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Sacred Creative Collective Group Coaching

January 15, 2021

Create deeper meaning and purpose in your life with the support of a coach and a community!

Join the next Sacred Creative Collective Group Coaching for 3 months of wholehearted self-leadership coaching.

Get on the waitlist to be the first to know when enrolment is open!

Get on the Waitlist!

Read on to learn more about the Collective

Create a life that has more meaning and purpose. Move beyond procrastination. Commit to a project or transition, work consistently, and see it through with confidence and discipline. Connect with practical tools to create progress instead of going over old problems or ways of doing things. Take that dream of writing a book or blog or creating a new life path or ecourse and begin to make it real.

Sacred Creative Collective is for you if you are creating a new life story and it feels a little overwhelming and lonely at times as you work through it all. 

Explore what you desire to create in a safe environment with accountability and companionship. Learn with a guide and other wise women walking on the road with you so you feel supported. Because sometimes it can feel like hard work and we all need that guidance and a place to share our breakthroughs and work through our challenges.

When you get the connecting threads in place, you’ll feel clearer about the path you’re taking.

You’ll have the resources and tools to bring the threads together. You’ll feel motivated and enthusiastic with good habits, discipline and rituals established. Knowing more about your personality strengths (and saboteurs!), these practices will provide a strong foundation for flexing into new territory in ways that work for you!

You’ll feel a sense of direction and purpose, especially if you’re working on shaping a new life chapter. Perhaps life has changed in some fundamental way. You might have finally left (or are planning to leave) that workplace behind and are wanting to get back to what you truly value. You might want to weave together ways of living and working in a more seamless, harmonious and productive way. Perhaps you’ve been on this journey for some time now and need a little boost and support through the ups and downs.

Whatever the circumstances, you are planning a deeper shift to a more creative way of living, one closer to your heart.

Working with the Sacred Creative Collective, you’ll shape plans and strategies for working the best way for you. You’ll feel you have a goal, something to aim for. No longer simply biding your time, you will be doing something of value. Your spiritual life is deeply important to you (whatever that means for you) and probably always has been. Your own practice is sacred to you, but you’d love to share and learn with others too, so you can connect and enrich each other. 

Stepping away from the ordinary world for a while, you can listen more clearly to your own inner wisdom.

Introducing the Sacred Creative Collective, a step-by-step 3-month group program for women who want clarity and momentum for a more fulfilling life without the overwhelm.

As a result of working together in the Sacred Creative Collective, you will:

  • Embrace your calling and creativity and take your desires from intention through planning to reality so you can make them happen!
  • Be in confident action towards a creative project or life transition you deeply want.
  • Better understand and work in alignment with your personality preferences so you can achieve your goals in your own way.
  • Enjoy the support and accountability of a coach and a community of women, sharing wisdom and cheering each other on so you feel connected as you make change.
  • Develop self-leadership skills for sustainable change so your investment and engagement has lasting and enduring impact.

Meet your guide for the journey

I’m Terri Connellan, your coach for the Sacred Creative Collective and I’m here to guide you on the journey. Here’s what’s unique about the Sacred Creative Collective and what I bring to you.

I blend magic and practicality, vision and action, intention and doing the work, intuition and logic, group and individual focus, your calling and a community to support YOU.

I’m a master curator of rich resources, learning and just the right tools to open you to the wisdom and creativity within.

I bring together a passion for creative living with skill and knowledge as a life coach and personality type practitioner, backed by 30 years’ experience in adult education teaching, facilitation and leadership. 

I am skilled at zeroing in on individual needs and facilitating learning in a group environment. Using these skills to shape a flexible learning experience, I will guide you at both an individual and a group level to meet your needs. 

Most importantly, I’ve been on a major life transition journey myself over the past 4 years. 

Pretty much everything has fundamentally changed as I’ve shifted from being a long-term government employee to shaping a self-sustaining, creative life based on my passions and desires. My book Wholehearted: Self-leadership for Women in Transition was published on 6 September 2021. It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time. It’s been a soul-nourishing journey, working on my deeper purpose and meaning. I’ve taken my body of work, skills and experience and added to it to create a new life for myself. I’ve finally got down to doing the creative work of my heart that I’ve longed to do. I share my story, skills and learned wisdom to help you create your deeper story. 

Secure your place on the VIP Waitlist and early access to resources to be in action.

Secure your VIP place on the Waitlist!

Here’s what people have said: 

I enjoyed my time with the Sacred Creative Collective learning from and drawing on Terri’s teachings, experience and invaluable feedback. It provided me with the structure, accountability, support and community that I felt I needed to be in action as I started out on my new journey away from the corporate world. Terri’s leadership and deep knowledge, the thoroughness and professionalism of the content presented and shared throughout was a highlight, as well as the opportunity to meet others on a new journey, deepening their own path. Terri and the Sacred Creative Collective entered my life at exactly the moment I needed this support and I am grateful for this!

VALERIE LEWIS – VISUALISE AND BLOOM – and read Valerie’s fuller Sacred Creative Story HERE

The last three months’ coaching as part of the Sacred Collective Coaching group has been truly life-changing.  I feel like I have pushed reset, examining so many areas of my life and personality.  I now feel much more able to step into my own power and move forward confidently and with ease.  Thank you Terri for gentle and encouraging feedback and informative and enlightening guidance. It definitely feels like this is learning we can revisit time and time again, each time going deeper and getting further to our core.

ELIZABETH MILLIGAN – ON INSTAGRAM – and read Elizabeth’s fuller Sacred Creative Story HERE.

The length of the course is ideal for getting started and making good progress on a project. I love how everyone can be working on their own goals and still be able to learn new things and participate together. I’ve made progress in the area of personal power: learning about archetypes, shadow work and saboteurs has been deep and meaningful. I am feeling more positive about my ability to lead myself and also as I learn more and more about the INFJ personality, I am finding it to be so helpful in understanding why I do what I do. Thank you, Terri! It has been a transformative experience.

CORA PACHECO – EAGLE AND STAR TAROT – Read Cora’s fuller Sacred Creative Story HERE.

Here’s what’s included in the 3-month Sacred Creative Collective:

Weekly Sacred Creative Skills live presentations

12 weekly Sacred Creative Skills live presentations help you learn practical creativity, personality and self-leadership skills to apply to a personal project or goal. With resources to support your individual creative project or life transition plans, you’ll be skilling up AND be in action towards your goals. 

Sacred Creative Skills shared include: 

  • PERSONALITY: KNOWING YOURSELF: your style, personality and preferences as guides: your personality type, style statement, style and type, archetype and other lenses of self-knowledge and personal insights.
  • SELF-LEADERSHIP: CREATIVITY + TRANSITION YOUR WAY: self-leadership, living and working in seasons, personal practices and rhythms, writing, solitude.
  • CREATIVITY: CREATIVE PRACTICE TOOLS + RESOURCES: writing, intuitive practice, technology/social media tips, organisational tools, managing social media and focus in a digital age.
  • SHOWING UP TO YOUR CALLING in your own unique way: resistance, turning professional, responding to your calling, knowing your saboteurs and particular brand of self-sabotaging.
  • YOUR INFLUENCES + ENVY AS GUIDES to what you want: your creative influences over time and what they can tell you; looking at envy as a source of insight as to what you want.
  • FEELING WHOLE IN YOUR WORK, CALLING + TRANSITIONS: Personality type and transition and working on your personality strengths and less preferred areas to feel whole in your work and manage transitions positively.

