Life Coach Ramblings

I had a peer coaching session yesterday where I was the client, and my topic was this blog. I wanted a vision of what writing regularly on a schedule might look like for me because I usually write only when inspired, which would make publishing posts on a regular schedule difficult.

As good coaching sessions go, the conversation evolved beyond schedule and structure. I ended up reflecting on the tension between writing for creativity and self-expression and connection (the fun, colorful stuff), and writing because I “have to.”

I started this blog because I wanted to have an outlet for all the thoughts about coaching rattling around in my head. I wanted to get my experiences “down on paper” so I could reflect on them. My secondary motivation was that maybe someone (or a few someones) interested in the topic of coaching would benefit from reading my words.

But mixed in with that motivation, as we uncovered during the session, is the, “I don’t want to fall behind” feeling when I see my peers creating podcasts, workshops, and coaching packages. And so, on the heels of “Wouldn’t it be nice if I had a blog to express all these thoughts so they weren’t just living in my head? And wouldn’t it also be nice if someone benefited from reading about my experiences?” followed the thought, “Oh, but I could also grow a following from this and who knows, maybe a podcast eventually!”

And so the idea that I had to start learning how to write on a schedule was born.

What my very astute coaching partner could hear in my words was a desire to write from the heart, for self expression and connection. But she could also sense that outside ideas of what it looks like to be a blogger and needing to “grow an audience” were muddying up this intention.

Needing to grow an audience was a belief I unconsciously absorbed from social media culture and, let’s be honest, from wanting to keep up with my coaching peers. Once I believed I had to post regularly to generate interest, it made the idea of writing feel more like an obligation and less of a joyful experience.

I needed to return to my original intention of sharing just for the sake of sharing, keeping the urge to keep up with others out of it.

Towards the end of the session, my coach shared an image she had in her mind of me, standing on the shore, making little paper boats, and watching them float away. Some float for a while, some reach other people who are in the water, some sink, etc.

I felt an immediate connection with this image. I don’t know why, but the word “quaint” came to me. Looking it up, it means “strange and unusual in an old-fashioned and charming way.” I associate it with simplicity, innocence, being untouched by outside influences.

I ran with this metaphor and told her that I was picturing myself as a little girl, making these precious little paper boats and releasing them. My joy began and ended with the delight of watching them float away, unconcerned with what happened to them after. It was enough just to see them float. The image elicited a warm feeling in my heart.

The feeling I got when I pictured myself making these little boats with care and then releasing them just to see them float is the same feeling I get when I publish a post. I put my words out there and they float away on the ocean of other posts. I don’t know who they’ll reach, or if they’ll make any impact, but that’s not the point. The point is the joy of simply sending them out there with good intentions.