Discover your Edge

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Courtney Reed, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

I once heard a very wise man encourage someone to “discover your edge and then live into it”. I mean…doesn’t that give you a mental image? It does for me…I imagine a finally honed and sharpened sword capable of accomplishing any task it’s owner puts in front of it. Discover your edge and live into it – what a powerful statement! At one time, we all had an edge, didn’t we? And many of us still have that edge, even if we don’t feel it, but we feel maybe it’s become a little bit dull or perhaps it’s been overused without the proper care. And the edge has been worn down, weakening its sharpness, until we think we can’t even use it anymore. Just like the finest quality gourmet knife, we believe it becomes unusable if the edge isn’t sharp.

But experience tells us that when we start to hone that edge again, it becomes sharp again, and we can use it again, often times better than when we first discovered it, because now we know how to use it and what to do with it, and now we know it’s strength and qualities whereas before, perhaps we took it for granted!

I’m gonna ask you to think for just a minute about your edge….I firmly believe that everyone has one. My question to you is this: What is your edge? Answer that to yourself…everybody has one…what is yours? What do you excel at, what is your passion, what is your creative outlet, what is inside of you, or what is it that at one time you believed was an unparalleled quality or skill or strength that you had or have…that’s your edge…what is yours???

And as we discussed before, over use, without the proper care, abuse, self abuse, abuse from others, negative self dialogue, all of those things weaken it’s sharpness from our own perspective. Just like that fine quality gourmet knife, we need to take corrective action. Maybe someone has labeled you inaccurately and you’ve started to believe that label…maybe you’ve labeled yourself. If you could replace the inaccurate labels with your own self-truth descriptors, what would that look like? How would you begin to hone that edge again?

Those inaccurate labels and negative judgments others have hurled at you…what if you could take a moment and be grateful for them? Sound crazy? It’s a part of your experience. You’ve grown from them, you’ve learned invaluable information about yourself from them, so be grateful for them for just a moment. Then be grateful for your own strength to persevere through the muck! Thank yourself for having the courage to identify the challenges and for having the strength to carry on despite them! And now, the most powerful “thank you” of all – thank yourself for the actions you are about to take…the actions that enable you to move forward beyond the challange! What would you say to yourself if you were thanking yourself for what you are about to do for YOU?

You see, we all have something that is a challenge to us or discourages us and life coaching is about asking the questions to identify those challenges and asking your clients the questions that can help them find the answers to be able to move beyond it. Life Coaching is encouraging others to aim for the future, whatever the goals may be! And there really is no greater honor than for a client to share their journey with us!

It’s an exciting time to be a Life Coach! If you have a calling for this, I encourage you to open yourself up to all the benefits of this career. If you need encouragement and inspiration in doing that, there’s a world of Life Coaches just waiting for you to reach out to them! It’s always a good time for inspiration and encouragement!