Monthly Group Coaching Calls

Via 7 fortnightly online group coaching sessions, we will explore individual goals and progress in a collective environment. A combination of coaching and community, you’ll be accountable for your actions in a supported way and enjoy companionship on the journey. With a small group capped to a maximum of 12 women, we will be able to ask questions and connect in a deep way over the 3 months.

Bonus Creative Mentor session with Nicola Newman

You’ll have a bonus 60-minute group mentor session with Nicola Newman, an inspiring Creative Mentor leading a self-directed creative life. We’ll talk about the art of creative living in a live conversation and Q&A with Nicola, drawing on her experiences of creative and positive life transition. You’ll learn how to focus in on your desires and options and be inspired by Nicola who has shaped change with creativity and success.

Nicola Newman

Personalised 1:1 coaching support

With 1:1 personalised email and video feedback from me as your coach through-out, you’ll feel accountable and driven towards your goals. You can also access additional 1:1 coaching sessions at a special Sacred Creative Collective rate to intensify and support your learning if you desire. 

A private Facebook Group community

A Facebook community will provide a place for sharing learning, experiences and practice. We’ll co-create and support each other and have fun in the process.

Online, global and ongoing access

All learning in this program is online so you can work from the comfort of your home anywhere in the world. Dates and times for group coaching by Zoom video-conferencing will be organised to best suit the timezones of those who sign-up. All sessions will be recorded for easy access. You’ll have ongoing access to the Sacred Creative Skills course content, Facebook and group coaching recordings beyond the 6 months so you can always go back to the resources to refresh your learning.

Opportunity to join the Sacred Creative Collective Mastermind Alumni group

You also have the opportunity to join the Sacred Creative Collective Mastermind Group for alumni only. This is an ongoing way to keep supported and connected with wholehearted self-leadership, a coach and a like-minded community of women.

You’ll finally be able to bring together a plan to achieve your dreams and make it happen. 💃🏼 💃🏼 💃🏼

And I’ll support you through all of the threads of the program to be sustainably self-directed and in action for the long-term.

sacred creative collective

Here’s a check-in about whether it’s the right program for you:

I want to know that you will enjoy fantastic outcomes and have a life-changing experience. You want to get excellent value for your investment and transformational tools and positive steps into a sustainable new life chapter. And enjoy your time in the process!

So here’s what I know:

The Sacred Creative Collective is perfect for you if:

  • you’re ready (super keen) to shape a life transition or creative project.
  • you love creativity, reading, learning and shaping personal practices.
  • you are excited about getting to know women on a similar journey.
  • you want to understand yourself and personality preferences better.
  • you’re committed to putting time into working on yourself.
  • you’re excited by a blend of individual and group work.
  • you think a mix of coaching and teaching/learning from me would work well for you now.

The Sacred Creative Collective is not for you if:

  • you’re not ready to make life changes or commit to a creative project.
  • you don’t like learning, reading or shaping new material into your life.
  • you’d prefer to work one to one and not engage with a community.
  • you don’t feel you have anything to learn about your personality.
  • you’re not committed to investing time into working on yourself.
  • you don’t feel comfortable with a blend of individual and group work.

I hope that makes it clear. I want the best for you! You can hop over to Work with Me for other options like 1:1 coaching if you feel the Sacred Creative Collective is not for you now. Or book a Self-leadership Discovery Call to check.

And to make it easier, you only need to pay the first instalment in advance to secure your place.

The rest is to be paid in additional equal instalments in advance each month during the program.

Doors open early for those on the waitlist to receive an EARLY BIRD discount and early access to resources to be in action.

As soon as you pay your first instalment and have an introductory Self-leadership Discovery Call to check it will be a great fit for you. You get early access to resources so you can be in action before the program formally starts. You will hit the ground running and make the most of the 6 months. 

The early bird resources include:

  • A WELCOME PACKAGE with the Sacred Creative Skills program outlined in full so you can see the whole and where you would personally like to zero in.
  • A PERSONAL LEARNING PLAN WORKBOOK so you can start to shape your goals and learning program. You can start early and plan for success, honing in on your personal focus. It might be a creative project, the next step in your life path or creative business like a transition plan, blogging or writing practice or developing content for an ecourse or face to face program. Whatever feels right for you.
  • A detailed RESOURCE LIST so you can begin to choose the BOOKS you would like to focus in on or the PODCAST episodes you would like to listen to motivate you in making real progress in the Sacred Creative Collective.

Set your intentions for a new creatively inspired life in line with your meaning and purpose. It’s a great opportunity to set yourself up for a positive and focused time and also have support in negotiating all the global challenges we are experiencing.

So are you interested in working together in a sacred creative way with a coach and others? 

Fabulous  – it is going to be wholehearted, creative work and play as we wind our way together towards deeper meaning and purpose.

Here’s how to get started! 

Be in action toward your goals now. Places are limited to a maximum so take advantage of early access to resources and secure your place. Here’s what to do!

Get on the VIP Waitlist now!

If we are already in contact now via coaching or mastermind groups, send me an email and we can work out if a discovery call step is needed.

Questions?

Have any questions? Check out the FAQs below at the end of this post.

The Sacred Creative Collective is a value-packed way to work with me to access all my skills, knowledge and experience, gain valuable self-leadership skills and make new connections. 

With the resources you receive in advance, you can be in action to make powerful progress over the 6 months. A 1:1 45-minute Discovery Call will help you kick off your plans with focus and insight.

Here’s more about what people have said: 

Creativity flourishes within intentionally crafted containers and the Sacred Creative Collective is among the most friendly and loving spaces I know. Attracted to Terri’s subject-matter expertise and curation style, I enrolled to allow myself to receive the kind of support I’m accustomed to giving in my professional field. As such, this program envisioned as an ‘external’ accountability structure delightfully points back to inner wisdom, where authentic accountability arises from within and is exponentially enhanced by group participation yet not dependent on it. The vast, detailed library of resources, combined with a wealth of skills instruction and a generous measure of laser coaching, has exercised and strengthened these creative wings for takeoff!

– PE

I really enjoyed being part of the Sacred Creative Collective and the experience of being on a learning journey with other women on a similar quest of acquiring knowledge and strategies to facilitate our writing dreams. There was a feeling of acceptance and support throughout the course, whilst having a definite structure to adhere to. Having Terri share her journey and acquired learning along the way was both interesting and useful. Terri put us on to some terrific resources and shared some very inspiring and motivational quotes which kept propelling us forward. The inbuilt accountability of spelling out our weekly priorities and fortnightly goals and action helped me to achieve my goal of creating my blog and launching it into the world!

– DR

Frequently Asked Questions

How much time will I need to commit to the program?

The program material itself (Sacred Creative Skills, Group Coaching, Facebook, Mentor Calls, 1:1 work over the 3 months) requires a commitment of about 2-3 hours per week on average. Then your work on your individual goals and projects is additional to this – however, this is work you would want to be doing anyway. The group coaching will help you be in action in a more strategic, efficient, productive and supported way towards your plans. 

What if I get behind?

The material is always there to go back to and you can work in whatever way suits you. Focusing week to week helps to be in action and working on the early materials as soon as you have access will give you a head start for deep action.

How big is the group?

The group is small enough for individual attention and intimate connection but large enough for a sense of community. The program is capped to ensure the best balance over the three months.

What about time zones and the timing of the calls?

The Sacred Creative Collective attracts women from all over the world which provides a rich opportunity for interaction and connection. Dates and times for group coaching by Zoom video-conferencing will be organised to best suit the timezones of those who sign-up. Group coaching will be a 90-minute session with the whole group if that works or in 2 x 60-minute options each fortnight at times when global time-zones make a single group too challenging.

