Joel’s newsletter, June 10,
2009
An ezine about Creative
thinking, Coaching, and Making a difference.
I just attended a coach
training program this past weekend.
It’s called Life Potentials Training, and is offered by iPEC Coaching
(ipeccoaching.com). Since I’m a
graduate of iPEC, this was a review for me, but there was a lot of new material
(it’s been several years since I attended), and I met many interesting people. It helped me think about what is possible.
What is Life Potential? That’s a good question. The words suggest possibility that has not
yet been realized. A seed has life
potential. An infant has life
potential. And each of us also has
potential that is not yet realized.
Coaching offers some powerful processes to help discover new
possibilities and make them reality.
So, what does this potential consist of? I don’t think anyone can describe it fully, because it’s really
unlimited. But we can certainly have
more happiness, success, meaning, joy, and love in our lives. At the training program I saw how coaching
can start to make shifts, little by little, to unlock our potential.
Creative thinking, as I see
it, is also a kind of potential. We
tend to limit our thinking to habitual patterns. Creative thinking is about thinking outside the box. So the potential could be thought of as
everything outside whatever box we’re in.
That could be a vast uncharted realm.
Creative thinking, just like life potential, can be fun, stimulating,
exciting, rewarding, and meaningful.
But it can also be scary, risky, or challenging. Otherwise we would venture outside the “box”
more often into the unknown. What is
possible with creative thinking and life potential? I’m fascinated by that question, and future issues of this ezine
will explore that more.
Last week we looked at 7
habits of creative people. One of them
is being curious. Here is a way you can
be more curious: Ask “why” questions. When you meet someone new, you normally find
out the usual – name, what kind of work they do, where they live, etc. Try asking “why”. Why do you work in this field?
Why did you decide to live in that town? Why were you interested in coming to this meeting? Of course, you want to be considerate and respectful. But it shows you’re interested, and you’re
sure to find out some interesting facts!
You can also ask “why”
questions about ordinary, everyday things.
Why do cars have four wheels?
Why are there 26 letters in the alphabet? Why are coins round?
Asking “why” about things that we take for granted, will stimulate your
thinking about familiar things, and can yield some interesting discoveries and
maybe even some general principles. And
then you might also ask, “Why not?”
When you do, you’re tapping into more of your creative thinking
potential.
What this means to me is that there is real energy in Joy. Although grief feels heavy, it doesn’t have to last. Could the energy of joy be 100 times greater than the energy of grief? It’s kind of like sunlight. A sliver of sunlight can dispel a room full of darkness. So if we’re open to the higher energy of joy, we don’t have to spend much time in the heaviness of grief.
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This newsletter is written by Joel Remde, joel@joelremde.com . I welcome your comments and feedback; that will help me learn what you’re interested in and also make this a better newsletter.
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