Body, Mind, and Soul

Looking back on my Coaching Journey November 8, 2009

It is such a beautiful day outside. You would think that I would be outside enjoying the beautiful 65 degree weather. Nope. I am eating breakfast at 12 Noon on a lazy Sunday afternoon. For the past 4 hours, I have been glued to my computer, writing on my blogs, prettying up my website, and perusing through my fellow ICA student’s blog, Michelle Ward. The first time I saw Michelle’s blog, I was attracted to the pretty pictures and her sense of humor. Today, I decided to look at her very first posting to see how her magical blog came together.  I did get some ideas and looking at her ICA blog, I started feeling guilty. I felt guilty because I did not spend that much time on this blog or reflecting on my studies and lessons learned. Oh sure, I wrote about when I was low in confidence and my lack of coaching skills. But for me,  the perfectionist, always wanting to do the right thing, wasn’t enough.  I wished I had taken the time from when I started in January 2008, to blog about my Foundations class, Advanced 100 classes and so on. No, I was ticking off how many classes I needed instead of taking the time to learn how to blog. Since I did not know how to blog, I wasn’t a willing participant to learn something new. I just wanted to rush the journey and be done with.

I am learning now. I am learning that you cannot rush the journey in improving yourself.   There is a time and place for everything. I learned that no matter how many coaching classes or workshops I took, it still doesn’t make me any smarter or have more knowledge.  I am learning to be patient with myself and my coaching business.  I cannot expect to be making money if I did not even invest the time to develop my blog or website or have a coaching welcome packet.I should not be focused on the money so much but to develop my coaching and business skills.

There are some lessons learned in my 1 year and 9 month journey at ICA:

• Be patient with myself and the learning process
• If I don’t get it the first time, I will the second or third or fourth…you get the picture
• Don’t give up
• Don’t think another coaching school is the answer, it’s not.  Don’t do the same mistake as I did.  Enroll in another coaching school and that school is not even on par with ICA.  I did manage to finish another coaching program in New York’s Open Center called Coaching for Transformation.  Be forewarned:  RUN, DON”T ENROLL IN THAT PROGRAM! Not only is it one of the most expensive coaching schools, you don’t actually learn anything and the teacher and founder does not give their students valuable marketing information or anything valuable at all!
• Learn the technology, even if it is painful, it is worth it at the end
• Sign up for blogging classes or buy a blogging e-book – it will be the best investment that you make
• Link to other bloggers-don’t just blog and think people will find you, you need to be proactive and find the blogs that you enjoy and make some comments once in a while
• I am a great coach-Don’t listen to negative people-they are only jealous of you

I found a new passion. Blogging. Writing allows me to be creative since it is virtually impossible to be really creative at work.