Recently I broke my ankle when I fell riding a faulty piece of equipment. I haven’t broken anything since I was six years old. I broke my left wrist then, and being right-handed, it really didn’t effect my life much. I remember
initial pain, but I don’t remember any inconveniences after that. It was a non-event in life of a six year old. I broke my ankle on a trip. One of travel companions asked one of his employees to drive me back to my home town, and when I dropped gentleman off at Bus Stop and made my way to my house (I could always drive on thing), after picking up my cat, I hobbled into bedroom, flopped down on bed and began to wonder how on earth I was going to do this. The pain and swelling, if you’ve ever done this, are excruciating.
I live alone. My son lives many miles away. Of course I have friends, but short of having someone move in with me, help was liable to not nearly be enough.
I could drive, but I could not touch leg to floor. I had a light cast on it from ER on trip, but no crutch. Hmmm.
It was a puzzle and had a high emotional component. I was scared at prospect of having to be dependent, and also worried about bills and logistics.
BRING IN THE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
I teach Emotional Intelligence and yes, I use skills. I also train and certify Emotional Intelligence coaches, and we always remind one another, “Remember to tell yourself what you would tell a client.”
Good thought! So what would I tell a client? Take a deep breath, calm down, and start thinking.
The first thing I did was look at my strengths. According to StrengthsFinder Profile, which I use with my clients, two of my top strengths are Intellection and Strategic. Intellection – enjoying thinking would be useful only in application to a plan of action. But voila! Strategic means it comes natural to me to “make a plan.”
I reminded myself that once I get it sorted out, and calm down, I always “know what to do.” We all have different talents, but call me a strategist. Another person might be able to figure out their goal quickly with analytical focus, but not be able to make plan to get himself or herself there. We’re all different and we all have our own innate talents. We learn others as time goes by, but our innate ones will always be strongest, best and most reliable.
