Published in Kingstown College Coaching Magazine 2019/2020
The need to constantly acquire, the need to have more, the need to have the latest, the biggest, the best…is detrimental for the planet.
In recent memory we have seen images of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg make headlines as she appears to single handedly take on the UN, the US President and other world leaders to move them to take action on climate change. Can one person change the world? Jo Sachs-Eldridge considers if coaching could also be making a contribution.
In his book, Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology, grapples with the questions of whether there is any greater meaning or purpose in his work or whether ‘..the science of positive emotion, positive character, and positive institutions will merely float on the waves of self-improvement fashions’?
I too grappled with these same questions. Is there a greater value in helping people find their strengths, believe in themselves, or find another perspective? And most importantly for me, having spent many years working in the field of sustainability is whether coaching can contribute to creating a positive, sustainable future for us all?
At the heart of coaching is the belief that we are all creative, resourceful and whole, have enormous capacity for growth, that we strive for personal authenticity, are all searching for meaning and purpose and an understanding of the world and our role within it.
Therefore regardless of the reasons people come to coaching or the goals they want to achieve, can the changes that happen to an individual as a result of the coaching process lead to changes that contribute to a better world? Could it be that the very tools and knowledge we gain from the coaching process are the same tools and knowledge we need to enable us to do what’s needed now? As Lucy Neale describes it in her seminal book ‘Playing for Time’ – ‘As we step into a new geological age of a four billion year process on Earth, called the ‘anthropocene’, it is hard to imagine as humans we are accountable for reimagining our world on behalf of ourselves, subsequent generations and all species’.
Many of us believe nothing we do will make a difference while others feel it is up to them to save the world. Neither is true.
In this article I suggest some of the ways that the process of coaching could contribute to reimagining and creating a better world.
Questioning the status quo: The coaching process can often involve the questioning of our own beliefs, particularly self-limiting beliefs such as ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I can’t do it’. This questioning of things that we have believed to be true, perhaps all of our lives, enables us to look at everything differently and gives us the freedom to be able to question other elements of the world we live in. Bringing a different perspective to our accepted truths’ can potentially lead us all to ask more questions about the way things are done, locally and globally. The mantra that ‘this is the way it has always been and therefore it always will be so’ no longer needs to be accepted. The process of coaching enables us to see there are other ways of looking at ourselves and therefore at the world and that change is possible. A broad perspective, an ability to ask questions and a belief in the possibility for change are key to making changes that will be good for the planet.
Being more aware: Often we act on ‘auto pilot’. This ‘auto pilot’ is very useful as it allows us to handle complex life situations without experiencing an overload of mental processing.However living on ‘auto pilot’ can also result in us not seeing what is really happening. The coaching process allows us to reflect and talk about our actions or behaviours which allows for the development of a deeper understanding of the thoughts and feelings that underlie them. A coach can facilitate this by asking questions to sharpen our attention and help us to become more aware of what is happening. Being more aware of ourselves can also bring a greater consciousness of what is happening out there in our communities and the world around us. Is it possible that switching off the ‘auto pilot’ and switching our awareness back on can lead to greater appreciation of our environment and the impacts of our actions (or inactions)?
Believing in enough: The need to constantly acquire, the need to have more, the need to have the latest, the biggest, the best…is detrimental for the planet. It has been suggested that it is our feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness that leads us to consume more and more. But those feelings can change through the coaching process by enabling people to appreciate all that they are and all that they already have – their strengths, their talents, their relationships, their health – and to value them above and beyond anything they could buy. Could this greater contentment and shift in values contribute to the consumption of fewer unnecessary things?
Focusing on the future: An acknowledgment of the past and identifying the impact of life experiences, both positive and negative, is an important step in the coaching process; however, what is key to the coaching process is the focus on the future – what you want your future to be, where you want to be, what you want to be doing with your life, what will bring you real happiness. With a growing awareness of the impact of climate change on our future we are increasingly linking thoughts about our own personal future plans with thoughts of what the future holds for the planet. Could our increased awareness, coupled with the tools for thinking about the future, bring us closer to making decisions that will impact positively not just on our own future but on the lives of future generations?
Believing we are creative and unlocking our imagination: At the heart of coaching is the belief that we are all creative. Yet so many of us have stopped believing this and have blocked our imagination. Rob Hopkins of Transition Towns has spent many years exploring the role of imagination in our future. He argues that imagination is central to empathy, to creating better lives, to envisioning and then enacting a positive future. In his forthcoming book, ‘From What Is to What If’, Hopkins asks why imagination is in decline and what we might accomplish if we unleash our collective imagination. Does coaching have the potential to be part of that unleashing, firstly by acknowledging that we are all creative and secondly, by giving us the ‘permission’, time and space to explore that creativity and release our imagination?
