THE GIFT OF THE “AHA”
I returned to some intensive study this year, feeling a need for the gifts of the “Aha”!
According to Rock, David, & Schwartz, Jeffrey (2006) in the Neuroscience of Leadership, when both my clients and I have an “Aha” moment, this new thought illuminates us to think, behave, or ultimately act differently, if we choose to.
“The brain releases a rush of neurotransmitters like adrenaline. This phenomenon provides a scientific basis for some of the practices of leadership coaching. Rather than lecturing and providing solutions, effective coaches ask pertinent questions and support their clients to work out solutions on their own. During the “aha”, findings suggests that at this moment of insight, a complex set of new brain connections are being created. These connections have the potential to enhance our mental resources and overcome the brain’s resistance to change. To achieve this result, we need to make a deliberate effort to hard-wire our brains, and this requires repeated attention.”
As someone with an entrepreneurial and intuitive mindset, I don’t easily find answers in linear ways! By nature, I am an “outside the box” thinker and am highly creative. In many ways, I live for the “Aha”! Both my business and life are often a journey of searching for the next missing puzzle piece just for the thrill of the “Aha” in learning. With coaching, the joy I receive when I share moments of illumination only happens when we make the commitment to create the space for this to occur!
Yet, like it is for so many of us, my head is often filled with the mind chatter of business ideas, new ventures, deadlines, projects, clients, family, and community demands. We forget that the magic happens when we make space to learn and to listen.
Does this sound like you?
In the past years, I often described many of my “Aha” moments through a spiritual framework. Each “Aha” resulted in a deep learning that made positive changes to my mental, emotional, physical, and intellectual self. Enough of these “Aha’s” led to an adjustment of different worldviews, stronger stamina, and leadership resiliency. I am definitely a life-long learner. I own this because I believe it is modelling the way for my clients.
I have committed to continue to deepen both my leadership purpose and my expression on this “road-less-traveled”. Getting to these “Aha” moments involves times of deep reflection, discomfort, reading, and continuous learning. On this journey, there have been moments of feeling stuck; yet with perseverance and trust, I arrive with understanding and an excitement to move forward.
While coaching hundreds of disengaged women, I hear, see, and sense the suffering that can happen. I have deep compassion and a desire to see how your patterns and those of you that are co-creating your present situation. You are coping with limited resources and constant change. Coaching is a gift that gives you the needed space and feedback to be held capable and resourceful in order to seek clarity! Interestingly, coaching is not relying on experts to answer the questions that run deep and vital to your entire business and life. You need to be seen, heard, understood, and empowered to keep searching beyond your original frame of reference. Coaching co-creates an entirely different space where no one is the expert! Instead, in partnership, we set an intention into motion to make the impossible, possible! It is through coaching that you will receive the gift of the “Aha” and decide with strength: "What’s next"?