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My career started as a teacher in Further Education.  I was drawn to teaching and working at this level as I believe in the many benefits that it offers learners.  These include smaller classes, one-to-one support and encouragement, and the opportunity to progress to further and higher education, or employment.  While I enjoyed my 19 years teaching, over time, I found myself gravitating more and more towards helping individuals to explore and achieve their potential, not just academically but beyond that on a more holistic level.  Working with them to overcome blocks, understand their natural skills and talents and increase their self-confidence.  Little did I know that in doing this, I was already planting the seeds for my own future career as a Life Coach.

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However, a few years before I was to even hear of the term ‘Life Coaching’, I was to face some significant challenges in my own personal life.  These experiences and overcoming them would change my life forever and my perspective would never be the same again.  The first of these was my father’s tragic death when he was just 57 years old, this was devastating. Then a year later another close family member faced a sudden and serious health condition that required significant medical attention and treatment.

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These experiences were the most challenging of my life to date, but as they say, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ and that was absolutely the case for me.  Yes, there were tears and great pain, but there were also incredible insights, learning, and development that I would not have had without going through these challenges.  Don’t get me wrong, I wish they had never happened, but they did, so I choose to focus on the blessings that came with them.   This decision was the fork in the road and the turning point in my life, which was going to go in a very new direction.

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I firstly began ‘to build myself up again’ through a combination of internal strength and resources (that I didn’t  even know I had) and external ones such as the guidance from the many books I read and inspirational videos I watched.  Slowly but surely, I ‘got back on my feet’ and started to move forward. While these experiences and several others to follow were out of my control, I had realised at the time, that what was within my control was my response.  This was to become the building block for my future endeavours and the fuel for my career change.

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While it was still my job at that time to teach and grade students on their academic performance, my vocation was revealing itself to be one of helping the individual to overcome their obstacles and assisting them towards achieving their true potential and fulfilling their greater life purpose.