“Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long suffered the bruises of failure and mediocrity. Today I am born anew” A quote from Og Mandino. This phrase from The World’s Greatest Salesman has great meaning to me.
We need to think about “Shedding The Old Skin” and what that means. It means taking off the shackles that have bound us for way too long; being stripped of all our failures and mediocre living. It’s time to start over. Easier said than done, because the stripping or peeling off the old skin can be painful and leaves us feeling vulnerable, which is necessary for the growth process and personal and professional development, but feels so foreign. Most of us don’t like being or feeling vulnerable, yet it is exactly what we are called to do. We can’t build a new blueprint by simply writing over the old one; the old one needs to be discarded so we can begin fresh, new, which is the first sentence in this scroll, “Today I begin a new life” How easy is it to wander off of the path and to fall into prior habits that no longer serve us or the company we work for. It’s a large part of our comfort zone, kind of like trying to crawl back into the skin we’ve shed. The good news is, try as we might, it’s impossible. Oh, we might be able to cover some areas at least for a while, but others still remain exposed.
So what are we so afraid of? In one word….Change. Yet, isn’t that the very reason for coaching personal and professional development; to change the blueprint of our lives? Lasting and sustaining change? The answer is obviously yes. Hopefully we are no longer satisfied to suffer the bruises of failure and mediocrity. If we want to emerge victorious we MUST shed the old skin!
Are you ready? A good coach can absolutely help with this process.
Leslie Evans
