The Coaching Experience
Feb 02, 2019
Have you ever worked with a coach? I’m not talking about a sports coach for your high school lacrosse team. I mean a life coach or business coach. These peeps can be instrumental for anyone who is looking to make any type of positive impact on their life. Big, small, not even sure what you want or where you want to go? A coach will help you get there.
I know what you may be thinking. I’m already motivated. I don’t need a coach. You guys, I’m pretty DAMN motivated myself, yet I don’t think I would have executed, let alone even thought of, some of the things working with a coach have given me.
I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work with three coaches, all unique in style and in what they specialize in. All have made an impact on me and all in very different ways, not necessarily because of who they are or what they do, but more because of where I was in my life at the time and what I knew (or didn’t know) I wanted to accomplish.
During my first coaching experience, I was at a crossroads. My career wasn’t picking up speed fast enough and I was feeling stuck. We had a hefty mortgage, expensive twins, and everything else that goes along with these major expenses. It was stressful, and we started questioning whether or not staying in the pricey suburbs of New York, where we’d been born and raised, was really the right choice for the long term.
At the time, I let my coach know all this. I told her, “I just want some financial cushion, not even to be able to buy anything in particular, but maybe just to be able to go on a vacation or have some flexibility to make more memories with our kids.”
My coach helped me realize a lot. She didn’t give me advice. She didn’t suggest a move or a career change or anything like that. She listened and asked the right questions to really open my eyes and inspire me to take steps toward achieving what I wanted and needed right then and there. Call it serendipitous or just fate, but a few months later, I was offered a substantial promotion and after much thought and contemplation, we took a risk and moved ourselves cross country.
That coach, Laura, now works primarily with moms, helping them realize what an authentic version of life is (and not what we all think it is after following Instagram influencers). She’s all about living out loud and embracing the imperfections motherhood and life in general have to offer. In addition to coaching, she’s a mom of two, a wife, a post-partum doula and an inspirational person. If any of this resonates with you (and I’m sure it does) and you want to check her out, you can find her here.
My second experience with a coach was shortly after that crazy, cross country move. I was settling into my new life and my new normal on the west coast. I’d gone from working from home 75% of the time to commuting two hours daily. It was a huge transition, not to mention the increased workload, stress and learning curve of starting a new role. On top of all that, my biggest priority, my family, was weighing on me. Was I taking good enough care of everyone? Was I still being a good mother? Was I present enough? Was I making any time for myself throughout all this?
Believe it or not, from those good conversations focused on my own woes of balance in my life with that phenomenal coach, I developed the idea that eventually sparked my blog, my business, and my mission. Years later, as I was clearing out the clutter in some stacks of papers, I came across my notes from one of those coaching sessions. My actionable steps at the time were focused on spending more time with my family and more time on myself. I wrote down: join a moms’ group to make some friends in my hood, research working mom websites, start a blog, listen to Ted talks on my commute, and a few more. Those actions not only happened, they ended up being the foundation of what landed me where I am right now, founding the Mama Work It site and business.
Jen, my middle coach, gets no middle child attention or treatment here. She’s one of the most dynamic, creative, intelligent people I know and admire. Her coaching business has since expanded to serving corporate leadership teams, who she takes on a dragon boat for a full day of ‘literally’ hands on team building and coaching. If you didn’t think that was cool enough, she also focuses on coaching caretakers (moms caring for kids, sons and daughters caring for parents, partners caring for significant others). She’s a total inspo, and I’m so grateful to know her and follow all the awesome things she’s doing. For more info, you can check Jen out here.
Finally, my most recent coaching experience got my ass back in gear to prioritizing my business and all that goes along with that. You may or may not know, but right now, I’ve been knee, ok neck, deep in writing (and not just these blog posts). I plan to release an ahh-mazing book this year. I love to write. It’s one of my passions. But-shit-writing a book is not easy. Some nights, I feel like the word count is going backwards. Does this even make sense anymore? I’m out. I think I’ll just watch Netflix because the thought of opening my lap top right now is making me want to choose folding all my kids’ laundry into tiny squares ala Marie Kondo style rather than write any more content for my once passionate and sexy book. Nah-ah. My coach lit that fire back in me. My coach got rid of the doubt, the fear, the obstacles I didn’t even realize I was facing and helped me understand that finishing that book and publishing it was going to be my reality. And it is. I’m getting closer every day and while it’s been super hard work, I know how damn good it’s going to feel once I page through my own hard copy.
That coach, Cyndi, comes from an organization I crossed paths with last year, when I hosted our Planning with the Planets event. Celebrate You Coaching (CYC) generously donated a month of coaching to a lucky mama winner, and that’s how I met their founder Phoebe and the third coach I worked with, Cyndi. What I love about CYC is that it’s all about equipping and empowering people who are eager to get back into the workforce. Mama, if you’ve been away from a paying job (because we all know you work your ass off daily if you’re a SAHM), and you want to get back to earning that money, CYC coaches can help you get there, and not just there (any old job), but there (meaningful work that makes you feel whole, appreciated, and impactful). You can learn more about CYC here.
Working with a coach will help you figure out not only what you want, but tangible steps on how to get there. Even if you’re an overachiever and think coaches are only for the unmotivated, the lost or the average Jane, give this opportunity a chance. It can only bring you closer to what you’re looking to do. Dreams don’t work unless you do, and when you dream with a coach, you dream big and can achieve bigger.
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