The most important (and often dramatic) change that can occur with a coaching client involves a shift in valence from positive to negative anticipation or from negative to positive. The baseline changes abruptly, as does the level and type of physiological arousal. Positive anticipation is often accompanied by a parasympathetic state. A very exciting positive anticipation (especially one involving action) can produce a sympathetic state; yet, even in this sympathetic state, our client is likely to obtain a squirt of dopamine when anticipating great outcomes (such as the gambler looking forward to positive results at the poker table). It is much more likely that the sympathetic system is aroused when anticipating a negative event, situation, or outcome. Whether anticipating a real or imagined lion, our body prepares for fight, flight, or freeze.
The strength (size) of a positive anticipation by our coaching client impacts the amount of dopamine being injected into their bloodstream. Do they imagine a small jackpot or a bonanza? Are they going to get a new, challenging job assignment or a major promotion at work? Either of these could shift our client to the sympathetic system; however, the major promotion might produce a bigger “high.” With the major promotion, there also might be a shift in our client’s psychosocial template, though this shift is likely to be gradual as they slowly embrace an altered perspective on their organization and their role and responsibility in this organization.
What if our client anticipates an event that they expect to be extended over time or a setting in which they are likely to dwell for a “lifetime” (or at least a few months)? Long-duration anticipations will inevitably require a major shift in our client’s polystatic baseline or even their psychosocial template. The challenge is one of sustaining attention to this event or setting over the long term. As human beings, we are skilled in “adapting” to changing conditions and soon begin taking them for granted.
Personality and Anticipation
There are many different models of personality types. Each of these comes with differing anticipations based on the specific personality (or character) being considered. One of the oldest and most respected models is the Enneagram. Our enneagram type leads us to differing anticipations. At the extreme, each Enneagram type anticipates a large amount of something (positive) or the complete lack of this something (negative). What this something is differs for each type.
The nine Enneagram types tend to cluster in several threes that relate to interpersonal feeling and the anticipation of specific types of interpersonal relationships. These feelings are Fear, Anger, and Shame. A psychosocial template that is saturated with feelings of fear will look quite different from one saturated with anger or shame. Baselines that focus on the state of fear in one’s psyche will produce anticipations that differ significantly from baselines primarily concerned with anger or shame. Interpersonal relationships that are dominated by concerns regarding the experience and expression of anger look quite different from relationships in which fear or shame are of primary concern.
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