Are you intrigued by the idea of coaching, but feel what coaches say may sound a bit too good to be true?

All these people get such amazing results, but you have doubt that it would work for you in the same way?

Meet Kimberly, a Technology Delivery Consultant, who very kindly agreed to share her journey, so you can get a good understanding of where she started, how stuck in her head she was at that time, and where she is 6 months later:

What made you reach out to Claudia when you did? 

I reached out to Claudia in September 2020. I had been living for just over a year  in a new country, working on a project that felt like it was running at 10 times the pace of all the previous projects I had been on previously. There had been a lot of delays and we were all working around the clock to still deliver. The pressure felt insurmountable. 

After 6 months on the project, I noticed I often felt close to tears and found myself crying/breaking down very frequently. 

It was like I could not decouple work from my weekend and I found myself feeling very anxious and very stressed and I would end up just crying in front of the tv. It felt like I couldn’t escape these debilitating thoughts. 

In the beginning, I thought this was somehow ‘normal’, that I was just going through an adjustment period. 

But what I came to realise was that, even though I felt supported, and would feel a cathartic release with each rant/sharing, I was not reacting any differently with each weekend that passed and with each new problem that came up at work. 

I only realised how stuck I was when my parents gently said along the lines of “We think you need to do something, maybe try talking to someone professional, because we don’t think you’re getting better and every week we talk to you, you don’t seem to be able to put work aside.” 

Claudia was one of six mental health professionals that I had an initial call with. I chose Claudia because her programme and her personality appealed to me – 6 months of scheduled weekly sessions, roughly split into 2-3 months of introducing concepts/methods/tools and the remaining months to practice what had been taught. Compared to the other life coaches I spoke to, I felt Claudia’s programme was the most clearly structured and goal oriented, with the goal being ‘after 6 months you will be able to confidently self-coach’. 

I liked the idea that there was an ‘end’ that I needed to work towards. I also just felt a strong connection to Claudia. She had come from a corporate background herself and had corporate clients for whom she facilitated short courses/workshops – I felt she was very familiar with my situation. 

More than that, she has this balance of warmth and directness that pretty much sealed the deal for me.


What were the main expectations / goals you were hoping to achieve in your time together.

My goal was not to feel constantly overwhelmed and stressed-to-breaking-point because of issues at work. I wanted to be able to enjoy weekends without thoughts about work intruding and drastically bringing down my mood. 

I wanted to feel a sense of control over my work, instead of feeling like work was controlling me. My stretch goal was to feel like I was absolutely thriving at work and feeling like I belonged at work / enjoyed work. 

To put it differently, I was tired of being so stressed and anxious and unhappy all the time and I felt ready to be the new Kimberly… the one who is confident in herself and who is not paralysed from stress and from feeling overwhelmed and who doesn't know a lot but trusts that she can pick up and adapt.

 

Where are you today with respect to your goals? 

I’m incredibly proud to say that I exceeded my own expectations and I achieved even my stretch goals.  I originally rated work as 4/10 and my goal was to feel at least 8/10 and stretch goal would be higher than that. I can honestly say now I consider work to be 8.5/10. 

Another way to put it would be, I originally felt I was drowning at work and would have been happy to just feel like I could tread water at work. But now the feeling is like I’m almost diving / swimming through work and enjoying myself while I do so. 

Best of all, I can’t quite describe this precisely, but I feel I have attained a deeper connection with my own self and at the same time, have surprised myself with how much I have grown and that I now feel that much closer to being the Kimberly that I want to be. 

While my expectations/goals originally centered on my work environment and were driven by issues at work, I have realised my relationship with work was a symptom of my relationship with my own thoughts and ultimately, with myself. 

It has been a very fulfilling experience to discover what I am capable of achieving with the irreplaceable help of Claudia.
 

What are some of the key takeaways from your time together? 

I used to think “if something didn’t come naturally and easily to me the first time, I should therefore not bother at all” and “I could never eventually be good at it”. Now, I think, “actually, just because I’m not good at this now, doesn’t mean at all that I can’t learn and make progress – no matter how incremental – and enjoy myself at the same time.” 

Additionally, I would think ‘this is how I am and this is how I always will be’. Now I think and believe ‘actually, I’m not the same now as where I was last year, and as long as I continue to show up and try and persist and learn and push, I will be in an even more knowledgeable place next year’. It has been really empowering to take on these beliefs and see the results for myself.

For someone who is considering working with Claudia, is there anything that you would like to share with them? 

If you are someone who finds yourself doubting where you are, feeling like you don’t belong (either at work, or in various other environments) and thinking that things just keep happening to you and that you’re unable to control them, I firmly believe Claudia is the person to help you if you let her. 

To put it bluntly, she cuts through the crap – or what she more accurately calls ‘mind drama’ – and gets to the root beliefs or root thoughts that you have allowed yourself to define you for a very long time. 

Be ready to be challenged on everything you have believed yourself to be true, either about your situation or about yourself. 

If you choose to work with Claudia, be prepared to take out only what you put in. Honesty and diligence will get you very far. Don’t be afraid – share everything, it is all confidential. 

Don’t be lazy – commit to the work and practice the thought exercises so that you can eventually coach yourself. 

Investing in your relationship with your thoughts and ultimately, with yourself is the most empowering thing you can do for yourself and will absolutely impact all areas of your life.

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If reading this has inspired you to take action today, so that YOU in 6 months’ time will be able to experience similar progress and satisfaction, then I invite you to reach out to me for a discovery call. We will discuss where you are at NOW and where you want to be in the FUTURE. From this place, a tailored plan will be discussed about how we will go about achieving what you want. It will be challenging, inspiring and life-changing. You can book the call here!

P.S. Details of my Group Launch, Consolidate to Grow, will be officially up next week - don't forget to register here to hear the details as soon as they are released!

T H E I N N E R I M P A C T . C O M