Since November of last year I’ve been on my own special kind of “sacred path” which has included understanding what I love to do for my work (life coaching, writing, being on the radio) and realizing the major beliefs that I’ve been operating under (people will think I’m a mix-matched plaid suited wearing salesperson if I ask them to coach with me, I don’t have the educational background to be a good writer and I’m too old to make a career of being on the radio).

One of my favorite mentor Coaches used to tell me frequently that  I had all the credentials, experience, skills and education to be an exceptional coach; what I needed to do was to “be” rather than “do”.  Even though I smiled gratefully to him, inside my mind I was actually saying “yeah, yeah, right, sure that works for you but it can’t possibly work for me”.  In spite of my inner attempts at sabotage, I began to apply the concept of being who I am as a coach rather than doing what I thought a good coach should do.  Consequently this honest approach of being who I am is wafting out into all areas of my life. I’ve learned that it’s hard to control the “being who you are” train once it’s left the station!  A trait of me “being” me is to honestly share my process of figuring out how to live and so I shared my process of realizing that I needed to create a steady form of income while I was growing my coaching business in my Toastmaster’s group.  For three minutes I talked about the dilemma of loving coaching, writing and the radio but not being able to pay all the bills (yet) and all the feelings associated with this process.  Immediately after my talk I experienced “esprit de escalier” and felt embarrassed about revealing so much!  To my utter delight a couple of weeks later I received a voice mail from a fellow Toastmaster who is also a professional speaker in which she told me what an impact my Table Topic’s response made for her.  It caused her to reflect on the level of stress she’d been experiencing recently as a speaker due to unpaid invoices and sky rocketing insurance rates.  Because I had been willing to be honest about my process and my conclusion to find other forms of steady income, my friend was willing to cast a keen eye on her own affairs and understand how she wanted to handle her career.

When I last spoke to my friend she had several positive conversations with clients she had conducted seminars and speeches for who were thrilled to consider her for (and create) positions with their companies.  She realized that all the professional speakers she most revered had been speaking for twenty or more years and that at four years and counting as a speaker, she was okay with working in a steady job while she continued to grow her professional speaking business.  In fact, while we were on the phone I came across two jobs that seemed to be a great match for her and for which she applied.

I must confess that this experience with my Toastmaster’s friend felt like my higher power had forced me to hit my elbow funny bone and yet it pleased me greatly that my willingness to be who I am enabled someone to find hope and help for themselves.

That and a six pound bag of potatoes for eating is all I need!  How are you going to “be” today?