Categories: acknowledgement, awareness, expectations, fear, intention, intuition, leadership, passion, risk

I’ve just ended a call with a Master of Coaching, Steve Mitten. Along with at least 20 members of the NW Coach Association, I coordinated this call that brought one of the leaders of the coaching industry directly to our organization. I was nervous, anxious, worried, and fearful that it wouldn’t go well. Maybe someone would have higher expectations of the phone quality, or maybe someone would think that I wasn’t a good enough host, or something technical would happen and disconnect us all.

None of those things I feared could happen did happen. In fact, the call was so wonderful and delightful that I’m humbled by how relatively simple it was to make this class happen. A solid intro to the call, a great speaker, a fun and interactive short answer session, and the opportunity for Q and A. My only last concern is if the call was successfully recorded, but that’s not in my hands anymore and if it didn’t take, then so be it.

What I’ve learned from the call:

• Struggle is growth waiting to happen.
• 98.5% of coaching clients believe that coaching is very effective
• The biggest impact that Steve felt would be important for him to know throughout his career was “mindfulness”.
• Cutting edge to Steve is about balanced energy. Balancing the yin and yang. For him, this means balancing times of growth with times of reflection.
• His biggest advice to both new and seasoned coaches is to aspire mastery of yourself and to give back.

What I learned about this process for myself:

• I am capable of bringing at least one industry leader to participate in the growth and transformation of a subset of that industry
• I can manage a teleconference with grace, dignity, and humor.
• I can engage members of my organization myself - I don’t need to rely on gathering consensus from a group before I take action.
• I depend greatly on the support of others to help with projects and that I can’t do it alone. (Thanks to Kim Christensen and Feroshia Knight for providing all sorts of support with this project!!!)
• And once again, I learned that connection means freedom for me. I could have stayed trapped in the fear of looking stupid in front of my peers and Steve. I could have chosen to not step up and create this project. Instead, I stepped out of fear and into freedom, choosing to follow my instinct, passion, and intention.

Homework:

I learned TONS in one hour. Just by paying attention and participating in the world, I received a knowledge of intellectual significance, and also of courage, focus, intention, commitment, passion, humor, humility, and gratitude. How much can you learn in one hour? Start by writing down the current time and your immediate insight. Then, continue this for an hour. Then stop, and reflect on what you learned in that hour. I guarantee that you find you learn so much by being fully present, tuning up your awareness, and just listen.

Truly Yours,

Joseph Lyons

PS. I get to do this all again in a month when I interview Rhonda Britten, 4 time author (working on her fifth), host of Help Me, Rhonda for the BBC and Starting Over for three years, and is the founder of my coach training school, Fearless Living Institute. If you want to listen to that call, you’ll need to be a member of the NWCA. Join here!

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