Monday, March 15, 2010

Sponsorship 6...

An exercise I often  challenge my sponsees (and also myself) with is: "What exactly would you have to give up to call this moment perfect?"

Mr. Sponsor Pants posted an article today that was much along the same lines I was thinking.  As usual, he says it better than I.

I am often struck by how hard we try to take a perfect moment and make it into something less than or worse, different than what it is.

I think that's often the hardest thing to do in sponsorship - to be the unflinching mirror of the reality that we get to support those who not only don't want support, but want someone who will instead buy into the drama of the moment. 

Instead, I might get to be the cheering section for letting go of those old ideas of what life ought to look like, shedding the myth of a world in which we can control all of the circumstances, discarding the avoidance of consequences we're certain will be unpleasant and permanent.

Coaching someone toward surrender may not feel much like a noble endeavor, but it's often the best 15 minutes on the phone that I can get for a day.

...because sometimes, I can hear what I'm telling someone else....

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you about talking with our sponsees. Sometimes it occurs to me that he just happens to be sitting there, but that I'm really the intended audience of the message I'm figuring out for the first time just as I'm saying it. Thanks for the reminder!

steveroni said...

"because sometimes, I can hear what I'm telling someone else.... "

Best line of the day, Ed

Syd said...

I just talked about how I get to work the steps again and again and hear what I need to hear when I sponsor others. He is looking forward to a time when he will also sponsor. I love this program.

The Turning Point said...

I always say, "when a newcomer approaches me, I'd better listen cause it's my HP sending him to talk to me and I need to hear it."

Jim

dAAve said...

If this was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Mary Christine said...

A noble endeavor indeed.