Making the Leap:
Each year, as I get farther away from my career in law and more deeply entrenched into my “second act” as a coach and entrepreneur, I find myself reflecting on how and why I got here. Everyone’s journey to transformational work is different, but I have an unwavering inquisitiveness that always seems to push me to have a deeper understanding of mine. The truth is that a series of experiences and circumstances coupled with divine timing opened a pathway for me to honor a calling I had been ignoring- out of fear- for the better part of my life.
And so, I leapt. With support, structure, coaching, cheerleading, and even some gentle and not so gentle questioning (but will you make any money doing this? Um… I hope so?), I set up my life to be in alignment with a new career. I did what I support my clients to do every day, and I created a new career and really a new life- one that quite frankly I wasn’t certain I could build.
This personal vignette brings me to what I love most about coaching conversations. They are weird. They are challenging. They are thought-provoking. They are unlike any other conversations a person has in the regular course of their lives. Coaching is not therapy- in short because the lens of therapy is wellness, therapist is expert, and sometimes therapy can be a past-based conversation with many “why questions.”
In contrast, the lens of coaching is life by design and potential maximization, the client is the expert, and coaching is very much a forward-facing and future orientated modality. All of this said, make no mistake: There is something deeply therapeutic about honoring your deepest desires and commitments and- to put it bluntly- doing what you actually want to be doing- authentically.
The coach-client relationship is sacred. Friends and lovers may cheer you on; colleagues may collaborate and brainstorm with you; acquaintances may politely inquire about your life. But coaches go deep and hold up a powerful mirror so that you can examine what is and isn’t working. Coaches are thought partners who act as velvet hammers calling you in to the best version of yourself and demanding that you create the outcomes you truly want.
