Coaching actually found me.
For many years I was envious of family or friends who had discovered a passion in their life at which they could make their living. Although their passions were different and spanned many industries, these people all had one thing in common – they loved what they did and couldn’t see themselves doing anything else.
After a few false starts while searching for that “right” career, I was introduced to coaching by a mentor who thought my temperament would be a natural fit. I started researching the industry to learn more about it. In the summer of 2007, I was listening to NPR and they were interviewing one of the co-founders from The Coaches Training Institute located in San Rafael, CA. I was so taken by the interview that I immediately ran out and purchased the latest edition of their book The Co-Active Coaching Model: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life and read it from cover to cover in one day. After that, I signed up for my courses and in due time attended my first coaching class. I was nervous and anxious but I had a hunch that this was the right thing for me so I immediately shifted to a perspective that would allow me to be open to this process. (Without my knowing it I was already thinking like a coach). At the end of my first coaching weekend, I knew I had finally come home.
Now, years after that first class, if I had to sum up in one word what coaching means to me, that word would be freedom. Freedom from fear, judgment, and small thinking. But also the freedom to challenge, to change, to grow and to live the life I had always imagined for myself.
Of all the lessons I have learned since becoming a coach the most profound one is:
In order to be truly free – I must surrender to my greatness
Surrender to Your Greatness
My coach, Julie Daley once asked me what it would take for me to shift to the next level – to make that bold move that would allow me to step off the cliff and trust that I am ready to fly. “You’re so close” Julie said, “What do you need to surrender to?”
Surrender…surrender…what do I need to surrender to? I hung up the phone and started making my way to the kitchen when bang! – it hit me. I must surrender to my greatness!! She wasn’t asking me to surrender a possession but to surrender to my dreams, and passions. To step into a space where no matter what comes my way, I’m always moving forward.
Great – I’d solved my own riddle, now what?! It was then that my inner spirit spoke to me and said, “You don’t have to do anything, you just have to be”. In essence, I had given myself permission to look for limitless possibilities instead of familiar roadblocks; to realize that perfection has many faces; to speak my dreams out loud to the universe and pursue them.
As I walked this new path, I witnessed the manifestation of this realization in the way I approached people and situations. I don’t mean that everything magically aligned itself, but now by joyfully questioning myself when approaching familiar tasks I found fresh new perspectives waiting for me at every turn. The difficult conversations I used to have dissolved and gave way to new alliances.
Surrendering to my Greatness also manifested itself in my jewelry designs for “Creations by Hellena” (link to site coming soon). Finding my creative spirit was a welcome surprise in this journey of becoming a coach. Walking this new path gave me permission to experiment and enjoy the fluid process of ‘in the moment designing’. How liberating not to be confined by limiting thoughts and embrace creativity as it happens!
Click on each Creation and take a closer look.
