What is Ontological Coaching?
Posted on May 10, 2013 by Russell Heath, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
A coaching practice that expands your capacity to powerfully be in the world.
Say you hike into the woods for a picnic with a really exciting date or on your anniversary. On a stream bank, you spread the cloth, break into the bread and cheese, and pop the cork on a bottle of wine. Without warning, lightning cracks the sky, thunder crashes, and rainfalls. Your picnic is rained out.
How do you react? Do you shake your fist at the heavens, angry and frustrated that your afternoon has been ruined? Or do you—sing in the rain?
Ontology is the study of being. An ontological practice is freely choosing your being (at your soggy picnic: choosing joy over anger) regardless of the circumstances. Ontological coaching trains you in how to choose the way of being that best enables you to fulfill on what is important to you.
To a certain extent, we already do this. For example, if someone says something offensive to you, your default or reflexive way of being may be to be angry. However, instead of staying with the anger, you count to ten, take a breath and calm yourself down before responding to the offense. You have chosen to be calm instead of angry; to respond from a considered place instead of an aggrieved one.
This is power.
Think for a moment of a person you know who is collected, centered, and grounded and who responds appropriately (that is, from generosity, vulnerability, or love) regardless of the chaos, upsets, or frenzy that is swirling around them. This is a person who can powerfully choose their being.
Ontological coaching expands our capacity to choose. No longer are we driven by our “default” behaviors; instead, we have the freedom to choose who we wish to be. This capacity enables you to accomplish your goals, deepen your relationships, and live a life that is rich and rewarding.
The choice is yours: You can shake your fist at the sky—or sing in the rain.
