How I Became an Inner Adventurer (Part 2)
The story continues…
In early 2000, a friend introduced me to the field of personal coaching. I experimented with some free classes by phone, as my consulting endeavors were feeling less and less rewarding after 9 years. Hmmm, something was different in this new field. I felt at home with the people I heard on the calls. They shared similar interests. It was still difficult for me to speak up and share but when I did, others noted the value in my comments. This felt like nothing else had ever felt before it.
I decided to become a coach. I wanted a new career but also felt I would gain much personal value and growth from it. The coach must do the work first themselves and therefore are able to share it more deeply with others. In other words, they walk the talk first and be a role model. That felt good to me, as I got the opportunity to test things out and speak about it to others or help them from a place of real experience.
The curriculum held many keys to strengthening who I was as a human being. Funny, I didn’t run across these things when I was growing up. It was like a part of my development was skipped. I was learning things my parents, relatives or teachers didn’t know how to teach me.
So I embraced what I was learning, putting it to use for myself while testing each step. I even engaged my own coach to help me recognize factors I might not notice, make smoother transitions and move along a bit faster than I could on my own. The investment I made in myself was very worthwhile. Here are some of the things I did at the start:
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I found personal needs that weren’t being met and created healthy ways to fill them. For example, I had been ignoring signals from my body. Life became much simpler and easier when I started to meet its needs better than before.
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I set up boundaries that helped protect my spirit. One boundary I put in place allowed me to relax at after work. I stopped answering the phone after a certain hour at night. Since my in-laws were elderly, a special signal was set up so we would answer the phone for them. That step kept this boundary from becoming a wall that kept out what I chose to allow in.
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I developed standards that raised my quality of life to a level I’ve never felt before. This step came a bit later. It was hard to start but turned out to be easier than I thought. This standard involved letting go of relationships that weren’t mutual. I stopped contacting some friends where I had been investing all the energy to stay in touch. I just let it be, knowing they knew how to contact me if they wanted. Some never did. Others learned how to be part of a reciprocal relationship.
This and more started me on an entirely new path. I was beginning to flow.
Part 3 is on its way soon!
