The Radical Act of Joy
(Published in, and reproduced with permission from, choice, the magazine of professional coaching www.choice-online.com)
In a world in crisis with systemic disruptions, social fragmentation, political discord, climate change, wars, etc. happening all around us, coaching from the context of joy offers a powerful and necessary antidote to the current collective state and narratives we find ourselves both coaching and living within.
Our work as coaches is to help our clients see and navigate the many systemic and contextual forces shaping their experiences and influencing how they think, feel, and act. With greater awareness of how the contexts impact them, they begin to see that they have more choice than they realized.
But to do that well, we have to do the same work ourselves. We, too, are operating within many contexts (personal, cultural, organizational, global, cosmological) that are shaping how we coach, what we listen for, and what we unconsciously reinforce. If we aren’t aware of the waters we’re swimming in, we risk colluding with our clients’ limitations and fears rather than disrupting them. We risk reinforcing the very narratives and belief systems that they are trapped by because we don’t see them or because we are trapped ourselves.