Would you like a shovel or a ladder?

We both started laughing. “A ladder, please”, she said, still laughing.

“What do you believe about yourself?”, I had asked my client. Listening to her reply, I was fascinated again by how much we talk ourselves down in a way we would never talk to a friend. I didn’t interrupt her, believing that at one point she would notice. And then she did.

“OMG, I really dug myself a hole here, didn’t I?”

“What do you think?”, I asked her.

“I did! Like, I really did.”

“Would you like a shovel or a ladder?”, I asked her and she burst out laughing.

“A ladder, please, yes, definitely a ladder! OMG, I don’t believe I’m actually doing this to myself.”

Digging ourselves a hole can be so much easier. The ground we dig into is solid, we made sure of that when we started. And the ground is always beneath our feet.

Climbing up a ladder is more difficult. It’s unstable and wobbly. The higher we climb, the further we are from the ground.

But as my client noticed for herself, she didn’t want to dig her hole any deeper. Together, we’re building a ladder she can stand on, with rungs she can trust. She’s an amazing person, and if her ladder is anything like her hole, the sky’s her limit.

What does your ladder look like?