As a life coach, I get to experience plenty of ‘good’ sessions with a variety of coaching clients. Then there are times that remind me why I love coaching: when the party comes to you!
The last week of November following Thanksgiving was cool. I’m not talking chilly but reason for celebration cool. Two of my clients, both of whom I’ve been meeting with for about a year, came in two days apart.
The first was so excited with the news she had to share, having unfolded through numerous previous sessions, she could hardly wait to get here to tell me! Two days later, the other arrived with three separate issues on her heart and mind and in her notebook to discuss and explore in our two hours. The flow was such that we thoroughly talked through each one, arming her with more of what she needed in each situation. She was the first one’s matching bookend of excitement as she left that day.
For me, it felt like God had just plopped a couple party hats on my head and said “this is a week for celebration!” The evidence of His fingerprints on their lives was cause for my heart grinning from ear to ear. His affirmation of the work we had been doing the past many months was like a triple scoop, mint chocolate chip ice cream cone handed to me on a hot, sunny day. In November in the Pacific Northwest.
Both sessions, different as they were, showed His faithfulness to these clients He had brought to me a year earlier. As they engaged in charting the course before them – each from their unique starting point – they leaned in, followed through, and kept taking the next apparent step. When we all least expected it, it was party time!
I’ve often said to others that when God decides it’s time to get a move on, we usually end up having to run to catch up with Him! What makes a difference, I’ve found, is the place from which we’re starting.
- We may find ourselves caught in the shared driveway of Contentment and Complacency, experiencing fits and starts between the two while trying to get our motor in forward gear.
Or,
- We may already be actively investing time and energy into the course we’ve been charting, even if it’s in small ways and bite-sized pieces.
When things begin to happen, we lose precious time wherever complacency kept her foot on the brake.
Likewise, when we’ve been conscientious to what we can address and prepare for now, God tends to astound us with His attention to the details to which we’ve been giving our time and attention.
And, as many can testify, He doesn’t miss a thing or anyone when He gets the ball rolling! That aspect was one of the most exciting as my first client in this story shared hers. There were no less than eight other people whose lives were being wonderfully impacted as a result of our year of work, and God’s care and attention to the many details on her heart and mind (aka worries, concerns and questions) when we first engaged the coaching process a year earlier. Eleven months later, it was time to party!
Life coaching in all its many niches is not a science. No one can (or should) guarantee a specific outcome. Yet, there are a few truths that apply, and can and do affect one’s results.
In closing, I’ll list my top one here:
As in anything you participate in or relationship you engage in,
you will get out of it what you put into it.
Take it from a life coach, it’s even better when you’re armed well and pointed in the right direction!
Is not this the God who armed me well, then aimed me in the right direction?
II Samuel 22:33 MSG
I encourage you to consider how you might benefit from engaging some life coaching. The new year is just weeks away. A year from now, what could your ‘party time!’ look like?
You can reach me here, where the focus is on ‘helping others live life forward’ …
~ Nancy
Photo Credit: free CC0 Creative Commons
Donna says
Hi Nancy,
I’m glad you are seeing the results of your Life coaching come to fruition.
Your comment” As in anything you participate in or relationship you engage in you get out of it what you put into it” – I haven’t found that so lately – but I haven’t given it a year to bear fruit.either. It seems I put a lot of energy and effort into a relationship and ended up in the hole. Who said life was fair? Sometimes you just have to let go and cut your losses and wait.
Merry Christmas!
Nancy Bentz says
Hi Donna ~ thank you. As for your experience, you’re right (I’m sorry that’s the case), so yes I would agree that sometimes we don’t get out of an experience or relationship what we put into it. I trust the Lord knows our hearts as we try. Merry Christmas to you and Ray, too ♥