Greetings, Friends
Throughout my life, like so many of you, I have had dreams, goals, and held onto the perceptions of what I thought my life, career, and successes would be. I have always been a “Why Not,” “Take that Leap of Faith,” “Believe you can do it until proven otherwise,” “If it doesn’t work try another way,” kinda gal.
My family could not send nor help send me to go to college and although I wanted to be a psychologist, I was fortunate enough to earn a scholarship to the cosmetology college in our town. Given this opportunity, hairstyling became my chosen career. While in cosmetology college, a colleague and I decided to become hairstylists on a cruise ship. We applied and were accepted to begin work as soon as we passed our state boards. As chance would have it, just before we graduated she met a guy who became her steady, and he did not want her to go abroad and did not support her goal, so I was left to decide if I should go forward as planned or change directions.
I had become very good at doing makeovers, makeup for entertainers, and local plays. One of my instructors suggested that instead of going to work on a cruise ship, I pursue further training as a Hollywood makeup, creative makeup, and special effects makeup artist, and being a trained hairstylist I could support myself doing hair while learning the art of theater/movie makeup. “Wow, “ said I with great excitement. I had never thought of such a fun twist to what I loved to do. I booked my trip and signed up with the Max Factor School of Makeup, ready to live “the” dream.
I graduated from cosmetology college, took my state boards, and worked for a year and a half to earn the money needed to pay for my trip and down payment for attending training in Hollywood.
Six months before I was to leave for Hollywood, I met a man who, a year and a half later, became my husband. And like my colleague’s mate, he did not support my goal to become a special effects makeup artist and live in Hollywood, so I stayed and worked as a hairstylist in my hometown. I purchased my own hair salon and ran it until my husband received an opportunity to take a morning radio show position in Alaska.
Can you see that in both my story and my colleague’s story, our relationships dictated the path we ended up taking in our careers? This is not unusual. Many have veered off a path they thought they wanted to travel to a path that included a life partner. We have read many times how a Hollywood actress or actor gave up their careers to support their spouse’s careers.
And that is what I ended up doing. My husband and I were born on the cusp of “the olden days,” and even though I was seven years younger than he, we lived more in the “olden days” philosophies than any “new way of thinking and doing.” Therefore, my work was to bring in a second income while still being able to take care of the “duties” of a wife, mother, and homemaker, and even though I had many fabulous opportunities to enter into a public career, I was to keep my status as having a job, not a CAREER, hence allowing me to fully support my husband’s career.
What If?
My path in my life has brought me many times to ask, Would I have had a better chance of obtaining some, just some, of my goals and dreams if “Life Coaching” had been a thing back then? What if I could have consulted with a Life Coach or Mentor, someone who was not emotionally involved in my life, someone who would be a neutral sounding board, someone who I could speak my truths, dreams, goals, and hopes to and to show me a possible plan of action that would be a “win-win?”
For many years, the term “Coach” generally pertained to Sports. Life Coaching became a “thing” in the 1980s. Which is quite a ways past the time I needed a coach for my relationship and career choices.
To this day, there is absolutely no doubt that if Life Coaching, Career Coaching, Business Coaching, and Relationship Coaching had been a “thing” from early on in my life, I would have accomplished many more of the goals, dreams, wishes, and hopes that are long gone now. I did, and not easily, achieve a college degree in psychology at the age of 62.
There is absolutely no doubt that if my husband and I had hired a business coach, that a couple of the businesses we started would have been very successful and lucrative. Interestingly enough, when my husband, who was a public speaker and a radio announcer, wanted to expand his speaking arena, we hired a vocal coach, never once thinking of hiring a business coach. Instead, we just winged our way through trying to start and run a business.
Please don’t reply with the old adage of “IT IS NEVER TOO LATE”…Trust me when I say there are very specific things that it is too late to accomplish after a certain age, or at the very least be very good at doing!
It is said by many very successful, well-known, and very wealthy individuals that, “everyone needs a life coach including the life coach themselves.”
When life coaching became so publicly advertised, (Tony Robbins is definitely a forerunner in this and has done a good job of bringing life and business coaching to the forefront), I realized how much I would have benefited from having a life and business coach, and because of this realization, I became a Certified Professional and NLP Coach (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) to help others.
As I look back, I see that there were so many times, that having a “non-emotionally involved individual,” who had no preconceived ideas of who I was or should be, or had no fear that if I took on a particular position, it would change their comfort zone, as a sounding board, I could have accomplished a few of the visions of who I felt I could be.
If I could accomplish anything, I would like to take the stigma out of needing help/coaching to be successful. People have sought out mentors for centuries without hesitation.
The real question is…. Do you need to hire a life coach, or as some like to be called, a Life Strategist Coach, a Business Coach, or a Relationship Coach? If you don’t feel you can afford to invest much money in yourself or your business yet, then find a trusted family member or friend with whom you are ok being vulnerable, and would be willing to mentor you. It is often difficult to talk to a family member or friend because they have a perceptional vision of who they think you are and what you should be doing. Whereas a Certified Professional Coach or Mentor is coming to the table with no preconceived ideas of who they think you are and will always be a neutral sounding board for your thoughts, ideas, goals, and dreams.
What is the difference between a Life Coach and a Mentor?
A Life Coach is an advisor who helps people make decisions, set and reach goals, or deal with problems.
Many Life Coaches or Life Strategists help us to know ourselves better, what our values are, what direction we want for our home life, relationships, career, health and wellness, financial, spiritual, and how to set goals and reach those goals to include helping our planning for checking those long time wishes on our Bucket Lists.
Life/Strategists Coaches are a safe sounding board and confidante for all of a person’s dreams, hopes and can help lessen or quiet all of those ideas that are running around in our heads by getting them all out on paper and being able to actually “see” what the heck is on our minds.
A mentor is a trusted counselor or guide.
Most mentors are or have been role models who are helping or have already helped and guided a person within a particular career or the Mentor has maneuvered a few of life’s toughest experiences successfully. When we go to a mentor we want to know how they dealt with a particular situation, or how they did something that we are trying to do.
There is always fresh growth and changes in the field of Certified Professional Life Coaching. Good coaches gain new tools of their trade to bring in more options to help in the clarifications of what their clients want to accomplish.
Most Life Coaches, Life Strategists, Business Coaches, Relationship Coaches, and Career Coaches offer a consultation for free. This assures you and the coach is a good fit for designing your route to the successes you know you deserve.
Below I have listed a few links about Life Coaching that I hope will help you at least think about whether outside help and perspectives could push forward a few of your goals and dreams.
Any questions, I am happy to answer as best I can. Leave a comment below, or send me a message on Facebook!
From Chopra.com, https://chopra.com/articles/4-benefits-of-having-a-life-coach
From Entrepreneur.com, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/345985
Huffington Post, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-to-find-a-life-coach_b_11992070
Don’t hesitate to check out the credentials of the coach you want to work with. Ask them what their qualifications are and if they are certified?
Those who have taken their certification will have tools that will help the process of building the path you want to take.
Hugs and Blessings