pessimistic than me – or you might call yourself a realist. But try coming to coaching with an open mind that new ideas are lurking underneath the surface, or perhaps by digging a bit deeper. If they were obvious, you wouldn’t need a coach – but just because they are not obvious to you before the coaching conversation does not mean they won’t become obvious.
In fact, many people leave a coaching conversation saying, “That seems so obvious now that I say it out loud. Why couldn’t I have thought about that on my own?”
So please believe that you will find the obvious – and less than obvious – answers to your conundrums by talking them through. That belief will really help you to make headway, much more than being pessimistic or defeatist.
And here’s a question that I love as an optimist:
“What would be the best possible outcome from this coaching?” Not an average outcome, but the best possible. Let’s aim for great, not good. Let’s believe that you can get further than you think you can. Both in the coaching programme and in each coaching session.
People often say that what they want might be a little too ambitious and they come back from that point to something smaller. But let’s be ambitious and see what might be possible.
