You need a thinking partner.
Even if you’re smart. ESPECIALLY if you’re smart.
See, the smarter you are, the better you are at rationalizing your beliefs.
As I’ve mentioned before in this space, beliefs are laid down pretty early in your life – they are your brain’s attempt to make meaning of your circumstances.
As you move through life, you act in accordance with these beliefs. And therefore you tend to get results that confirm these beliefs.
So by the time you’re an adult, you have a lot of “evidence“ to support your beliefs, and you have years and years worth of investment in them.
You have had to rationalize those beliefs to yourself many times. And the smarter you are, the better your rationalizations are.
This is why you need a thinking partner. In other words, a coach.
Because when you’re alone in your head, thinking your thoughts, your brain takes its usual shortcuts.
Your brain makes its usual assumptions.
Your brain says shit like “2+2 = 4.5678, because that’s what it equaled when I was five, the first time this type of thing happened.”
When you get coached, you do all your usual thinking, but with a thinking partner there to reflect back your thoughts.
So here’s what often happens in a coaching session:
You trot out all your usual thoughts, some of which are brilliant, and some of which are bullshit.
I summarize them back to you.
Here’s the fun part: I don’t even have to tell you what part I think is brilliant and what part I think is bullshit.
(What I think is actually pretty immaterial.)
My clients are smart people. They are insightful. They are wise!
So what often happens is this: I tell them what they’ve said. And then THEY TELL ME what’s bullshit about it!!!
And then I say “Mmmm…”
And after a few sessions of that, my clients are saying shit like this:
“My work with Emma has been illuminating in the most profound way. Like, neural-network shattering and expanding. I can feel new synapses firing and new pathways generating. The biggest change I’ve seen is my ability to separate myself from the emotion of a situation and be more thoughtful about my response. I’m able to respond from more than just my initial impulses. And take actions that bring me closer to what I want, instead of flailing around.”
Please know…I’m not a good coach because I’m smarter than you.
I’m a good coach because:
I believe your deepest knowing is smarter than your thoughts.
Ready to take real, substantive steps toward your dreams? I can’t wait to work with you–click here to get started.