(recently posted at  www.lifebeforebusiness.com)

When I was in elementary school I learned the usual sports such as Four Square and Softball. I remember our P.E. Coach always telling us “to keep our eye on the ball”.  The issue for me was that I did not have the eye-hand coordination to negotiate where the ball was heading and when to connect with it. Instead, after several miscalculations and bruising my nose and neck, I began ducking.  At first the ducking was as subtle as a ducking could be, a slight away movement of my body, but with time my ducking became more pronounced and obvious. I soon became “that” girl who was the last to be selected for any team. Who wants a ducker?

After awhile, I learned how to slow down my fear reaction with deep breathing so that I could take some time to focus on what was going on around me and connect with whatever ball was heading towards me.  I learned that fear had been the paralyzing enemy that kept me from responding instead of reacting. 

I can immediately pull from the fear of my youth to growing my business now and apply the lessons I’ve learned along the way.  I know what the fear feels like in my body and also what it feels like to over come it.  I also have learned that the energy of fear and excitement feel the same, what matters is how I choose to channel it.

Because of my financial fear and thin veil of trust in attracting the coaching business I want, I’ve been applying for various and sundry jobs in addition to having the usual coaching conversations with prospective clients.  Last week, I responded to a posting for a position working on a creating project.  I coach people who want to find more meaning in their lives, not doing the kind of work this position called for, but I love working with creative people and I do have a wealth of experience in my background that would enable me to give the position a good run for its money—so I considered halting my life for two weeks to work on this project.

After several discussions with the head of the project, friends in the business, my husband and lots of prayers, I realized that I had existing clients and projects scheduled over the next two weeks that could not be altered and that I did not want to leave the project director hanging under a tight deadline because of my time constraints.  I also realized that what I really wanted to do was coach the project director and help him keep his wits about himself as he did what he does best rather than juggling my schedule for two weeks working on this project.  So, when I emailed the director to let him know that I was bowing out of scouting and why, I invited him to coach with me.

Amazing things happen for us when we’re willing to be honest about who we are and what we want.   Turns out he is interested in working with me as a spiritual coach to help him keep his eye on the ball in the middle of the excitement of creativity. Slowly but surely I’m building the confidence to accept what I am destined to do and focus my energies into helping those who need my help as a coach rather than let my fear take over.   Where is your focus today?