Stop To Smell The Roses
I’ve been working as a coach on and off since 2016. During this time I’ve noticed how the role of a coach has been marketed, perceived, and sold as the person who pushes you. People who want to coach other people who don’t know how to get started are often sent this canned rhetoric to explain their work to others. Like all jobs, what you do is based of the ecosystem it is in.
Our current ecosystem is consumerist focused. We all have the pressure to go, go, go. Even researchers and academics who seem to be the “slowest” moving industry experience the pressure to move faster and to know more sooner. I view the work of coaching like a seed or tulip bulb… where it is planted will reveal not just if something will grow but when and how.
When we root ourselves in the soil of a fast paced garden we are quick to bloom flowers and it takes a lot of energy to bloom. A Harvard and Stanford researcher studying lilies and flytraps proved the struggle to bloom in their study “Growth, geometry, and mechanics of a blooming lily” (2011). For all my science geeks here is the copy of their abstract:
“Despite the common use of the blooming metaphor, its floral inspiration remains poorly understood. Here we study the physical process of blooming in the asiatic lily Lilium casablanca. Our observations show that the edges of the petals wrinkle as the flower opens, suggesting that differential growth drives the deployment of these laminar shell-like structures. We use a combination of surgical manipulations and quantitative measurements to confirm this hypothesis and provide a simple theory for this change in the shape of a doubly curved thin elastic shell subject to differential growth across its planform. Our experiments and theory overturn previous hypotheses that suggest that blooming is driven by differential growth of the inner layer of the petals and in the midrib by providing a qualitatively different paradigm that highlights the role of edge growth. This functional morphology suggests new biomimetic designs for deployable structures using boundary or edge actuation rather than the usual bulk or surface actuation.” (Haiyi Liang and L. Mahadevan, 2011)
Skotheim says that the blooms build up “instabilities.” Edges of the plant tug on established cells forcing the cells to elongate. The goal of the study was to discover why flowers look the way they do. Why they bend, ruffle, open, twist, have smooth or curved edges. What are the architectural rule the plants are following?
To me this question has a lateral conceptuality to our own growth and work. What are the architectural rule we are following? Plants grow from a certain amount of strain. Too much strain, too quickly, can cause the bud to come up too early. Flower blooms are signals to migrating plants and animals about what season it is. Due to rising climate temperatures spring flowers are cropping up in late to mid winter - sending the highly attuned balancing act of the ecosystem off course. When a flower blooms too quickly, with too much strain it puts too much strain on the environment it is in - however the flower simply mimics the strain of energy placed on it by its environment. A classic chicken or egg problem.
Think of coaches like flowers. Their clients like migrating insects and animals. Their environment as the shared experience they both are in. If the flower is blooming too early it is experiencing too much strain and forcing the signaling to the insects it’s “go time!” The shared climate makes it appear as though the natural world needs to be in “go mode.” The flowers and insects cannot change the ecosystem they are in. But what science tells us is that everything adapts or dies.
This is why coaches who continue to push their clients to do more, succeed, be better, stronger, faster, are in for a highly stressful experience. And the clients who pollinate that energy will continue to bring stress to themselves and others.
When we enter a slow season - where things are good or peaceful or even unexciting - I’ve noticed some coaches advocating to their clients now is the time to bring up all the heavy work you’ve been putting off. To do the tasks you’ve avoided because you’re feeling good.
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