As the nights draw in and another year draws to a close, its a natural time to pause and reflect.
I’ve been looking back and asking: Has this year brought me closer to the goals I’d imagined for Wise Goose this time last year? Have we made the most of the opportunities and the gifts that have come my way? Have we been true to our purpose and values?
I must admit I was feeling a bit low when I started, our son is in India on a gap year adventure and won’t be back until Spring, this will be the first Christmas without him. And I was feeling sad about losing a colleague who, for good personal reasons, decided to move on, but I’ll still miss working with her.
And 2016 has been a challenging year in other ways, Brexit and the long term uncertainty it brings and Donald Trump as the next US president is just plain scary!
But the more I reflected, the more I saw that this has been a really good year for Wise Goose. It’s all too easy to lose sight of this in the midst of the day-to-day challenges of life and running of a business.
In February our one year programme was accredited by the Association for Coaching at their ‘top tier’ Advanced Diploma level, the process was rigorous and felt like quite an achievement and relief!
At the start of the year we became a partner of Gameshift a collaborative hub of seasoned professionals who are committed to bringing their work to the world, in service of individual, human, organisational and planetary flourishing. Our values are a great fit and I’m looking forward to seeing how our collaboration develops over 2017.
The Dartington Conference was yet another thing that made the year a success.
Then we were given a generous donation that supported four students to participate on our programmes.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Diana Whitmore a highly respected pioneer of Transpersonal Coaching joined our team. She made Group 3’s final weekend extra special and helped Group 4 get off to a brilliant start.
As important as all of these, all of the small kindnesses, encouragement and expressions of goodwill throughout the year helped us to get through challenges and setbacks manageable and make it all worthwhile.
I’m so glad I took those few reflective moments, I’m ending the year counting blessings and full of gratitude. I hope you feel inspired to take a few moments to count your blessings …