​
When was the last time you felt really listened to? So often in conversation, we want to ‘get to the point’, but an important concept we learn as coaches is to set aside our inner ‘expert’ or ‘fixer’’ and listen with curiosity. It’s a skill that takes some development (and is always a work in progress), but one that can take you to a place of mental quiet. I find when I am listening deeply to someone, I can access an intuition that isn’t present at other times. This intuition can guide my questions and open up new awareness for my clients.

Listening deeply helps us bring curiosity into a conversation. When we assume we don't know the answers, we can be curious about what’s really at play in a given situation. Often the story that a client is telling themselves is only partly true. Working together, we can uncover things that may lie beneath the surface. Are they getting stuck in a loop of thinking that’s stopping them from moving forward? Is there a limiting belief about their abilities? 

It was a revelation to realize that in my capacity as a coach, I don’t have to be an expert. I just need to bring my curiosity and help the client find the expertise within themselves. Natural curiosity elicits open questions, which help people get curious about their own experience and can lead to new awareness and aha moments that inspire them on the path to change.

In that spirit, rather than seeing myself as an expert, I see myself as a student along with you. Together we are learning from and sharing with each other. I invite you to explore my upcoming blog posts sharing the coaching concepts that have opened new awareness for me. 

My question for you: Experiment with reserving judgment and instead bring curiosity into your conversations. How does it change the interaction?

See you soon.

If you like this post you may like the post Learn How to Hack your Brain with your Body.

Don't miss my newsletter, Find Your Focus. It’s full of useful and practical ways to bridge the gap between knowing and doing to help you reach your goals. Newsletter subscribers also receive special discounts and first access to upcoming group coaching offers and memberships. 
​​

​​Since 2010, I have been helping people create spaces in their homes and businesses that are functional and beautiful — and it’s been a joy! My clients are amazing and I love supporting them in my role as a professional organizer. However, at some point, I realized that to truly help my clients, we needed to move beyond dealing with just the physical ‘stuff’ in their lives. I saw patterns of behavior that were working against them but I didn’t know how to help.

Then came Covid, and for the first time in ages, I had time on my hands. On a whim in 2020, I took an eight-week coaching class designed for professional organizers. It was life-changing! By the end of that class, I knew coaching was in my future. It connected the dots between our mindset and the actions we take and gave me a new framework for working with clients.

For the last three years, I have worked toward the goal of becoming a certified coach. This has involved 90+ training hours, 150+ coaching hours, assessments, recorded calls, mentoring, tests, and more. In February of 2024, I became an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

I now incorporate coaching into all the work I do with clients and am amazed at the profound impact it can have on people's lives. I currently split my time between on-site organizing work in San Francisco and coaching work with people all over the world. I genuinely love supporting people in these different ways!

Becoming a coach put me on a path that has opened up my world and I’m excited to share some of what I have learned with you. I invite you to explore my upcoming blog posts, with the hope that they will open something up for you as well.

Coaching values curiosity, and I’m wondering — Has something in your world opened you up recently? How has this changed you? How have you grown?

See you soon!

If you like this post you may like the post Why Consider Coaching?

Julia came to coaching looking for the next step in her career. She had been at her current job for over a decade, but didn’t love her work environment and was trying to decide if she was ready for a change. 

Over the course of working together, we explored her strengths, what she liked about her current work, and what was missing. In looking at these things, she started to envision what her future could be and how to get there. We brainstormed ways to get her out of her comfort zone, how to reframe her negative self-talk, and who could support her in this transition. Action steps followed and she was on her way. 

When I spoke to Julia a few months later she had landed her new job and was delighted at how things had worked out. 

Julia’s example shows some of the challenges my clients come to coaching with, such as:

• A lack of clarity: They know things need to change, but they aren’t sure how to move forward.
• Strong self-judgment: By focusing on all their perceived “faults,” they allow their strong judge to run circles around them. 
• Go-it-alone attitude: They think they need to figure it all out by themselves and that there is no one on their “team.”

By focusing on gaining clarity, strengths, and perspectives, coaching helps clients to:

• Clear the fog: Having reflective conversations that hold your agenda helps you find the next step you’re looking for.
• Focus on strengths: You have superpowers! When I reflect clients' strengths back to them, they are often surprised that what they do is anything special — trust me, it is! Coaching can help uncover your amazing strengths.
• Have perspective shifts: Through coaching, we can challenge the narratives that we have constructed. Looking at the same situation from various angles opens up new possibilities for us and can create a powerful change in perspective.

If you need a little clarity on your next step, reach out and schedule a Coaching Clarity Call today. 

My question for you: Is there an area in your life that you would like to bring clarity to? Envision yourself in front of a rope bridge spanning a canyon. Each step you take brings you closer to your goal on the other side of the canyon. What is one first step you can take today?

See you soon.
​
If you like this post you may like the post How I Fell for Coaching.

Names and identifying details have been changed for privacy.