Coaching Journey: What is your dream?

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.

The ultimate question for this coaching session was, “What is the Dream?” The idea was to look at the overall big picture and to go deeper and broader. In going into this meeting it felt like 90 minutes would be a very long time to have someone keep asking me questions. As an auditor, I know how asking questions and answering them can be tiring – but this session wasn’t like that from the perspective of being asked the questions. There were points of discomfort but walking through them was different due to the nature of the visualization guidance.

Cathy essentially asked me questions surrounding what I wanted and what success would look like in all areas of my life. She led into this with a simple question of, “What do you want?” I don’t know if all of these questions were harder because the session was being recorded for the coach training or if it was my consciousness getting the better of me. I have always had high expectations of myself but telling someone else about it felt really strange. What do I want? A major part of the problem I have is that I don’t really know what I want other than to know I want to live up to my potential and to feel good about work and life. In light of this fact, it was helpful for Cathy to have me explore what professional success will look like for both potential routes of going back into corporate and the path of my own business. We looked at 1, 2, 3 and more years ahead.

Cathy asked questions that encompassed all areas of my life. She guided me to envision what success will look and feel like in my job, social life, with friends and family, hobbies, professional goals, community, a new home with the horse I’ve so long yearned to have. It was interesting to visualize the end goal especially while seated quietly in my home, eyes closed, surrounded by a quiet atmosphere with no interruptions. The dog didn’t even bother me. In this case, I was able to in my mind leave what is the stress of my current situation and go there to my imagined successful life. As a result of my quiet physical state and her guidance in this exercise, I found that time passed quickly and I didn’t see it go by. I could do this kind of exercise on my own but not nearly as effectively as through this kind of professional guidance – I am starting to get the reason for coaching certification. I was almost sad to end the session because I liked how it felt to be there. There was a sense of relief. It was calm and peaceful. Stress may be a habit. I want to do this visualization more often!