Why do I need to book a Self-leadership Discovery Call?

This is a coaching program and even though we are working as a group, you’ll be working on your own priorities and projects. To be able to customise the program to both individual and group needs, I need to get to know you and your priorities and desires. Plus we need to know it’s the right fit for you before you commit.

When you book your session, I’ll be sending you some questions to prepare in advance. If you decide to go ahead with the program, you’ll be ready for when doors open or to enrol ASAP. If we decide it’s not the right fit, I’m happy to share other resources and options to help you get what you need and of course, refund your initial payment or transfer it to another option of your choice.

If we are already in touch and know each other well via coaching or other means, just send an email to me at terri@quietwriting.com and we can talk that way.

What if I feel I need more 1:1 support?

If you feel you need more 1:1 support, you can access 1:1 coaching with me during the 3 months of the program. This will be available at the special rate of $140AU per hour which is 15% off. 

Do I need any special technology? 

No. It’s all pretty standard technology for online courses and coaching. You just need a computer, internet connection, email address and a pair of earbuds or headphones with inbuilt microphone for group calls. I’ll be there to guide you and help if there are any issues or it is new to you.

What if I am not confident with technology?

I’ll be there to help you every step of the way and can work with you 1:1 on any challenges that arise. Learning to work with technology will help you to embrace self-leadership and learning goals as well. You’ll learn tools and tips to help you with your goals. In fact, getting confident with technology would make a fantastic learning and life goal for the program!

How long will I have access to the material?

The Sacred Creative Collective resource material will be on the Quiet Writing School ecourse platform and in a private Facebook group. You have access to the material beyond the program to support you to be in action. You can download material for your own use too to ensure you always have your own copy to hand.

How will you blend together group skills and individual projects? 

As a teacher in adult vocational education, this is work that I have done for many years and am very skilled in! As a person with INTJ type preferences, it is natural for me to be organised and I love to shape complex material into frameworks and more accessible ways of working. We will have processes and templates for ensuring you can scope personal intentions, goals and plans and have the resources and support to be in action towards them. Group support via Group Coaching and Facebook is an important part of the program. I love teaching and facilitating groups with a mix of individual needs and learning styles as we all learn from each other!

Do I need to know my Jung Myers-Briggs (eg MBTI) personality type before I start?

No, although it does help you to have this knowledge to get the most from the program! You might already know your type from previous work. Working through my deep-dive Personality Stories Coaching Package prior to the program helps you to get into a good place with understanding your unique personality.

Whether you have this knowledge or not, you know yourself well and we can tap into this and work with it. I’ll provide some simple frameworks and activities for working with what you know about your personality preferences. I’ll share insights on psychological type and how it affects the way we naturally work on the way through. As always we will start with where you are and build on that.

Will I get my Jung/Myers-Briggs personality profile through this program?

Not in a formal way but you will know more about your personality from working through this program. Self-assessment with the guidance of a coach is also a valid way to learn about your type. I weave knowledge of psychological type into everything I do. The Personality Stories Coaching Package is a 1:1 deep dive into your personality type if you wish to do this at any time, before, during or after the program. If you already know your type but would like to revisit it prior to the program via a 90 minute 1:1 deep dive coaching session, contact me by email or book a Discovery Call as a first step for both group coaching and personality work.

What happens after the program?

You have the opportunity to join the Sacred Creative Collective alumni Mastermind group for ongoing connection and support. You can also work via 1:1 coaching with me.

Be in action now!

So get on the waitlist for next time and receive early bird access and discounts.

Get on the Waitlist!

I look forward to sacred creatively co-creating with you!

PS Here’s an insight into the quality of my online teaching and learning approaches:

The variety of ways Terri presents the study material means that everyone coming to the course will find their preferred method of learning catered for. I’m an aficionado of online courses, but I’ve never encountered such a sensitivity to the needs of different learners and is a testament to Terri’s wealth of experience in the field of education. Gold standard stuff here.

Claire Harnett-Mann

Further reading:

Practices and tools to support creative productivity and mindset

9 of the best books to inspire your writing books to inspire your creativity and craft

Coaching goals and the value of being a healthy creative

Stepping up through fear

Your body of work – the greatest gift for transition to a bright new life

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coaching work life

Coaching as a skill + how to skill up in the best way!

August 30, 2019

In this post, I share my learning about coaching as a skill and how to get skilled up in life coaching via the Beautiful You Coaching Academy!

coaching as a skill
Photo by Fi Mims Photography

Coaching as a skill

Coaching is a skill like teaching, writing, painting, counselling, copywriting or managing social media skilfully.

As I trained to become a life coach and developed my skills, I realised it is a skill-set I can hone and combine with other unique skills gained through life experience and formal and informal learning.

You might be seeing quite a lot of life coaches and coaches generally out there and thinking that it is a crowded market. Furthermore, you might think there’s no room for you.

It is true that the field is attracting growth and people wanting a new life direction. It’s attractive because it works as a skill to guide and support others in their personal development. Being a life coach is very satisfying and fulfilling work.

Coaching is also a flexible skill-set you can combine with others to create a new life. There is abundant space for you to bring your unique skills and experience together with coaching to see where it takes you. And to fulfil long-held dreams you may have.

Coaching is a skill you can endlessly combine with teaching, parenting, creativity, personality, self-leadership, design, wellbeing, spirituality, mindfulness, business and marketing, just to name a few skill-sets. If you think of coaching in this way, it helps you open up the possibilities for you and your situation. It’s potentially the gateway to a whole new way of life.

coaching as a skill

My skill-set I blend with coaching as a skill

I began my coaching journey with a background as a teacher and leader in the adult vocational education sector in Australia. Teaching and mentoring are key skills in my skill-set gained over time through formal study and practice in the workplace. I supported the skills training of thousands of students as well as going on to become a leader of teachers and support staff. As a leader, I worked on mentoring and coaching others and leading innovation in online learning.

My passion is writing and creativity. I have worked on writing as a skill nearly all my life including as a teacher of writing. I am a published poet and writer and I’ve blogged for nearly ten years. A learning and language expert, I have studied to Masters level and have two diplomas of education. Such is my love of learning!

Weaving skills together

Alongside becoming a coach, I also trained as a Jung/Myers-Briggs personality type practitioner and coach. Becoming a personality type coach fulfilled a long-held dream. I am now active in national and international type communities including speaking in Australia and the UK at the British Association of Psychological Type on type and transition.

In my coaching, I weave these passions and skills – creativity, personality and self-leadership – together with coaching skills. All my learning in these three areas is at the heart of my offerings and work. I blend them together into a unique blend focused on wholehearted self-leadership. Plus I’ve written a book, Wholehearted: Self-leadership for Women in Transition which is accompanied by a Wholehearted Companion Workbook for practical application.

And I keep working on my coaching skills and being coached – it’s that important as a skill in my life and can be in yours.

coaching skills

Many unique blends of skills

I share my story to show how life coaching as a skill can weave together with other skills. There are as many unique blends of skills as there are people in the world.

I am amazed as I connect with fellow coaches in the Beautiful You Coaching Academy community that no two of us are the same. We are all pursuing our passions, vocation and desired feelings and supporting our clients in different ways depending on our background. There might be similarities in some passions and skills, but the blend we each bring and how we put it together makes each of us and our offerings unique.

There are so many ways you can combine coaching as a skill with your existing, emerging and desired skill-sets.

