Possibilities Newsletter October 2021
Dear Friend
I hope you are well in this month of tricks and treats. I've been busy repurposing the blog and like many of you in planning mode for 2022.
The Bamboo Blog is now aimed at helping coaches and trainee coaches address common issues in coaching practice. This month I look at how coaching has evolved into so many categories and varieties that it's difficult for coaches to name the type of coaching they offer in a way that clients can understand what to expect.
What's in a name?
In fact, how we name things is powerful in helping us relate to our experiences. An example I use in the blog is how 'languishing' went viral this year, arguably because it captured what many were experiencing but struggling to describe. Having a name for it allowed us to explore our feelings of languishing and what we might do about them.
Capturing our own energy
When language shapes our expectations, it also shapes what is and isn't possible. If we can't imagine something, we don't direct energy towards it. Take for example the concept of a carbon footprint.
Like so many well-used metaphors that are well-used, we've almost forgotten that it is a metaphor, folding within it a world. Each metaphorical world has operating principles: when we say 'work-life balance' for instance, we invoke balancing scales in which work is traded against life. In the world of a 'balance', it is one or the other. Whereas 'work-life harmony' invokes a different world, as does 'work-life integration'.
Footprints carry a sense of inevitable impact and imprinting. In the metaphor of a 'carbon footprint', the greatest achievement would be a light footprint, creating as little impact with our actions as we can.
But what if we now need ways of walking so ninja lightly that instead of leaving footprints, we draw the soil beneath our feet up with each step?
Sounds impossible? Yet the technology and systems exist in many countries for households to return energy to the grid by installing alternative energy in their homes.
Redefining our terms
To capture and redirect our energy towards greater possibilities then, we first need to redefine the terms. Instead of carbon footprints, we could think about the carbon consequences of our decisions, including the possibility of having a net positive effect on carbon emissions.
In the 90's when dieters were calorie conscious, I remember my lunch buddy at work regularly asking of whatever I had chosen "is it worth the calories?" Imagine if we all learn to be so carbon conscious that we could weigh our decisions that way. Or so time conscious that we never wanted to spend 'empty minutes' doom-scrolling.
As we come into the last part of the year, a season associated with shedding leaves, remembering the fallen and letting go, what redefined terms would bring greater consciousness of something important to your life?
Take care and be in touch!
Sue x
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Bamboo Group Supervision for Coaches
Coaching for Development 2022
 | We are now recruiting participants for Cohort 4 of Coaching for Development (CFD) 2022
This rich, Integral Coach training programme leads to an ACC credential with the International Coach Federation and is intended for leaders and practitioners wishing to develop themselves and others.
In Asia this is uniquely offered as a small circle group of 12 per cohort in order to facilitate deep and rich discussions and a close community of practice.
If you are interested, please contact pauline@bamboobeing.com for further details |
Bamboo Book Club 2021
For the first round of this topic-based Bamboo Book Club, each month we read one (or all!) of a short list of books on a given topic and then came together to discuss how they can support us and our coaching clients.
Topics are: Wisdom of the Body Emotional well-being Sustaining Relationships Understanding how we think Responding to the world Food for the soul
We are planning to start another round on the same topics. If you would be interested to join or know more about the format please contact pauline@bamboobeing.com
For books on the list so far, please click on our list of Bamboo Book Picks below |  |
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For enquiries about support for individuals, teams or organisations during this time, click on the button below to be in touch for further details. Thanks for being with us. Take good care of yourselves.