Build Our Country

I write this week’s post from the land of the long white cloud, where Jenni and I are enjoying a brief holiday with family.

New Zealand’s weather is notoriously changeable, and after a few days in which we experienced all four seasons in a day, the weather has now given way to solid overcast skies and light rain providing the perfect opportunity to take a break from sightseeing, hole up inside and put ‘fingers to keyboard’.

The other night I lay in bed in the early hours of the morning in a state of what can best be described as ‘semi-consciousness’ as my mind and body tried to come to terms with the recent radical shift in time zones.

Perhaps brought on by my sense of relative calm and unity of purpose of people in this far flung corner of the planet, I started to reflect on the dramatic political, social and economic upheavals evident in most of the rest of the world at this time.

[box type=\”shadow\”]“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”

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Build our country (continued)

 

General upheaval

The recent Brexit vote and related fallout in the UK, the unprecedented drama in the build up to the US elections, increasing international diplomatic tensions, economic uncertainty and general upheaval, all played on my mind. And, of course, I couldn’t help thinking about the battle royal raging between the forces of good governance and corrupt self interest in my adopted home country, South Africa.

The solution

As I lay in that twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness, a strange thing happened. I suddenly sensed the presence of an unearthly entity of great compassion and wisdom who brought a crystal like clarity to my rambling thoughts:

“Care, Inspiration, Empowerment … that is the solution.”

I kept playing those words over and over in my mind until it dawned on me that these were fundamental principles embodied within the coaching process. With a warm and admittedly rather smug sense of inner satisfaction I drifted back to sleep with the thought:

“Of course, the solution to the world’s problems lies in life coaching.”

Invictus-inspired

Some time later, I found myself back in the twilight zone, this time reflecting on how the sport of rugby (one of my great loves) and the success of the national team, the All Blacks, had done so much to help unite my host country.

In an Invictus-inspired moment I was propelled back to the world cup final in 2007 and how rugby, under the Springbok emblem had also served to unite South Africans, thanks to the caring, pragmatic, and statesmanlike approach of the much loved Nelson Mandela.

Once again, a strange feeling came over me. It felt as if the wise entity who had visited earlier had returned to embellish his original message:

“Caring, Inspiration, Empowerment. These are the essential ingredients to build a person, a nation and the world.”

With those profound words swirling round in my mind, I drifted back to sleep once more.

Bringing coherence to my thinking

As the sun rose on my second day of holiday I found myself lying in in bed, awake, reflecting with some bemusement on the strange nocturnal happenings – and trying to bring some coherence to my thinking.

My mind returned to coaching and the key role that it could play in helping bring greater peace and harmony to the world. I thought of South Africa and the urgent need for more caring, inspiration and empowerment among all of our people, given the obvious current lack of political leadership in this regard.

“We need to Build our Country through Caring, Inspiration and Empowerment of all its people,” I thought to myself.

A rather neat acronym

Then it struck me that, at least in the South African context, I had just come up with a rather neat acronym: B-O-C-C-I-E. (Though it may not mean much elsewhere, \’Bokkie\’ derived from the diminutive form of Bok, as in Springbok, and pronounced the same way, is a well-used  and generally liked term of endearment in South Africa!)

I began to wonder whether there was scope to start a campaign to encourage all coaches – and, for that matter, every member of the public – to sign a pledge: “I commit to build our country through caring inspiring and empowering others.”

In short, “I commit to BOCCIE”.

Caring, inspiring and empowering are all elements of good life coaching practice. Nevertheless, when you think about it, every single one of us on earth has the wherewithal to bring one or more of these approaches into play in our day-to-day interactions with other people.

It costs nothing and requires no education or special training to be caring, to act as an inspiration for or to help empower other people. All it takes is a tolerant and respectful attitude and a selfless commitment to mutual upliftment and making the world a more positive place.

Would you commit?

Does a ‘BOCCIE’ campaign have merit, or should it remain the stuff of jet-lag induced dreams 🙂

I look forward to your comments.

And by the way – would you commit to BOCCIE?

 

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Find out more about life coaching and becoming a life coach here:

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