YES! YOU CAN! TIMSHEL

YES. YOU CAN.

I promise. You can. I don’t know if you will succeed. But you can. I will explain to you why I believe that.

I read the book “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck when I was in high school and it is one of the dearest ones to me. I was thinking many times about it. It’s an exceptional book! One page from this book remains memorable for me. It’s about Timshel and the emotion I felt then: joy, responsibility, hope, and sparkle in the eyes. I like to tell that story and I always feel the same emotion. I’ve discovered it resonates very much with what is happening in coaching. About the belief in coaching.

There is a discussion in the book about a translation from the bible: “You Must” and “You Shall”.

If the first translation is like an order for people to fight with sin, the second one it’s like a promise, so for sure you will win. There is no choice here.

Some old wise Chinese, the youngest was over ninety, started to study Hebrew and after years of study, they extracted the gold from their mining: “You MAY. You may rule over sin”. The old wise men smiled, nodded, and felt the years were well spent. After that, they started studying Greek.

“The Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not. But ‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” Story teller’s voice was a chant of triumph.”

“This is a ladder to climb to the stars.”

“And I feel that I am a man. And I feel that a man is a very important thing—maybe more important than a star. This is not theology. I have no bent toward gods. But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed— because ‘Thou mayest.’

Now, savoring again that story, you will understand why I believe in Timshel. From then on I have always believed. After the meeting with Coaching, I remembered Timshel. A coach works with Timshel. A coach believes in his client, he believes he can and it depends only on the client to succeed. This is why I believe in coaching. You can. Coaching doesn’t promise anything: you will reach your objective. Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s not about the coach. Maybe his clients obtained great results in the past. That doesn’t represent a pledge that the next client will obtain the same results. It depends on him. It depends on you.

YOU CAN. Timshel. That is the coaching. Sometimes the client has doubts. Sometimes he has lost hope on the way. Sometimes he looks after a solution everywhere: less to himself.

YOU CAN. Here is the beauty of the human soul. Here is the divinity in everybody.

And I want to wink at God: “Good job”!