Coaching as a Seeker with Gate 11

I knew that I wanted to become a coach before I discovered Human Design, but as I’ve learned more about my BodyGraph, I can’t help but see the inextricable links between my coaching mission and style and my design. Through my exploration of some of these gates, others can get a sense of how I see myself and how these energies might present themselves as I coach.

I’m not a certified Human Design reader and I’ve never had a professional reading done - I’ve only explored on my own and started putting some of the pieces together and intuitively applying them through self-reflection.

Yesterday I wrote about Gate 7 and my coaching mission. Another influence on my coaching approach that I have discovered in my BodyGraph is that of Gate 11, “The Gate of Ideas.” This gate is half of the channel of Curiosity, which carries “the design of the searcher.” It’s about imagination and visualization and the serendipity of being in the right place at the right time for the right ideas. Ra Uru Hu describes it as “a gate of those who seek stimulation, who have a need to stimulate, to share their ideas.” People with this gate seek ideas without attachment to a specific outcome or answer; possibilities are funneled into ideas that can be expressed. It’s all about contemplation, creativity, and visualization.

Gate 11 is about imagination and distilling possibilities into ideas that can be expressed.

Again, I wrote my coaching description before understanding this gate.

I believe this is why I love transformational coaching and specifically resonate with the Transformational Presence approach so deeply. I am a seeker and a ponderer - I have an active imagination with powerful visualizations. I love to consider and imaginatively explore, and I enjoy that process without feeling the pressure of having to come up with a definitive answer. In other words, Transformational Presence allows me to guide clients as they explore through their own intuition and relieves me of the pressure to seek specific conclusions - the clients’ explorations are theirs, and I am free from needing to understand the explorations because they are not mine. I can learn from my clients’ discoveries and they often springboard me into my own explorations, but with Transformational Presence, there is a natural separation that is healthy in a coach-client relationship.

I also believe deeply that we are where we need to be for the right people to come into our lives - the power of finding like-minded and like-hearted people who help us along our journey. When you take the time for reflection (in itself an exploration) and through presence begin to see synchronicities, you won’t fail to notice serendipity in your life: being in the right place at the right time to learn what you need to learn on your journey. Gate 11 also ties in with the importance of timing - being in the right place at the right time - for us to really learn the lessons we’re meant to learn, to find the answers that we’re looking for; When we’re ready to ask the questions, we’re ready to receive what we need to receive to take the next step. There’s also value in other perspectives for helping us sort out what’s real and true for us or the opposite.

Gate 11 is also about the serendipity of being in the right place at the right time to learn the lessons we're meant to learn. When we're ready to ask the quesions, we're ready to receive the answers. This is a fundamental element of my coaching practice.

At the end of it, it’s the experience of imagining that brings me fulfillment, and the experience of discovering new information that can help me take next steps.

Looking back I can see that I’ve always given space to my imagination, bu it’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve been deliberate with a daily practice, and it’s my favorite time of day. It’s when I’m most myself - when I’m most separate from the world but also the most engaged with it. Outside of coaching sessions, it’s the time and space when I make the most discoveries. It’s the time when I play in my fantasy ideal world.

It’s through Gate 11, the gate of ideas and peace and idealism, that I can help others believe in themselves and in something bigger than themselves - the untapped magic that is in and surrounds us all. It’s the distillation of big possibilities into ideas that can be expressed before eventually being embodied. This is a magic that I want to share with everyone, clients and beyond..