What skills you could blend together with coaching to create your unique offerings in the world?

Adding coaching to your skill-set

In the Beautiful You course, you are taught about coaching as a skill and the practical ways of working as a life coach. The course explores:

  • 1:1 coaching
  • group coaching
  • branding + your niche
  • events
  • podcasts
  • blogging
  • social media
  • running a coaching business
  • speaking

You learn about coaching skills of: goal-setting, questioning, listening, facilitating rich coaching conversations and skillfully managing a coaching series every step of the way.

Coaching as a skill combines with various delivery methods, income sources and ways of getting your unique message out into the world. Combining life coaching as a skill with other disciplines, skills and business approaches yields so many opportunities. Your personality and passions help you work out where to focus and how to blend your skills best in line with your gifts and strengths.

The training is just the start. There is ongoing support and encouragement via Beautiful You after your course as you further develop. You connect with a fabulously diverse and global community to continue to learn with and from. Making new and deep friendships is an ongoing legacy of the course.

In addition to being a skill, life coaching is a pathway to deeper purpose and meaning, for both you and the people you coach, and that is priceless.

As Beautiful You CEO Julie Parker says in an Inspired Coach issue:

It’s all about connecting with those whose message authentically aligns with your own.

And there are so many unique ways to do that!

coaching as a skill
With Beautiful You CEO Julie Parker as a finalist for the CEO Shine Award in 2019!

Be in action!

So consider how life coaching might play a role in your life! How might you add it to your unique skill-set, body of work, knowledge and experience to shape a new life?

Add the heart-centred, flexible, creative and vitally important skill of coaching to your skill-set. See what magic you can create in the world.

As Steven Pressfield invokes us in The War of Art:

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

Head over to the Beautiful You Coaching Course page for more information.

I look forward to the possibility of working with you! Any questions? Just send me a message using the below form! Or to book a free, no-obligation Discovery Call, go direct to this link.

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Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter – Please visit to keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. There are regular posts on coaching, books, tarot, intuition, influence, passion, creativity, productivity, writing, voice, introversion and personality type.

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If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

Become a life coach and live your change

An overview of the ways to work with me

Life Coaching – making meaning in times of transition

How I fulfilled my vision to become a Personality Type Coach

Your body of work: the greatest gift of transition to a bright new life

Coaching goals and the value of being a healthy creative

Shining a quiet light: working the gifts of introversion

20 practical ways of showing up and being brave and helpful

Creative practices in my tool-kit

Certified Life Coach
Shine Award
transition work life

“But I’m not retired!” – thoughts on the word ‘retired’ as I create a new life

July 31, 2019

not retired

It happened again the other day. I bumped into someone I know in the street and he asked, “How’s retirement going?”

I could feel my blood begin to rise and boil. Not his fault, he doesn’t know the full story of what I am doing. I respond as I usually do with an impassioned, “But I’m not retired! I’m working from home on my new business.”

Or sometimes I say, “I’ve started a new business as a life coach and writer.” The conversation then goes further into what life coaching is and how I work globally with women on finding deeper purpose and creative self-leadership. It’s not always the easiest work to describe in these contexts.

My response to the word ‘retired‘ always surprises me though. It’s a visceral reaction to the word. I am trying to understand why I have such a strong response. Perhaps you understand and feel the same or maybe you embrace the idea of being retired. Here are my thoughts n the word ‘retired’. Love to hear yours.

The word ‘retired’

For me, the word ‘retired’ itself is not inspiring. Tired. Tired over and over again. Reinventing tired. I feel tired just hearing it.

It does not inspire me at all. It’s not a state I’ve ever aspired to.

And in some ways, I am just beginning to stretch my wings. I’m 57 and I don’t feel all that tired. Of course I get tired at times, but I feel alive and energised by this new phase of my life. It means getting back to what I have always wanted to be doing. That is writing, creating, working from home, coaching, connecting with others deeply, researching, working with ideas, having time for community and family.

Working with technology is something I love too. I love creating websites, blogging, ecourses and working with tools that help me be organised and streamlined. I write and coach via technology and it supports me to connect with others and organise my life how I want it, showing up, being productive and learning.

not retired

Lifelong learning and reading

I’m a lifelong learner from way back. I have multiple ecourses on the go at any one time. Currently I’m part of: the Teachable Creator Challenge working on creating quality online courses; the Gentle Business Mastermind; Ellie Swift’s Soulful Sequences about funnels and business flows and Susannah Conway’s The Inside Story Summer School.  If I’m not learning and connecting with others through this, I feel like I’m not living.

I’ve invested in my skills over time. All these skills go into the rich melting pot of my body of work, the skills I already have to help me create new offerings and ways of working.

I love to read and usually have a fiction and a non-fiction book on the go. Reading in different ways via my Kindle, audiobooks and hard copy, I am completely lost without a book. I hardly ever leave the house without one. When I go swimming is one of the few times, because you can’t read underwater (as far as I know).

I’ve just finished Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers which I loved and Dawne Gowrie Zetterstrom’s Lusciously Nurtured which I’ll share more about here soon in a conversation with Dawne. I’m currently reading The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock because I know the hero’s journey does not exactly fit for women. I’m thinking and writing about this right now.

I used to be a teacher of reading to adults. Sharing my love of reading, I now help others via my blog to read for more creativity, productivity and pleasure. My two free ebooks in the Wholehearted Library here are all about reading: how books have shaped my story and a reading wisdom guide. I hope they help and inspire others.

not retired

My days are busy

So my days are busy and full in line with my passions. The word ‘retired‘ conjures up a different paradigm and one that doesn’t align. Like ‘redundancy‘ and my job being ‘deleted‘ as happened to me last year, the language feels negative implying no longer feeling of value, or having a place.

I know it can just mean no longer working outside the home, no longer being in that job of 30 plus years that I was in. When people use the word ‘retired’ in conversation, I know that’s often what they mean. But I am far from retired or retiring in the work that I do.

My days are busy with writing. Right now, I am 40% through the second self-edit of my book ‘Wholehearted: Self-leadership for Women in Transition’.  I write blog posts here at Quiet Writing, guest posts for other websites and feature articles for other publications like the Beautiful You Inspired Coach Magazine and a piece in the anthology I Wrote It Anyway.

I wrote 50,000 words in one month for NaNoWriMo in 2017. I’m loving finally getting writing into the heart of my days. My heart feels full as I sit here with my Tide Pomodoro App and the sound of rain and thunder in my ears as my fingers play the keyboard like a piano. How long have I longed for this?

I’ve learnt new skills as a life coach and personality type practitioner. Training with the Beautiful You Coaching Academy and becoming a certified coach was a big step in my life transition journey. Becoming a Personality Type Practitioner was also one of my three key pillars for my transition. I have loved deepening this knowledge and sharing it with others to support transition and self-understanding.

creativity self-leadership coach

Never too old

In my response to the word ‘retired’, there is definitely something in there about age and being old. That paradigm or life story of going to work for one employer for a long time, investing so much time in exchange for money. Then ceasing that in a delayed gratification of life and being able to do all the things you couldn’t do before. I lived in that paradigm for a long time, always waiting for the weekend or the holiday. I’m so glad to be out of it.

But I never saw the end of the journey of paid work via a job as a full stop.

I see it as a new beginning. A time to get back to the creativity I long desired, expressing myself through my writing and my work. But meaningfully, in line with my sense of purpose and desires. I want to write the novel that is in my heart, that I have cultivated in my mind, thought so much about.

