Wisdom

As I was reading this month’s feature article on wise elders, my mind kept returning to today’s coaching—life coaches, financial coaches, nutrition coaches, among many others. I can’t help but think about how much this evolving field reminds me of the old oral tradition, where knowledge was shared through stories and experiences, passed down from one generation to the next.

One of the present-day coaching styles is based on the unique insights we gain from personal experiences, good or bad, which help us guide others in similar situations. Whether we’ve survived extreme trauma or figured out how to bake the perfect cheesecake, we have words of wisdom that may serve others. No one has experienced something exactly the way we have, and it is in these individual differences that the real value lies. Our perspectives are oft en the key that unlocks understanding for someone else.

One challenge is that we don’t always believe that we have wisdom to offer. I recall asking— no, hounding—my great aunt for her stories, seeking her wisdom, and she would respond, slightly embarrassed, “Why would you be interested in that boring stuff? It isn’t important anyway.” What she considered mundane or unimportant was, to me, a gold nugget of a story. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to root out many of those tales, and most of her adventures went untold, lost to time.

The concept of passing on our wisdom through stories is more than just a tradition—it’s a responsibility. Whether we make it a career in coaching or simply share stories with family and friends, we each hold unique experiences to pass on. And in sharing, we may find that the wisdom we thought was ordinary is exactly what someone else needed to hear.