ACKNOWLEDGE THE PAIN
I was watching a news clip recently about 12 year old Ashlyn Blocker of Gainesville Florida. Ashlyn is one of 35 people on this planet who suffers from the condition CIPA, known as Congenital De-sensitivity. Hearing stories of undetected illnesses and ignored injuries of those like Ashlyn was moving indeed.
Later, reflecting on this news story, I thought of how much time, energy we expend, and money we spend, trying to avoid pain, treat pain and get rid of it all together. I thought of how we are bombarded with commercial messages promising that the purchase of a particular product will ease the pain and make us feel better. We just don’t like to experience pain and distress and will do anything to avoid it.
Reflecting further, I thought of how often in my coaching experiences, the initial challenge is to get a person to acknowledge that something is critical and needs to be addressed. We often opt for the illusion that everything is OK, rather than recognize the issue and its implication. Our avoidance of the problem can become a serious condition that de-sensitizes us to the need to change.
People who have the condition known as CIPA rarely make it to their 25th birthday, because their brain will not warn them of the impending danger of what the illness or injury is doing to their bodies. In life and business, we need to acknowledge that something is wrong, or we cannot / will not deal with it. In fact, if you think about it, it is only at the point of struggle and the feeling of discomfort, that we are ever motivated to take action and change.
