Authentic You, Authentic Me, Beautiful Us

What first attracted me to coaching was the uncompromising commitment to honouring people’s uniqueness. We each have a unique identity and life experience.

Today I had an online coaching class on diversity and the focus was on how to effectively coach people different to us. We will have clients with different values, cultures and experiences and our job is NOT to use our values and experiences to help them but to trust that they have the best solutions for their own lives. Our job is to help them discover their own path and support them in achieving their goals.

To do that we have to remove all judgment from our minds. For example, if the client says they want to get married at age 20, I have to support that no matter what my experience has been. They are not me and their experience is not mine. This can be very difficult at times, but it is a way of helping people that I’m totally committed to, ironically, because of my experiences.

In Christian circles judgment is in no short supply. I’ve experienced it from within far less for those who do not share the faith. The ability to help people who do not share our personal values and beliefs (in other words people unlike us) is not just a challenge but not even something that is seen as desirable for many Christians. I believe this is something that we need to change. We need to stop trying to change people and start practicing truly unconditional love.

I have a dream. A dream of seeing the kaleidoscope love of God displayed in infinite variety as people are free to be their authentic selves. Authenticity is a big part of my value system, but it is always under attack and I believe that’s probably true for most of us. Even with these blogs I had to set my mind to be me. I knew that I could turn off some (less religious) people with my passion for Christ and I knew that I could turn off some of the more religious folks because my blogs aren’t preachy like a Christian’s blog ‘should be,’ plus I’m not hiding my massive moral flaws. I chose to be me regardless.

Like me, I want people to be fully themselves and I want to help them. I want to curb the inclination to make people more like me. As a friend recently reminded me, I can be judgmental. It’s a work in progress but I’m committed to the process.

So will you do me a favour? Please do you like only you can! Be joyfully, authentically you and light up your world!

Joyfully,