Coaching Models

Yesterdays goal was to gather items to develop my Welcome Package. I decided as I was listening to the coaching model class, that gardening with spirit would be the process that would best explain my coaching style and approach to partner with my clients.

I had my family to stay for the holiday so I started feeling my time was divided into entertain them and wanting to focus on my work. So I decided to do both but place my complete attention on visiting with my family first. We went to breakfast and watched a 4th of July parade in Asbury Park. When we came home I was ready to place my focus on gathering information for the Package. I went on the ICA website, surfed the posts from other students on their coaching models. After I read other student postings, I proceeded to check out various web address to look at coaching web sites. I picked up a few great ideas from the student postings and sites and printed out the ones I wanted to to use as a jump off point. When I felt I have everything I needed to begin, I went upstairs to my bedroom and laid the info, papers, books, notebook for writing my coaching stuff, IPOD, pens and pencils on my bed, took a orange candle and an orange sarong to place over my shoulder, then I went to dinner with my family.

I ate a wonderful meal. When I came home, I washed my hands, went to my room lit my candle and prayed to the goddess Ix Chel to bless me with her divine creativity. I turned on my IPOD and began: I started reading and writing in my journal. The first sentence was Why Coaching is essential tool. Next, I wrote words: Intuition, divine blessings, non-judgmental, inner wisdom, etc. and was led to create a acronym for sacred garden poetically. To me a coaching model should be in the coaches language, the way the coach speaks to their clients and views their (the coach) participation in the world. As I am a poet at heart, I felt I had to use that language in creating my model. I grabbed my thesaurus and wrote down words I felt a connection towards. S: sanctuary, seed, sunshine. A: adore, absolute and so on. I do not remember when but while I was searching for words, a sentence came to me: Sing the sunshine of your soul. I knew that was going to be the beginning line for my model.

Here is the blueprint for what can be harvested when you live your live as a Sacred Garden.

Sing the sunshine of your soul by
Acknowledeging the absolute of your Abilities to
Create ceremony, celebrate clarity to move with the
Rhythm of divine guidance, to love all and
Embrace the wonder of the unfolding of your
Dreams, dance and decorate life’s abundance.
Goals guided by gratitude, lead you towards new
Attitudes and Affirmations, your accomplishments become
Rainfalls to water your spirit, now you can
Dialog with Masters and Majesty, rising to bloom,
Exult your shinning grace, you partner with beauty to
Nurture your noble soul to sing again and again.

I like the aspect of using spiritual gardening as a metaphor for my coaching practice. Partnering with my clients I wish to co-create a structure that the client can continue to develop and use when our coaching time together as at a end using the following steps as their guide: visualizing the garden blooming (your life as you wish it to be), what plants to plant (your goals and dreams) where and when in the garden (when you are ready to begin, drawing the road map), the type of soil for each plant (creating nurturing support for the journey), when to plant (i.e. Seasons, days of week, how time will you invest in gardening), where to get the seeds to plant (meditation, reading, journaling communing with others). Fertilizing the soil and plants (How you will “feed” yourself to have the stamina for the journey): what work when and what might work later (choosing other perspectives to keep you moving forward when you get stuck), when to water (hydrate your spirit), when to harvest (introducing your completed goal to the world), and dealing with plants that do not take (friends, family, co-workers, situations that no longer serve your highest and greatest good), inviting favorable pests and ladybugs to protect (setting boundaries and enforcing them), Inviting the creator to be an active helper (prayer, thanks yous), asking for blessings and insight, bringing love to everything involved in the gardening process and last but not least: how does the whole experience help the gardener to grow and learn to plant the next garden in their lives (Keeping the growing alive as important as your breathing).