Three important lesson learned in life coach training...

Last week I had the great pleasure of participating in an intensive life and career coach certification program. It was truly a transformational experience. Those of you who know me, you know I have been a career coach for a long, long time. From the training, I hoped to discover some new ideas for helping my clients, as well as getting some strategies for branching out into a more holistic approach to coaching. I got all of that and more.

The thing that I was most surprised about was the deep level of learning about me that I walked away with. I thought it might be helpful if I shared some of that with you.

Three big life lessons…..

#1 - Slow down – Many of us have a way of rushing through life; keeping ourselves busy, pushing ourselves to produce, placing our own pressures on an already overtaxed body. Intellectually I knew that this is often counterproductive. However, when I slowed down and worked through several exercises, it became abundantly clear that I miss out on so much by rushing.

One of my favorite professors in graduate school was fond of saying “there is a difference between a human being and a human doing” – such wisdom. After training I vowed I would ease up on myself. Maybe you deserve to take life a little more slowly too and reap the rewards of a more realistic pace.

#2 - Things have a way of working out – This almost sounds cliché, but in retrospect, most of the time we can see that events that have happened to us have brought us exactly where we need to be. I cannot tell you how often I have worked with a laid off worker who was devastated to lose his or her job and then discovered that it was the very best thing that could have ever happened.

For me, I had played around with the idea of life coaching training many times before, but after I finally went through with it; I see that it was exactly the best time to move forward. For those of you who have considered a change in your career, when you listen to your gut, you often really know when the time is right. When you know that for sure, things tend to fall into place to help you make it happen.

#3 – When you are living in alignment with your values, life tends to unfold much more naturally – Most clients seek help with making a career change after they have been miserable for long periods of time. Sometimes they wait just about until the breaking point. When you start to unravel what was going wrong, it is often that there was a deep and painful divide between what they feel is important and the values of the organization where they work. When clients get clearer on what is really, truly important to them in their next step, things often start to happen that facilitate their movement in the right direction.

For me this was to get really brave and step out into my own coaching practice. It was scary, but because I am working hard on staying true to what I value (authenticity, making a meaningful impact on the lives of others, doing work that makes a difference) things are unfolding in a wonderful way.

I would love to hear your thoughts. What are some of your best life lessons?

P.S. I have to give a shout out to my amazing instructor, Bonnie Weiss from the Life Purpose Institute. You are truly awesome!

Dana Maggi, Career Coach

678-653-0252

dana@careerpainrelief.com

www.careerpainrelief.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danamaggi