Always Learning

I recently found myself on the receiving end of my own coaching advice. As I sat there with a client, I heard myself asking her what she had done that day to advance her coaching practice.

It was a moment of enlightenment, but not because the question housed anything profound. It was enlightening because it was good advice, good advice that I had not taken. I jotted it down on my yellow legal pad, so I could remember it, be convicted by it, and act on it – now.

I would like to think that many coaches have the same experience. We find ourselves challenged by our own questions, words, advice and the like. We realize that we are not in fact the only ones in the coaching session who need what we are doling out. I began to notice other moments when something I said or the client said was particularly meaningful to me, and jot those down too.  The list of book recommendations, ideas, proposed direction, and good clear thinking seems to grow by the mile each day.  There is far too much for me realistically to achieve of course, but the emerging collection of sound ideas is a startling marker on the roadside reminding me that the journey is long and bounded only by my years here. 

What intrigued me most was that each client is a mirror for me. They give me the chance to ask myself “is that true for me?”  As I journey along with the client through their life, I see places along the way that I have walked, lessons that I have learned, experiences gained that were once new to me, and the questions raised that are unanswered for us both.  These are the moments that remind me that the coach, although learned and experienced, is and always will be a coachee too.