The watchtower: you watching you

A beautiful bird my friend Lynn and I saw while on a walk around Green Lake, just north of Seattle

One of my favorite coaching tools is the concept of the watchtower.  It’s really easy to be a watchtower over somebody else and observe their patterns and behavior, but have you ever considered being a watchtower over yourself?  Learning to observe yourself and stand outside of yourself is a skill that can bring you greater self-awareness. Being a watcher over yourself means to objectively observe your thoughts, emotions and actions.

Learning to stand outside of yourself and be your own watchtower will show you a lot about yourself, including how you interact with other people.  You will be able to see your relationships from a distance which will bring a new understanding to the people you interact with.

As you calmly hover over yourself, you will start to see patterns emerge in how you handle certain situations or emotions.  Watch these behavior patterns and get curious about your actions and your inactions (what you do and what you don’t do).

What do you do when you’re stressed?  What do you do when you’re running behind schedule?  How do you respond, what do you do or not do and do you like how you show up?  What do you create when you’re in a fury, or are impatient with your co-workers or patients?

How about when you’re feeling calm or safe?

How do you interact with people when you are feeling different emotions and can you identify a relationship between your feelings/emotions and your actions and inactions?

Learning to identify your own patterns gives you an opportunity to evaluate and decide if you want to stay how you are, or if you want to make a change.

The first step in any kind of change is self-awareness.  We can only make changes after we’ve become aware.  From here, we can decide what we want to do with our new awareness.