What Happens When You Look Up?

I was fortunate to get outside last weekend and have a physically-distant but socially-together hike with friends. I have always loved being in the woods and it was fantastic to take a “forest bath” before we all hunker down to endure the late-fall muckiness as we wait to get outside again into the crispness of winter (despite my British heritage, I loathe the damp that November brings).

As we tromped through the woods, we talked about travelling again, food we had recently eaten or were about to eat (we talk about food...a lot), family, kids and work. We also talked about the colours. We collectively marveled at the different shades of red, orange, yellow and brown, but it was only about halfway through the hike that I actually looked up (waaaaay up) from the trail directly ahead of me up towards the canopy. Boom – another coaching moment!

We spend so much of our time looking out for puddles, rocks or twigs, be they metaphoric or real, that we seldom take a moment to look up and see what’s around us. In that moment of looking up, I saw colours and beauty beyond what was around me on the ground and I had that wonderful realization that there is beauty well within my view – I just hadn’t seen it yet. My whole perspective changed just by moving my neck a few inches.

When I stopped and looked, I realized the light was different up there and the colours showed differently, and it made me ask myself, what am I missing by always looking down or ahead? Am I missing the good stuff? What do I need to do to remind myself to look up every once in a while? It was a Coach, coach thyself moment – look up Boardo – you might see something cool.   

Then I asked myself, how can I use this in my Coaching practice to challenge my Coachees to see things differently or from a new perspective? 

What question has challenged your perspective and allowed you to see differently?  

‘Did you catch the Friendly Giant reference? Dating myself (quite proudly) as someone who grew up in Canada in the 70’s, I can’t utter the phrase “Look Up” without hearing a harp and a recorder in the background…when she was little my sister used to think that the medium-security correctional facility in our hometown was the Friendly Giant’s castle…not quite Sis 😊