As a child I always loved a good adventure. I would often reenact “Little House on the Prairie” (1)scenes outside discovering new unfound places and things. One of these adventures was to find gold or other gems that would make us rich so all our problems would disappear. Armed with a sifter and a shovel I set off to the back yard convinced that I would strike it rich. My eyes were healed for any little shiny thing. Then right there in the midst of the dirt was a rock with flecks of sparkles and gold! I had done it! Life was fixing to change… or what it simply fool’s gold?<\/p>\n
Finding\u00a0Yourself in the Pursuit of a Dream<\/strong><\/p>\n Life gets more complicated when you grow up, or at least you become more aware of the complexities. You being to hear all the voices of everyone who ever told you who you were or what you should be and in the midst of that you battle within trying to grapple with who you are. In his book Mining for Gold, Tom Camacho writes, “When we discover our design and how we naturally reflect Jesus, something inside us comes alive.” (2) We are all created unique with gifts and dreams that we are called to use and reach for. When we are able to name our dream and align our gifts is when we find ourselves and fulfillment. We are no longer battling against the wind of which we were not designed to fly in or wondering in the midst of passionless work. Something can look like what we are searching for or meant to do, but if it is not in align meant with who we are designed to be than it is simply fools gold.<\/p>\n Don’t Dig Alone<\/strong><\/p>\n With all the nose that surrounds us from our past, our experiences, and our own thoughts digging alone through our life to find our design can leave us trapped in a deep hole. We are created as relational beings by a relational God and so it is by design that we walk this journey of discovery with others. Camacho writes of the importance of coaching in the process of leadership development and self discovery. It can be the catalyst that leads to thriving. “Coaching leadership helps us find clarity. Clarity leads to momentum and true experience of thriving.” (3) When we allow a trusted voice to walk alongside us they can help us to see the fools gold that can distract us from the true gold, the gifts, within us. I have found my biggest breakthroughs have been alongside a trusted voice. A voice that could remind me of who I am and help me see beyond the fool’s gold and to the truth of my calling.<\/p>\n Thriving on the Prairie<\/strong><\/p>\n One thing that I learned from my childhood love of “Little House on the Prairie” Is that thriving came when people formed community when they weren’t alone on the prairie in survival mode but when they were with others pulling from each others gifts and strengths to make live better for all. In the book “The Molecule of More” the authors point out that relationships are key to our brain function. “Our brain needs affiliative relationships just to stay alive.” They note a Harvard study that found social isolation is associated with 50% to 90% higher risk of early death which was about the same as smoking. (4)<\/p>\n So if relationships are so key to our survival than investing in relationships that can help us clarify our identity, our gifts, our gold, are a key to our thriving. Camacho believes that coaching is this key relationship for leaders who are being coached and leaders who are coaching. “Coaching Leadership is a life of loving relationship.”(5)<\/p>\n Who will you take with you on this mining journey through life?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a child I always loved a good adventure. I would often reenact “Little House on the Prairie” (1)scenes outside discovering new unfound places and things. One of these adventures was to find gold or other gems that would make us rich so all our problems would disappear. Armed with a sifter and a shovel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2516],"class_list":["post-30193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01-camacho","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30193"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30197,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30193\/revisions\/30197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n