How coaching helped me

I was an exhausted mother of two boys under 4 and the sole breadwinner of my family, feeling enormous pressure to “perform” in all aspects of my life. I had recently felt burned by my corporate career and was losing motivation for a job I used to love. My career, my relationships, and my happiness were suffering.

Like so many of us, I was bombarded with the wellness industry’s messages on meditation, “clean” eating, bubble baths and spa treatments, and self-help books. I love a good bubble bath and spa day as much as the next gal, and while I do worship at the altar of Brene Brown, those all seemed like bandaids for what I was dealing with. Plus, if I was going to spend my hard-earned money, I wanted change with some staying power.

I was connected with a coach who works with high-achieving women who were teetering on burnout or feeling unfulfilled in their circumstances. Her approach spoke to me immediately. Over approximately six months, she worked with me to identify my values today, helped me tell the story of who I am and what I care about, and empowered me to make decisions that better align to me. As a relatively new mother, I was a different person than I was prior to becoming a parent, and that was ok! I learned to embrace my evolution and fall in love with the new me.

The coaching process forced me to be open, honest, and vulnerable. It brought out tremendous self-awareness and a new clarity on who I was and what I wanted. It gave me the confidence to have tough conversations — conversations I would have run away from in the past. I now possess the quiet confidence of someone who knows exactly who she is, finds the humor in all things, and gives herself grace to continuously evolve. Pretty sure a spa day couldn’t have given me that.