Principle 2 states – The Recovery and Wellness process increases an individual’s self-knowledge and ability to make choices.

How do we work? What makes us tick? Why do we do the things we do? Make the choices we make? 

These are deep and profound questions that can take us far and wide into what it is to be human.
When Recovery starts, however that is and however that is described by a person, something else also changes in relation to the idea of this Recovery.

In the moment that there is the person thinking about recovery and wellness and their idea of recovery and wellness itself there appears the potential for the client’s further self-knowledge. This new moment of potential self-knowledge starts with a question that the person can ask. “What do I now, in this moment, know about myself in relation to Recovery?”

This is a question a Recovery Coach can ask their client too.

This process of looking for self-knowledge is a characteristic of the Recovery process when it occurs. When a person decides that they want something to be different, that what they are experiencing they want to engage with and change then the energy and impetus for an increase in knowledge is immediately present in relation to that change.

And if the person developing Recovery gives energy, thought and action to their Recovery so more potential self-knowledge becomes available. This potential for self-knowledge is only potential, that is, a possibility. For this potential to provide actual self-knowledge a person needs a way to release that potential into their conscious awareness where they can bring consideration and thought to it. Recovery Coaching provides a way for this to be facilitated for people.

So now a person knows more about themselves. What they know may or may not be valued by them, may not be seen as useful. Some of it though may be. It may shed light for them on how their life works, how they react to people, environment, relationships. To what end can this self-knowledge be used in respect to recovery?

In the first instance it can be linked to the idea of choice. Lives consist of an endless stream of choice points. Do I go left or right? Do I call my Mother or not? Do I go out to eat or stay in? Do I go to work tomorrow? Do I watch TV? And so on. All of us are navigating our way all the time by selecting options. Making choices. Most of us do this seamlessly and without much if any conscious thought. And it is this almost automated process of choice that this principle suggests we bring consciously to the front of a Recovery Coaching conversation. Getting as far as we can off our autopilots of choice and starting to ask powerful questions about the choices we make can illuminate what is actually the process of choice.

Why does this matter? If we can accept responsibility for choices we make then we can accept the idea of changing the way we make choices and what we choose so that we can create different outcomes.
When clients come to coaching they want something to be different. Creating that different something usually means choosing something that they do not usually choose. As they do that they will experience a variety of responses, sometimes this will be a bumpy road as they move away from the familiar choices and try new ones. It can be anxiety provoking. As they do this though the opportunity for learning more about themselves is present and can be integrated into the ongoing body of self-knowledge they are building.

This interaction between self-knowledge and choice is ongoing and has no discernable end point. It is a dynamic and constantly changing experience of being human and affects us all.