Stop the Advice!

I am reading a chapter a day of Wayne Dyer's book Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. It's a mediation on the chinese philosopher/teacher Lao-Tzu's writings called the Tao Te Ching or The Great Way and at the end of each chapter Dr. Dyer presents a invitation to practice "the Tao Now."

This is what I read this morning:

Do The Tao Now Spend an hour, a day, a week, or a month practicing not giving unsolicited advice. Stop yourself for an instant and call upon your silent knowing. Ask a question, rather than giving advice or citing an example from your life, and then just listen to yourself and the other person. As Lao-tzu would like you to know, that's "the highest state of man."

Or woman ;-). As coaches we strive to do just that, every day. It's not easy. It's sometimes very tempting to just jump in while a client is talking and provide a quickie solution or a nugget of advice. But the best process for change and the best advice and wisdom comes from the client's own process of discovery and discernment. Coaches are simply the facilitators in this process. We ask the questions. You provide the answers.