My Transformation
Posted on January 19, 2016 by Annette Jones, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
How I learned to listen to my inner voice and followed my heart to become a life coach.
Every once in a while when I feel the spirit move me, I’ll write journal entries describing how I feel in that particular moment. Today I read one I wrote in November of 2009. That November I was feeling a deep sense of renewal of my desire to be of service to others. At that time, I had no way of knowing that I would take Martha Beck’s life coach training and start my own life coaching business. As unexpected as this turn of events in my life was and after all I went through to get to this point, I have to say how deeply grateful I am to have had this opportunity come into my life.
In November of 2009, I had no idea that the next few years would be one of the most confusing periods of my adult life. In those years, I lost two jobs, that in retrospect, I really hadn’t wanted in the first place. Also, a longstanding really close friendship abruptly came to an end. Which was an incredibly painful loss. Especially since I never really knew why it just disintegrated. The timing was terrible because the friendship ended not long after I lost the first job. So I was still reeling from having failed for the first time professionally when a person who had been a big part of my support system left my life.
During those years, I also learned just how supportive and generous so many other close friends would prove to be. I learned so much about my ability to forgive myself, forgive others and to accept myself more just as I am. I managed to truly get in touch with what was really important to me and begin to see my value as a person again as the trauma of the events faded.
As I began to be more gentle and loving with myself, new opportunities came into my life. The wish to be of more direct service to others came back to the surface. As I looked back through my career, I realized that when I was the happiest and most fulfilled was during the period in my work life where my co-workers came to me for a sympathetic ear and to help them navigate the difficulties so many of us face in daily life. As I thought back to that time, I decided that I wanted to make being a calm, nurturing coach my profession.
I think the sense of renewal I was feeling in November of 2009 was somehow a sign of the beginning of my personal trial by fire. Without knowing it, I had wished myself into the cocoon so I could be remade as the person I am now.
During my life coach training, my transformation continued because we all must coach ourselves as we learn to coach each other. I learned that how we fail is just as important as how we succeed. In fact, it’s how we handle failure that enables our success. I just wish I had known to “cave early,” as Martha Beck says, when it comes to giving in to major life changes. I’m proud of the person and the coach I’ve become and I don’t so much mind what I had to go through to get here. But wow, it would have been a much faster and a much less painful journey if I’d had a life coach of my own back in 2009 to help me find my way through it all!
-Annette