Being better connected: ‘No man is an island’, no matter how much they may believe themselves to be. According to Daniel Goleman, author of Social Intelligence, ‘we are wired to connect’. The very design of our brain makes us sociable. We are naturally drawn to an intimate brain-to-brain linkup whenever we engage with another person. We are, without doubt, social animals and we are also incredibly reliant on each other for all that we do.
The process of coaching can enable us to better connect with ourselves, through a greater understanding of our thoughts, beliefs, values, strengths, passions and dreams. This greater self-understanding can lead to greater kindness, trust and respect, for ourselves.
That developing kindness, trust and respect for ourselves can change the way we interact with others, shifting us from jealousy to pride, from anger to understanding, from competition to cooperation. Could this sense of connectedness in turn lead to decision-making based on the needs of others, even future others, as well as ourselves?
Finding our strengths: We are very unlikely to have any impact if we are living someone else’s life, or are working to our weaknesses, or don’t know what we really even care about. Once we have developed, through the coaching process, a greater knowledge of our strengths and passions will we find it difficult to not bring our true, authentic selves to our communities – whether that be our families, our workplaces, our town or village or wider society? And is it possible that, as social animals, our true selves will strive for the greater good rather than an individual goal?
Being empowered: What the planet needs is action. It needs people to step up. It needs us to believe we can have an impact. Many of us believe nothing we do will make a difference while others feel it is up to them to save the world. Neither is true. We alone cannot save the world, but as individuals we can all have an impact. As Helen Keller put it ‘I am only one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do’.
Action is at the heart of coaching and empowering you to identify and take the steps needed to achieve your goal, whatever that may be, is a key part of the process. The question then is – can the coaching process not only empower us to act for ourselves but also empower us to act for the greater good?
Trusting ourselves: None of us has all the answers. But coaching differs from mentoring and other relationships where you seek advice from a more knowledgeable, more senior, more ‘successful’ other, because coaching is built on the premise that each of us has the best answers for us within us. Coaching helps us realise that when it comes to our lives we are the experts, when it comes to finding our passions, only we can do that, when it comes to using our strengths, that’s down to us.
Good coaching gives us the courage to believe in ourselves. And the courage to know it’s ok to sometimes try and fail because that is all part of the process, part of the learning, part of getting closer to where we want to be. The question then is whether that courage and greater trust in ourselves is of value to wider society?
I don’t have all the answers to these questions, and I know that the plural of anecdote is not data, but I have seen people come to coaching in the pursuit of an individual goal and through the process of questioning the status quo, becoming more aware, believing in enough, focusing on the future, unlocking their imagination, becoming better connected, finding their strengths, becoming empowered and trusting themselves they have developed projects, goals and dreams that are not just of benefit to themselves but are of benefit to wider society.
So I do believe that coaching is not only good for us, as individuals, but it also has the potential to be good for the planet. And I look forward to seeing coaching become more readily available so that more of us can be part of creating a positive, sustainable future for ourselves and generations to come. There is much to do.
References
Seligman, M. E.P (2002). Authentic Happiness. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Neale, L. (2015). Playing for Time: making art as if the world mattered. Oberon Books London.
Stelter, R. (2007). Coaching: A process of personal and social meaning making. International Coaching Psychology Review. Vol. 2, No 2. July 2007.
Markway, B (2013). Why do smart caring people ignore environmental issues. Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/living-the-questions/201311/why-do-smart-caring-people-ignore-environmental-issues
Hopkins, R. (2019) From What Is to What If: Unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. Chelsea Green Publishing. vi Goleman, D (2007). Social Intelligence: The new science of human relationships. Cornerstone.
By Jo Sachs-Eldridge
Jo Sachs-Eldridge has a degree in Psychology, a Masters in Sustainability, Planning & Environmental Policy and an Advanced Diploma in Executive, Personal & Leadership Coaching. Jo has been part of many exciting projects for change in both Wales and Leitrim. She has designed and led workshops to empower others to bring their strengths to their communities and is currently a member of the team coaching young people through the Ideas Collective programme, bringing their ideas to change the world to life. Jo is a coach, a change maker, a community connector and a mum who still believes we can create a positive future for all.
