To New Beginnings!

I love this time of year. It’s spring, just after the Equinox, it’s Easter, Passover. New shoots are appearing and flowers are out. You can tell something is different in the air.

It’s Nature’s time for new beginnings.

It’s also been a time of re-design and new beginnings for my business. I have had a boutique coaching and consulting business since 2009 and yet last fall, I embarked on self-steered re-branding journey which was initiated by a tragedy.  My husband had a life-threatening accident. It made us all stop to think. Holistically about how quickly life can take a turn. And also existentially. What is our purpose? What kind of life do we really want to live?

I want to reach out to more people, but I needed to take less time doing so.

I became reconnected to my main life purpose and I wanted my coaching business’s value proposition to reflect this as well.

After the accident, he could not walk or work. Our family now wholly depended on me. My daughter was only 3. For an indefinite timeframe, I had to do everything for everyone: Nurse, keeper of the household, full-time mom alongside being a corporate employee, coach and owner of my private coaching practise and daughter to my aging parents.  I won’t lie, that was a lot of pressure. But I am at my best in such situations. I’ve had a lot of practise through the years (if you are interested to know more, check out the “About” section on my website). I had to work smarter than ever. My re-branding was triggered by reflection on how I can truly empower others even more than I ever had.

And do it in a way which best accommodates a precious commodity for all of us – Time.

My coaching practise has always been driven by empowering people to create the life they really wanted. You know – not just the one they just think they can have. By default. As a psychologist, I have worked in the mental health field and researched the topic as well.  Rest assured, for those who know me, I’m still all about helping people like you, firmly root in the driver’s seat of your life. To support you to truly take the wheel to go where you really want to go, following your life purpose.

And that means, not just taking the roads which happen to be there

(other people’s roads).

Sure, it can be okay to take the same road as others – if that is what you want and you know it is in service of getting to where you really want to be. And you like the drive. But it’s also okay, and necessary, to make your own road. All of the great thinkers, leaders and persons of influence stretched themselves to find their own path.

Think about it.

Is there anyone you can think of in this category who has not? Who made a great impact on the world by doing the same thing other people did? No one. Gandhi, Mandela, Madam Curie, Bill Gates, Lincoln, Luther, Mother Theresa, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Oprah. They don’t’ call them trail blazers for nothing. But I digress.

Yes, I know coaching works. But what about once the coaching engagement has ended? What happens then? I always support my clients to be self-sufficient and not be dependent on me. But I’d say from my experience, about half of the folks who stop coaching, revert back to old, self-defeating habits which do not serve them.

Now, you might say 50/50 odds aren’t bad, but it does not have to be like that.

Last fall, I started approaching it from a different angle to promote the self-sufficiency of my clients and teach them (like I have hundreds of people in the corporate world) how to coach … but this time around, how to coach themselves.

• And what about those who can not afford coaching? Should they not live the life they really want?  One could argue that they need it more than anyone.
• And what about those who feel uncomfortable sharing about themselves? This can be a huge hurdle for many.
• How about those who are balancing so many responsibilities – like I now was. Carving out appointments to meet with a coach can feel impossible.

So I redesigned my coaching practice to help my clients help themselves independently of me. On their terms. When and where they want.

Initially, I wondered if this had been done before? I started digging in the research. A few therapist and coaches had written on the subject, but I felt there was much left to explore around this topic. Throughout the months, I approached the idea from every angle. First from a philosophical perspective, then from a theoretical, a didactic and lastly the logistical.

I surveyed a large circle of friends and acquaintances and the resonance and interest in self-coaching was astounding!

It became so clear to me what I had to do. I needed to forge my own road too. And turn the normal dynamic of coach/coachee on it’s head.  And furthermore, offer a program for groups of like-minded folks to learn interactively with others. To design a flag-ship program which teaches people to coach themselves. I took all I have learned throughout the past 30 years learning and researching topics of psychology, writing about and teaching coaching in my private practice and throughout my corporate work – not to mention my own experience conscientiously designing my life and coaching myself through all sorts of obstacles. I took the best of the learnings of positive psychology, changing habits and dealing with self-doubt.

And put it all into a simplified, stream lined, easy to follow, step-by-step approach. The Self Coach Approach, which shows people exactly how to coach themselves and truly create the life they have always wanted. The life they are meant to live.

I turned off the regular paved highway, so to speak, when crisis hit to my family. After a week of wallowing, I started. And I have not looked back. This was 5 months ago. Now I am ready to share the method beyond my 1:1 coaching clients.

The program is solid and it is powerful. I can’t wait to share it with the world. And that includes you!

If you want to join me and gain all of the insights I am going to start revealing (including everything on self coaching, as well as practical tips on being a happier and healthier version of you) then sign up to my email list and join my Facebook page. That way, you won’t miss out on any of my posts and you will always get the inside scoop. It will all start unfolding as of now. I have a lot to share. You have everything to gain!

Namaste,

Simone

In the meantime, please share in the comment box what new beginnings would you create this year, if you knew you could not fail? I’d love to hear all about it