Out of the Comfort Zone and into the Fire

Once, there was a young child and a huge castle. This castle was filled with hundreds of rooms, and like children do, she (let's call her Sarah) went wondering around the castle. She wandered down the long corridors, past the tapestries and came across a huge wooden door. Now, Sarah was a very adventurous child (and a nosy one at that), so her curiosity got the better of her and she turned the handle to the room and boldly walked on in. The room was filled from head to toe with the most incredible and imaginative toys; there was a Lego adventure, beautiful dolls, racing cars, Playdoh, and much more beyond.

She spent hours playing in the room, and then her curiosity led her to wonder what was in the other rooms. So, off she set, out of the playroom, back down the long corridor, and leading up to her right was a magnificent carved staircase, but beneath the staircase, another door. Well, once again, she opened the door and went in. In the centre of the room was a massive bouncy castle - as a matter of fact, everything in the room was bouncy; there were bouncy slides, the floor was bouncy, the walls were bouncy and even the chairs were bouncy. She enjoyed bouncing around until the time came to find what was behind another door. As you can imagine, every room in this castle was filled with dreamy joyfulness, fun, games and laughter - there was the theme park fun house, the games arcade room, the dressing up room, the playground room, and not forgetting the room full of sweets including a chocolate river with biscuit rings to float on!

Sarah spent many a happy year playing and exploring in the castle; but as she grew older, the rooms she would venture to grew less and less. She stopped visiting the sweet room because one time she ate too much and felt sick, so she shut that door and didn't return; she stopped going to the playground room because she fell over and hurt herself one day; she stopped going to several of the rooms because, in spite of all the happy memories and adventures, something happened that made her shut the room for good. One day, she woke up and realised there was now just one room she went into in the huge castle. She had shut so many doors that the adventure was limited. As an old lady, she thought back on the many adventures she had, and now, sitting by the fire, wondered why she ever stopped dreaming about what was behind the next door....

Now, you may wonder why I chose the story of the child in the castle. It's because we all have so many doors to explore through, and opportunities in our life; but things happen and we close off that opportunity. However, they are not locked, and you can re-open them any time and see what dreams are inside. Coaching is a great way to explore "Behind the doors".