The Train Series 7: Thinking

First published on September 30, 2016

I had a realisation a few days ago that sometimes magic happens when you think about things for longer than you think you should think about them for. The magic I was thinking about was - I think(!) - the shift from the limitations of some kind of fixed, pessimistic, 'can't do', skeptical thinking, into the excitement, buzz and 'can do' of possibility thinking.

I'm sure you've been past that point before. It's something that happens about three drinks into an evening with friends, where you relax enough to talk about some of the things that are really important to you, and no one stops you because everyone else is in that space too. Perhaps the feeling of possibility is what created the excitement of all the bands that were thought of but never formed in bars around the country.

This isn't about dwelling on the problems longer, it's a different type of thinking. It's the excitement of ideas generation. Of optimism about forming these ideas. And of the possibility that they could happen, and if they did, everything might change.

Coaching is a great space for this, because a good coach will slow you down when you try to skate over things, ask you insightful questions about the things you mention, and may even simply invite you to 'tell me some more about that'. What a rare invitation that is, and I can tell you from my experience as a coach and a client that this can lead to magical moments of realisation.

We (the world) are really good at the first type of thinking, especially around the things that are really important to us. It's a safety mechanism to keep us safe from being 'out there' and being disappointed. But we need some more of the excitement in the second type of thinking. Because it leads to great things, magical things, and who doesn't need more magic in their lives.