"Some of God's greatest gifts
are unanswered prayers,"
sings country music legend
Garth Brooks. "I guess the Lord knows
what he's doin' after all."
I call it Sweet Irony: the way things
that we fervently hope and pray for
sometimes don't happen, yet we go on to
find a tremendous "silver lining surprise"
in what seemed to be a dark cloud
of failure. To experience Sweet Irony is
to learn one of life's great lessons.
I don't know about you, but I have
several personal Sweet Irony episodes.
I gladly share these with my coaching
clients who may be struggling with
difficult situations. Here are just a few
of my "greatest hits" (which felt like
body blows at the time):
1) An apparent failure with my first
coaching business endeavor in 1982. I
developed a prototype coaching program
over 20 years ago that became my
first venture into entrepreneurship.
After only six month and a little bit of
debt, I came to the conclusion it
wouldn't work and told myself,
"Coaching is a bad idea. I'll NEVER try
that again." (What is it I do for a living
today?) At the time I had an easel
pad with all my coaching instructions
written on its pages. I recall throwing
it in the Dumpster in a fit of despair.
Several years later a social worker
friend of mine asked me what happened
to my coaching material. I told
him I had tossed it out. He asked me if
I could re-create it, so I sat down and
typed out the outline, then mailed it to
him, keeping a copy for "posterity."
This outline turned into the basis of
the two coaching books I've authored
and use to this day with my clients.
The truth was, I simply didn't know
enough about running a business back
in 1982. After learning more in subsequent
years, I've developed a thriving
coaching practice.
2) A romantic relationship setback
with a woman I thought would be my
partner for life. Heck, we even got a
dog together! After having a brief pity
party for my broken heart, I began to
make new dog-owner friends in my
neighborhood.
One such couple invited me to their
wedding reception, where I met a
woman who is now my wife of eight
years. The first relationship "went to
the dogs" because I failed to realize I
was trying to rescue someone who didn't
want to help herself. I needed to
learn how to take great care of myself
to attract a great partner, so that
involvement was just the wake-up call
I needed.
3) A broken agreement from a potentially
sizable corporate account that
put me in dire financial straits at the
time. Everything seemed in place
when, at the last minute, the branch
manager of the firm announced his
budget for my group coaching project
had suddenly "evaporated." This
painful career development forced me
to reconsider my professional offering,
and I found out I was much better suited
to the one-on-one business coaching
I practice today. Who knows how
long I would have struggled along pursuing
corporate groups without this
lightning bolt that seemed to come out
of nowhere?
In each of these cases I was emotionally
devastated by the events. They left
me confused, scared, and, worst of all,
humbled by doubts about my capability
to achieve greatly hoped- and
prayed-for dreams. Yet in hindsight
each of these temporary defeats —
although at the time they sure seemed
permanent — ultimately led me to
something even better in my life.
I hope my stories may deliver a message
of hope to you when you are
struggling with what appear to be
unfortunate circumstances. You can
trust that everything works for a reason,
and everything works for the best
— even the painful transitions we all
endure from time to time.
At such moments, the words of
Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich can be a measure of comfort: "Every
adversity, every failure, every heartache
carries with it the seed of an equivalent
or greater benefit." Sage words to recall
when you experience your own Sweet
Irony.
Since developing his first coaching program in 1982, Success Skills Coach Jim Rohrbach, "The Personal Fitness Trainer for Your Business," has coached hundreds of business owners, entrepreneurs, and sales professionals on increasing their clientele.
Learn more about Jim Rohrbach.
To find out how a Nightingale-Conant coach can help you become a high achiever, call us at 877.512.3100 to speak with a coaching representative.
