Coaching

There is a muffled cry arising around me. It is the cry of men and women who find themselves rent in two, with one part called to make a living and the other part called to pursue a passion, whether that be in the arts or some other endeavor that seems less practical than the money-earning part.

I hear this cry everywhere I go. In one conversation after another, friends, family, acquaintances utter the same cry for an integration of their highest joy, their highest purpose in the world, with the time-consuming process of putting roofs over heads and food on tables.

For reasons beyond my understanding, I have run into conversations about coaching in all its various forms (integral, life, business, executive, creativity, etc.) at every turn. I’m sitting with a friend over dinner, and he asks me about my coaching practice. I turn on the radio, I hear magician Penn Gillette talk about his Showtime series “Bull Sh*t” exposé of the charlatans in the coaching business. I sit down with one colleague (then another, then another) and, in nearly every such conversation, the topic of “coaching” shows up.