Wedging clay is like personal development

Wedging clay is like personal development. Stick with me for a second.

In order to make wheel-thrown pottery, the clay must be prepared in a very specific way.  The process, called “wedging,” roughly similar to kneading dough, involves working the clay in a circular fashion.  This causes the flat platelets that make up the clay to line up in the same direction.  There’s no visual difference in the clay, but its internal structure is changed.

When a properly-wedged piece of clay is thrown on the wheel, it can become a taller, stronger, sturdier and more balanced piece of pottery.

I saw a client today after a few month hiatus.  When we last worked together, she was in an early phase of her entrepreneurship and had many different strands to pull on.  She was struggling to figure out how to make an idea and business plan come together.

Today, she arrived transformed.

“I feel more aligned than I have ever felt in my life.”

She explained that she’d been muddying through aspects of her professional life, motherhood, spiritual connection, friendships, and the dream of launching her own business.  She was working hard to make each category as meaningful as possible.  She’d been working on every one of those components separately.

All of a sudden, her new business plan came pouring out of her.

Today she is on fire with excitement and energy, a new business partner, a location to launch, and with more progress and effectiveness than she had felt in years.

It’s hard to remember that the slog she’d been in was part of the same process.  She couldn’t have known that she had been fueling her creativity through the work of making meaning across all aspects of her life.  In hindsight, it’s clear that she was wedging the clay.  Once the platelets were aligned, the professional inspiration came rushing to the fore.

I frequently have clients who wonder if it’s ok to talk about personal matters during an executive coaching session.  Or hobbies. Or health. Or relationships. Or how to prioritize family.

The answer is always yes.  Even more poignantly, the work to find meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in each area of life pays dividends in the others.