WOW! What a week. I’m glad we did this session in person to actually feel the connectivity and closeness that is arising between my symbiotic coach Vladi and me when we do the peer coaching session. Things are falling into place. What seemed like an issue at first ends up being a missing piece in a puzzle. Whatever one of us is going through, the other one can relate to so well, because it is somehow similar to challenges in her own life. Whatever we started is spiralling up into something beautiful – and possibly lifelong.
Week three of the Philia Programme guides you to identify your limitations and to write down intentions and action steps to overcome them. At the same time, you track the progress on your goals, which you have set and quantified in week two.
The first session was all about finding barriers in key areas of your life and identifying limiting beliefs that hold us back. What are barriers? “In order to reach our goals, we need to have a clear understanding of what it is that holds us back.” it states in Philia guidelines. That can be fear, a self-destructive belief, a lack of resources, other people etc. Since most of the barriers are in our heads only, it is extremely important to get clear on what kind of barrier are we facing in particular.
For instance, I wanted to be less involved in the company I worked for. After four years of startup life, my initial drive has decreased, but more importantly, I have been feeling extremely passionate about evolving as an artist (journalist) in a certain direction – and that direction wasn’t in tune with the company’s vision. I tried everything to make it work (I even tried to ignore my intuition), but these two directions were just not working out together anymore. Meeting Vladi in our favourite Coffee Corner in Prague, I was desperate. I couldn’t bring myself into deciding what’s worse – to stay, or leave my company altogether. We looked at the barriers I was facing and it became clearer that it was not as black and white as I initially thought. Staying or leaving were far from the only options I had – there was so much in between I wasn’t seeing. “What if you kept what you like about the job. How could that look like?”my coaching partner asked me. I swear, it was like lightning came through me at that very second. Something broke free in my head. “I can do that?!” I felt relieved and excited, instantly. Apparently, I can have my cake, and eat it too. 🙂 YAY!
Vladi had breakthroughs of her own. Like me, she thought if she chooses this, she can’t have that. While she was listing her barriers, I was taking notes. “What if you took someone to accompany you in this project? This way you get where you want to be without needing to compromise much.” Her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. I could tell she felt the lightning, too.
We used up the flow that inevitably followed to draw a few simple action steps we could take quickly – aka our intentions. Mine was to develop a strategy of how my new involvement in the job might look like and how to get key players onboard. Hers was to get in touch with certain people and gain a certain know-how.
“This time it was special!” Vladi texted me a few days later after we both took necessary steps to get closer to our goals. “We should go out and celebrate!” And so should you. This programme is pushing you to be truer you – and you are doing awesome.
