Do Your Best Thinking!

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Articles | ArticlesEN

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Posted On April 13, 2020

If you are trying to solve tough problems at the moment, then be careful not to let your mind brood or worry.

Brooding is where you get stuck in the past, ruminating, kicking yourself for not buying Zoom shares in January, for example. Worrying is letting fear take a hold, so that the future becomes a source of dread.

In both cases, we would do well to remember Hamlet ‘s words: “nothing is ever good or bad, but thinking makes it so”.

To do your best thinking and stay on track, consider taking on a coach.

Through coaching, you not only solve specific problems faster, you also push your learning and development forward, beyond what you can achieve through books, training and workshops, for example. Rather than fearing future difficulties, coaching takes advantage of them in order to help grow capability and translate that capability into action.

Coaching is a low-risk investment, as something positive invariably results. You are going to have fun and learn, even if there is no guarantee of finding perfect solutions or of enjoying every moment of the experience. After all, “there is no comfort in your learning zone and no learning in your comfort zone”, as David Peterson, Director of Executive Coaching & Leadership at Google, likes to say.

To find out more about coaching and how to get access to it, take a look at the EMCC* and ICF websites. Note that, although coaching services were rarely available to those below executive level in the past, this has changed and they have become much more accessible. Coaches and coaching organisations have solidarity programs for those most in need and startups, such as CoachHub*, offer online services. See also https://betts.coach.

Your thinking time is precious, so make the most of it. Avoid the brooding/worrying trap and resolve to solve problems, making sure that fun and learning come out of the process!

* I am an active member of the EMCC and a coach at CoachHub.

Written by Andrew Betts

Consultant, trainer and coach specialising in client communication practices (inter- and intra-company). As a facilitator, I use training, coaching and mentoring in due measure. I enjoy developing original programs and creating new tools, and begin with the assumption that the people I meet are doing their best in complex circumstances. The rest depends on where they’re starting from and where they want to go. As a sales consultant, I strive to walk the talk, applying the values and beliefs that underpin my facilitation work to the techno-commercial domain. I agree with Frankl about the importance of meaning, and believe that this generally comes from work with and/or for others – human animals are wired that way! For myself, I’ve noticed that when I’m working towards the transmission of knowledge and skills, then I feel the greatest sense of fulfilment/flow. I am also rather attached to the Schutzian notion of truth as a fundamental enabler, and to Isaiah Berlin’s idea of plurality – the complex and unfortunately rather dull opposite of extremism – as a sensible approach to the problems of the world.

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