May 21

My own life coach has given me the assignment of writing everyday about cultivating trust. Usually we tend to associate trust issues with a lack of trust in others.  But currently I am having difficulty trusting in the universe.  My dad was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, I just resigned from my job, I'm getting married in 4 days and sometimes my chest actually hurts with a panic of not knowing what the future holds.  I know I need to let go of trying to figure everything out and make sense of it.  I'm not saying there isn't meaning to this, because I believe at some level there is.  But I'm not currently at that level and trying to piece it all together is just making me miserable.  I want to be ok with not knowing.  Even be able to find some joy and peace in it.  I feel that that is my task right now.  To sit, to be present, to wait.

Now all you can do is wait. It must be hard for you, but there is a right time for everything. Like the ebb and flow of tides. No one can do anything to change them. When it is time to wait, you must wait.

- Haruki Murakami/ The Wind Up Bird Chronicle  (via thatkindofwoman)

An Introduction

Hello, my name is Brooke and I am a life coach.  

What comes to your mind when you hear the "life coach"?  Before I starting coaching myself, I thought of a coach as someone involved in  athletics who has the job of doling out advice, strategy, praise, and motivational speeches to players.

Before I actually received coaching as part of a leadership program I went through in 2011, I had never heard of coaching and had little idea what to expect.  A coach?  For my life?  Huh? "Sounds kind of new agey", I thought.  

And then I received my first coaching session and before I knew it I was head over heels in love.  I loved it so much in fact, that almost exactly two years after my first session I decided to get trained as a coach myself.  It took some time for me to own up to actually wanting to be a coach professionally.  I was simply going through the training program to gain skills that I would apply to in my current career.  That's what I told myself and others.  But eventually I couldn't deny that this was what I wanted to do.  

In this blog, I'll be talking a lot about coaching because that's what I'm really passionate about.  However, I don't want to be professorial about it or portray myself as some kind of coaching guru of wisdom (not that I could if I tried). 

Instead I want to talk about what I am learning about coaching and how I am applying the tools, principles, and processes of coaching in my own life.  This is important to me because I sometimes get the impression that some people perceive coaches as a kind of more advanced human - those who "have it all figured out".   

No. Just no. Not true.  And I don't want to feel the pressure of trying to live up to that kind of image.  

What I do want to be is intentional about how I choose to live my life so that I can connect, create, and contribute in the fullest way possible.  I'll be using what I am learning as a coach to help me do this.  It's a journey and if you choose to follow along maybe you'll find something worthwhile you can apply to your own life. 

I hope so.  

Thanks for reading =)