Creating a life truly aligned with my heart.
Life coaching as a profession was waiting for me to find it. I can see now that I was always moving toward this work, this life.
When I started college, way back when, all I knew is that I wanted to do something that helped people. So I became a nurse and mostly, I loved my work.
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My favorite area of nursing was labor and delivery. I was especially fascinated by the transition women go through as they emerge into motherhood. I became a childbirth educator, and for many years I derived great satisfaction supporting women and their partners through this momentous life event.
And then, well into middle age, I noticed another small but persistent little tug at my heart. As much as I loved being a childbirth educator, something kept niggling deep inside asking me to get curious about what I was feeling. I spent time getting quiet and still. In my core I discovered that I had a yearning to go deeper into relationship with people while I helped them.
“Ah ah! This is it!” I thought. So, I went to graduate school and earned my Masters in Counseling Psychology and trained to be a marriage and family therapist. And that was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
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That training and therapeutic work with clients allowed me to realize the possibilities for growth and change when clients have a partner, guide, advocate, and trusted companion.
And one day this question popped up in an email: ”What would it be like to work with your ideal clients?”
Oh my! This question surprised me, tantalized me and drew me in to listen deeply for my answer. And my answer led me to train as a life coach. My clients are a beautiful array of curious women who yearn to listen to their true selves, and create a life truly aligned with their hearts.
“Let yourself be drawn by the strange pull of whatever you love. It will not lead you astray.”
–Rumi
To create something wonderful, I need to get playful.
Having fun is what clears out my mental clutter so I can feel the pull of what I’d really love to do next. Here are some of the playful ways I restore, rejuvenate and reawaken my creative energy:
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I chase tennis balls around the doubles court with wonderful friends
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I pedal along beachside and mountain paths on my E-bike
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I hike through forests and not too steep mountain trails taking in nature through all five senses
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I dance to my favorites with reckless abandon
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I cook, eat, talk, and laugh with family
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I read novels, I nap, I practice Qigong and I meditate
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“If not now, when?”
This question is not only the name of my coaching business. It’s the question that literally got me off my butt and helped me face my fears of shifting from being a therapist to starting my journey into life coaching.
I was agonizing over when or if ever, I’d take the step of leaving the counseling agency and head out into the exciting and terrifying new world of becoming a life coach. My mind was full of all the “have tos, shoulds, and can’ts” that could keep me right where I was. My body was exhausted. It was telling me I needed support.
I hired a life coach who helped me gain even greater clarity about my dream and the courage to take action to make it come true. I stopped waiting for the perfect time, for some sort of external sign that I was doing the right thing. I heard my wisest inner voice say, “the time is now.”
If not now, when?
Why the name?