The story behind the story

In memory of an old grey three seater sofa inherited from a neighbour of ours, apparently it had once been sat on by Sir Bob Geldof, absolutely no idea if this is true but this ‘story’ always made me smile and just added to its charm.  It’s also the sofa where my mum sat and held two of her grandchildren as babies for the first time.

Additionally I am a coach, with a somewhat jaded view of the profession and a slightly irreverent sense of humour.

So without further ado I give you:

My coach……………….

 

“Enter”, came the voice from behind the door and on hearing this I did indeed enter to find a large grey three seater sofa with a matching chair in the middle of a brightly lit room.

But as I looked around I couldn’t see the owner of the voice and feeling a bit foolish started wondering if I had walked into the wrong room, when a voice said with the smallest trace of impatience.

“Don’t just stand there, take a seat“.

As I sat down there was no mistaking the source of the voice, but my brain was struggling to make sense of what I knew didn’t make sense.

I was looking at and hearing a sofa speak to me.

“Well, good morning Sarah, what can I do for you today?” Enquired the grey sofa.

“Oh“, I responded “I have an appointment with Charles Derwint, the life coach. I need to get my life back on track.”

“Then you have come to the right place“- replied the sofa, with what I thought was just a slight hint of smugness.

“But you are a sofa, a piece of furniture” – I spluttered, I was still struggling to make sense of the whole situation.

At which point it appeared to take a breath and said,-

“If you care to look around you, you will notice that I am a master practitioner life coach and accredited with the Association for Coaching. I have worked successfully with hundreds of people – coaching them towards abundance and success.”

“Did you look at my website?”

I had indeed taken a while looking at his site, but nowhere did it say that my potential coach was a sofa. So I simply spluttered, “Yes of course, but I didn’t pick up on the fact that you are a sofa”

“Then that makes my achievement all the more remarkable, do you think people would have stayed and paid me if I didn’t deliver?”

He asked, with more than a touch of asperity.

“If you look at my site, my Facebook page, LinkedIn profile in fact all my social media you will see dozens of testimonials and recommendations attesting to the work I do with my clients”

Okay, so he has a strong social media presence, I thought “but none of this tells me you are a sofa” I replied, “I haven’t seen a single photo of you as a sofa”

My voice trailed off as I thought back to one image, which I’d seen of one man in a chair sitting by a sofa. I’d assumed not unreasonably that the man in the chair was the coach, rather than the fairly nondescript three seater sofa, next to him.

“Well?” asked the sofa, “Are you going to stay or go?”

“Okay, Mr Sofa” I started to reply…..

“Ah, let me stop you right there, my name is Charles, so please address me as such.”

“Okay, Charles, as I am here, today I’d like to talk to you about …….”

Until next time

Shortstoriesblogger

Janice Taylor

www.blueskycareerconsulting.co.uk