Is life like a giant jigsaw????

We talked about what’s important about it.

That’s where the idea of the jigsaw puzzle came to me.

It’s important because it’s wasting my time and stopping me from doing the actual work - the actual coaching. The thing that gives me ALL the satisfaction. The thing that makes my heart sing.

It’s part of the bigger picture of my life and what matters to me.

So coaching feels like a jigsaw.

The edge pieces are done - the foundation. The training course (well two different ones over the last few years).

Next up is the fun colourful parts where you can pick out the blue pieces or the pink pieces and put together a car, or a flower, or in this case a yellow & red barn or pink words for the title. To me this feels like the business pieces of a business - the website, the business cards, the social media, the scheduling system, the payment systems, the forms and contracts. The things that can be ticked off.

To finish is the sky, which is really the hard work (and how cool is this jigsaw that there is no sky!!!!). This is where the real work begins and the practice, practice, practice and ongoing skills are learnt and embedded. Each piece tried in so many different ways to find the perfect fit.

I’ve now done over 200 hours of coaching since I first started. And I’ve only got about 15 hours of paid coaching to be able to apply for the International Coaching Federation certification and sit the exam. Did you know there are only 55,000 accredited coaches in the world? I am in shock at what a small number it is. I am going to be in that elite group.

But once I could more clearly see where Calendly fitted into the picture, and I could see it is a part of the whole puzzle, and even a fun easy piece of the whole puzzle - just a yellow & red barn - it made it a lot more doable. And doing that step was going to feel good. I could see a pretty outcome. I could feel the satisfaction of another part completed. I could be another step closer to finishing the puzzle.

How did we make it even smaller in case I hit some snags? The action from coaching was 10 minutes of working on it. That’s it. Sit down for only 10 minutes. I didn’t have to finish. I didn’t have to fight and resist and rail against stupid things when I got stuck.

So not only did I do the 10 minutes. But I finished. FINISHED!!!! And yes I got stuck and had to come back to it over the weekend. But I started. I did 10 minutes. Which lead to the next step in the process, and the next step and slowly they were ticked off one at a time.

Without the coaching, without getting clear on what I was doing and why, without breaking it down into something manageable, without looking at in a different way, I don't think I would have had the motivation or confidence to start.

Is there a way you can look at something differently that will help you see more clearly, give you motivation or make it easier to take the next step?