Cathy Liska Blog series by Joann Evans
Joann Evans holds a B.S. in microbiology and chemistry. She is also a certified Paralegal. She has 20 years’ experience in quality assurance, control and engineering in fields such as pharmaceutical, medical device, IVD, biotech and blood banking. This blog series is her journey through being coached and then earning her coaching certification.
Today I had my second full coaching session. I thought that today would take us just half an hour and be easier – then it turned out to be a full session. I guess it was easier for me and maybe harder for Cathy from Center for Coaching Certification as she gave back to me what she called “My Story” from our opening session.
Cathy asked me what level of effort I was willing to put in to reach my goals. That was a hard question to answer because in a lot of ways it has to with the level of effort life will allow me to accomplish. The only thing I could think of to tell her was that I would do whatever it took. Well, what does that look like and what will it take? I stumbled over my words to eventually say that I can say that at least each day I will take a step toward reaching my goals. It will take commitment and effort!
I was asked a lot of questions in the beginning and for some reason my mind felt it hard to wrap around some of them. I can’t recall all of them but do know Cathy had to keep me on track again with forward thinking. The goal is forward thinking and developing new habits and thoughts. As it relates to the habit of being absolutely positive I know that I want help. Four years of struggle is a lot of time to develop some bad habits. My career has experienced periodic bombardment of major challenge. I was asked how I go about effecting the change. My solution was to force myself to do what is needed and do things that make me feel good. I knew that this was not the optimal answer but if I had figured it out a long time ago it’d be done.
Cathy shared Jack Canfield research that 77% of the information we process is negative. While I realize I am not alone I also know she didn’t grow up with my father. Growing up, I used to come home each day to a person who was chronically negative and depressed 100% of the time. I knew that I needed to be away from the negative in order to grow. This coupled with work related challenges wore me down. While my dad was a good man, gave great advice and loved me tremendously he did things that eroded my confidence and self-esteem. The child parent relationship is powerful even into adulthood. Cathy asked questions and I remembered I did figure out how to move forward and I can do it again. This coaching and the upcoming coach training will help me.
