When I hired my life coach in the summer of 2022, I was amazed at how quickly I saw true transformation in my own life. I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to someday get certified as a life coach myself. With my husband's blessing, I signed up for certification in the fall of 2023, and graduated last June as a Certified Christian Life Coach. I started accepting a few free clients in the fall of 2023, and have been thrilled to be able to coach several ladies since then. I am a general life coach for women of faith - of any age. What a joy it has been to help other women begin to have breakthroughs...even while I'm still experiencing breakthroughs of my own!
Last summer, as I was brainstorming ways I could grow my coaching business and reach more people in my community, I decided to let my town's FB group know that I was available for speaking at women's events or mom's groups in the upcoming year. It definitely was a little scary to put that offer out into the world, but I felt God nudging me to be bold and let Him open doors. No surprise then that a local church asked me to speak at their small women's event this spring. I'm excited to be able to do this - and also nervous that time is running out to perfect my speech.
For those that don't know me, let me just share a few things about who I am (and why "Life Coach" and "Women's Event Speaker" are two things I feel called to):
- I'm an introvert, so time at home is one of my favorite things (I love getting to use Zoom for life coaching sessions).
- Large crowds and noise are not my thing...but I love a big party every once in a while (especially if I'm the one who got to plan it).
- I hate small talk, but LOVE deep, meaningful conversations.
- I enjoy public speaking (probably sounds crazy for an introvert, but I really do).
- I love doing deep dives into God's Word & growing in my spiritual walk.
- I love reading books about faith, business, relationships, healthy habits, and self-help.
- I was a Communications and Business double major in college, and the classes I loved the most were interpersonal communications and my media classes.
- I love to laugh & make others join in. 😁
- I loved homeschooling and discipling my kids in their faith, but this new phase of life means it's time to teach & disciple others outside of my own little family.
When I think about my interests and gifts, it just makes me smile that I'm currently branching out in the ways I am. I can look back on different things in my life and see so clearly how God was preparing me for this moment in time. I get excited and also a little terrified at where He's going to lead me next. But I'm here for it all. As the saying goes, "He doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called." I believe that 100%.
I just found out my speech in April is to be centered around Romans 8. I had started prepping my speech for this event before I knew that, so this will be a bit of a pivot (but it's okay). I love how - even though this is news to me - it's always been God's plan.
Here's some beginning thoughts on Romans 8:
The first 11 verses of Romans 8 are focused on "Life in the Spirit." This is after Paul spent time in chapter 7 talking about the law and sin (which is more like life in the flesh). I love Romans 7:15 where he says: "For I do not do what I want, but I do what I do not want." I don't know about you, but I've often felt like this could be my life verse. LOL SO much of the time I seem to be doing the opposite of what I tell myself I want to be doing. And then I play the shame game because of it. But Romans 8 gives us a fresh thought. Romans 8 reminds us that we don't need to feel condemned. Instead, we are SET FREE by living according to the Spirit, AND we are heirs with Christ! Plus, (and this is probably the absolute best news): we are MORE than CONQUERORS through Christ! Praise the Lord!!
Much of Romans 8 reminds me of the concept of "False Self" and "True Self" that we talk about in our life coaching program. The easiest way to think about false self vs true self is whether we're allowing the enemy to keep us stuck living in the flesh, or whether we're living as the best version of ourselves - full of the fruits of the Spirit. Here's a quick summary:
FALSE SELF TRUE SELF
- Living by default - Living by design
- Based on fear - Based on love
- Brings hell - Brings heaven to earth
- Living in the flesh - Living in the Spirit
It's easy to think that living in the Spirit is something that automatically happens when you're a believer. And that's just not true. Yes, as believers, we have the Holy Spirit as our guide & comforter. But to LIVE in the Spirit requires action on our part.
Notice how these verses are telling us to DO something specific:
- Ephesians 6:10-18 ~ In reference to the armor of God, these verses tell us to: be strong, put on, stand, take up, stand firm, keep alert.
- Colossians 3:1-17 ~ My Bible titles this "Put on the New Self". It's filled with commands like: seek, set, put off, and put on.
- Ephesians 4:22-32 ~ Again, lots of action verbs/commands in regards to how we are to live: put off, be renewed, put on, put away, speak truth, etc.
These verses, and many more like them, very clearly show us that LIVING in the Spirit requires action and effort on our part. It's not a magical transformation that just happens as soon as we start following Jesus.
And that's where life coaching has made the biggest impact in my life. It's helped me learn the logistics of taking my thoughts captive, and experiencing true transformation.
Living more as our true selves starts with taking control of our thoughts. And it's not a one-time thing. It's a continual process. An ongoing choice. Kind of like we choose what clothes to wear every day - we must choose what thoughts we're going to put on as well.
Did you know that, on average, your mind offers you up to 60,000 thoughts per day? And the majority of those are negative? Have you ever considered that most of the things we say about "who" we are, are just thoughts that we've thought over and over that might not even be true?
Too often, we don't take time to choose our thoughts on purpose. We have this unfiltered internal dialogue running non-stop, and we're allowing it to keep us living more as our FALSE self without even realizing it.
It sounds crazy, I know, but the minute you start to choose your thoughts on purpose and actually pay attention to what you're thinking about...transformation begins to happen.
God's Word has a lot to say about what we should actually choose to think about. I love this verse in Philippians (it's hanging in our main living area in our house, so I get this reminder every time I walk in):
Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
That sounds a lot like living as the best version of ourselves, doesn't it? Let's choose more of that. 💖
One thing I want to mention before I close: the goal of life coaching is not so that you have some Pollyanna view of life or so you will learn some trick to never struggling with anything again. The goal of life coaching is to learn how to overcome your self-inflicted limitations. To learn how to get out of your own way and break free from the things that are keeping you stuck. We're all humans, living in a broken & sinful world. This side of heaven, none of us will ever be FULLY living as our TRUE selves. But with a few tweaks and minor shifts to our thought life, we really will begin to shed our false self ways much more often!
Here's a quick way to start paying attention to your thoughts:
- Start each day with a thought download. Take a blank page and just let yourself write down every thought that is on your mind. No rules. No editing. Just dump it all onto paper.
- Read through it and circle anything that you immediately recognize as a "false" self idea, or a negative you'd like to work on.
- Find a positive thought - written in present tense, as if it's already true - to replace any negative thought you discovered.
- Choose to think those positive thoughts on purpose.
It sounds kind of silly, but once you start doing this - and especially if you have a life coach to help be a mirror to those negative thoughts you're so programmed to think...your mind begins to think differently. Whatever you focus on grows. And it really does happen faster than you realize.
What about you? Are you ready to live more as your TRUE self and learn how to shed the FALSE self? Would you like a cheerleader and guide to help you along the way? If so, I want to give you a FREE Life Coaching session. Sessions are 45-minutes long and are held via Zoom or phone call (you get to decide which you prefer). You can check out my availability here: Life Coaching Calendar I look forward to connecting soon! 😊
Comments
Post a Comment