Press The GO Button. It’s About Saying YES to New Actions, Intelligent Risk, Digging Deep and Doing It Anyway

There is a sense of humour involved in fate when someone who has been labeled as “risk-averse” and “fearful of change” has been chosen to write about a topic that requires courage and spontaneity! If my mother would have been told this last year, she probably would have had a laughing fit. But, here, in this type of transformation, lies the power of coaching.

Since completing the Diploma in Executive and life Coaching with PSG a year ago, my family and I have gone through a journey of pushing GO buttons left, right, and centre, that it almost feels like our new normal.

You see, last year, as part of my wish list (those things that are so far-reaching that they are practically impossible according to my mindset at the time), I listed down 3 things. One was to live in a tropical country, ideally the Philippines where I was born. I had been living in Ireland for 9 years and worked for the same company throughout that time. Two, was to have time for my children and still earn a decent amount of money so we could travel back to Europe often. And three, was to have a career that I enjoyed and that was fulfilling. BOOM, less than a year later, here I am writing this blog from the 10^th floor of our own office, overlooking the glistening tropical sea and islands.

In short, I have ticked all three boxes of my former wish list, which now is my reality.

What did it take for us to go from wish list to reality? The short answer is that after a long time of being fearful and always taking the risk-free road, I allowed myself to say YES to ACTION. Of course, planning is your friend and you should take time to prepare but in the end, the planning has to end and action needs to start.

The road to getting to my ACTION state was paved through the work that I had done in my coaching sessions during the PSG course. I had built a strong foundation for myself through self-work and coaching. At this stage, I had done the following, which I found to be invaluable: First, my values were clear to me, which would later help me in making these big, challenging decisions. Second, my self-limiting beliefs were clearly laid out and I could tackle them one by one. Three, the impact of our decision to move as a family and the financial implications of this were discussed and listed down. Four, we did our research regarding what we could expect during the first few months of our move and we identified a timeline for when we would assess the level of success of our decision.

Notice, I wrote “level of success” and not “success or failure”. This was important because, as part of our decision-making process, we agreed that whatever the result of our decision, we would consider it as a step towards our shared family goals. Starting a life change with a mindset of success is vital.

I like to be well prepared when I venture into new things. However, after all the preparation has been done, after you have used enough of your “head” values to inform your decision, there is one thing left to do – and that is to MAKE the decision. There will always be some uncertainty left that cannot be answered. In the end, choosing a new path in life and pressing the GO button requires us to dig deep into ourselves for the courage to take the leap. Our primal instincts and gut feel does the rest of the work for us.

Another biggie that absolutely got me to the finish line was the support that I had throughout my journey. The role of our support network when making big life decisions cannot be underestimated. For me, it was the support of my professional coach as well as my family that empowered me along the way. We are social beings after all. Our support network is especially crucial in moments when our self-talk comes from fear and doubt and we need to be snapped back into a more empowering path.

One thing is sure, time moves forward; always! If we do not push the GO button on our dreams now, our dreams will certainly remain far from our reach. Imagine yourself a year from today; where would you be then, if you take the leap towards your dreams now? Where would you be if you don’t? We get so caught up in our “head”, which of course is a great resource, but sometimes it takes the “heart” or instinct to take the leap. Any decision is better than none. If you succeed, you win, and if you don’t, you learn – a level of success. Either way, you move forward! Be prepared, take time to know your options, but in the end, PUSH that button!

Contact Angela:
Phone (Ireland): +353 (0) 863187186
Phone (Philippines): +63 (0) 9394647346
Email: angela@seditio.ie
Facebook: facebook.com/dailycoachingnuggets/
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/angelaschloer/