The picture above is meant to be a bedtime hot-chocolate. Almond milk is probably nicer than ‘squirty’ cream.
It’s Easter holidays here in England. I have been balancing being a business owner with being a wife and mother and I feel more than ever that to do that I need to keep in mind that my business is not served by me working on it as many hours as possible.
The best life coach is not the most tired one.
I’ve been taking time to read and this week read ‘The Reading Promise,’ by Alice Ozma. Alice and her father made a promise to each other to read together every night, first for 100 days, then 1000 and then eventually logging in 3218. It is a beautiful memoir and very much about connection with those we love.
I have felt love this week, such love. I think it is because I moved away from my computer more often. I realised that at some point I had stopped staying for snuggles after story time as my little one found it so hard for me to leave when I eventually did. I had an idea of all I needed to fit into the evening after bedtime.
I realised in my thoughts about connection that I get to choose how much time I give for snuggles. I get to decide whether I tickle my dogs stomach when he sits on his haunches and puts a proprietorial paw on my lap to say ‘ready for tickling.’
So I ‘leaned in’ and not in the way it is meant in the business world. I leaned in and made time to stay after story time lights out. I took the time to be on dog belly rub duties – duty?
When our daily interactions with those we love become duties and routines we lose the whole point of them. When I concern myself with getting on with work in the evening I don’t allow a lull in the day to regroup. Instead I can rest on a bed where my feet touch the bottom and listen to faint classical music as the light outside fades.
And so I learn a lesson I learn over and over in life, that your love can be repaid, that in giving you receive. (if this isn’t the case in your relationship, you might need to speak to my coach buddy, Christel.)
I had got so caught up in trying to be the hare in my business. If I work more quickly….
But the tortoise wins the race and does so by keeping on with its journey to the finish line.
When I slow down in my business I get so clear.
Then I can see you more clearly.
I see that you are a coach or want to be a coach.
I see that you started off like me with a need and want to help people and now you need help and support on creating your new life as a coach.
You don’t want just tick lists to follow. You want to be deeply heard and nurtured as an individual and as a coach. You want the prism of your potential to be filled with light so that it makes rainbow patterns the way your rings sometimes do when they catch the sun.
There I go, a life coach, talking rainbows and unicorns….
But I so know that this whole journey is not all rainbows and unicorns and that’s why I’d love to help you.
My challenge for you this week is to notice where you are dialling back connection with those you love and with what you love to do because in some ways the love is so big that you don’t know quite how to handle it.
I was dialling back connection after stories as it made it less difficult to go downstairs.
I was dialling back connection with focusing on coaching coaches as it’s easier not to do something you really want to do, as if it fails that’s more of a big deal.
So into the ‘arena’. Thanks Brené.
I may fall flat on my face.
But if I don’t stand up and let you know I’m here for you, you wouldn’t know.
I help coaches to create a coaching practice that feels good in their hearts and that is created with an eye to the wider purpose of having a deeply fulfilling and happy life. (even when that includes snuggling with your children for longer in the evening rather than being a marketing wiz in the biz.)