Authors, Ask Don’t Judge: Getting Curious

18 of 28 big ideas from the world of coaching to grow your author business

Photo by Chase Clark on Unsplash.

The eighteenth in a 28-part series on 28 big ideas from coaching for authors to coach themselves, adapted from my book, The Coach Within.

“Be curious, not judgmental.”

— Walt Whitman

“We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

— Walt Disney Company

Getting curious serves a dual role for a coach. First, in its childlike, unassuming posture, it’s a potent means to explore the unknown and unlock the undiscovered with a client. Secondly, curiosity provides a template for how to be with a client — authentic, interested, and present rather than judgmental. A coach asks open-ended questions (big idea #5) not to interrogate, correct, or analyze, but to provoke a client’s own wisdom and awareness.

Do the same for yourself. Cultivate a generous attitude of wonder, genuine interest, and appreciation for what’s happening under the surface. Skip the harsh, berating questions, as well as the pithy, easy ones. Engage your curiosity and use provocative, significant probing to learn about yourself and your author business concerns — and awaken the hidden territory. Like a coach, your inquiries don’t all have to be actual questions:

· Say more about that…

· Tell me more…

· Let’s explore that…

· How interesting! [prolonged silence]

· Oh!

· Ahhh…

Coaching Yourself In Action

⎕ Are you still feeling right, right now? I hope so! I hope you’re still savoring all of that as-is perfection we generated in the last article. Let’s keep that alive and make this idea’s task a nice, long, relaxing walk devoted to getting curious. There’s nothing to work on or accomplish, just wonder deeply about yourself while you amble: What do I think of coaching myself and the big ideas of coaching so far? Which tools are most interesting to me? Where have I seen the most results? What has surprised me most? How am I incorporating these concepts into my author life? How can I use them to achieve my most important writing, publishing, and business goals? What am I discovering about myself? What’s opening up to me next?

Do you want to build or grow an author business you love?

Subscribe to my Substack, An Author Business You Love.

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Sharon Woodhouse is the owner of Conspire Creative, which offers strategic collaboration services for post-publishing author rewards: coaching, publishing consulting, project management, and author business development/management.