Why I Coach

It’s just after 9:00p.m. I was dreaming about the clear blue waters of the Adriatic, the arresting cold of a Minnesota winter, and the promise of new day. I threw a blanket over my lap and then I began contemplating why I coach:

I coach to discover. I coach to uncover. I coach to create color in a world that often appears black and white.

I coach because I believe in people. I coach to honor courage. I coach in defiance of societal norms.

I coach as a form of activism. I coach to imagine things differently and in imagining things differently I know the world will change. I coach to the curiosity that opens my heart.

I coach to begin helpful dialogue. I coach to shatter unhelpful dialogue. I coach to transform what it means to know.

I coach as a daily act of improvisation. I coach to create presence. I coach to live compassionately.

I coach to dance with the paradox of life. I coach because of the humor of the human condition. I coach as an exercise in pure joy.

I coach as a witness to what I have lived. I coach as a witness to our collective imagination. I coach because I believe it can create a path in darkness.

I coach for the love of ideas. I coach for the power of thought. I coach because it is beautiful to touch, to be touched, to reveal how vulnerable we are, how powerful we are.

I coach as though I’m shouting to the world, “You matter.”