What If We Already Know?

If you’ve ever worked with a coach, or been around personal growth of any sort, even had a mentor, or a loving teacher, then you might have come across the expression that

The client (student) always has the answer they need.

I gotta admit that used to really annoy me when I was on the other end of it.

I just had to hear the phrase to immediately jump to,

If I have all the answers already then why am I still struggling to figure out X? Why isn’t the answer (that I’m supposed to know!) obvious to me??

It seemed like a cop-out to me — if there really was an answer then why didn’t the coach or the person I was talking to just tell me?

Could It Be True?

These days, though, I see this phrase differently.

I don’t take it to mean that we have an answer, but that we have access to the place where answers come from.

Meaning that, no matter what, we are always OK, because we are infinitely resourceful. With infinite resourcefulness, there is nothing that can phase us or set us back or send us off track, or damage us.

What If…

And the implications of this are boundless.

What if…

…your clients, (substitute whoever’s in your life: children, partner, staff, friends or loved ones) are always OK?

What if…

…they have the resources, and the answers they need — not because they literally have them, not because of what they know, but because of who they are, who we all are.

The Potential, Not the Literal…

The very thing that makes us alive is the same thing that gives us the capacity to think; to come up with new ideas, new solutions, or to be able to get a new perspective on our situation.

We all know from experience, answers don’t come from ‘worrying’ a problem like a dog with a favourite chew toy.

They don’t come from looking for a solution in what we already know — how many brainstorming exercises have you done only to have a fabulous new idea pop up in the shower when you’ve put the question out of your mind?

‘Having the answer’ means that we have the capacity to come up with answers.

And that’s something pretty powerful.

Probably more powerful than you realise.

I’d love you to play with this idea this week, maybe there are places where you think you need a nudge? What if you dipped into your own ‘resource box’?

What might you find there?

Happy exploring!

With love,

Cathy

About Cathy

Cathy fell into the Principles in 2013, on a quest to find something that seemed to be missing from the way she understood, and practiced, coaching. Although, she says, it felt a bit like ‘sitting at someone else’s dinner party where you don’t quite understand their language or who they’re talking about,’ she stayed and found the understanding shone its gorgeous warm light onto her own and others’ experience of life, creating a depth of impact that naturally brings ‘us’ to the surface and a lightness that is a beautiful place to live from. She is an Advanced Transformative Coach and usually works with people who bring leadership and work-related challenges and desires, often things that look almost impossible to them, helping them find (or re-discover) their freedom of mind, sense of joy and connection with that deeper sense of being alive. Cathy also has long experience in the public sector and international development, starting her career as an international economist and policy adviser, and worked for many years in senior roles in the UK government. www.cathypresland.com