Gandhi and Me
Mahatma Gandhi
When I first became an energy kinesiologist back in 1989, I was concerned. If I was going to be in a position of facilitating change, there would be times I would be offering advice. Would I have the integrity to walk my talk?
A wonderful and well-known story from Gandhi’s life provides a great example of impeccable integrity in action. Though this story varies a bit from source to source, the essence is the same:
A mother was upset by her young son’s intense cravings for sugar. Nothing she could do or say could stop him from satisfying his sweet tooth at every opportunity. She knew this boy would listen to the great Mahatma, so she begged Gandhi to speak to him.
Gandhi listened to her request with care, then told her to return in two weeks with her son. He would speak to the child at that time.
They returned two weeks later and Gandhi simply told the boy to stop eating sugar. It wasn’t good for his health. The boy nodded and said he would stop. But his mother was puzzled. Why the two-week wait?
Gandhi replied, with a smile, that two weeks before he had still been eating sugar himself.
As a kinesiologist and coach, I can’t encourage or advise anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself. Yet every Transformation Genie in the business of facilitating change is aware that a client’s issues often mirror her own challenges.
Recently I was brought up short when a coaching client came in with her finances in a muddle yet again. Recently divorced, this young woman was struggling to take charge of her finances. We set up a bill-paying system for her earlier in the year, but it had been abandoned in the midst of a very busy life. Bills were not being paid on time and overdrawn notices were flooding her mailbox.
Why had this happened? When I looked at myself, I realized that though I had steadfastly done my business bookkeeping and bill paying every Friday afternoon for close to 20 years, the habit had somehow gotten lost while writing and publishing The Yes! in Success. Too much time at the computer?
Every quarter during this three-year period, I found myself in a mad scramble to enter three month’s= worth of financial data into QuickBooks, my bookkeeping software, at one go. A real challenge so long after the fact. “Who was this check from?” I am a QuickBooks devotee and evangelist. So, it was not comfortable to bring this lapse into the light of day.
Of course, I brought everything up to date as soon as I recognized the problem and have continued to do so. But the remarkable thing is that, at the same time, this client arranged to sit down with a financially savvy friend on a regular basis to attend to money matters. She is beginning to make smart purchases with her bank balance in mind. A big step forward!
Are these two turnarounds related? I believe they are. When we make positive changes in our lives, others are able to do the same, whether they know our challenges or not.
The following excerpt from The Yes! in Success (p. xxii) addresses this phenomenon:
“I notice that elements of success that I’ve struggled to master frequently come with less effort for my clients. Many of these people have become my colleagues, and their clients—the next ‘generation’ in this human chain of personal transformation—often achieve mastery with relative ease.
We are all in this life together. In a way it’s like bygone eras when families shared a bed for warmth. If one person rolls over, everyone else does too. When I change, you change and when you change, I change. My success adds to yours. And yours to mine.” (The Yes! in Success, p. xxii)
Celebrating change agent in you!
Eliza
Creatives’ Coach Eliza Bergeson is the author of The Yes! in Success: How To Be The Star You Are And Live The Life You Love.
She works her magic with creative individuals—entrepreneurs, speakers, writers, visual and performing artists; people who are ready to transform bright vision into gratifying outcomes in their businesses and their lives. If that sounds like you, visit her site, www.elizabergeson.com, for more FREE success-building resources.
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