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Gloria's Success Story
Gloria came to hear me speak on Creativity for the Orlando
Professional Networking Association. At the end of my talk, she
volunteered to be the “client” in a brief coaching demonstration.
She had been unemployed and unsuccessfully seeking employment for over eight months. She was about to lose her house --
the one asset that she had managed to keep in a lifetime of struggle
as a single mother and a member of a minority. Her self-esteem
had plummeted. She had a vague notion of wanting to sell real estate
or build a computer consulting business. During this coaching
“demonstration”, she shared her fears and hopes with a large group
of near strangers. In this first encounter with Gloria, I was
immediately impressed by her warmth, faith and delight in people.
She had told me she was a “people person” and knew in her heart that
her work in an office where she was overwhelmed with paperwork did
not really suit her. I suggested to Gloria that she begin coaching
sessions with me and that the money to pay for it would follow. I
told her she could pay as she was able to. I had complete confidence
in her intelligence, motivation and people skills, knew
intuitively that this woman would – with a little support from her
coach - be working effectively and happily before long. We arranged
to begin private telephone coaching. Gloria eventually acknowledged
that it was her own lack of self-confidence -- her feelings of
inadequacy -- that were not allowing her
to move forward. Two days after our first session, Gloria called me to tell
me she’d been offered a job selling time-shares. Amazingly, while
she was going to need to accept less money than she’d hoped, this
job offered her the opportunity to study and eventually receive her
real estate license for free. Gloria was elated. We continued our
sessions, working with her “blocks” in taking the necessary steps
toward selling her house, and working to rebuild her sense of
self-esteem. For Gloria, it was to a large degree a matter of
receiving support during a difficult transition allowing her the
opportunity to begin a whole new career. This would bring her
greater satisfaction and financial security in the long term. Today,
Gloria is a licensed real estate agent and plans to put a down
payment on a house in the coming year. She has become much more
efficient in managing her time and much more self-confident. She
calls me her “angel” but I know it is all her own doing. I am happy
to have been the catalyst for her success.
 David's
Success Story
David B came to me in a state of complete disorganization. The van
he considered his sanctuary was cluttered with the unorganized
pieces of his life. At the age of 34, he was living with his
grandmother without paying rent and, while he had maintained a good
job selling country CD’s for the past three years, he had
practically no savings. He was also dissatisfied with his health and
overall fitness, his work, his relationship with his grandmother,
and with the lack of direction of his life. My work with David began
with his van, which had become for him the symbol of his messy, out
of control life. As we began to put together a program for David’s
new direction, he chose to begin by cleaning his van, including repairing the AC, blinkers and
generators, and replacing the carpeting. I supported him to go
through old stacks of paper clutter. Although it took
him close to a month, he completed what he had set out to do. The
action he took became the ignition point. It was as if the
air had cleared and he could breathe and think again. He began to
speak about the things he really wanted to do in his life and about
the things that blocked him. In our sessions, he told me he wanted
to pay his grandmother rent, to save money for his own place, to
improve his health and to explore a career change. David has now
saved three thousand dollars while still enjoying weekly
entertainment outings. He has begun paying his grandmother weekly
for rent and their relationship has improved amazingly. He has been
walking at least one mile daily and has
changed his diet to exclude caffeine and the consumption of
dairy products. David now attends regular yoga classes and has
revised his work schedule to make more efficient use of his time. On Christmas Eve, I was moved to learn that David
had decided to take his grandmother out for dinner. David continues
his work selling CDs, but he has arranged to work more frequently
out of his home. He is saving toward moving to Arizona, where he hopes he
might have a more spiritual, healthy lifestyle. David has finally
signed up for an art class and will be exploring an old dream of
learning how to make pottery. He is not sure where this will lead,
but is filled with more optimism about his future than he can
remember feeling in over 20 years. I look forward to discovering
what he will ultimately make of his life now that he is setting his
priorities, and taking weekly steps towards fulfilling his life
goals.
 Louise's
Success Story
At 63, Louise is an intelligent, productive woman who is at the core
of a women’s spiritual circle in town, in daily contact with
scores of women, many of whom are in the process of making important
life changes. Louise invited me to test my coaching methods on her. She had
initially considered using her sessions to focus on improving her
financial situation; before the first session was over, she came
to the realization that what she really needed was to take
better care of herself. She needed to improve her diet and exercise
regimen in order to continue her active,
work in the community. At 63, she was not
ready to give up her plan to build bridges among various groups of
people in the community. Louise had recognized that her busy, exciting
work left caring for herself at the bottom of her list. Louise asked
me to become her accountability coach -- to hold her accountable to
her care of herself. Before the New Year, Louise wrote herself the
personal mantra: “Remember what is number one!” This mantra served
as a regular reminder of the fact that without her health and
serenity, none of the work she does could
continue. I have seen Louise grow from the person who put her own
health and personal needs at the bottom of her to-do list to a woman
who has learned to take time to walk in the morning with a
companion, even if, and especially if, she has a particularly busy
day ahead; she has gone from being a fast food addict to a woman who
has begun to prepare healthy meals for herself and her husband; from
a woman who would run from meeting to meeting with hardly a moment
to breathe to a woman who devotes almost every day a brief, but
sacred 5 minutes of meditation to keep balance in her life. I am
proud of Louise for the commitment she has made to care for her
physical, emotional, and spiritual health. I am delighted that she
has realized that with all the wonderful things she does for others,
without taking care of herself, there will be no taking care of
others. |
