Light Your Candle 🕯
How can you spark a flame that moves around the world?
When I was a teenager, I attended a summer camp for teens interested in politics. It was basically a mock legislature run by teenagers for a week. The best way to describe it was a mix of Lord of the Flies meets Robert’s Rules of Order. It was fascinating engaging in the political process with peers. Some were totally principled in their approach and wouldn’t compromise their values. Others blatantly sought leadership positions and were ruthless in retaining that power.
During that week, I felt like a received a master’s degree worth of knowledge just observing human nature and how the “political sausage” is made. This was long before I understood the concept of conscious leadership. But I can still recall instances where I observed fellow participants who both did and did not demonstrate conscious leadership.
At the end of an exhausting week of politicking, the highlight of the experience was a candle-lighting ceremony on the last evening. Standing in a circle, one person would light their candle and then each of us in turn would light the candle of the camper next to us. We’d then each share with the group something we learned that week.
It was a beautiful, emotional ceremony; and a lovely way to close an intense collective experience. Standing in the soft glow of flickering flames, it was moving to hear how in just five days many campers had life-changing experiences, or made a life-long friend. All of us left that camp changed in one way or another.
That candle lighting experience reminds me of a common occurrence in coaching sessions.
Clients will frequently share with me that they had a major revelation during a previous session. The client was so inspired, or their energy so engaged, that they shared this shift with another person and it helped that third person just as much as it helped the client.
I like to call this the “candle effect.” Through powerful coaching, the client ignited the flame of their internal candle and they then lit someone else’s candle— just like I and my fellow campers did for each other all those years ago. Only now, we’re in a much larger circle where lighting our candle and then lighting another’s candle from our own can mean igniting a flame with global impact.
If you think about it, our internal spirit, our conscious leadership, is just like a candle.
Some candles burn brightly. These are the people who are always full of energy and their very presence lifts the energy of those around them. They constantly work on keeping their internal flame stoked through coaching and personal growth.
Some candles start to dim and need a new spark to burn brightly again. These are people who know they need to work with a coach or mentor to find that inner spark, so their candle can burn brightly once again.
Other candles have never been lit and are experiencing growth or awareness for the first time. These are people who are just starting their journey of growth and are new to coaching. It’s always fun to see those first sparks flash as their inner candle is lit.
The candle analogy is apt because it demonstrates why it’s so important to work on yourself and invest in your growth all the time. Not only will your candle burn more brightly, you’ll be able to light another’s candle—someone who may desperately need it.
I have personally experienced how life-changing this can be when working with a powerful coach. The coach’s inner candle burned so brightly that just one session with them sparked the flame of my inner candle. And I then lit the candle of those I interacted with after the session. The ripple effect, the flow of such high, anabolic energy, that started with just one person, became a life-changing current that moved through countless people.
How can you increase your own inner candle’s flame this week?
How can you spark another’s candle?
How can you increase the energy and inspiration within your own life so that it impacts everyone with whom you come in contact?
Continue to stoke the flame of your inner candle, then get out there and consciously light as many other candles as possible.
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
The way we work and build teams is rapidly changing. Leaders often feel unprepared to navigate the transition. As a conscious leadership coach, consultant and communicator, Meredith helps leaders and their teams create new ways of working and relating so they can prepare for the future by consciously co-creating it.
Contact her to develop your conscious leadership and transform your organization into the workplace of the future.
You can support my work developing more conscious leadership in the world by investing in a paid subscription to this newsletter. Upgrade your subscription today!
Connect with Meredith on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for content related to these topics.