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Why am I a coach?

Why am I a career coach?

I am a career coach because I had no choice but to be.

Let me explain.

When I was a little girl, my family lived in a beautiful suburb of Denver, Colorado. Growing up, I was the most energetic, lively, passionate kid.

I was a dancer, painter, baton twirler, ice skater, and Whitney Houston impersonator. (I had whole song and dance routines made up to go with my mom’s copy of The Bodyguard soundtrack.)

My favorite thing in the world was reading and learning.

During one elementary school summer, I read over 100 books (most of them Nancy Drew) just for fun.

I was always full of movement and optimism and positivity and life.

As I got older, as happens with all of us, something changed.

I discovered playing by the rules my family and community were setting around me was how I would keep people happy.

I dove headfirst into school and classes, working to get the highest grades I could.

In a lot of ways, focusing on how to win the game at school served me well: I kept working harder and harder to do the right things to get into a “good” college.

Getting into a good school was my ticket to freedom.

(Home wasn’t always the safest place to be with a parent whose mood and anger is volatile, and college seemed like the perfect escape.)

To keep moving towards that dream, I started working towards financial independence.

I had my first part-time job in middle school, and started adding lines to my resume: babysitter, web designer, Baskin-Robbins ice cream scooper, math tutor, Panera Bread barista.

Through all this hustling, I expanded the world of opportunities and possibilities open to me. I was acquiring new skills, learning about customer service and discovering all the ways you can create value.

(And, little did I know, also becoming an expert in interviewing and how to put together a great resume.)

When college application season arrived, I got the chance to attend college in New York City. For a Colorado mountain girl, the Big Apple was the most amazing, glamorous place I could imagine, and I jumped at the opportunity.

I got to college, and immediately got a job to both help pay for school and also expand my post-college options.

In a typical semester, I would take a full courseload plus one paying part-time job and an unpaid internship.

As I picked out my major, I had desperately wanted to pursue Psychology or in Art History, but asked myself, “Will that get me a job after graduation?”

(That, instead of “What will I love learning about forever?” or “Which major would bring my joy?” was the guiding question for decisions at that point in my life. So now, part of my coaching practice is about learning how to ask yourself better questions. )

Instead of art history or psych, I took Econ classes, and did all kinds of internships as ways to supplement my classes with joyful extracurriculars.

Within four years in undergrad, I interned at my dream companies: Seventeen magazine, American Cancer Society, Teen Vogue, and CBS Sports.

I also got opportunities to get my hands dirty contributing at smaller organizations like the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, CollegeFashion.net, and even by launching a fashion and beauty blog.

By the time graduation rolled around, I had experience doing everything: sports media, fashion journalism, blogging, event planning, social media, investigative research. (Everything except economics, that is.)

While I kept trying to play by the rules of other people’s expectations of me, I couldn’t help but follow my joy into companies and sectors I’d admired from afar.

When I arrived at life after college, I followed my heart to a job at an education nonprofit. But as the months ticked on, I noticed that some of the joy from my childhood wasn’t present anymore.

I told myself, “This is what it means to be an adult. You can’t have as much fun anymore. There are responsibilities. There’s work to be done.

And that started becoming my truth. I moved to a private sector job and started to become okay with trading my joy and optimism for the hardening of Corporate America.

I started to believe that it was normal to deliver feedback to colleagues in ways that weren’t respectful or rooted in kindness. And, that working for a company or industry I loved was a privilege reserved for other people, not for me.

“I mean, nobody loves their work, right?”

Statements like that were accepted as true among my peer group.

But believing that truth was a huge blow to my happiness.

So I sat there, facing my quarter-life crisis in a depressive funk.

“I just, I remember being happier. I don’t know what happened.”

Unpacking each decision that led me to that point with coaches and therapists allowed me to discover something fundamental and profound about myself: I am a woman driven by my values.

And some of my values — fun, respect, kindness, giving – were in direct conflict with my employer or my company’s environment.

This was a revelation for me: I need to do work in a context that aligns with my values.

Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how much money you pay me or how many days I get off or how many standing desks there are at the office: I will not be happy.

And from that moment on, my career became about finding jobs that aligned with my values and allowed me to live my truth every day.

That’s how we end up in the present. I discovered the way I could best honor my values and priorities was in working with individuals to help them discover and honor theirs.

And, nobody would (or should) trust a coach that doesn’t walk their talk…

So, I took the leap to pursue my passion full time.

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Seeking out balance and peace in your life is a struggle. It is a struggle for everyone.

And here’s my candid opinion: the concept of balance is bullshit.

“Balance” is a myth we’ve invented to make ourselves feel guilty for being ambitious – or to rationalize why we’ve taken a foot off the gas pedal.

Life isn’t really about balance. Life is about having priorities and making tradeoffs.

You can’t do everything, but you can have anything if you set your time, energy, money and intention toward it.

Once you know what your priorities are, making tradeoffs gets much easier.

That’s why I’m here: to serve you by creating clarity around your values, helping you turn them into priorities, and make strategic career decisions that align with your vision for how you can impact the world.

Sign up below to get started.

About the Author Lisa Lewis

Lisa is a career change coach helping individuals feeling stuck to find work that fits. She helps people clarify who they are, what they want most, and what a great job for them looks like so they can make their transition as easily as possible. Lisa completed coaching training in Jenny Blake’s Pivot Method, Danielle LaPorte’s Fire Starter Sessions, Kate Swoboda's Courageous Living Coaching Certification, and the World Coaches Institute. In addition to that, she apprenticed with the top career coaches in the country so she can do the best possible work with — and for — you. She's helped more than 500 individuals move into more fulfilling, yummy careers and would be honored to get to serve you next!

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