How are you framing it?

How are you framing it?


The following is an excerpt from my free weekly newsletter The Works. Each edition shares an insight, tool or story that will help you be a force for change, written by me, MBS - recognized as the #1 thought leader on #coaching in the world. Subscribe to get the full impact delivered straight to your inbox.



What title would you give this piece of art?

This piece of art sits right in front of my desk.

Which means I’d stopped noticing it.

But as I sit here, a couple of months into the new year, reflecting on how things are unfolding, considering how I want to navigate the next little while, writing in my journal (yes, the one that came out in January!) and answering the daily question, “What do you notice?” … well, there it was.

Right in front of me.


What do you think is going on?

I love it for two reasons.

First, because it’s both rough and delicate. It’s old metal, with figures made (I think) from soldering iron. It’s a bit rusty, a bit battered, but somehow also precise and timeless.

Second, because the two figures are beautifully and ambiguously balanced.

Are they wrestling, or are they dancing?

Are they embracing, or are they turning away from each other?

Are they loving or fearful?

The piece is called “Wrestling.”

But mostly, I see dancing.

How about you?


Language shapes our experience

I’ve been working on a new project.

It’s been exciting and also hard work. So, in other words, the best kind. It’s ticked the boxes of a Worthy Goal: thrilling, important, and daunting.

What’s helped during the hard times has been choosing how I frame the experience.

I could have been battling, wrestling, struggling, frustrated with some of the working moments.

Or, in those same moments, I could have been dancing, exploring, emerging, playing.

Most of the time, I took Option B, and it seemed to help.


Let me know—what’s something you’ve recently reframed in a way that’s helped?





Deb Milimaka Miles

Chair CEO Advisory Board | Executive Coach | Fractional CEO Consultant/Contractor

3 周

Hi Michael, how are you? I love this reframe and will use it at my next TEC meeting as an inclusion exercise! We see things with so many different lenses that impact our mindset and being able to see the value in shifting is so powerful and gives you the ability be in control of your own resilience. Love it! Thanks for sharing!when are you coming for a visit to Calgary?!!

Olivia Young

Influencing Others Lives

3 周

I enjoyed this piece of art! I saw it as two people holding one another up, as a reminder that we are never alone. I need to remember that more often in my life, that we are never alone. As I see that piece with that statement- I can than see it as dancing with grace, trust and stability.

Lorna Shaw

Creating ripples of change - one system at a time.

1 个月

I love using objects in my coaching work, it's such a great way to engage people; to take them out of their heads and work with potentially difficult topics. Interestingly, the first thought that came to mind for me was not dancing or wrestling but 'embracing' and then then 'compassion'. The figure on the right with their head slightly bent is about to be embraced by the future on the left who's pulling them into a hug. Having lost my dad recently perhaps that's why I'm seeing one individual approaching another in love, support and compassion.

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