When you decide to do something and are truly committed to it, the universe comes to your aid. There are forces at work that most of us don’t truly understand, but should be aware of, so we can acknowledge them and be empowered by them.
My newest private coaching client, who signed up a few days ago, is a perfect example of this.
To preserve her anonymity, I’ll call my client “Judy.” Judy is an osteopathic physician in the Midwest who has been less fulfilled than she would like to be with her private practice over the past couple of years. A friend told her about me after reading a recent blog post, so Judy applied for a Free Consultation, which we had a few days ago.
I really enjoyed our Consultation. More than most, Judy is still passionate about being a doctor, and has several ideas about what she could do to improve her practice and her life, but she feels stuck when it comes to making the RIGHT decision—the decision that’s going to allow her to live the most authentic and inspired life, while having the significant impact on her patients and the world that she wants to have. She also wants to be sure she continues to prioritize her health, her family and having time to enjoy herself.
Judy is already running a program as part of her practice that helps patients lose weight and create a more healthy and wholesome lifestyle. She loves doing this work, but was unclear about how to grow that part of her practice and reduce the amount of time doing work she doesn’t enjoy as much, especially some of the administrative duties that go along with running a solo family practice.
After we spent about 40 minutes discussing her life and her practice, her dreams and her frustrations, I was convinced that I could help her– mostly because she is so READY to receive help. We discussed the details of my private coaching practice and my fees. She hemmed and hawed for a bit, and then told me she would need a few days to sleep on it and see if she could put into practice some of the ideas we discussed on the call. I knew that if she got off the phone at that point, she’d convince herself it was too expensive and that she could figure out what to do on her own. And nothing would change for her. It’s a pattern that all coaches have seen too many times before (in fact, it used to be MY pattern.)
So, before we hung up, I asked her to consider and answer two questions for me. First, how many new customers would she need to bring into her weight loss program to make back the investment in private coaching? The answer was “five.” Five new participants, that’s all. Next I asked her to imagine what it would feel like for her to look back in five years and realize that nothing had changed substantially in her life. How would it feel to know that she could have made a relatively small (though in the moment it doesn’t seem to small) investment in herself right now to propel herself onto a new path, and didn’t? When we hung up, I knew that she was going to give both of those ideas a lot more thought, and was fairly confident that we’d be working together.
I was right. Judy texted me back a few hours later with the words “I’M IN!!” I was so happy—for her as well as for me, because I really wanted to see her accomplish her goals, and was confident I could help.
We’ve spoken a couple of times since then to discuss the details of the coaching relationship and schedule our calls together. Each time we speak there is a new and higher level of enthusiasm and power in her voice.
Judy just sent me an email that read “I already feel a significant shift in who I am and what I know I can do with my life from this point. I can’t believe how much freer I feel already! What a joy it was to say “GREAT!” when my honey called to ask how my day was! I feel much more positive, relaxed, open to insight and committed to making things work. ”
And we haven’t even done a moment of actual coaching yet! We’ve just had an initial conversation about what’s possible through coaching and scheduled our first session!
This is the power of someone investing in themselves. When you make a commitment, your world changes. You’re not the same person you were before that decision was made. It does require getting a little (or a lot) uncomfortable first, and then moving past that discomfort to a new way of thinking and feeling.
I’ve invested in myself heavily over the past few years through various workshops, coaches and mentors. Each time it’s a little uncomfortable, and each time it ‘s taken my life to new heights.
Judy is going to find new heights of purpose, passion and direction for her life over the next few months. These are gifts that will have a positive impact on her life forever. For that, I’m thrilled.
Even more exciting to me is that Judy is going to pass along all the gifts she receives from opening herself up to new way of thinking and feeling, and bring new levels of passion and purpose to the many people whose lives she touches throughout the remainder of her days.
What can you commit to doing today so that the Universe can come to your assistance ?