“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”  Pablo Picasso

“Inspiration and genius–one and the same.”   Victor Hugo

In this week’s #CoachingBox we’re going to explore inspiration.

I think that it is reasonable to assume that this word originates from the Old English and medical term “inspire – to breathe into; to fill with breathe.”   One particular definition resonates with me as being closest to my understanding, “inspiration – a product of your creative thinking and work; the arousal of the mind to special activity or creativity”.

Wow!  How wonderful to think that it’s all our own doing.  That inspiration comes from within us, from our own thoughts and actions.  And I think that this is often where we can come unstuck, because for many of us inspiration is something that eludes us, something that is dependent on the actions of others and how we use the word often suggests that we can only be inspired by others.

We look to others to lead us and to motivate us into action.  We trust and hope that they will somehow be able to ‘make’ our lives better and that they will move us onto bigger and brighter things.  And here is the rub, there is a fine line between trust and hope.

Trust, I think is unconditional, it is not dependent on anything or anyone, it just is.  Whereas hope is conditional on something or someone else and in this mix I suggest there is little room for us to be “aroused to a special activity or creativity”, there is little space for us to have creative thoughts, there is little space for us to inspire ourselves, to take risks and truly trust in ourselves.  When was the last time that you inspired you?

Thomas Edison’s words that “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration” reminds me that inspiration requires time and space to breathe and grow; it can’t be rushed or squeezed into the moments between the many demands on our time.  You are a creative, inspirational being and only you will know when you are inspired and inspiring.

I invite you to take some time out over the next week or two, connecting with your inspiration.   Allow yourself to be filled with your inspiration.  See what unfolds, listen to whatever is spoken and touched within you and whatever happens. . . Trust yourself.

If you would like some assistance in accessing your creativity and inspiration, you might want to try Mind Mapping!

Popularised over the last 40 years by Tony Buzan there are now many MapMapping tools that you can download or use online; try out MindMeister or View Your Mind (VYM) or MindGenius or Buble.us .   To get a taste of how versatile mind mapping can be visit Philippe Boukobza’s blog about Innovation, Visual Thinking and Mind Mapping; in this article he presents a mind map that was created in response to watching a very interesting video on creative thinking.

In our next #CoachingBox we will be exploring the next possible step.

“The greatest personal limitation is to be found not in the things you want to do and can’t, but in the things you’ve never considered doing.”  Richard Bandler

“The whales do not sing because they have an answer, they sing because they have a song.”  Gregory Colbert

I attended a coaching workshop a few days ago that had me seriously considering what it is about the word Coaching that makes the world and his mother think that they can be a coach or go out to inspire others to “be their own coach”!

I think with hindsight the clue was in the title Be Your Own Coach!  I had read it as, “I will teach you how to be your own coach”, and being the kind of person who is both inquisitive about anything to do with coaching and a believer that there will always be something for me to learn from another great coach I went along fully expecting to leave with a new found appreciation for coaching.

An hour and half later I was the second person out of the door and paused to sigh the deepest sigh of relief with my fellow attendee at having got out.  We made eye contact and began chatting about how terrible the session had been.

Now don’t get me wrong I’ll be the first person in the queue for any new found approach, new angle on an old favourite or simply watching an artist at work and so I reflected on what had happened with my coaching hat on.

First off there was no PowerPoint ready to support the speaker, unusual I thought and obviously not compulsory. What did speakers do before PowerPoint?  I assume use a flipchart and the speaker did not use the flipchart until asked to write the questions up by another participant.  Unprepared or inexperienced?

Second off the presenter sat rather than stand and did not make much eye contact with anyone in the group except for the one man who had foolishly declared himself to be a coach here to brush up his skills.  Defensive would be the word I would use to describe the response.  Perhaps it was this that had distracted or unnerved the presenter!

Third off we were given a handout with the GROW model on it that looked like this:
G = Grow
R = Reality
O = Options
W = Will
The presenter did not notice the error until we all had the handout and it was being read to us!!

So what is GROW?  Well we were told that it is an acronym used to fix our terrible relationships.

To be fair I could have forgiven all of these things, if for one minute the presenter had shown any passion for the subject matter.  If she had tried to engage us in our process, or simply tried to impart any knowledge rather than tell us why what we had written (as she looked over our shoulder and read aloud each person’s personal notes) was not right.

Coaching is a facilitative process designed to enable the coachee to find the fire within, that place where there are no barriers, obstacles or uncertainties only possibilities, opportunities and adventure.

Perhaps I’ll get in touch with the presenter and offer coaching to improve their presenting skills, surely it can only improve!