Guidance System

I read an interesting story on line today about Jim Sevigny, who in 1983 was skiing with a friend in the Alps when they got caught in an avalanche. Sadly his friend was killed but Jim survived, he had broken his arm and his back in two places and had several internal injuries. He wasn't anticipating that there would be any rescue attempt and because of the severity of his injuries, he just lay down expecting to die. After a few minutes he began to feel warm, and waited for the loss of consciousness. However, instead he heard a voice over his right shoulder and in Jim's own words, he felt a "presence". The voice told him that he could not die and that he should get up. He did, and with this strange guide to help him he picked up several belongings, as directed he set off. His guide told him in which direction to go. After sometime and with night approaching he sat down wanting to get into his sleeping bag but was unable to do so because of his injuries; again he thought that this was the end. At this point he saw some skiers in the distance and his guide instructed him to call out for help. As he did so the presence left him, but shortly thereafter the skiers approached him and he was rescued. So, is this a story of chance, a story of the remarkable ability the mind has to assist us in times of great stress, or a story of something deeper? Well that is a decision you can determine based on your own belief system, all I will say is that there are many more stories like this too.

One of the things that I found interesting about this is simply the nature of guidance, regardless of where one gets it from. Joanne is attending a development training of her own this month as part of her ILM Level 7 in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring programme. One of the exercises that they have done is to guide a blindfolded partner through an obstacle course, both with and without verbal instructions. It's a coach's role to help you see things from different perspectives and guide you to find the answers and resources you need to reach your outcome. They can sometimes see what you can't see, not because they are smarter than you, not because they even have more expertise or experience than you, but simply because they are not you. What we all suffer from as individuals, to a greater or lesser extent, is an inability to stand back and to view our situation objectively, but this is one of the things that a coach will brings to a session. With NLP Coaching we add the skills to build rapport, to observe others, to bring the use of language into your consciousness and to offer a range of techniques and questions to change thinking patterns to empower the person you are coaching. We also work on the assumption that the client has the solutions, even if they don't think that they do, we know that they really do have the answers within themselves. In the example of Jim Sevigny, wherever his guidance came from, he still got himself up, he still moved to a place where he may have come across other people and he called out; he still had the ability to do all of those things even though he didn't initially believe it or act on it himself.So look inside yourself, where is the direction in your life coming from? What are you using as your guidance system? My experience from running NLP trainings has taught me that people are seeking out much clearer guidance and are finding this by taking NLP training or investing in personal coaching so they can set or re-set their own internal compass. Guidance is there for you, it can and does, come in many guises, but you are the one who needs to take action, those initial steps and I know you can.

"BETTER THAN A THOUSAND DAYS OF DILIGENT STUDY IS ONE DAY WITH A GREAT TEACHER." - JAPANESE PROVERB"

"ANY GENUINE TEACHING WILL RESULT, IF SUCCESSFUL, IN SOMEONE'S KNOWING HOW TO BRING ABOUT A BETTER CONDITION OF THINGS THAN EXISTED EARLIER." - JOHN DEWEY"

"Written By - Ewan Mochrie"