I’m in the habit of telling new coaching, mediation and consulting clients that the first stages of a difficult conversation can feel as though things are getting a bit messier. It’s usually only for a short time if it happens at all. I tell them this up front to let them know it’s a normal experience and to help them not lose hope when it happens.

Now, thanks to Christine Kane, whose blog I enjoy regularly, I have a terrific image to bring my “heads up” to life and help clients understand it in the spirit intended. Said Christine,

“One of my mentors says that when you plant a seed, the first thing that comes up isn’t the perfectly formed sprout. The first thing that comes up is dirt.”

I love this! Stepping up to your difficult conversations is just like that. A little bit of dirt pushes up as the sprout makes its way to light and too many people head for the hills, sure the dirt means something bad is erupting.

The dirt means something transformative could happen if you don’t run away. How beautiful an image is that?

Conflict Zen® by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at ConfictZen.Lenski.com.