The Power of Sharing Your Story: Turning Point 1

On February 15, 2013 I shared with you the seventh of seven turning points during which my upcoming book from Hay House/Balboa Press, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life, gained significant manifestation momentum. Based on overwhelming response to what I shared, over the next few weeks of blog posts, I’ll be sharing the other six turning points with you as well.

The first was enrolling in a life coaching certification program offered by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) in September 2010. The second was launching my first blog in October 2010. The third was beginning to write my clients’ stories of transformation in August 2011. The fourth was enrolling in Christine Kloser’s 2012 Transformational Author Experience in May 2012. The fifth was a combination writing retreat and vacation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the South Jersey Shore in July 2012. The sixth was finding New Dawn Center for Spiritual Living in Aurora, Colorado, in November 2012. The seventh was a three-week writing retreat in January 2013, during which I completed the manuscript.

The common denominator was a process of baby steps through which I embraced and transformed fear so that I might step further into my calling to foster hope and personal transcendence through the power of unconditional self-love.

Turning Point 1

In 2009, one of my art students approached me about becoming her life coach. Honored by the request and a little freaked out by the possibility, I declined. Logically it made sense given my professional experience and expertise, but I still had much personal healing to do before I would be ready to coach others effectively.

By March 2010, out of overwhelming gratitude for being eighty pounds lighter physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, all I wanted to do was find a way to share what I had learned and experienced with the world. I believed my story could help others find the lives of deep peace, lasting joy, and meaningful relationships they longed for. I had been similarly inspired in October 2008 when I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. The author awakened in me the possibility that writing a book about my journey might encourage and inspire others with hope for what is possible.

My friend and marketing professional, Barbara Kay Escher, jumped on the bandwagon and began urging me to get my message of hope and possibilities out into the world. Yet despite a lifetime of journaling from the age of eight and a successful consulting career chock full of excellent writing, no one, including me, understood that I had become afraid to write. Or, more accurately, afraid to publish anything I had written. As a result, I continued to hide my light under a bushel a while longer.

On August 29, 2010, I told my husband that I didn’t know how I was going to fulfill the deep calling I felt to help others, but it wouldn’t involve taking tests or being judged by anyone. I woke up the next day feeling moved to Google life coaching certification programs on the Web. Smack dab at the top position of the ever-rotating list of sponsored Google sites was iPEC. Over the next two days, I researched their qualifications and approach, talked with their director of admissions, was accepted into the program, paid my admissions fee, and signed up for a nine-month life coaching certification program that makes boot camp look like a stroll in the park. Writing my first paper—a thirty-three-page review of my entire life—was sheer unadulterated terror. So much for no more testing or judging by third parties.

In next week’s blog post, I’ll share Turning Point 2, the story of how I got over my fear of publishing by launching a blog. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! Every day, my life continues to provide living proof of what you can accomplish through a series of endless, courageous baby steps fueled by love-based core energy.

One morning a few weeks ago I woke up reciting out loud my latest Divine Download. After a few minutes, I realized I’d been sent my new, simplified job description:

Show up.
Bring your “A” game.
Trust the details to God.

Or, in the words of my favorite country western muse, Kathy Mattea, “Spread your wings, close your eyes and always trust your cape!”

P.S. For your convenience, in each week’s blog post I include a link to the recording of this week’s new episode from my VoiceAmerica Radio Show, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! You may listen online or download to your PC, phone or other mp3 player to listen on the go. The download site also includes links to recordings of all past episodes as well as descriptions of future shows.

Episode #18 Recording 05/08/13 You CAN Make a Living Following Your Bliss!

Click here for more information on joining my FREE Radio Show insider club. As a member, you’ll receive periodic updates on upcoming programs and guest co-hosts, as well as exclusive promotional offers and other bonus content.

About djwlifecoach

I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities. During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll. My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world. 111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness. Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled. Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else. I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do. By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire. My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework. For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.

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