Last month, I met a close friend and we had one of those long catch-ups when we put the world to rights. I was sharing with her the joys and discoveries I had made through Life Coaching and she began to tell me how unfulfilled she was feeling. She had been studying for a degree for years whilst working full-time and has three children so life had been pretty full on. Then she had passed her qualification and had begun a new role in the same place of work. However, life had not been quite what she expected from this place forward. She had felt an anti-climax and had hoped that once she had qualified life would be different but was disappointed to find she was, “no better off.”
We began to talk about the steps she could take to begin to feel better. Recently, I was telling another friend about how I had been thinking about all the different jobs and experiences her son has had over the years. She rolled her eyes and said, “Oh don’t”. He has consistently challenged himself since he was a teenager in a way that one may consider on the surface ‘flitting’ from one thing to the next. However, I feel he embodies everything from a Life Coaching perspective you could possibly want.
He has worked with young people for charity when he was of similar age to the people he was helping. He won awards for his efforts but remained extremely modest and humble about them. He has challenged himself physically as he has done parachute jumps and crossed the desert for charity. He has worked in a number of jobs; as a funeral director and is currently a paramedic. He has now trained to work in extreme conditions and is looking to join the RAF reserves to further use his paramedic training.
This is a young man who seems to consistently challenge himself both physically and mentally. Not in a way where nothing is ever enough but by striving to see what else he can achieve. He does this naturally through a positive mindset which allows him to succeed. If he achieves something and it is not all he was hoping for then he will not see it as failure or a waste of time, just another experience he has gained along the way and plan his next goal.
I have friends who as a married couple often talk openly about their next challenge or project. They have goals both individually and as a couple they make plans together and support each other. As such, they have achieved so much and display a positive and happy attitude.
We need to strive to develop ourselves, reward ourselves when we achieve our goals but not think that is going to be it once they are completed. Our goals are not a magic wand to change our lives. We need to change our way of thinking too. We need to ensure we continue to develop ourselves.
I had not previously challenged myself or developed myself in the last 5 years. I had slipped into the same routines and felt flat and generally unhappy through no-one’s fault but my own as I stagnated. Now through discovering Life Coaching, I feel I have a new lease of life. I am making discoveries about myself every day and realise some things take longer to change and I am ‘work in progress’. There are no overnight solutions but progress is the key and as long as we are doing that then we are living, growing and not dying!