The Journal of a Life Coach: Intro & Post #1
Updated: Apr 14, 2021
When I first stumbled upon life coaching about 5 years ago, it was through Pinterest and a blog called Smart Twenties by Sam Laura Brown (a personal development blogger).
One thing I found super helpful back then was following along with Sam, who ended up becoming a Life Coach, as she shared her own journey of becoming an online entrepreneur.
She recommended the Life Coach School podcast and I remember thinking, "why would I listen to a podcast about a life coach school if I don't want to become a coach?".
But I loved her other suggestions and she shared how much it was helping her with her own personal development journey so I began listening to it (HIGHLY recommend btw), years before I ever seriously considered becoming a Life Coach myself.
I really loved the blogger's way of sharing her own growth and that's what I'd like to be able to share with you. I've been interested in this world for years now but only really started on my path of becoming a Life Coach in June 2020.
Instead of trying to recollect what the experience has been like, I'm going to pull from my journal so you can see exactly what it was like for me, in case it's at all helpful to you. I did have the thought of sharing it with others eventually so that's how it's written.
Maybe right now you're just interested in personal development, or maybe you're considering becoming a coach yourself. Either way, it's a journey and I've always found it to be fun learning from someone else's first-hand experience so here is mine!
Here's from the very first entry of my coaching journal:
June 27th, 2020
Hello there. I’m Katie and I’m starting out to become a life coach! I’ve been researching a whole lot lately trying to figure out whether this is something I should really be going for.
At this point, I don’t even have a business name yet!! I’m debating signing up for an accreditation program which I think I’d really like to. It costs 5K which is a preeeetty huge investment for me at this point. I could probably get a used car for that amount. Or go on an amazing trip to Australia (my best friend lives there) – well if COVID wasn’t a thing anyway. It's close to what the tuition was for my Master’s education. 😳
I’m doing a ton of personal development work right now so I’m trying to see this negative self-talk about this being too expensive as fear. Fear that I’m not sure I should be paying attention to right now. However, it doesn’t stop it from coming up!
The thing is I’m not sure I have what it takes to open a business and actually find success in it. Learning to coach is one thing (something I’m somehow not worried about being good at) but learning to use that to build a business upon is something totally different.
So why am I even considering this career path?
5 years ago I was living abroad in the UK with my boyfriend (now husband) and his family. I’m from Canada and we were going through sponsorship for him which for us meant we needed to physically stick together but my partner couldn’t work in Canada while he waited for the PR to come through. So we decided I’d get a visa and we’d move to the UK for a year or two while we waited. We actually started our own business there which was an escape room company. It was quite the adventure and ended up as a small success. It really gave me a taste of being an entrepreneur and it’s something I wanted to do again.
During this time abroad I felt pretty isolated. We lived in his family’s home in a small English village. It was definitely picturesque and I enjoyed getting to know his family while living there but I had no independence. We weren’t walking distance to anything but cows and I didn’t drive in the UK. When we were building up the business we had a lot of time at home, working from home. And when we ran the business we mainly ran games on the weekend which meant we had spare downtime during the week.
Because I had so much time to myself, I turned to personal development. I wanted to explore that world past just scrolling through pinterest. I came across a blogger named Sam Laura Brown who at the time had a blog called Smart Twenties. It inspired me to try writing a blog but it also started me on the much-needed personal development path.
I was very homesick during this time and I even remember a few weeks of feeling depressed but once that eventually passed, I had this newfound purpose of bettering myself. I started to get very excited waking up in the mornings because it meant I could listen to a podcast or go for a run. I began building new habits.
I absolutely loved spending time daily on these things. I became exposed to a vast amount of authors in this space and couldn’t get enough. Well, 5 years later and I’m still not able to get enough! There is so much I’ve learned over the last 5 years in this space and although I’m just getting started on this new journey of becoming a coach, there’s a lot I hope to be able to share with you.
I think that’s where it all began really and it’s led me to recently invest in a group coaching program where I’ve already seen such a difference in my life. The main thing I’ve been taking away from it is a spiritual component which I haven’t had as part of my life in years. This has led me to be more connected to my intuition and I’ve been pulled to starting a coaching business. For me, getting accredited is the natural next step and although it makes me want to barf because it’s waaaay out of my comfort zone, I can hear my gut saying it’s exactly what I need to be doing. Terrifying!!!! But also very exciting. Going to document this journey as much and hopefully, it can help someone out there who has also been feeling that nagging pull – it’s there for a reason.
That was nearly 10 months ago now! I am now accredited, I'm working with amazing clients & am truly lit up by coaching. But more on that later ;)
- Katie
Have we connected yet on IG?!
If you want to follow along as I share my personal development journey more & tips that work for my clients, you can find me here: https://www.instagram.com/katieblodgettcoaching/
(+ DM me letting me know you found me through my blog & I'll follow back!)
Can't wait to hear from you!