I spent much of the time driving back and forth to the City of Hope yesterday thinking about Wednesday’s post. It centered around three important activities: mentorship, adoption, and coaching. But, that isn’t what captured my attention.
What I was searching for was a common thread. Something that tied all three interactions together. A pattern to help make sense of the power that seems to come from engaging with another human being. It seems as if I’m always searching for patterns. Distinguishing commonalities that help explain how and why some things seem to work so well while others remain ineffective. Fruitless. Unsuccessful.
The answer occurred to me on the way home. The one thing mentorship, adoption, and coaching have in common — the thread running through each — is contact. The intimate involvement of one human being with another. One person reaching out to help another. The kind of interaction capable of cutting through the isolation and loneliness we have all felt at one time or another. Especially, while trying to overcome seemingly overwhelming challenges and obstacles.
It appears that all three activities require the active involvement of another. Just as all three require trust.
Trust is a critical component of success when it comes to moving through difficult and uncharted territory. It is built upon reliability, response-ability, dependability, predictability, and accountability. All of which involve performance: someone doing what they said they were going to do.
We’re more likely to step off the abyss when we know there is someone there to catch us. Someone to break the fall. We’re more likely to begin a journey through uncharted territory knowing there is someone there to guide us.
It seems the common thread I was looking for is companionship. Knowing the future is far less daunting when faced together.
adoptioncoachingcommon threadcommunitycontactengagementinterpersonal relationshipsinvolvementmentorship