Ever been asked a question that has quite simply stopped you in your tracks? A question that blows you away with how simple and yet how powerful it is. A question that, very gently, asks something of you that no one has asked before; that transports you to another level entirely. A question that makes you go "Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow & Wow again..."
Such a question was posed to me this week, by a person much wiser than I am. You may recognise the situation; I had been bemoaning the fact that a particularly negative experience from a few years ago was crowding my head, making it hard to think and was stopping me from focusing on the here & now.
The question, when it came, was quite simple "Where would you be without that story?" I tried to bluster, to justify, to explain how this was a big issue for me; the cause of so much pain. But the question kept being asked of me "Where would you be without that story?"
Slowly, probably too slowly, the realisation dawned on me that my inquisitor was right. I could be happier and a good deal less distracted if I let go. How much time would I have saved myself if, instead of worrying about it, I had simply asked myself "how can this experience help me to be a better training professional?" What if I had taken the time to learn from it and then moved on?
I started to realise how nice it would be to just walk away from the memories and focus on my future, the one I am so very excited about. Why hadn't I realised this before? Why had I let it affect me for so long? Why had I not taken the learning and applied it; making my own world a better place?
The truth is that I am probably being too harsh upon myself. So often it takes the insight of others to help us to see the things that are too close for us to notice; too near for us to realise that we need to ask ourselves "why is it still bothering you?"
"Where would you be without that story?" Such a simple question, such a powerful answer.
With huge thanks to Clive, Kimberley and all of the other fabulous people on the Kaizen Training Brain Friendly Learning course this week. If you get the chance to go one one of their workshops, take the opportunity like a shot.
