Kids ski

This past week:

 

 

cheers

come on baby, light my fire...

Module 2 of my training... last Wednesday I went in, not really knowing what to think or say. Having read some stuff, I thought, wow, this is so much based on big companies, I just don't get it. I never worked in a big company, I taught there. It all felt pretty much like a downward spiral... and when would I hit solid ground again? 


Day 1 came and went, quite intense, with a coaching demonstration by one of our teachers. And it seemed so easy that I just thought: "wow, I'll never get there!". I was beat in the evening, and still not so much reassured about the "what the hell heck am I doing here?" 



It did become more concrete though. Tools were being given in addition to the implicit knowledge we are flooded with. The German in me LIKES tools, they are definable, they are palpable, they seem more realistic. 




Day 2 came and did not just go by: there was live coaching.... aka us, coaching each other (I know, like yikes!). A good coaching like the one on day 1 is good to see, but less ... well, instructive. A not-so-perfect coaching teaches way more about the techniques... especially the ones we didn't use!
A the end of that day, after debriefing the live coaching, I had a glimpse on how to do it - the light at the end of the tunnel - a tiny light, but a light nonetheless. That felt SO-O-O-O good, I went home elated (weird, huh?)


Day 3 came, and started off well, new material to help us grasp coaching and more coaching sessions. Again, mistakes were made and taught us more about how NOT to do it and gave us several glimpses on HOW to do it. 
While I am still in doubt (would that by any chance be in my nature?), I feel somewhat reassured about my path less traveled. 


Plus, I mean, it's spring, weather is just awesome at the moment and everything is blossoming... that does help to lighten the mood and lift the spirits, right?!

cheers!

Just because...

"Just because I know what my challenges are doesn't mean I know how to deal with them."
My friend Justine started her last blog entry with this sentence... and it so perfectly reflects how I feel at the moment with MY new challenge (aka coaching training) that I just HAD to pick up that phrase (thanks Jus, for inspiring me once again!!) . A huge challenge because right now, I am going down a road with so many turns, somewhere I haven't been before that at times I feel lost.... . The topics revolve around  business and management... not my realm so much (sheesh, I miss a good old literature class... sigh). Then again, this is part of the training and I will certainly gain a larger understanding of the way managers and and leaders function. Even though I will not be coaching IN management, but in the intercultural realm. Still, I guess I need to learn THIS to better understand THAT. 


What is my goal? What is my plan for reaching my goal? (See my lost face there?). 
And how will I know when I have reached my goal? (If ever!)

Just because I know what my goal is doesn't mean I know how to get there... 
that would be my transcription of this quote. 


And I'll take it one step at a time...                                           

Cheers

a path less traveled...

Robert Frost (1874–1963).  Mountain Interval.  1920.

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.	20

This poem was one of the first poems I studied as an English student in high school. I have always liked the poem very much because it reflects a part of my personality: I don't like to choose but I sometimes HAVE to. I always want to satisfy the multiple wishes I have within me. I don't like to decide because... well, the other choice could be cool, too! You never know. And so, over the now almost 40 years (ouch, did I just say that?), sorry, 39 years of my life, I have and will always wonder: what if? 

It's not a positive nor negative decision, it's just a decision to be taken since we simply CANNOT always go down two paths at the same time. Physically, you just can't, though I promise you, sometimes I do try hard... and of course get lost and split in half by doing so.

Last Wednesday, I started my training to become an intercultural coach. 3 days of intensive studying... well, mainly yourself without really knowing it, and also techniques and theories, of course! We have to and had to get to know each other and myself over three days and form groups that will work together between sessions. And I kept wondering for three days if I had made the right choice going down this path rather than just going back to teaching at the engineering schools and thus taking the path 'well-traveled'. This new path with all its uncertainty is enticing and scary, fun and freaky. I know where I want to end up (i.e. intercultural coaching), but I don't know exactly how I will get there. It's a new adventure, a "path less traveled by" and I will see (and tell you) if it made the difference!

cheers