Being treasure hunters

Setting off in search of treasure is an adventurous journey where you don't know what awaits you. Many fairy tales tell of these challenges, trials, tests of courage and dangers along the way to the great treasure.

The same is true when we set out to discover our own qualities and resources. We encounter resistance, fears and doubts, but also feelings of liberation and energy when a new resource emerges that we were not previously aware of.

In my coaching, I often meet people who have lost touch with themselves. Often even when they have achieved a goal they have worked long and hard for.

This creates a void. Those who have pursued their own goals or those of their company/team for years and have structured and organised themselves accordingly lose the free, creative and open space in which something completely new can be born.

Paul Watzlawick summed it up perfectly with the phrase ‘more of the same’. He describes the process in which unsuccessful attempts to solve a problem are intensified instead of changing the approach. More of the same will not lead you to something truly new that has the quality of an innovation. Or even a treasure.

When children leave their safe space, they are full of curiosity, wonder and joy as they explore. What prevents us from bringing this curiosity back into our lives, including our professional lives?

When a client in coaching regrets no longer having passion or enthusiasm for a goal, when the vision has evaporated, this perception is already the first step towards something new. They are aware that something essential is missing. Then the search can begin.

Such a coaching process is always individual and usually cannot be completed in a short period of time.

It involves carefully approaching perceived dangers such as resistance and blockages. It is about opening up patterns and beliefs, about imagination, creativity and also humour. As a transactional analyst and creative person, I have a variety of intervention options at my disposal. In addition, I draw on my resources from art, music, movement and dance.

Here, too, the rule is: no more of the same.

Dare to face your dragon, minotaur, monster, snake or perhaps even your Dionysus.