by Allison Iantosca
We here in the Northeast have an affliction that hits every year about this time with the mid-winter thaw. We should have a name for it like “Hopelessly Harbingered” or “Punxsutawney’s Will” so that when a friend shows up with sockless shoes in early February you can label the danger.
But even the oldest salt among us is seduced by a string of 50-degree days: the smell of thawed moisture in the air, daylight until after 5:00. We begin to congratulate ourselves on our fortitude for having survived another winter…but it ain’t over yet. Not even close.
February, though short, can be long. March is a bear despite claiming the first day of Spring in its line up and April is no better — “April showers” hardly encapsulates the icy, mucky result of a week of rain with forty-degree temperatures. To make it through these next few months is, to me, the truest test of our New England stock.
But even in their ugliness, February, March, and April hold a sort of admirable grace. Like a sentry, they stand tough against battering wind protecting the buds and seedlings preparing deep in the ground for glorious May and June.
These late winter months do not seem to mind their duty, willing to succumb to the insults and thrashings of cabin fevered beings between winter and spring sports, fireplaces and fire pits, sweaters, and short sleeves. Somehow, they know their enduring role to create beauty and change and to nurture and house potential and possibility.
This is a little bit like what coaching feels like. Because it isn’t often that we stop to name our most powerful impact or to identify behaviors that are impeding the very path we seek…yet we spend enormous amounts of unconscious energy protecting our fear of failure.
So imagine the power of instead channeling conscious and positive energy into goals that will begin to shift head-trash to thoughts of possibility, hope and potential? Imagine the difference if for even one moment you begin to operate with more intentional wholeness.
It will not be pretty right out of the gate. While the seeds of personal powerful impact are being nurtured deep inside it might feel more like March than May. At some point, you may want to give up when it feels like the sun will never come. But you will endure the perceived external bleakness because every year you do. You grow a little bit stronger, emerge with a little more authority, root a little more deeply into your true self.
You have always been stalwart enough to hold against the wind and the rain. With coaching, perhaps you could imagine what could be if you give a little sustenance to that enduring toughness? If the “I should” was safely nurtured under the protective layer of yet another late season snow? Only to become “I choose” as it is ready to pop out of the ground like a crocus bulb.
As human beings, we are constantly evolving. Every season has its reason and purpose. Coaching invites you to honor yourself in yours.
Allison Iantosca is a Gestalt International Study Center (GISC) trained coach certified by ICF with extensive leadership and management experience. She is an Executive Coach and is the Owner and President of Boston based FH Perry Builder.