There are an estimated 16,000 full and part time coaches throughout the world. In the year 2000, I attended the 5th Annual International Coach Federation Conference (ICF) in Vancouver where 1,200 of those coaches were also in attendance. What an opportunity!
In my estimation, those attendees over the years manifest the cream of the crop in the professional coaching field. The energy is always amazing!
Even though that year's attending coaches represented disciplines from executive, to personal, to corporate, to financial and spiritual, one theme dominated our time together and that year's theme was about bringing more soul and less ego into our worlds.
This means bringing who we are, not what we demand, to every aspect in life, work, play, family, private. The topic remains pertinent. While the distinction of soul and ego is not new, it is an important concept to be pondered, especially in our work environments where we spend so much of our lives.
Consider our ego as what we demand, with 'enough' rarely being 'enough.' Our ego strives to keep us in a constant state of discomfort and confusion, yearning for more money, success, power, sex, food, drugs, popularity, approval, and the list goes on.
Our soul, however, is the manifestor of 'who we truly are' and expresses outward our gifts to the world: the brilliance we are both with, our wisdom unfolded through experience, our insights gained, how we love, how generous we are, our clarity, our appreciation, our kindness, optimism and how we show compassion to others.
The challenge for many of us is that we take our soul for granted, discounting its importance in the real world, while choosing to focus on what is familiar to us - our insatiable ego.
We can find a better way to do this, guys!!
How are we to discover, really discover, deeper levels of who we are and why we are here (as an individual, small business or corporation) if we spend the majority of our time in this place of ego. What if you were to take this one week to study your specific situation and decipher whether your ego is at the helm, or your soul.
What minor shifts in perspective will result in more desirable results in your level of productivity, peace and fulfillment?
I had a client once who inadvertently kept himself from moving into higher levels at work because his ego was in charge making him think that he wasn't getting the recognition and appreciation he so wanted to receive.) Things shifted for him dramatically once he chose to look inward at who he was (soul) and began to appreciate himself. He began to give to himself as a switch in focus and quit demanding from others. The shift was in perspective alone, from ego to soul, and brought results better than his ego had even envisioned!
Enjoy a soulful week, OK? Keep the ego. These parts are good; just don't let them rule you!!
------
For the sake of keeping your career fresh and on track, would you like to enjoy a weekly shot-in-the-arm from Master Certified Coach Ann Golden Eglé? You can sign up for her Success Thought of the Week at
http://www.gvsuccess.com .
