Sometimes awareness smacks us round the head.
- John Ireland
- Oct 8
- 2 min read
I had a head injury in 2019.
For medical geeks, it was a small right frontal traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage. Which sounds a lot smarter than the dumb way I did it, on an electric scooter, barefoot, without a helmet, testing how fast it could go with the limiter off. It was fast.
Luckily for me the local A&E was St George’s, Tooting, a centre of excellence for both trauma and neuroscience. Double win! And they were excellent. No blame, just sensitive, intelligent care, giving me a scan where another hospital could have stitched me up and sent me on my way.
Knowing it was a head injury, despite being a small one, meant I had to stop and stop for a couple of months. I couldn’t handle too much noise, I felt thick headed, slow and I was told that I needed to let my brain recover.
But two months. The forced rest was alien for me and triggered an old story of how could I/we survive. But I didn’t have a choice, it was either stop and heal or run the risk of more issues.
So I gave into it, and when I did it was like sloughing off a heavy yoke. I didn’t have to be hustling all the time. I wasn’t alone in this challenge. We would find a way through and if necessary there was support around us.
Looking back, I think this accident was the final element that primed me to move into Coaching, because when the opportunity to train arose, I didn’t view it from a place of scarcity – how would I pay for it, how could I fit it in?
I viewed it from a place of abundance: What would it open up for me, what impact could I have through this work?
Sometimes awareness smacks us around the head and sometimes it blooms out of the right conversation. That is exactly what I have seen Coaching do over and over again, both for myself with the Coaches I have worked with and also for the clients I’ve had the pleasure to partner.
I REALLY wouldn’t recommend headbutting the road to discover what’s possible, there is a much lighter way to explore.
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