I struggle with my age sometimes in creating this new life it’s true. It comes as a fleeting sense of “I wish I’d started earlier” or “How am I going to be able to get all this creative work done?” But you really are never too old to find courage and skill to empower your dreams and start working on the deeper intentions and creative work of the heart. Starting and moving step by step on whatever you desire to do or create is the best antidote for tackling these kind of thoughts.

Being less tied down

Being location independent, being able to work and write from anywhere is helpful. Not having to commute three plus hours a day as I used to, I am less tied and tired. Working from home is the greatest joy and I can be flexible about how I work each day.

I have the time to enjoy where I live instead of leaving early and coming home late as I used to. I can choose to swim three mornings a week and afterwards, connect with others over coffee. Then start working on my business, writing and coaching later in the day when I feel refreshed and grounded.

Working from home and via technology means being free in many ways. I love working from home but I aspire to be a digital nomad more. Being able to work from anywhere, combining travel, writing and self-employment is a huge plus in the new life I have created.

Aspiring and time to evolve

Part of my reaction to the word ‘retired’ is about aspirations. There’s so much I want to do in my life. I aspire to so much. It feels like the beginning of a new time when I can bring all my skills and experience to bear to write, coach, make a difference, communicate and share my learning to help others.

Retiring to me feels like a shutting down of aspiration. ‘Shy and retiring‘ is another phrase that often goes together, so a sense of blurring into the background, having less to say and do. Perhaps it involves enjoying life by relaxing, travelling and having more free time. But can we not have these generous aspects of life alongside working productively with deeper meaning and purpose, getting to the work of the heart we’ve always aspired to?

Sometimes too, especially for introverts, it takes a long time to find our voice and not be shy and retiring. The word ‘retire’ clashes for me with this time of life when I have something to say and contribute. When all my learning can be brought together into ways of providing insights for others. When I have found my voice and feel more creatively confident. Crone Confidence as my friend Diana Frajman calls it in her wisdom work in the world.

not retired

Later bloomers

I love stories of people who finally get to what they always wanted to do or who learn new skills later in life. Debra Eve has a fabulous website, Later Bloomer which reminds us that age and timelines are not definitive measures of what is possible. Sometimes it takes time, like a vintage wine or the lessons of a love that deepens over the years, to really weave together the stories and skills we have developed in our lives. It takes time to work out our purpose and meaning, what we are here for.

Being a later bloomer reflects the time it takes to mature those deep skills and passions that only we can bring together. It recognises too that we can reinvent ourselves in new ways over time.

What if a mindset of being retired means you don’t get to do that work that is so important to you? Or that someone else needs to hear?

Many ways to create

There are so many ways to work and create these days. It does not have to be a magnum opus, though it could be. Turning up on social media and sharing thoughts can be powerful work. Just the right quote or perspective honed from deep experience can turn someone else’s thinking around.

Voluntary work, pro bono work, can be a way of giving and receiving, realising in a new way what we have learned and how to apply it. Blogging can reach so many people in a powerful way as we craft our own digital space and voice in the world.

Writing that book you’ve always wanted to write and share is now easier to do with independent and self-publishing options. It’s not a vanity story any more. You can work with others in a hybrid or partnership model to get your work out into the world too. There are so many options and ways to create.

Exploring ‘retired’ and life options

So whilst for some retirement might be a worthy goal to aim for, I don’t think I’ll ever be truly retired and nor do I want to be. I want to be busy reading, writing, learning, sharing my learning, coaching, creating online courses, publishing, understanding personality type deeply, swimming, walking, connecting, travelling, enjoying life.

The life options are endless and people choose to focus in different ways. It might be spending time with the grandchildren and taking a more active role there. Sometimes there are situations that arise  such as supporting aging parents which can be important work but incredibly challenging.

Through it all we search for deeper meaning and purpose and learn lessons about life as we go.

I know that creating and sustaining a new way of living has been hard work. To get to this stage in my life has taken hard inner and outer work over many years. This is another reason why I am not so keen to label my new self-created life as ‘retired’. It is all very active and intentional and about choice and self-leadership more than luck. My friend Kerstin Pilz writes of this eloquently in one of my all-time favourite blog posts: Why luck has nothing to do with a self-directed life.

not retired

What are your thoughts on the word ‘retired’?

I know not everyone will feel the same way I do about the word ‘retired’. Perhaps the concept of ‘retired’ carries a different meaning for you. Are you happily retired? Or is it a word you run a mile from? Is there another word you use for this time post paid employment elsewhere? I’d be interested in what that means for you. We are all different.

It might be something you long for but find it hard to reach for different reasons. Life circumstances can make it tough for us to reach our desires whatever we call them.

But let’s explore this. What does ‘retired‘ mean to you? I would so love to hear!

  • Are you retired and happily so?
  • What does the word conjure up for you?
  • Is it something you aspire to?
  • Are you someone who does not feel the word ‘retired’ fits with your view of life?
  • Do we need another word?
  • What are you aspiring to do at this time of your life?
  • Are you a later bloomer in some areas of your life and what does that feel like?
  • Do you ever feel ‘too old’ and how do you counter that thinking?

If you are interested in exploring deeper meaning and purpose in creative ways with self-leadership and a community of other women, the Sacred Creative Collective might be for you! The next round starts soon but places are limited and it’s filling up fast, so don’t delay and book a free Discovery Call here to discuss.

You might also enjoy:

Work in progress – being one and creating one

Life Coaching – making meaning in times of transition

New life, new wings, new opportunities – making the most of it

Personality Stories

not retired

coaching personality and story

How I fulfilled my vision to become a Personality Type Coach

January 29, 2019

I have skilled up in personality type to fulfil my vision to become a Personality Type Coach. Read about this journey and what it can offer you.

I spoke on ‘Learned Wisdom: Journeys in Type and Transition‘ at two international conferences in 2019. Firstly, I spoke at the British Association of Psychological Type (BAPT) ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ Conference in the UK in April 2019. Then I shared this information locally at the Australian Association of Psychological Type Conference in November 2019.

This presentation focused on personality type in my transition from corporate employee to life coach, writer and personality type practitioner. I shared how I help women negotiate major change with personality type as a compass.

A central part of my journey has been becoming a Jung/Myers-Briggs Personality Type Coach and practitioner. So I share more here about that journey, what it means and the wisdom it can offer.

Learning about my own personality type preferences

Becoming a Personality Type Coach and practitioner has been a key pillar of my professional identity journey. Learning about my INTJ personality preferences made all the difference in the world for me. I realised that I am a rare bird, with people with INTJ preferences making up about 1.5% of the population. INTJ women are even rarer at 0.5% of the female population, one of the rarest gender/type combinations. This helped me to understand I might naturally be and feel different. Learning more about my introverted, intuitive, thinking and judging preferences helped me honour these parts of myself.

I learnt more about my preferred cognitive processes and how I approach the world as an Introverted Intuitive (Ni). And I learnt about how this interacts with my preference for Extraverted Thinking. Strongly logical and structured, I also have intuitive flashes and a sense of knowing what to do. This can be a tricky combination I don’t always understand. I’m not naturally good at explaining my vision to others; I’ve had to work on this. I need to get out of my head more and into the bush or the ocean, swimming with fish. I’ve been able to do this in recent years and I feel more balanced because of it.

personality coach
INTJ Leadership card from Pocket Personality™ Cards

Becoming a Personality Type coach

I wanted to learn more about personality type and share this wisdom with others. So the three pillars of my life transition and identify shifts were becoming:

  1. a life coach
  2. a Jung/Myers-Briggs personality type coach and practitioner
  3. fluent in the intuitive art and symbolism of tarot

I achieved all of these goals and in this piece, I focus on my journey of becoming a Personality Type Coach. You can read about my journey of becoming a life coach here.

