11 Apr Lessons from the Bunny

A couple of months ago I adopted a bunny.  I always wanted another pet but was afraid a cat or a dog would eat the birds.  Since rabbits are vegetarian and pretty timid creatures, it seemed a good choice.  Turns out my avian vet just happened to have the cutest bunny in the world available for adoption.  A tiny little lop eared creature called Griffin.  A wonderful coincidence, I thought.  And so I brought home this cute little ball of fur.  But I’d never had a bunny.  And I had no idea what to expect.

For the first month I found the whole thing to be one big pain.  He was shedding like crazy.  There was hay all over the apartment.  What made it even worse, was that despite the fact that he was litter trained, he peed on me.  In my house, the #1 rule is NEVER POOP ON MOM.  The birds follow it.  Why couldn’t the damn rabbit?  Every week I called the office and threatened to give him back.

But then I just decided to give him one last chance.  And so I made a decision.  I decided to just love the bunny and see where that got things.  And here’s what happened.

First of all, I was inspired to completely reinvent his set up so the hay stays in his cage.  He stopped his awful shed.  (Turns out it’s only a twice a year occurrence).  Then, once I started to accept him and his bunnyness, we were able to develop a relationship.  He now jumps up for scratches when he sees me, and jumps into my lap when we are playing.  He’s very well behaved, doesn’t seem to chew things, and doesn’t pee on me anymore.  The best part is that, unlike Justin, he is very quiet.  I, at least, am in love. And I’d like to think he is too.

What did I learn from all this?  Turns out the trick was in the DECISION.

Coaching is about action.  My job is to take my clients somewhere…where they want to go.  But before the action there must be the decision to act.  The commitment we make to ourselves to do something.   The decision can be about anything.  Get rich, start a business, find a mate, lose weight, love the bunny.  Frequently for my clients, the decision is to get coached.  But always, the very first step is to DECIDE.  Not to try.  Trying is tentative.  Trying allows room for failure.  Deciding is definite.  It’s bold.  It’s powerful.  It invites success.

When we decide, we also decide to do what it takes to make it happen.  When we decide, we become willing to make tradeoffs.  And as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”  It really does.  See?