2022 was the first year I got to coach and be coached for a whole year. As a result, I grew so much. I was rich with incredible coaches! All gleaned from my certification program through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (or iPEC), fellow companions also learning the skills and mindsets of coaching for beautiful purposes.
Today I want to talk about two specific ways I grew through being coached in 2022:
I worry less. While anxiety certainly still comes looking for me, my relationship with worry is changing for the better. A whole lot of that comes from learning how much power I have in my choices. Just the belief that I have the power to make a choice at all in a situation is huge. But even more meaningful is understanding that I actually have the power to choose my mindset, and whether or not to believe the thoughts I’m thinking or feelings I’m feeling. I can zoom out a bit and see them for what they are, and they are not always capital T Truth. And that I can choose my response. It’s not that it’s easy to do so, but just the realization of how I can influence my experience of things through consciously choosing how I want to respond (even if I can’t always influence the circumstances of things) has been life-changing. So, when anxiety seeks me out (or anger, or feeling stuck, or some other internal roadblock), I don’t stay there as long. All this beauty came from learning new ways of understanding energy, and then working with my coaches to practice that new understanding and how to use it.
I am getting clearer on who I want to be and how I want to be in the world. This is so important to me. I really feel the transition to the latter chapters (not last, just latter) of life on me and want to be really intentional with how I live them. For me that means how I parent, how I begin a coaching business so that I can actually do work I love and that feels super aligned with who I am and my talents, skills, and passions. It also means how I partner and how I friend and just how I exist in this world. So yeah, kind of a big deal. The clarity has come from working with trusted coaches who help me see things about myself I haven’t before, who help me note patterns that I haven’t seen, who help me honor my values in all parts of my life. I’ve brought almost every possible subject to one or other of my coaches in 2022: spirituality, potty training, writing my dad’s obituary, finishing my novel, finding a better mindset for submitting my writing, returning to running, how to navigate an international trip with a tantrumy toddler, the giant “beliefs” that sit on my chest and try to keep me from living a bigger life, and more. Their careful listening and beautiful, spacious questions have created so much room for me to explore ways of being in the world that feel authentic and meaningful and loving.
I’m profoundly grateful for the presence of those who coached me through 2022. And it makes me incredibly excited to get to coach others, knowing how powerful it can be to have a partner in creating the shifts you need in life.
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| so much of life is a matter of perspective |
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