Beginning the journey

There are many ways to become a type practitioner with a number of assessment instruments like the MBTI®. Some people begin this journey earlier in their lives, weaving it into careers in psychology, education or human resources areas. It’s often an adjunct to other skills and pathways.

My journey began later in life when I was in my mid 50’s. My passion for Carl Jung and his writings has been a long-term personal interest. I was keen to formalise this passion through learning about type as the heart of my new evolving professional work.

I began by enrolling in a program to build type assessment skill. The coach I worked with had trained with Mary McGuiness, a Sydney-based type practitioner, trainer and author of many years’ experience. So I chose to train with Mary and gained my certification in the Majors Personality Type Inventory™ instrument in 2016.

This journey coincided with becoming a carer and companion for my mother who was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. I supported her for many months until she passed away in late 2017. At the same time, I faced redundancy from my job of 30 years in a government organisation. This all happened concurrently with training and practice to become a life coach. So I sought to develop my new skill-set quietly and deeply at the most uncertain and challenging of times.

Gaining a broader perspective

You don’t actually need an indicator instrument to work out personality type I have since discovered. It’s just one source of information and this needs to be checked against other information in a coaching context. But you certainly need a deep knowledge of the theory and practice of type however you develop this rich information. And that was my focus in becoming a type practitioner – deep work and deep knowledge.

Gaining the basic skills in personality type assessment via an instrument is a great place to start. I embarked on my learning with passion and fascination. The preparation, training and follow-up were intense.

I see a parallel between the depth of skills in becoming a personality type coach and practitioner and that of understanding your personality type. Both take an investment of time and money and being open to deep learning.

As a person learning about your own personality type preferences, a free online test without the necessary background or knowledge to interpret and apply the learning is only going to take you so far. And possibly in the wrong direction.

Likewise, I can’t imagine how anyone can do the initial training to become a type practitioner without deepening their practice in an ongoing way to provide quality insights to clients.

As Roger Pearman says:

In the hands of a knowledgeable and artful user the theory and instruments are like a Stradivarius. Unfortunately, and for far too many learners, they tend to be played like a dime store violin.

personality coach

A clear vision and deepening my learning

I wanted to be playing in this personality space with skill. I had a clear vision of my offerings for personality type right from the start. It’s been a long journey to put the pieces in place as I concurrently upskilled as a coach and dealt with challenging life circumstances.

I took my learning about personality type seriously, researching and writing about type, guest-posting in various places. I updated my accreditation to include the Majors Personality Type Elements™ instrument, again with Mary McGuiness. This training and tool provide deep insights into the hierarchy and interaction of cognitive processes at play for individuals.

Looking for community

A priority in launching a new professional identity and becoming a personality type coach was connecting with community. I embarked on a search for this, joining the Australian Association of Psychological Type (AusAPT) and attending their inspiring conferences. The key value I’ve found in AusAPT and international connections like BAPT is a sense of community.

For me, this also means contributing to the community. I offered to help AusAPT with social media/communications and now co-ordinate this in a volunteer capacity. I’m the NSW representative on the AusAPT National Committee. I’ve connected with BAPT, attending webinars at the crack of dawn here in Sydney through the power of technology. It’s been great to connect too with US-based APTi and with CPP, now The Myers-Briggs Company, in Australia.

Learning from experienced type practitioners

I have been privileged to connect with the most generous type practitioners locally and abroad. The professional exchange and opportunities are there if you seek them. The type community has many excellent teachers who want the community to grow in learned wisdom. They invest their time and energy for those who wish to take up the opportunity.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with and learn from experienced type practitioners and mentors. Apart from Mary McGuiness, these include:

  • Dario Nardi – learning about the neuroscience of personality and brain-savvy coaching
  • Susan Nash and Sue Blair – learning about whole type and the three lenses of type
  • Jane Kise and Ann Holm – learning about saboteurs and self-sabotaging patterns based on type preferences
  • Peter Geyer – custodian of the AusAPT Type Research and Practice Collection, advisor and mentor to me and many others

I have worked through a Type Coaching Mastermind with two outstanding type practitioners, Susan Nash and Eve Delunas. This focused on looking at evidence-based ways of identifying type and follow-up coaching strategies.

personality type coach
1. With Susan Nash at AusAPT Conference Brisbane, 2018 2. Undergoing brain EEG with Dario Nardi, AusAPT Conference Sydney, 2017 3. With Dario Nardi working on neuroscience of personality and brain-savvy coaching, AusAPT Conference 2017 4. With Ann Holm and Jane Kise in Brisbane for AusAPT Conference 2018 working on saboteurs

Shaping my vision

I’ve read many books and articles and written and reflected. It’s been a process of evidence-based life learning that includes writing 442,000 words in a year, coaching others and being a gatherer of women’s wholehearted stories. These stories, alongside mine, are about women’s key life transitions with personality intersecting and weaving its way through.

So in becoming a personality type coach and practitioner, I’ve developed a deep knowledge, a community and skills of writing about this knowledge. I’ve created my personality type offerings along the way. My vision was to offer personality type coaching to women in a deep way so I could share the same insights I experienced. And that’s what I’ve put into practice.

personality coach

Developing the Personality Stories coaching package

Personality Stories, is a unique coaching package I have shaped, using technology and balancing ethical type approaches with modern opportunities. My coaching clients are women all over the world. I work via Zoom video conferencing and other media including blogging, ecourses and social media.

I trialled the coaching package extensively with fellow coaches to ensure it meets women’s needs. In this way, I have continued to grow and apply my deepening knowledge of personality type in practice. This is a process I intend to continue in partnership with my clients, teachers, mentors and community.

As Jane Kise comments in this article about the depth of personality type learning as a practitioner:

Yep, the theory provides that deep of a well—I’ve been working with it for 20 years and am still gaining new insights.

I gain new insights every day. I’ll build on my knowledge for many years to come with this rich community and my clients as partners.

What’s in the coaching package?

The Personality Stories Coaching Package includes:

  • online personality assessment via the Majors Personality Type Inventory™
  • an online ecourse on personality type preferences and whole type, also a tool for self-assessment
  • a copy of ‘You’ve Got Personality’ by Mary McGuiness
  • a 90-minute coaching debrief 1:1 via video-conferencing to look at information and insights about client type preferences.
  • a follow-up summary and reflections workbook on type preferences

My years of teaching and adult education experience, as well as coaching skills concurrently developed, made this possible.

So, true to type, I created the vision and framework. I skilled up over time, applying my preferences and also the concepts of Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work. And I now share this learning in a deep way with other women. You can sign up directly into the Personality Stories Coaching program in the Quiet Writing School here:

Sign up for Personality Stories Coaching here

I’ve been lucky too to work with a global team of fellow coaches through our ‘Creative Hearts’ Mastermind. This co-created group has supported me to apply my personality knowledge practically. Their loving support and time enabled me to enact my vision and road test it with their feedback. Some of my coaching clients have been part of shaping the program too. Their feedback has been encouraging and invaluable. I am so grateful for all of this support.

personality type coach
Creative Hearts Mastermind Group in action via technology

Living my personality in my offerings 

My way of becoming a personality type coach and developing my offerings has been INTJ in orientation. It reflects my strengths: envisioning, creating, scaffolding and structuring. But I also connect, network and road test, taking on feedback, evolving my learned wisdom. My connections are deeper with increasing insight and self-leadership combined with community learning. My professional journey and the products I create embody my personality learning about myself. Importantly, they involve data and others’ input in the process as well as my vision. They will evolve with further deepening learning and practice.

