The call of a coach: a wake up call to wholeness

What type of wake up call is needed to walk out on a job worth $180,000 a year? For me it was breast cancer, and it was the tipping point for getting my act together and living a life that mattered.

This is a story about how I found my way into the world of executive coaching, but even more importantly – it’s about how I see a wold where nobody is broken. By tapping into the strength of our own past experiences, we coaches can better help clients co-create new lives that bring them hope and engagement during times of change.

For me, my career transition was a journey to wholeness. Wholeness is a spiritual sense of belonging or “going home“ experienced in our human form. Transcending the physical and material worlds, we achieve it by self-care first, by allowing others and us to be our authentic selves, by respecting our minds, bodies and souls, and letting go of critical self-sabotage and the expectations of others.

As to larger patterns or systems, wholeness helps us attain a perspective on a situation, problem or opportunity. We can achieve this state by exploring inner peace, forgiveness, self-forgiveness, self-love, joy, inner wisdom, and abundance.

In 2007 things were looking rough. I was in an unhealthy relationship with a man whom I felt I had to fix; I had taken up the role of a hero. While making a great salary, I found myself going deeper and deeper into debt by financing my son’s university education. I was also feeling unfulfilled in a job helping businesses market themselves in print and new media.

Then, breast cancer hit. It was devastating – life shattering – and yet when everything crumbled, there was nowhere to go but up. After my chemotherapy, radiation, immune therapy, brachytherapy, and surgery protocols, I re-evaluated my career and asked myself, “Do I feel this is important work?” The answer prompted my decision: Life needed to change.

After my surgery and therapy, I returned to work and despite my debts, I gambled on myself and took a long distance six month intensive program at Royal Roads University to become a Certified Executive Coach in 2009.

There was a considerable amount of pressure from my family not to change my job. They saw the stable salary with perks that I had enjoyed for many years and didn’t see why I would give it up.

But I created an action plan to leave my marketing job, and tapping into my intuition, the date for my transition rang in my belly: October 2010. It felt like a leap of faith. It was a transition where I often found myself in prayer, asking God to send me a sign that I was on the right path.

Interestingly, in 2010 I prayed to God whom I saw as being outside of me – as if I had to look outward for that strength. But now, five years later, I’ve grown in my faith and see God as part of my being. When I made that call for help, I was unknowingly stirring up the sense of faith, strength and God that lives and works inside of me. I had to help myself, and acknowledging that need for help was the first big step.

Risk didn’t come easy, and so to help the process, I worked with Pauline Fleming, MCC, who became my coach during that year of transition. With her help, I planned a strategy to pay my debts so that I could pursue my new goal of becoming a certified executive coach and an accredited coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF). We created small objectives for each month, and I grew in confidence as I nailed each one of them.

In October 2010, I left my full time ad selling position, received a buy-out, and went on to the career I now love. The hours are long, there’s still a lot of work, but this matters to me, which makes all the difference.

When I work with clients, in keeping with ICF values, I look for their potential which is my personal strength as a coach. Much of my work is in remedial coaching and career transition.

 

In talking with my clients, I’m stuck by their brilliance! They have such skills with communication, with empathy, with leadership. Perhaps they’re in the wrong working culture – but they have such abilities! It reminds me that it’s so important to be in purpose, and to reach those milestones of change. When you follow what feels right, things have a way of working out.

Wholeness brings your spirit, mind and body in alignment with your authentic self.

Now here’s my question for you: What’s your calling in life? Have you bumped up against a wakeup call to get your life together? Or, would you share your journey to wholeness with me?