A coaching conversation with Bigfoot (shared with client’s permission)

Dan: How are you today? It’s so good to see you.

Bigfoot: Thanks. It’s good to be seen actually, well, seen as me, not as some freak of nature or oddity.

D: Is that how you sense people are seeing you?

BF: Yes. I do. And it’s really annoying…it’s like they all sensationalize it, like I’m some kind of damn celebrity. I’m a being with a family. Sure, it’s nice to be noticed, but how about some privacy as well? Can’t we both just have a stroll in the forest without a freaking camera being involved? Everybody thinks they’re a paparazzi.

D: That sounds very frustrating.

BF: You have no idea…all the sensationalism, all the scary stories, all the ‘encounters,’…These people don’t know me. And I’m beginning to think I don’t even know myself.

D: Where do we go with this conversation today?

BF: I just want to know who I am again. I want to be me. I want to believe in myself the way that others believe in me – as a beacon of hope, as a fun mystery, as someone who’s been able to mostly stay off the radar in this crazy world.

D: To know who you are again, to be you…sounds like there’s a mystery happening right there.

BF: (long silence)

BF: Yeah…. Who am I? (more silence) I feel like I’ve let others define me for so long that I’ve forgotten who I am.

D: You mentioned that you ‘want to believe in yourself the way that others believe in you…a beacon of hope, a fun mystery, staying off the radar…’ How do those ideas connect with living according to how others define you?

BF: I feel like those people see the real me. They see more than my surface looks, my size, my long hair. They believe in the essence of Bigfoot.

D: What do you think they’re believing in that you’re having a hard time remembering?

BF: The innocence of the mystery. The joy of something being unknown…that not everything should be defined and cataloged. They believe in something bigger than what is known in books.

D: What do you want to believe by the end of our session?

BF: I want to believe in me.

D: How will you know that you do?

BF: I will press my foot into the ground, make a deep impression and proudly declare, “See that? I made that!”

D: I can feel that energy from you. Something shifted.

BF: Yeah…It’s like I’m remembering how much fun I used to have sneaking around camps and trails leaving footprints so I could watch people get excited. Knowing that I caused their excitement…they didn’t need to see me, just a symbol of me – something I left behind that was uniquely me.

D: What else are you remembering?

BF: I don’t need their permission. I can leave a footprint wherever I want. I kinda do anyway, but the lasting ones I do for a reason – I’m intentional about those.

D: What’s your intention for them?

BF: To be known.

D: Known as a mystery? If I remember your words correctly?

BF: Huh. Never thought about it that way, but yes. I am a mystery, that’s why people are drawn to me.

D: How is recognizing that you are a mystery helping you to know yourself again?

BF: Just because I am a mystery to others does not mean I need to be confused about who I am.

D: Where is your belief in self now?

BF: I AM A MYSTERY! I AM PROUD TO BE A MYSTERY!

D: What’s changing for you?

BF: I define who I am. I do what I want to do for me, not for anyone else. They can tell their fake stories all they want – I don’t care. Those stories are not me.

D: What stories are you?

BF: Mine.

D: What story do you want to tell from this new perspective?

BF: Mine.

D: How will you do that?

BF: By embracing my mystery fully.

D: What’s the first step?

BF: THIS ONE (stomps foot in the ground and leaves a large, deep impression)

D: How’d that feel to declare your own story?

BF: Like freedom!

D: Anything else you need today around believing in yourself and knowing who you are?

BF: No. Thank you. I am complete. Completely me for the first time in a long time.