What do you want to think about?
..and what are your thoughts?
When was the last time you felt really listened to, dear reader?
While I am coaching, I have choices to make: Do I interrupt or let you keep talking? Do I ask one more question to dig deeper or do I shift us towards action? Do I ask about your emotions when I sense a difficult moment or do I chose silence?
Our agreements and my intuition help me make those decisions in the moment. Also, there’s one thing you can never go wrong with: silence. There’s always time for another question later.
Time to think
Last week, I shared that I am opening my calendar for time to think.
One powerful exercises from my coaching training was a “time to think” exercise to practice transformative listening. The implied question was: how much of their own thinking can my client generate before they need my input? Not as a test, but as a way to examine our belief in a person’s ability to break through their own thinking, simply by being listened to, and given the space and attention to explore.
In the exercise, we asked: What do you want to think about and what are your thoughts? And whenever we noticed that thinking subsided, we would ask: What more do you think, feel or want to say?
That’s it!
If you want to experience this for yourself, I invite you to schedule some time to think with me. When you find yourself at the edges of what feels comfortable, I will be there.
So, what do you want to think about?
Time to Think vs Coaching
Time to think is just that—time to think. It can be playful or serious; explorative without an outcome in mind or specific to a decision you want to reach.
Time to think is a one-time deal. I mean, you can schedule more than one time slot, but it isn’t part of a larger transformation. Ideally, you get value out of every coaching session, but honestly, I often see the biggest, most meaningful shift in session #4.
Coaching is a container—created by agreements, including a session goal (even if the goal is not to have one). It’s a process to make decisions, invoke self-awareness, and look ahead. It’s about exploring where you are today and where you’d like to be—and creating the path to get there.
When we make space for time to think inside a coaching container, we explore the context first: how is what you want to think about relevant to your overarching topic? What’s important about it to you? How does it fit in? This ensures that we stay focused on your outcome that we have agreed on in the beginning of our time together (and to be clear, those outcomes can—and often do—change; that’s why we check in).
If you’re unsure if coaching or time to think is right for you, here’s an idea: start with Time to Think—it’s free and easy to sign up:
If you do want to explore coaching, you might find this helpful:
You can also always book a call with me or send me an email/DM to learn more.
Virtual Coffee etc.
Do you just want to get together and chat? Get to know each other? Exchange ideas? Explore a topic together? Plan a collaboration? Let’s meet up for coffee etc.
Wordplay x Purposeful Connection
I’m going live with Rachel Connor, PhD to talk about creativity, coaching, and more today, May 9th at 9:30am Pacific! I hope you’ll join us.
I’d rather read an essay!
If you’re thinking: ‘I’d rather read an essay than to hear one more thing about your coaching offer!’, here are some from the archives you may have missed:
No More Breadcrumbs: I Think I'm Autistic
I’ve had five versions of this piece in my draft folder for months, waiting for me to find a way to wrap it all up neatly with a pretty little bow on top.
ADHD: Sometimes it’s really, really hard.
I tried really hard to write an informative, positive newsletter on ADHD for ADHD Awareness Month, I promise! But then the ADHD Rollercoaster 🎢 took over, so here we are. Plus, you’re here for the real talk, am I right? To lighten the mood, I did include some really lovely comments on the bottom of this post, so if you want to skip past the hard stuff,…
Take care,
Hanna
This sounds lovely. The ideas and approaches you have to helping people are really unique and important.
I think I will have to take you up on the coffee together if you're still doing it this autumn! Both of my kids will be in school for at least part of the day, so I'll have some quieter time.