Had a great coaching session with one of my clients. Now, this was “great” not just due to the overall quality of the conversations we had. It wasn’t the depth and breadth of the aspects that we explored but the way we truly co-created a solution so powerful that it can literally change the client’s life.
Now as a coach, that’s a “high” I wish I could experience every day. But it doesn’t happen every day. Even coaches who’re masters of their crafts find it difficult to perform to that expectation. But then, it’s never about us anyway. It’s all about the client.
So, what’s the theater of the mind? I used to think it was a great book/course (non-affiliate link, you can alternatively get the audiobook version too!) but today I think I just made it into a powerful visual tool for solving our most complex dilemmas. It’s a work-in-progress, of course, but I way too excited to share and couldn’t stop myself from sharing it here.
Here’s how it works:
- Close your eyes
- Picture an empty stage
- Call in your role players onto the stage
- Assign them characters (because you’re the director and owner of the theater)
- Have them debate/converse (ideally in lines of what goes into your mind on a daily basis or perhaps something you would like to rehearse or roleplay before actually doing it yourself)
- Work through your points/counter-points and strive to reach a resolution that’s either a “win-win” or “let’s not play” (it takes a mature person to arrive at this equation and that’s exactly what this exercise would help you do)
- Arrive at the resolution
- Reflect on how the owner of the theater/director would apply the new learnings/insights from the “play” into his/her own life (focus on application, chances are you may have missed out on a few nuances. If that’s the case, go through the exercise again until all your queries have been addressed fully.)
That’s it! It’s deceptively simple. Be sure to give yourself enough time (60 to 90 minutes would be ideal) to go through the exercise and reflect on the solutions you’ve arrived.
Like I said earlier, it’s a work in progress. I will dive deep into this and refine this further. Hope to keep you posted on the developments as I go along. If not, I’ll just share the final version here on this blog anyway.
Ready to “play.” Take my word for this — you’ll be amazed!