Reflection of the Best: Decide, Focus, Grow

joanna-binder-life-and-career-coach-dream-board

The photograph above is of my dream board. I created it about a year ago while participating in mind training after my graduation from the PSG Life and Executive Coaching course. I edited the Coach of the Month photo in Paint and it was hanging over my desk for a while. Then I put it away and forgot all about it. Still, a year from then I am writing these words as a Coach of the Month. When I received a nomination I was over the moon and then I started thinking how and that brought me to the concepts of decision and focus. Purposefully, I have not used the phrase “power of”: it gives an impression of a kind of magical force. Yet, the decision and focus are within our realm and we do not need any supernatural intervention to benefit from them.

Looking back at the time since my journey as a coach started, I see that I have achieved a lot: I graduated from the course and became an Accredited Life and Executive Coach, I also obtained the Certificate in Career Coaching, Train the Trainer Certificate and finally the Advanced Coach Practitioner diploma. I was a career coach during Which Course Expo and twice during Dublin Jobs Expo. The second time I was also invited to be a guest speaker and I gave my presentation to a pretty impressive audience. One of my dreams was to organize my own workshop so I did it. I have kept coaching and each session was a tiny success too. All these achievements mark my growth both as a professional coach and a person and I am very proud of them. However, I think that my greatest success this year was the decision I took in January 2016 and the focus that resulted from it. My constant growth as a coach and person, the development of my professional and personal skills and drive to learn and achieve, all came from that one moment in January.

Graduating from the coaching course and having the Diploma in my hand did not make me a coach in my head or heart. I thought that I did not have enough clients coached, books read, skills, experience, and courses, to call myself a coach. It took me about 4 months to realise that I was enough. In January 2016 I gathered my courage and said to myself and to the world: “I am a coach!”

The moment I owned the title something changed: the lens of my thoughts and actions focused, I started to take intended actions and things have started falling into place. I still have all the boxes to be ticked but now they are part of Constant Professional Development (CPD) and not something I have to do in order to become a coach. Mind you, the decision I took that day needs to be revisited and refreshed on a fairly regular basis. There are times when the focus is lost and I do not feel like anyone. Still, somewhere at the back of my head: “I am a coach” sits and nudges me gently until I notice it again.

During the PSG course we had guest speakers and one of them said that we need to own the fact that we are coaches. I remember that at the time I did not fully understand what she meant. I do understand it now and it gives me the focus to grow and develop and follow my decision as best as I can.

PSG December 2016 Coach of the Month - Joanna Binder