Energizer for WECoaches based on the use of metaphors
Energizer for WECoaches based on the use of metaphors
Pain
A worried-looking boy went to see the doctor and said: “Doctor, when I press my left shoulder, it hurts really bad. And when I press my left elbow, then that hurts really bad, as well. And that’s not all, doctor. When I press both my left and my right knee, it also hurts a lot. When I press the place where my heart is, it is also very painful, and when I press my right temple, right here, same thing. I am terribly worried, because I fear something very serious is wrong with me”.
The doctor examines him very carefully, for more than half an hour, but can’t find anything. Finally, he sent him to the hospital’s specialist, with the request to make a scan of the whole body. When the specialist had looked at the results with great detail, he went to the boy who was sitting in the waiting room and said: “Well, young man, I have finally found out how it is possible that all those places on your body hurt so much when you press them. Your index finger is broken”.
Possible solutions:
- You have to think outside of the box,
- Pick up the mirror, not the magnifying glass,
- Instead of blaming others, work and improve yourself and then teach them how to do so,
- There is a solution to any problem,
- Looks can be deceiving.
After reading the metaphor, you can discuss the following questions:
- What is your first reaction to this metaphor?
- What problems do you think you have and what would your dream solution be to them?
- Which new ideas and insights did you get from this metaphor?
- How can you incorporate what you have understood in the metaphor, in entrepreneurship?
- For which purpose can you use this metaphor in the future, with the accent on entrepreneurship? (E.g. speech, training, meeting, correcting someone’s behavior, assigning a task, selling an idea etc.).
The rooster
An artist was given the task by a king to draw a rooster for him, his favorite animal. After two months the king hadn’t heard nor seen anything from the artist. The king sent a servant to see how the artist was progressing.
“I am very busy with it”, the artist said.
After half a year the king still hadn’t heard anything and decided to visit the artist by himself. The artist asked the king if he could wait for a couple of minutes. He walked to the easel and, within ten minutes, he painted a beautiful rooster. The king was impressed. This was exactly what he had in mind. He asked the artist why he had waited so long to make the painting.
The artist walked to a corner of his studio and returned with a big pile of paper, containing lots of studies of roosters, in all forms and shapes.
He had needed all that time to identify himself fully with the animal so that, now, he was able to paint the most beautiful rooster almost automatically within a matter of minutes.
Possible solution: Hard work pays off.
After reading the metaphor, you can discuss the following questions:
- What is your first reaction to this metaphor?
- What problems do you think you have and what would your dream solution be to them?
- Which new ideas and insights did you get from this metaphor?
- How can you incorporate what you have understood in the metaphor, in entrepreneurship?
- For which purpose can you use this metaphor in the future, with the accent on entrepreneurship? (E.g. speech, training, meeting, correcting someone’s behavior, assigning a task, selling an idea etc.).
The butterfly
One day, a small hole was formed into a cocoon hanging from a bush. A passerby stopped and, for a while, observed how the young butterfly used all his power to try and crawl through this small hole. After a long time, the butterfly seemed to give up, and the hole still appeared to be too small. It looked like the butterfly had tried everything within its power and could do no more. That moment, the man decided to help the butterfly. With his pocketknife, he opened the cocoon.
The butterfly immediately got out. But his body remained meager and groggy. His wings were not well developed, and it barely moved. The man kept observing him in the belief that the wings of the butterfly would instantaneously open themselves and it would be able to carry its body, so it could fly away. This didn’t happen, however! During the rest of its short existence, the butterfly had to drag itself over the ground, with its meager body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.
What the man, with his friendly gesture, didn’t understand about this butterfly being born, was that the passage through the small hole of the cocoon was a necessary effort to let the fluid flow from its body into its wings, so they would get strong, enabling it to fly. It was the mold through which life let it pass in order to grow and develop itself.
Possible solutions:
- There are hardships we must conquer in order to rise to the challenge (It was the mold through which life let it pass in order to grow and develop itself),
- Hard work pays off.
After reading the metaphor, you can discuss the following questions:
- What is your first reaction to this metaphor?
- What problems do you think you have and what would your dream solution be to them?
- Which new ideas and insights did you get from this metaphor?
- How can you incorporate what you have understood in the metaphor, in entrepreneurship?
- For which purpose can you use this metaphor in the future, with the accent on entrepreneurship? (E.g. speech, training, meeting, correcting someone’s behavior, assigning a task, selling an idea etc.).
