- Oct 6
- 3 min read
Edit: Apparently this post reads wonky on the phone. Fixing it. Thanks for letting me know!
I feel a little like Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, numbering posts and wondering if each post has the right week captured. Maybe it's all part of getting old :)
The week that went by:
This week has been eventful. Very. I went cold-turkey on social media and stopped using Twitter and Instagram. It's been very hard. Going to stick to it and see where it takes me. Needless to say, I will be back.
The other thing I've been thinking about deeply is my coaching practice. I didn't start
coaching with the intention of making it a full time gig. However, much to my surprise
when I put out the request, I had a lot of requests! I am now figuring out how to
manage these, without disappointing those that could be potential clients. Seeking help
from Heer to automate some steps in this journey. My goal is to be ahead of the game, if
this takes off!
Lightbulb moments in coaching:
(a) I seek closure, so it's hard for me to leave a session without moving the needle for the
client or getting prescriptive by the end of a session. It can be very frustrating for me,
personally. This was the biggest unlock for me. I knew I tend to get prescriptive and
mentor more than I coach, but didn't understand the reason behind it. Now, I do. And
that's helped me personally too.
(b) Every single person has problems. Every single individual who's signed up is struggling
with something or the other. And if I may, it's very heartening for me because misery
loves company. As I'm going through a career transition and struggling to figure out
what's next - this gives me hope. We will all get through it with each other.
(c) I sometimes coach like I'm talking to my 8 year old son. I try to co-opt the client into
what I want the client to do :\
       Â
Reading now:
I'm reading this book on coaching at the moment called The Tao Of Coaching. It's been slow thanks to the amount of notes I have to make! It is basic and yet, I'm picking up a lot to experiment on my clients. More on this when I finish the book for sure.
The other book I finished and absolutely didn't enjoy was Jeffery Archer's Heads You Win.
Meh! I picked it up because I had a reading block, but really insipid characterisation and
the end was very predictable.
Experiments this week:
I wanted to experiment with some astrology apps after checking some funding news. I'm a staunch opponent of pseudoscience and I think astrology is just that. I also worry about the impact of this on the vast masses of people that rely on faith to move forward. Nothing wrong with faith, but following any faith blindly is a problem as is obvious in the current climate in the country today. With this in mind, I tried a couple of apps, used two templates: relationship problems and career uncertainty (lol, so real, this one!). Before I knew it, I'd spent money on different apps, each time recharging it for anything between Rs. 100-200. I didn't realise the passing of time or the money being recharged again and again. However, all done by choice.
Easy payment (ola, UPI!), language that kept me hooked, promises that seemed like validation - it's all too easy and convenient to have unsuspecting folks get into the spiral. I don't write this condescendingly. When I woke up after a weekend of astrological validation to make a tally of how much I spent, I realised it was a grand total of Rs 4000!
Now imagine the folks with faith, folks with real problems seeking some sort of closure -
doesn't matter if it aligns with what they want it to be. This is clearly a goldmine for
founders building in this space. Not sure the rest of us are as lucky with our problems.
What has your week been like?