Fulfillment

Posted on March 09, 2016 by David Lund, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

I’m writing this in a special time in my life. I have spent nearly the last 3 years coaching people and learning about being a coach, learning a lot about how people behave/think and also about the business of coaching. I truly love the work I do.

One thing has always been illusive in my coaching, is my WHY. Why am I a coach, what am I passionate about coaching people on? This might seem odd but it’s something I see almost every coach struggling with, or they clearly know their WHY and it’s obvious.
I started coaching because I wanted some legitimate training and certification to add to my professional hotel executive experience. I have long held the desire to start a workshop business around financial leadership, removing fear and confusion about the numbers for non-financial people. You see I come from the financial world and I know how much non-financial leaders struggle with the financial piece and I also know that for most financial professionals it’s very difficult for them to lead financially. I am a natural at this and I love to get in front of a room full of people and turn them onto financial leadership, get them excited about business thinking, making them fearless and increasing their effectiveness at work, making the hotel more money and advancing their career trajectory because of their new found strength.

My WHY for financial leadership is and always has been “I want to change the way an industry communicates and educates financially”. Stop the blame game and start helping leaders reach their really potential financially. All very exciting, original and me.

But my WHY for coaching 1-1 clients has not been clear or defined until now! How exciting. The realization of my WHY came to me via the most effective problem solving exercise known to man, a 1-1 coaching session. I told my coach John at the beginning of our session that I wanted to talk about fulfillment. Specifically – why am I not feeling more fulfilled with my life. As the coaching session began I articulated that based on my view of life, I have accomplished lots, marriage, career, children, health, wealth, success beyond any of my dreams. Really if you had asked be 30 years ago where I would be now and how my life would be, I never could have imagined that I would be happily married, have 3 beautiful and successful children, of had a 30+ year career as an executive in hospitality managing a portfolio of hotels and hotel accounting teams, having then created and now running a successful workshop and coaching business. Thirty years ago or even 20 or 10 years ago the picture was very different.

So why am I not fulfilled? Where is my Fulfillment?

Well like most things in life it’s all about your prospective. Mine was twisted around the idea that I need to be doing more, being more, more clients, more money, more recognition. When asked the question; when will you have enough my answer is never. With that kind of picture, it’s impossible to have Fulfillment. So I see something now about me that I had not seen before. I see someone who is living in his future, saying I’ll be happy when I get x. When I get x it’s now x+y equals fulfillment, it never ends.

When I hear one of my client’s tell me they’re not happy and low on Fulfillment, I see a different picture. I see them doing the same thing. They are successful, accomplished people who are not fulfilled. They push they’re happiness into the future or impose hurtles around their right to be happy when….such and such occurs. I see what they’re doing and I can really help them see this. Change their perspective and they are free to be happy. They really have what it takes right in front of them to be truly happy. So do I.

I work hard with my clients to get them to see a different perspective of their life. To see that what they have right now is really exactly what they need. Then we look at what they want to create in their life. One small step at a time. Meaningful, thoughtful steps to greater fulfillment. That is the essence of the meaning of life. Knowing your enough in this moment and creating the future from the future and not the past.