Olympic heroes
Friday, March 1, marked 17 years since I pinched my nose to jump off an imaginary, high springboard into the deep end. I surfaced in my integrative psychology practice and began what has become a very interesting journey.
Interesting because of the colourful palette of people I was privileged to guide in very different situations. From individual coaching to in-depth team building. From executives to drivers. From board meetings to works councils and trade unions. Interesting because of the variety and because of what I learned from it. I saw how a consultation is well-managed, but also how a conversation can go horribly wrong. Always with eyes and ears wide open to pick up on how people interact with each other and use their own code per company complete with their own dictionary full of acronyms (sorry, abbreviations).
Inevitably, my 17 years did not just consist of episodes full of hip-hop hurrah. A year after starting, a financial crisis broke out (who remembers Lehman Brothers?). High waves and headwinds. I was used to offering support, now I had to organise support for myself. That succeeded, and suddenly the momentum was back. That was a great lesson in 'never give up'. A lasting lesson too because this is how I am in life: if something doesn't work out, I haven't looked hard enough. Really, there is always a solution for everything.
I really needed this attitude in my private life as well. My parents became ill and so did I myself, which meant I had to stop practising. My parents fell ill and so did I myself, forcing me to close the practice for a while. The corona pandemic was the next test. But I survived that too, partly by coaching online. An utter novelty that was completely out of the question until then. At the difficult moments, there was always the energy I could draw from my conversations with clients. Achievers for whom I would like to build an Olympic stage. Heroes who are willing to come and look in the mirror and change.
Dare to change is the lesson and I am following that good example again. I have learned that one session every fortnight does not work so well anymore. Too often I noticed that despite all the good will and effort in those two weeks between sessions, the old patterns take advantage of the hustle and bustle of every day and take back the power. The question "how can this be done better?" occupied my mind for a while. My solution is a new way: to stay in swimming terms, I take you into the depths. A whole morning, a whole day or even two whole days. The first experiences are Olympic.
