by Martha Pasternack
Perhaps you have heard that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. (Her either, for that matter.)
I know this as a fact. I’ve tested this nugget of wisdom out many times and every time it proves positive.
How many times have you guided and supported your clients towards their goals and dreams and desires only to see them dig in their heels at the 11th hour? Something within them screams STOP! and your client apparently has no choice but to stop.
And then the voice in your head says, “Wait! What just happened?” “Everything seemed so on track.” “What did I miss?” “I am using the IAC Masteries!”
This is one reason the IAC Masteries are important. The Masteries help create relationship – and autonomous relationship at that. Ultimately, the client is the master of their experience.
As coaches, we use the Masteries to keep our own autonomy and fashion our learning and growth within the coach/client relationship. We do not measure our worth or impact based on our clients’ decisions. We are only part of the relationship. Coaches get to find worth independently.
We are responsible to be fully present in our sessions. We must not take on the responsibility for our client’s success.
The Masteries provide a pathway to pure water after a hot, dusty, sweaty trail ride leads a client to their desire for the support coaching provides.
We can lead them toward the waters of possibility, but we can’t make them drink from it.
Martha Pasternack MCC (IAC) www.CircleofLifeCoach.com My passion for witnessing the beauty and mystery of life, healthy healing and the promotion of Peace on Earth are integral to my daily life. I have been life coaching since 2004 as a Fearless Living Coach after working 30 years as a health care professional.