What are you thankful for? Hopefully you are practicing it daily rather than annually! How are you practicing it? Read below for inspiration and ideas. I am thankful for community (you!) and the opportunity to live out my vision of unlocking potential so all can live in prosperity and peace, as a Leadership, Team and Mentor Coach, Coaching Supervisor, author, speaker.
What practices support your pausing and giving thanks, leading to inspiring visions? I journal mine morning and night time, putting a frame around my day, as well as striving to prayerfully pause and give thanks throughout the day, including for family, friends, health, meaningful and fulfilling work.
I am thankful for living in a nation that does not have a (physical) war raging within its borders. And I think of the coaches, leaders and teams I coach in Ukraine (and elsewhere globally), currently experiencing armed conflict.
Who is inspiring you: speakers, authors? I’d love to hear from you. I collect books I want to read in a contact file. In the past few years I have especially been inspired by historical fiction (Example: The Invention of Wings), understanding cultures (Examples: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous and plants, The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois: African American, This is Happiness, Irish) and biographies of strong women such as Barbara Bush, Michelle Obama, Samantha Powers, as well as hearing Madeleine Albright speak.
Below please find an updated reflection from 2008, when I was moved by a speaker and author who had lived through war and founded an organization to help women recover from the horrors of war, including rape, separation from their families, witnessing family members being killed.
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Zainab Salbi, author of Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny and The Other Side of War: Women’s Stories of Survival & Hope, as well as founder and president of Women for Women International, truly moved me in her keynote speech at an International Coach Federation annual conference.
I was fortunate at the conference to acknowledge her for being a model of a woman who has survived abuse and tyranny herself and helps other women war survivors tell their stories and rebuild their lives. The power she exemplifies is strength and courage and seeking the greater good and peace, rather than anger and revenge, and power over others. Note the title of her second book focuses not on the horrors but on survival and hope.
From the Women for Women website:
Already feeling called to be a part of promoting peace, connection, and unity beyond my role on the ICF board of directors as it becomes a more global, diverse and inclusive organization (honored for my contribution to DEIBJ with the ICF Circle of Distinction Award 2021*); and my Renewing Your Spirit work, Zainab inspired me to do more. This year, 2022, that includes delivering “How to Be a Peaceful Presence in a Divided World” with ICF Finland; a group of Ukrainian Coaches; and next March at the UN founded University of Peace’s Global Happiness Summit in Costa Rica (Join us!); as well as Contributor to Humanity@Work. I continue to explore who to partner with, how to have the greatest impact for the greater good, including coaching with EthicalCoach, the United Nations, the US Institute for Peace.
-Are you truly inspired, but do not know how to move forward with your vision? Have a vision you put aside because it seemed too out of reach or not the right time yet? Is it time now to dream big? Or looking for that new vision to carry you through this next portion of your wild and wonderful life? And/or already feeling overwhelmed or weary from the continuous uncertainty we live in, and it is not even December, holiday and year end time yet, making it harder to focus on vision? How can I best support you? You are invited to apply for a complimentary Unlock Potential Strategy Session.
-Coaches, discover how to further develop your coaching and Cultural Intelligence for greater impact in our Culturally Intelligent Mentor Coaching + Certificate Program, now offering 24.5 ICF CCEs and applying for 30 hours.
I am thankful for you, dear community, for the peace and freedom I am privileged to experience, and for the opportunity to live out my vision of unlocking potential so all can live in prosperity and peace through Leadership, Team, and Mentor Coaching as well as Coaching Supervision, as well as writing and speaking. And yes, sharing power is one of my values and approaches. I also realize some cultures are more hierarchical rather than partnership, power sharing.
What are you thankful for, and how is giving thanks inspiring you to move forward with your vision?
To our success-we are in this together!
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* ICF Circle of Distinction Award, honored for being one of the pioneering advocates for a diverse, inclusive coaching profession as well as integrating coaching and cultural competencies while serving as a board member for both the International Coaching Federation Global and the Association of Coach Training Organization’s boards, chosen for my impact on and contributions to ICF, the coaching profession, and social change; thought leadership; as well as my mission, vision, and core values.
PS …”We join with the earth and with each other.
To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children of the earth.” from the UN Environmental Sabbath Program
Marilyn O’Hearne, MSW, MCC, LLC; CQ Master Certified Coach, International Coach Federation www.marilynoh.com 913-327-
Unlocking potential, prosperity and peace for leaders, coaches and their organizations through Leadership & Team Coaching, Mentor Coaching and Coaching Supervision
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cqcoachmentormarilynohearne/
Partially first published 2008 and updated
Image: Lip at Unsplash
