by R.A. Weigel
The CCNI Coaching Business Summit has been a major focal point for us at CCNI since the beginning of June. I’ve been giving it some thought, and it is highly possible that the Coaching Business Summit is a watershed event for us as an organization. A watershed event is where something changes, new directions are formed, and serious consideration is given to how things are done.
If you’ve been involved with CCNI for any length of time, you know that our ongoing purpose has been and will continue to be, to support all Christian coaches, at all levels, all around the world. We have done that by providing webinars, summits, learning communities, modeling, continuing education credits, and coaching demonstrations. But the Business Summit has been different and has opened my eyes to additional needs among our Christian coaching family.
As Christian coaches, we have a foundational purpose for what we do. We have staked our lives on something solid which is the revealed Word of God. We want to use our coaching prowess to serve and help others and each of us feels compelled to use what God has given us for his glory. But if we are constantly pulled between our desire to do what we want to do and a perception of what we think we have to do to make a living, then without a compelling reason and the necessary support to frame that transition, nothing will change.
I’ve a favorite saying, Learning is Never Full. For years I have felt that too many people become content with their current status and allow life to wash over them without accepting new learning challenges. But perhaps it’s time to add an addendum to that saying. Transitions Recur. No matter where you are in life, there is always another transition – just around the corner.
It is well known in business that there is a point where your products or services will be copied by a competitor. When that happens, you lose exclusivity and unless you transition to improve or change your product, eventually you’ll go out of business. Transitions are a normal part of doing business, but transitions in our personal lives is something many of us fear. Yet transitions are a vital part of your life if you want to decrease that pull between what you want to do and what you have to do.
Developing the knowledge and skills to facilitate the transitions of your life begins with understanding how making changes will impact you and others. You might frame it using the Bridges’ Model of Transition.1
It is a simple model with 3 stages called ending – transition – and new beginnings. There are times when you have to end what you’re doing in order to reach a new beginning. Even when you end something, that new beginning can still be elusive, (while you’re in transition), because it takes a more time, patience, faith, support, and persistence to finally reach your destination.
For many of us, that first stage is the most difficult. Simply put, it is leaving your past behind. It can be incredibly difficult to start something new when you’re holding onto the past. As Christians, it was articulated brilliantly in the Bible by Paul when he said, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.”2
In the book Change or Die by Alan Deutschman, he states, “The first key to change. You form a new emotional relationship with a person or community that inspires and sustains hope.”3 And that is what has become clearer to me as we have gone through the CCNI Business Summit. We, (CCNI), want to be the community that inspires and sustains the hope in and for you to assist your movement through the process of ending, getting through your transition, and into the future which is your new beginning.
You are on your dream journey. It is very difficult to do that alone. The starting point for working through your transition from whatever ending you articulate – to the new beginning of your visionary dream, begins with garnering the support you need throughout. We at CCNI want to be that support so you can chase your dream and make it a reality.
Wherever you are in your coaching dream journey, there will certainly be another transition because transitions recur. During the business summit, especially during the repeat events, the depth and breadth of the discussions created the conditions where we were sharing our struggles, learning from each other, and building our hopes for the future.
“The best way to discover your dream is to help other people accomplish theirs!”4
At CCNI, we are now establishing the framework where we can regularly dialogue with each other to build deeper insights and understanding so everyone involved can take another step out of their transitional phase and toward the new beginning of their dream journey.
Let’s keep working together to build God’s kingdom on this earth. The business summit made it clear to me that when we are working together, we can accomplish far more than the sum of our shared dreams. Our God is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.5
- See Philippians 3:13
- William Bridges Associates. 2021. Bridges Transition Model | William Bridges Associates. [online] Available at: <https://wmbridges.com/about/what-is-transition/> [Accessed 27 June 2021].
- Deutschman, A. (2008). In Change or die: the three keys to change at work and in life (p. 14). essay, Harper.
- Batterson, M. (2019). In Chase the Lion: If Your Dream Doesn’t Scare You, It’s Too Small (p. 6). essay, Crown Publishing Group.
- See Ephesians 3:20
Rich Weigel has an extensive background in leadership with over twenty years leading school districts. In addition to establishing his new business as an Executive and Leadership coach, he was an adjunct professor for Olivet Nazarene University providing instruction for Strategic Leadership at the doctorate level. Rich served as CCNI’s President since January 2020. He can be reached at proedcoach@gmail.com.
