It is finally Official!

"The comeback is always stronger than the setback!" ~Unknown~

Today my dream and goal has become a reality - Today I became an ACE Certified Health Coach - It is Official!

From the first day of deciding to go back to school, I knew that my end goal was becoming a health coach. I researched how to make this possible, while still living my normal life. By normal, I mean working full-time and being a full-time wife and mother. Knowing that it was in my heart to make this dream and goal a reality I made every possible push to see it thru to the end.

Looking back at my journal, the day before I decided to go back to school my exact words where "I see the end, I see myself there, I have purpose for it...".

*After many days of hard work, stress and anxiety over giving enough of myself at work and to my family, and feeling guilty about taking me time here and there.

*After making it thru internship and graduation in the new found normality that COVID-19 presented to us earlier in 2020.

*After working through finding my purpose again after being furloughed for 11 weeks, and than being called back to work, and finally setting a date to take my HC Exam.

*And than making it to THE DAY and knowing that I had did my very best to prepare for the exam...spending almost 3 hours taking the exam, and than taking a deep breath, hitting the SUBMIT EXAM button, and than seeing the word... FAILED ...in bright red. My Heart Sank! "How could this be? I worked so hard to get here, and now what? Was this all for nothing?"

The "now what" was taking the time to walk to my car, think about how far I have come to get to this point, and this word (FAILED!) was not going to be my defining moment. I got to my car, got onto the website to reschedule right away, and set the date for just over 1 week past my original exam - I mean I was hot on the studying track already, might as well stay hot!

Much of what a health coach does is help clients to recognize what was/is an obstacle in their path and guide them to finding a way around it and to restructure that failure into something that can be a positive, empowering them to find strength within themselves to move past it. To acknowledge what happened and use it as a tool to learn from and continue forward. I knew what I had to do.

In the back of my mind, from the day that I made the appointment, I didn't want to let too many people know when the date was because "what if I failed?" I would have to tell all those people, and I feared how they would look at me. And when that did happen, oh the feelings that arose inside of me - about telling my family and close friends/mentors, saying to them "I didn't pas!" I assumed that they would think I was...dumb, or way over my head with thinking I could do this, or a phony... In health coach terms I was "Labeling and Overgeneralizing" my thoughts. From past experience, I knew that I had to get up and brush myself off and put one foot in front of the other, and continue towards my goal...my dream...my new career. Nobody was going to do it for me - it was all-or-nothing at this point.

Knowing all this from my studying (trust me, this is an ever evolving and continual learning field) I knew I could get past the failure and come out stronger on the other side. And Today I DID!

I am happy to have this as my testimony as I move into building a health coaching practice of my own.

I am thrilled beyond measure on how I can help others find what is already inside of them to reach their goals.

I look forward to this next adventure in my life, to journey alongside others and watch as they fulfill a longing inside of them, whatever that may be.

"Coming together is a Beginning, Staying together is Progress, and Working together is Success." ~Henry Ford~