FEEL MORE IN CONTROL

Many people have no idea how they can benefit from having a Life Coach. It is a rather new profession and for many, it's unfamiliar territory. Here is an e-mail I received from a client after a few months of coaching sessions. She had given me permission to use it here, hoping you will be inspired by it! Please leave a comment after you've read it - she'd appreciate that.

Dear Betty,
In coaching you taught me about ways to keep a dream active and alive, such as making a dream board and keeping it visible. Also, by learning how to turn the dream into a goal, plus already seeing the progress, it is inspiring enough to keep the motivation in forward gear.

Putting a time-line in motion is liberating.

Through this process, my  husband, too, is learning and we both have been able to appreciate and be more at peace with our lives. Before the dream taking on a life of its own, daily life seemed to be in a whirl-wind of confusing limbo. In other words...out of control. I guess what I am saying is that after all of the coaching I've had with you, I finally realized that being more in control is not at all a life of being bound and restrictive. I now see that taking charge and being more in control is actually giving me a more liberated feeling. I know, at first it seems a contradiction in terms, but it is really quite the opposite, as I've just recently learned. Planning and order result in a life of freedom for the soul because of the peaceful feeling it evokes, not to mention a clearer picture or path. A clearer path in life is so much more relaxed. A crowded and windy path has all sorts of unforeseen twists and turns which don't provide enough time to adjust before the next jog in the road. Relaxing on a windy path is the last thing on one's mind, or in one's life, when each new jog creates nervous anticipation.

The life of a free-spirit is not at all about complacency as I thought.
I've learned my anxiety has come from too many unknowns....not having enough control.
I've learned a better balance in life.
I've learned how to recognize and implement the balancing tools of life.
I've learned how to find and use my own skills and tools......that were right there all along ....almost obvious.....but somehow obscured.

I feel that the job of a Life Coach is to hand out the right key to unlock each new door of peace/freedom/potential/life. Betty, as I write this from the heart, I have realized just how much I have learned and just how far I have come.

Looking back to the beginning and reviewing where I was, is even more motivating. Your life coaching sessions have taught me the tools necessary to balance life, goals and dreams. Teaching me how to begin working on the path towards our 'boat-life' was the catalyst point for developing skills in many other areas of my life. It is definitely about balance...for one thing affects another.....and another...and another....that’s for certain, which makes that another benefit of having a Life Coach. I've learned to appreciate even more, the 'simple pleasures' in life because they are part of the scenery along that nice clear path. The 'simple pleasures' aren't lost among the overgrowth or hairpin turns.

Thank-you Betty....truly....life-coach/friend....such a blessing....

Roni

WHAT ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT?

At an event I attended last week we had to ask each other what we’re passionate about! Often our passion will spring from something that’s happened in our past!
I’m passionate about helping women to develop self-confidence to achieve their goals and follow their dreams. It’s my desire to help women realize that are worthy and have a lot to offer. I want to support them when they go through difficult times in their lives. By helping women to be the best they can be, I’m also helping them to be wonderful mothers so their children do not have to experience what I did. Their children will grow up with a sense of personal self-worth. (I also have a passion for children!)

You’re probably wondering if that springs from something that happened in my past. It sure does! I grew up with a mother who had been sexually and physically abused as a child, but didn’t tell anyone about it until she was 69! Can you believe that? She lived with that ‘secret’ most of her life; she didn’t know how to cope in a healthy way, which affected the way she mothered her seven children. She was not capable of nurturing our personal self-worth.

My upbringing resulted in me feeling unloved, with little self-esteem and no confidence in myself. It has taken me years to realize that I am of value, worthy of being loved, especially by me. I couldn’t appreciate God’s love for me until I was in my 30’s! It took a long time to develop confidence that I could do something worthwhile. I didn’t live out my full potential simply because I didn’t think I could! (Who can identify with me?)

I now use my coaching skills and my love for people to live out my passion of helping others and making a difference in their lives. I absolutely love coaching my clients and watching them develop in their personal lives. It feeds my passion.

Okay – your turn. What is YOUR passion? I’d love to hear from you and so would my readers. Please leave a comment to tell about your passion.

YOU CAN PREDICT YOUR FUTURE!

You probably think you cannot predict your future! But you can - if you pay attention to your thoughts!

Your thoughts cause the feelings you have. Your feelings cause your actions. Your actions cause results. Pay attention to your thoughts today and you’ll know what results you’ll experience tomorrow.

We all know positive, optimistic people. They are usually happy, have good things happen around them, are pretty successful in what they do, have a great attitude about life.

We also know negative, pessimistic people. They see the glass ‘half empty’. They see the negative side of a situation; they get anxious and worried about issues. Being around someone like this drags us down. What kind of results are they producing?

Be aware of your thoughts. You are not a victim of your thoughts. You can control them. You can exercise thought prevention! You can change your thoughts.

Change the thoughts, and you change the person. If today’s thoughts are tomorrow’s actions, what happens when we fill our minds with thoughts of God’s love?

Thoughts cause feelings; feelings cause actions; actions cause results. If you don’t like the result, change your thought, which will change your actions, changing your results. It all starts with a thought.

When you are aware of your thoughts, and change them to be positive and encouraging, you maintain control.

Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.