A Denver Post article talks about different projects to chronicle individual life stories. After helping the ABV pilot clients understand their life stories, I have a deeper appreciation for the power of connecting  the dots in one’s life. Part of the Full Expression module, the theory is that if we understand the key events in someone’s life history, the ones that lead them to where they are today, the source of their wisdom as well as the wisdom itself, will emerge.

Things often don’t go according to plan. In fact, things usually don’t go as planned. At times, this part of the roadmap to A Bigger Voice seemed to twist and turn, without a clear answer to "why are we doing this?"

And yet, it is transformative to have someone listen to your story, put concise words to the significance of the story, and then to tell your story again, with more purpose.

Beth, my ABV colleague in this process, and I have had numerous conversations about how this process  could have been streamlined. We both feel how sacred this work is, every minute of it. It’s as if we have felt the magic, we don’t know how it happened, and now, we’re reluctant to tinker with the black box. Our clients have been changed in seeing the thread of their life woven into story form–everything from a deeper appreciation for their hard-fought wisdom to interacting differently with colleagues to gaining self-confidence. Actually, this sounds a lot like the results of coaching.

Perhaps what this all points to is that ABV is a personal journey.  We can’t separate the humanity of the voice from the voice itself.