{"id":9378,"date":"2021-11-29T09:03:42","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T09:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/?p=9378"},"modified":"2022-08-17T18:52:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T18:52:39","slug":"reaching-for-the-aha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/reaching-for-the-aha\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching for the Aha"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Maravi Melendez-Davis \"Maravi
\nwww.linkedin.com\/in\/maravimd?<\/a><\/p>\n

New\u00a0Manager: Ask the question.
\nMe: (silence)
\nNew\u00a0Manager: Why don\u2019t you ask the question?
\nMe: (silence)
\nNew\u00a0Manager: (silence)<\/p>\n

Shortly after this\u00a0conversation, I resigned\u00a0without a plan. For\u00a0a while, I woke and went to sleep thinking, \u201cwhat was the question I was supposed to be asking?\u201d<\/p>\n

During my stint of unemployment,\u00a0I read a story about a man who was reading a dense, non-fiction book. He must have looked perplexed because another man, familiar with the\u00a0printed work, approached\u00a0him and asked, \u201cdo you understand what you are reading?\u201d The\u00a0baffled\u00a0man looked up and said, \u201chow can I unless someone explains it to me?\u201d\u00a0At once I thought of my former manager, Luke,\u00a0and our silent\u00a0conversation\u00a0that was full of\u00a0mutual, unspoken,\u00a0and unfulfilled expectations.\u00a0My\u00a0head and heart became in\u00a0sync.<\/p>\n

I recognize Luke as the man asking\u00a0the\u00a0question, and myself as the man needing\u00a0the\u00a0explanation.\u00a0I began reaching out to a woman, Veronica, whom I admired. First, we emailed. Now,\u00a0I go to her house for lunch and tea. She listens to me; I always feel\u00a0seen and heard in her presence. Veronica\u00a0asks me questions. I ponder each aloud.\u00a0Sometimes, I am\u00a0frustrated\u00a0by what I clearly do not know.\u00a0However, it is a feeling that does not last or take root. Veronica\u00a0patiently awaits\u00a0as I take a familiar thought-route\u2014from stuck to\u00a0Aha!<\/p>\n

Veronica\u00a0is still\u00a0my master coach.\u00a0I often think about the difference between my responses today versus my reactions of\u00a0yesterday.\u00a0Where would I be if I only knew\u00a0the\u00a0questions to ask?\u00a0Truly, I know\u00a0the answer to this question\u00a0does not matter. The most beneficial queries come as I notice someone struggling and boldly ask,\u00a0\u201cwhat can I do to help you understand this moment?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now I am on the journey to becoming a coach!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Maravi Melendez-Davis www.linkedin.com\/in\/maravimd? New\u00a0Manager: Ask the question. Me: (silence) New\u00a0Manager: Why don\u2019t you ask the question? Me: (silence) New\u00a0Manager: (silence) Shortly after this\u00a0conversation, I … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[470,471,16,40],"tags":[1667,48,1362,1666,1665,76],"class_list":["post-9378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaching-resources","category-coaching-skills","category-coaching-stories","category-tools-and-techniques","tag-aha","tag-coach","tag-manager","tag-maravi-melendez-davis","tag-reaching-for-the-aha","tag-understand","latest_post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9389,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378\/revisions\/9389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachcert.com\/coachingblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}