Provision #753 (01/01/12): Unbidden Desires
In the Western calendar, today is New Year's Day: a traditional time for looking
back on the past year and looking forward to the New Year. Both activities have
real value and it's a shame that the start of every quarter does not arrive with
the same reflective energy. To ponder how the past year went and to set goals for
the future are quintessentially human activities. So don't squander the day!
Many people come to coaching because they want assistance with these two reflective
practices. In thinking about the past, we all have blind spots and critical voices.
By offering honesty and empathy, coaches assist people to see and to value what
is there. It is incredibly liberating to stop, or even just to pause, our avoiding,
exaggerating, and berating tendencies. That's what a good coaching conversation
can do for us, and I encourage you to contact LifeTrek Coaching for a complimentary
session: Click Here.
The real genius of coaching, however, lies not in reflecting on the past but on
the future. Coaches assist people to set and achieve goals. That may be the simplest
of all definitions when it comes to the work of coaching. We don't set goals for
people and we don't tell people what to do. We don't nag people or make people do
what they are "supposed" to do. We rather invite people to set goals for themselves
and assist them to navigate the journey.
That's where the name "LifeTrek Coaching" came from. It was my goal, all the way
back in 1998, to help people with their goals in life and work. That trajectory
represents the trek of coaching. It is a moving target and, at least this side of
the grave, it never ends. Which is why some people always have a coach. There's
always another aspiration to unleash and another possibility to consider.
Which brings me to the subject of today's poem. For many years, I have been in the
habit of writing and sharing a poem with the readers of LifeTrek Provisions on the
first Sunday of the New Year. Lately, I have been thinking about the relationship
between bidden and unbidden things. The dictionary defines that relationship in
terms of choice, intention, and will. Unbidden things are uninvited, not asked for,
neither commanded, ordered, nor summoned.
"I bid you to come forward," on the other hand, is an obvious invitation and request.
We often think of bidden things as desired things and of unbidden things as undesired.
Health and family emergencies or natural disasters, for example, are unbidden. So,
too, with things that disrupt or interfere with our plans. When a campaign or strategy
goes awry, the military refers to that as being "Overtaken By Events. And being
OBE is definitely not desired.
Yet coaches, who are in the business of that most bidden of enterprises, setting
and reaching goals, have learned to be on the lookout for unbidden desires. All
that is bidden is not good and all that is unbidden is not bad. There are things
that well up inside us to guide us, and we would do well to acknowledge and appreciate
those things as the source of ambition itself.
Where do goals come from? Why do we bother with them at all? It is from the deep
reservoir and churning energy of unbidden things that the bidden arises. So before
we run too far away, pause with me for a moment to consider the treasurers of the
unbidden:
Unbidden
•2012 Bob Tschannen-Moran
Things happen
Overtaken by events
Emotions race
Unbidden
Blocks happen
Stifling creativity
Urgency impairs
Unbidden
Insights happen
Discerning truths
Clarity emerges
Unbidden
Feelings happen
Spilling over
Provoking thoughts
Unbidden
Heartaches happen
Gasping for air
Confusion reigns
Unbidden
Dreams happen
Revealing secrets
Hope arises
Unbidden
Breaches happen
Sudden terminations
Swelling grief
Unbidden
Connections happen
Awakening hearts
Restoring souls
Unbidden
Yearnings happen
Moving mountains
Cleansing spirits
Unbidden
Inklings happen
Subtle noticing
What must be
Unbidden
Shifts happen
So unsettling
The sun rises
Unbidden
Dreams happen
Unleashing aspirations
Possibilities emerge
Unbidden
May you
find your own treasures in the unbidden things of 2012.
Coaching Inquiries: What things are unbidden in your life right now? What things
are welling up inside you? What things are happening around you? How could you learn
from them and collect the treasures these things have to offer? Who is your coach
on the trek of life?
If you would like to reply to this Provision, we encourage you to use our
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Affiliated with LifeTrek Coaching, the Center has developed a 20-hour training program
that takes place in a virtual classroom and that trainees many opportunities to
experiment with the techniques developed in the new book by Bob & Megan Tschannen-Moran,
Evocative Coaching: Transforming
Schools one Conversation at a Time.
In the fall program, 47 Title I resource personnel from a single school system are
going through the training program together. Others are registered from around the
country. Now training inquiries are coming in from around the globe. Want to participate
in this exciting learning experience? The January training program launches on Wednesday,
January 18, 2012 at 8 PM Eastern US Time. More sections will be offered as enrollment
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You can purchase all of the books mentioned in LifeTrek Provisions as well as a
whole lot more from
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These great books will move you forward in your own life trek. Here are links to
a few recently mentioned books (some of which are available on the
Amazon Kindle
and other e-book readers):
• Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner
Amazon
• Five Kinds of Minds by Howard Gardner
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• A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink
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• Everything you Need to Feel Go(o)d by Candace Pert
Amazon
• Spontaneous Happiness by Andrew Weil
Amazon
• The Depression Cure by Stephen Ilardi
Amazon
• The Nature Principle by Richard Louv
Amazon
• Flourish by Marty Seligman
Amazon
• Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life by Hammerness & Moore
Amazon
• The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
Amazon
• The Other Brain by R. Douglas Fields
Amazon
• The Root of Thought by Andrew Koob
Amazon
• The Heart's Code by Paul Pearsall
Amazon
• Evocative Coaching by Bob & Megan Tschannen-Moran
Amazon
Old Provisions never die; they just keep on providing inspiration for life. You
can purchase some of your favorite Provisions' series, for a nominal fee, bundled
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If you're not ready to start work with a LifeTrek coach, this series on Listening
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May you be filled with goodness, peace, and joy.
Bob Tschannen-Moran
President, LifeTrek Coaching International,
www.LifeTrekCoaching.com
CEO & Co-Founder, Center for School Transformation,
www.SchoolTransformation.com
2010-2011 President, International Association of \Coaching,
www.CertifiedCoach.org
Author, Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time,
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