I'm not going to give you another version of my website or go on about how amazing coaching is… rather in this ramble I am going to briefly explain why I do this - why I am a coach.
And yes it comes from my experience of being a solicitor. Not the long hours or the 24/7 call, always being 'on' and the lack of sleep, nor the legal aid rates meaning I still had to go to work as normal the next day. Not the unpredictability of it all (although yes it would be nice if the police gave us a heads up prior to arresting someone ha!) Not even the stress response, that I actually lived in, day in day out, with adrenalin keeping me going as sleep wasn’t and neither was food - eating whatever I could whenever I could, sometimes not at all, and usually not the best nutritious choices when I did (a week of cereal anyone?!).
Not the lack of 'down time', the lack of a work/life balance of any kind, not the realisation that my body had to make me ill (deaf/in agony in fact) just to make me stop (albeit briefly). That bone tiredness being ignored due to my perfectionist traits holding me to a standard that I would hold no other person to. That keeping up appearances of being on top of everything to your bosses and colleagues, and of being confident (even if you have just been handed the file as you walk to court), and lets not forget the 'I am fine' to friends and family that you do not want to worry (even if they can guess as they can see your marriage going to shit).
It’s the realisation that all of this could have been avoided or at least eased.
I felt like I didn’t have the time or energy to even think about any of it not being as it could or should be. I didn’t want to let myself think about it or else I may not have kept going and I needed to keep going…. it was like an admission of failure or something. Did I want to think about how long I could keep it up for?
And even if I had the time and energy to think about any of that, who the hell would I talk to?
WHO would I have talked to about any of this?
I know that if I had someone to talk to, on my side, not wanting anything from me, to call me out on my complete lack of future plan or my complete disregard and lack of respect I was treating myself with, not just with my health but my happiness….perhaps I could have taken proactive steps before things started
happening that MADE me stop…in fact I know I would have.
How often does someone just listen to you, without their own agenda, with that clear intent and reassurance that no matter what, they are on your side? So, once I discovered coaching (starting with NLP in 2018) I knew I had to do this so I could be that 'who' person for others.
So that’s why I do this. And that's why I love it.
We could reduce it right down and say that having a coach helps increase awareness and from awareness comes choice. So, do we want to be the one making the choice about our own life or are we happy with our default life?
If any of the above resonates with you, please know that there are people to talk to (lots of people in fact - have you seen the free app Happiful?) Alternatively, if you have made it this far in this ramble and want to see if I am the coach for you, please do book in for a free hour chat using the link on my website.
Also, in case you are a visual person, there is a video version on my website of me explaining my motivations so if you'd like to get a feel for who I am whilst looking at me and hearing me (with my northern accent and speech impediment :0) ) then please do go ahead.