Personality Type Coach
INTJ Leadership card from Pocket Personality™ Cards

Sharing my pearls of wisdom is a valuable part of my journey as a  type practitioner. The networking with other type professionals is inspiring, supportive and a source of further learning.

I look forward to sharing Personality Stories with women interested in diving further into their personality type. You can find out more about Personality Stories Coaching here. I’d love to be a Personality Type Coach working with you to inspire your wisdom and personal learning. You can sign up into the course directly via the Quiet Writing School here:

Sign up for Personality Stories Coaching here

You might also enjoy:

Personality Stories Coaching

Life Coaching – making meaning in times of transition

Shining a quiet light – working the gifts of introversion

Intuition: how to understand and master it – a review of ‘The Inner Tree’ by Maura McCarley Torkildson

Never too old – finding courage and skill to empower your dream

Personality skills including how to be the best you can be as an introvert in recruitment 

Being a vessel – or working with introverted intuition

inspiration & influence

Finding JOY in the everyday – reflections on my Word of the Year for 2018

December 13, 2018
finding joy

Joy as my Word of the Year in 2018

Joy is my word of the year for 2018. Have you worked with a word of the year? It’s a powerful way of focusing on what you want to manifest. The journey is not always straightforward though and sometimes we wonder why we chose this word in the first place. But the process of working with these words we choose, or that choose us, is full of rich wisdom if we take the time to reflect on it. Here’s my story of JOY as my word of the year in 2018. It’s a journey of finding joy in challenging times and learning how joy can sit alongside grief and be a source of resilience. I’m going to share this journey over a few days and posts. I hope you will come along and also share your Word of the Year experiences.

Find Your Word process + tools

First though, some information on the process and tools that can help you. Working with a Word of the Year is a powerful process. Susannah Conway has a fabulous free Word of the Year ecourse available each year that I often dive into. It works really well alongside the Unravel Your Year process and free workbook that Susannah also creates and generously shares each year. I’ve been working through both processes to review my year and plan for the next one since 2014.

I credit these practices with contributing to deep realisations about where I was stuck and needed to make change. For the first few years, I found I was writing the same goals each year and not achieving them. This was mostly about writing books and making space for creativity in my life. Each year was swallowed up by work and my creative goals kept getting lost. 

You know that saying: 

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.”

attributed to Jessie Potter

 

In 2016, I started doing things differently for different outcomes and began to make my transition. Now at the end of 2018, I am two years in to my change journey and life is very different. It’s much more in line with the dreams and visions I had way back in 2014 and about being in creative action!

Goddess of the Year

Amy Palko also offers My Word Goddess Readings with suggestions for your Word for the Year linked to a Goddess of the Year. Also a practice I have invested in for a few years now, it provides valuable intuitive insights and suggestions for words that might help drive your year’s energy positively.  My Goddess for this year has been Hecate, the Goddess of Compassionate Witnessing and of the crossroads. It certainly has been a year of compassionate witnessing and crossroads. And this knowledge has helped me negotiate my path at a challenging times. This series of reflections will also be an opportunity to reflect on Hecate’s role in this year’s unfolding. 

finding joy

Choosing joy

So my word for 2018 is JOY. Choosing JOY was always going to be full of challenge. My mother passed away on Christmas Day last year after a very tough battle with metastatic breast cancer and her funeral was in the first week of 2018.  Joy had been hard to come by in 2017. I just gave Christmas spirit generally a pretty wide berth last year. This wasn’t too hard being in a palliative care hospital for much of the time in the lead-up to Christmas. 

Choosing joy as my word wasn’t difficult though either despite the contradictions. I didn’t need to work through a workbook or think too much. It just came to me. At the same time, my daughter gave me a hand-painted Egyptian papyrus Christmas card featuring JOY in large letters so that sealed the deal in the most lovely of synchronous ways. This beautiful card, the feature image for this post, has sat beside me all year shining a light as a reminder of my focus in everything I do.

finding joy

Finding joy in stages through the year

In reflecting, I’ve realised each quarter of the year delivered a new lesson and experience about finding joy:

  1. Finding joy alongside deep grief
  2. Finding joy and resilience in challenge
  3. Finding joy in travel and being away from home
  4. Finding joy in creative work and my calling

As I’ve taken time to reflect on my learnings via Joy and Hecate this year, I realise I have much to say about my journey this year. So I’m going to post on these four journeys over the next four days as a way of reflecting deeply on this time. Plus in another post, I’ll reflect on my Goddess of the Year work and working with the energies of Hecate this past year. 

Integrating learning from this year of finding joy

This has all reminded me that this reflection and integration step is so important as we move on and through into the next year and stage of our lives. So I’ll hope you’ll join me in this reflection process! I hope it might inspire your own reflections too and I encourage you to share your journeys of your word for this year. Or the process of coming up with a new one in 2019. I already have an inkling of what mine might be! Do you know? Love to hear. Share your thoughts in the comments or join the discussion on Quiet Writing on social media on Facebook and Instagram .

And if you are looking for a coach to work with you to light the way, I’d love to be that coach for you! I have two more spots for an early January start for a 3 month coaching series so pop over here to book a complimentary chat with me now to plan for a positive, productive and joyful 2019. You can go direct to this link to book a time for this free chat via Zoom video-conferencing.

Inspiring reads

Here are some more inspirational reads to light your way and look forward to sharing more on my journey of finding joy this year!

Joy: 18 inspiring quotes on inspiring what you do and love

I’m a Creativity, & Self-leadership Coach, a Writer & more

Practices and tools to support creative productivity, writing and mind-set

Photo credits from elsewhere – used with permission and thanks:

Wood pathway photo by Amanda Klamrowski from Pexels

Keep in touch + read the books that shaped my story

You might also enjoy my free 94-page ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’ – all about wholehearted self-leadership, reading as creative influence and books to inspire your own journey. Just pop your email address in the box below. 

You will receive the ebook straight away! Plus you’ll receive monthly Beach Notes with updates and inspiring resources from Quiet Writing. This includes writing, personality type, coaching, creativity, tarot, productivity and ways to express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. Look forward to connecting with you and inspiring your wholehearted story!

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coaching transition

Never too old – finding courage and skill to empower your dreams

November 19, 2018

never too old

Never too old + countering the “too old” story

It can be really easy to slip into thinking we are too old to start new things and step into the work of our dreams.

Whether it be writing that book you’ve always wanted to write, becoming a coach, being more visible on social media or getting back to exercise. We need to counter the “too old” story we can tell ourselves.

I’ve learnt that, apart from the most extreme circumstances, you are never too old to find the courage and skill to empower your dreams. I know because I’ve had to overcome many moments of feeling too old as I’ve worked on this journey to become a life coach, learn new skills, start a new business and write a book.

In this post, I share my experiences, resources and the stories of others to help you realise you are never too old to find the courage and skill to live your dreams.

Never too old to start over + become a coach

It’s a great honour to be featured in the inspired COACH Magazine with my piece Starting Over as a Life Coach at age 55. This tells my story of what it’s like to start over later in life as a life coach. I also provide some tips for others embarking on this or similar journeys. Having a beginner’s mind is one of the key messages I cover:

Retain a beginner’s mind, alongside your experience, to keep you grounded, humble, open and growing in wisdom.

