Why I Hired a Coach

Listen to this on the Extraordinary Life Podcast

Some people are surprised to hear that I have worked with my own coach and mentor in the past. After all, I spent years as an integrative health coach, and now I focus on high performance coaching. With so much experience and education behind me, you’d think I’d have all the tools I need to create an extraordinary life of my own. So yes, I have the tools, but we are all human! Sometimes, we need to ask for help when we are feeling stuck; and that’s exactly why I hired a coach of my own.  

Where I Got Stuck

During my time as an integrative health coach for women, I focused very much on the entire person - not just their physical health, diet, and exercise. After all, if you aren’t treating your body well or are dealing with health conditions, the effects of that (and perhaps even the cause) can be found in other areas of your life, as well. 

It was this interest in coaching the whole person and creating a better life for myself and my clients that introduced me to Brendon Burchard. I started by reading, then listening to, his best-selling book High Performance Habits. I attended a seminar of his, and kept learning more about the six high performance habits that he talks about. His teachings really resonated with me, and I was soon doing the coursework and became a certified high performance coach. 

So now I had TWO sides of a coaching business that I wanted to intertwine… And already had been to some extent while just a health coach. Yet for some reason, I couldn’t figure out how exactly to move forward. I spent a month or so journaling, reflecting, and using all of my tools that I had, and I wasn’t getting anywhere. I was excited about the potential I could feel bubbling inside, but was frustrated that I wasn’t finding clarity. I needed help. 

Looking back to this time, I’m confident that I could have found clarity on my own. Eventually. But I wanted to move faster, and I knew the exact person I wanted to help me get there. 

My Coaching Experience

I met Nafissa Shireen at a conference somewhere, and had been following her ever since. The things she was sharing and saying connected with me, so I reached out and signed up for a month of coaching with her. I thought I could get in, do the work, maybe even have her just tell me what to do (ha!), and I’d be good in thirty days. Yes, the work we did together was valuable, but I should have known better from my own experiences as a coach for others! Clarity on what you’re seeking doesn’t show up on a timeline. It’s an ongoing (lifelong!) practice, and those “AHA!” moments come as we do the work, on their own time. 

I decided to join Nafissa’s year-long mastermind group, and it was really what I needed to find my footing again, and create momentum with my “new” coaching methods. The mastermind was such a blessing, because I had a safe space to share and reflect with other women, including Nafissa, and the accountability was huge. I was being held accountable by people other than myself who wanted to see me succeed. 

I know that in my own group coaching program, Extraordinary Life Tribe, it’s this exact safe space the members value so much. A friend summed it up nicely: “I can’t spend a whole coffee date with a friend talking about myself, the lessons that I’m learning, and insights I’m having. This group gives me that.” It’s a great process of staying accountable and moving towards your dreams faster, with a supportive group of women doing the exact same thing. 

My Surprising Moment of Clarity

One of the six high performance habits is to seek and find clarity. The mastermind with Nafissa was a huge part of that, but a pony named Jake is what solidified everything for me. 

I met Jake at Nafissa’s equine retreat in beautiful British Columbia. If you know anything about horses, they are very sensitive to the energy around them. When you are stressed or nervous, they pick up on that and reflect it back to you, something that can be very powerful while working on yourself. So there I was, working on journaling exercises from Nafissa in a corral with Jake. He had zero interest in me or what I was doing, and was doing his own thing as far from me as possible. 

Soon, I’m deep in my journal, and totally engrossed with what I’m writing about where I want to take my life coaching business. I’m reflecting on how I know that I can help others, and how much coaching people has changed me for the better, and as my thoughts became more congruent, my energy experienced a shift into alignment. 

And wouldn’t you know it? Jake had silently made his way over to me, and was nuzzling my cheek! He felt the energy change, and his presence seemed to say “Yes, this is it, Crystal!”

Taking Action

Coaching is a tool to help you find clarity in your life, business, relationships - whatever - but unless you take action, you’ll never get there. Taking action looks like a lot of things, depending on what you are working on. But it starts with the biggest one of all - asking for help. From there, you need to trust in the process, do the work, and make mistakes, and try again. 

I talk a lot about how I write down my ten dreams for ten years from now. If I stop doing that, then I’m not focused on them and “living into” them each day. But when I do take action and write them down, then I can make small shifts or take small steps each day to reach them. 

In my year and a half working with Narissa, I made an investment in time, money, and trust. But most of all, I kept taking action. Going through the process is what helped me find clarity then - and I am still benefiting from our time together. I have the notes that I review regularly, and I’m not going to unlearn what I learned in that time. So as I grow and change and need to find clarity on something else, I have these new tools. And when I get stuck (because I surely will), I’ll reach out and ask for help when I need to. 

Have you worked with a mentor before? What was your experience? Let me know in the comments, or shoot me an email and let me know about your experience.