I am a personal growth and transformation coach. Quite a mouthful, hey? I used to call myself a life coach, but this way I can charge a lot more. Perhaps because this title is far more descriptive of what I do. I seldom accept clients under thirty, since realising that I cannot help grow or transform anyone who has not yet realised that their well-being is their own responsibility.
New people believe the world revolves around them. Whenever they so much as whimper older people jump to their rescue. This happens because human babies are extremely helpless, so to ensure the survival of the species we have to take care of their needs.
Age doesn’t stop people attempting to make their well-being other people’s responsibility; we just find more sophisticated ways to do it. We still cry a little, we also sulk, manipulate, lose too much weight, gain too much weight, drink too much, refuse to get out of our pyjamas, fall in love with a series of jerks, the list goes on.
We are very creative in demonstrating to the world how miserable we are. Alas the older a human gets, the less motivated the rest of the species is to make it all better. It takes many, many years for most people to accept this.
Six year old Thing 1 had her moment on Halloween. Local retailers have worked hard to have us adopt this American custom, as it is good for sales. Thing 1 has been hyped for weeks, deciding on costumes and counting sleeps. Lucky for me, a few blessed mothers in our neighbourhood volunteered to take the kids trick-or-treating.
I did my part by sitting by the gate with my laptop, a glass of wine and a bucket full of sweets. Very soon into the adventure I could hear Thing 1’s dramatic wail from a distance. When the gang of trick or treaters eventually got to my house she threw herself at me and declared it the worst day of her life. The other kids raided my sweets stash and happily moved on, while Thing 1 chose to stay behind and be sad. Soon she got bored of crying and came to sob out her story.
Three of her friends had upset her by leaving her behind. She was crying because they hurt her feelings. I inquired if she had hoped that her crying would make them feel bad. She nodded. “Did it work?” She shrugged. “Where are they now?” I asked.
“They are out trick-or-treating”
“Where are you? At home, bored, getting a lecture from me. Do you think they are still feeling bad about your crying or they have forgotten and are now having fun collecting sweets?”
She promptly burst into a fresh flood of tears and declared; “Now YOU are making me feel bad!”
Like I said, it takes a while for us humans to get this one. I took my cue from her trio of unfeeling friends, and I carried on having fun by giving way too many sweets to other people’s children.
Leave a Reply