My buddy coach, Jeanette Buchanan, is on the cover and I am so thrilled for her. We have been on this journey together as women in our mid 50’s supporting each other, constantly reminding ourselves that we are the perfect age for this journey. As we both share in different ways in our pieces, the myriad life and work experiences and skills we bring helps make us fantastic coaches.  We can relate, we have often “been there” and we’ve built our skills along the way. Bringing our body of work to bear, and being positive and open, we are able to help others along the path of their dreams. Whether it’s becoming a life coach, writing a book or starting a business, we are living examples of how to live your change.

never too old

So read the Wisdom issue of inspired COACH Magazine. It’s a free subscription magazine available at this link. My friend Debbie Fowler is also there with a fabulous piece on The Wisdom of Older Coaches and Hosting Retreats. With pieces also by Melissa Jeffcott, Christine Rose Elle, Ellie Swift and Sas Petherick, it makes inspiring reading. But read on here too for my further thoughts on countering that “too old” thinking!

Never too old to be coached

You might also think you are too old to be coached. Gaining all that life wisdom and experience that getting older brings, there can be a tendency to think we don’t need support. Self-leadership is important and it’s an area I focus on in my coaching. But we can’t do it all ourselves. My learning is that life coaching is an integral support for making major change. Life transitions typically involve big changes in identity and coaching can help us navigate these tender times.

When I decided I needed to shift from my work role of 30 years, the very first thing I did, on day one, was reach out to my friend and coach Victoria Smith. Victoria coached me, via a coaching series over 3 months, through the very vulnerable first phases of this time. So yes, you feel vulnerable, you feel a bit foolish at times and you feel you should know how to do all this. But you also need to honour that it’s tough and deep work changing the way you’ve defined yourself for a long time.

Coaching is a critical bridge to tap into our inner wisdom at such times. We often can’t do it all ourselves, just as we discover at many challenging points in life. As I share in my story about life coaching and making meaning in times of transition, coaches have been critical supports on my journey. So don’t be proud. You can have a beginner’s mind and tons of experience. And together with coaching support, you can go a long way setting a robust and supportive framework for the long haul.

Never too old to learn new skills

Another mantra we can occasionally indulge in is that we are too old to learn new skills. I’m here to tell you from my experience of 30 plus years as an adult educator and life coach that you can learn new skills all through life. I’ve had to learn so many new skills along this journey: blogging, website and social media skills, how to set up a new business, writing a book, becoming a coach, Search Engine Optimisation. And I chose special skills as well such as the intuitive art of tarot and personality skills, becoming a Jung/Myers-Briggs personality practitioner.

Many of the women I’ve coached have embraced learning skills to set them up for a new life or extension of their current one. They’ve taken their body of work forward in new ways. As you can see on my testimonials page, women have taken up new courses like Masters in Creative Writing and coaching programs. They’ve tackled ‘imposter syndrome’ and developed intuitive skills, applied for higher level positions and set up foundations for new ways of working. They have also grappled with  long-standing challenges like finding the right form of exercise and enjoying it! Others have explored social media and blogging and the right personal focus to be more active and productive. Gaining skills in each of these examples was a critical step in moving towards the vision for their life. Moreover, learning new skills is a fantastic way to keep your brain sharp and agile through-out life.

never too old

Never too old to start a business

Starting a new business or becoming an entrepreneur might seem like a job for the young too. But data provides some interesting findings about typical start-up founders:

For one thing, they were more likely to be in their late 30s and 38% of founders were actually over 40.

They also discovered that people who had stayed in a job for a long time were more likely to go on to start their own business.

There is encouragement for people like me who have had a 30 plus year career in one organisation or type of work:

Contrary to conventional wisdom, being ‘stuck’ in the same company or position for a long time, even a decade, does not diminish your likelihood of becoming a business founder,” says Ms Morrill.

Turns out the skills we have already developed in staying the course can also be applied to doing new things. Valuing your body of work over time as it evolves enables you to shape a new career or business. Learning new skills and bringing forward what you’ve already learnt as a basis for negotiating new circumstances is a winning combination.

Never too old to write a book

Writing is my passion and superpower, my authentic heart that makes me shine. So a long-held desire has been to write a book. I’ve had articles, work-related books and poems published. But I really want to write a book, non-fiction first then a novel. For years I’ve been gearing up, listening to podcasts and reading articles on writing and self-publishing from inspiring people a step (or many steps) ahead like The Creative Penn.

This past year, I was excited to get the first draft of my book Wholehearted: Self-leadership Strategies for Women in Transition written, mostly during NaNoWriMo. I finished the first draft in September this year. Those 84,000 words are currently marinating and resting. Soon, I will edit them for the next stage of this work before it finds its way into the world.

Examples of older writers and their first book

In all of this, there has been a constant undercurrent of “you’re too old” coming from some voice inside me with an ideal version of what age is the right one to write and publish a book. It’s been  empowering to see reminders that many famous authors were not young when they first published. In What’s Stopping You, Allison K. Williams reflects on her tweet that went viral:

I love that one of my favourite authors, Annie Proulx, published her first book at 57, the age I am now. That was super inspiring to read. It’s not too late, I told myself. Allison also reflects on how we need to have courage and look at what is stopping us from writing:

Let’s tell it to ourselves, too. Let’s ask, What’s stopping me from writing? and be brave enough to let go.

It’s true. We need courage to let go of what’s not helping us to get that writing done. Whatever age we are!

never too old

Courage, skills and being of service

Beautiful You Coaching Academy CEO Julie Parker says in her editorial to the inspired COACH Magazine Wisdom issue:

I also know that anyone who chooses to train to become a life coach and start a business later in life – has bucket loads of courage…. That’s saying–”I totally back myself. I’ve got this and so much more of my life to live and give. I am here in service.”

I so nodded and held my heart when I read those wise and empathetic words from Julie. It does take courage, new skills and constant self-reminders that we have so much to “live and give“. We also need to remember that’s it’s not all just about us.

If there’s one thought that will help lift us up to a wider vantage point, it is remembering that we are of value in being in service to others. It’s about sharing what we have learnt through experience, supporting others just as we have been supported. Shining a light just as others shine a light for us. Being a wayfinder as my friend Diana Frajman, of Crone Confidence, reminds us:

So if you have already made the shift and are out ahead of the herd, blazing new trails leading towards this change, then you are a Wayfinder. It is not enough to stand on the cusp alone. Use the curiosity that got you to this spot, provide the answers to others for the questions you have already asked, but most of all, clear the trail and light the path so that others can also find their way forward.

What are you never too old to do right now?

So have a think about what you might be telling yourself about being “too old”. Love to know your thoughts so we can all shine a light for each other. Here are a few prompts:

  • What stories are you telling yourself about what you are “too old” to do right now?
  • Who says? And how are you going to counter that?
  • What are you going to find the courage and skill to do right now?
  • What’s stopping you and how can you tackle that?
  • Which skills would you love to hone to take you forward?
  • How can you be more courageous and bold in your work in the world?
  • Where can you shine a light and be of service to others?

And if you are looking for a coach to work with you to light the way, I’d love to be that coach for you!

never too old

Here are some more inspirational reads to light your way:

Crone Quotes from Crone Confidence

5 Reasons to be Glad You’re a Late Bloomer 

Later Bloomer – Creativity Never Gets Old

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. Look forward to connecting with you and inspiring your wholehearted story! 

And download the 10 Tips for Creating More Meaning and Purpose in Your Life Personal Action Checklist. Get moving!

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