Celebrating a milestone

Every journey has it’s milestones. Early 2009 we did a road-trip in Argentina and drove from Buenos Aires all the way south to Ushuaia, to the “end of the world”. A trip of 3000 km with many milestones on it’s way. Ushuaia was not our destination, but we celebrated reaching this milestone nevertheless.
In 2020 I embarked on a new adventure: transforming myself and my career. Also during this adventure I celebrate when a milestone is reached: I am now officially certified as a coach!

Part of my career transformation is to develop my coaching skills. So last November I signed up for the MMS Transformational Executive Coaching Certification (TECC) Program.
What followed was quite an amazing journey. Signing up for a Coaching Certification program is not only about learning coaching skills, it’s also about learning more about yourself. What are my own drivers, my barriers, my desires and my beliefs? During an intense 6 months period I was at times invited to look closely at myself. Feelings, emotions, beliefs, values, dreams, fears….they all passed my internal reflection at certain times.

Embarking on such a journey when you have just relocated to a new country, a new life, is perhaps a great momentum. It gave me the opportunity to reflect well on my own little emotional rollercoaster. A friend and fellow coach who I met in Shanghai said it well: “So you gave up your career to start for yourself, you moved to a new country where you do not speak the language, you moved from an International city to a school campus in a small Chinese town and you decided that now is the right time to learn how to coach…. wow, you must be really far out of your comfort zone!” And at times I was.

Luckily I got a lot of help and support. Of course in the first place from Hendrik Willem, who convinced me that committing to online learning every Friday and Saturday for a period of 6 months was really manageable and a great opportunity, and who supported me through all the way.
I certainly got a lot of support from my peer students and trainers, who formed a close and safe group, encouraging us to learn from each other.
Also the support from my coaching colleagues/friends in Shanghai was valuable; they encouraged me, motivated me and share in my passion.
But perhaps most important was the support from my personal network; quite some people were willing and trusting enough to allow me to practice my coaching skills on them. This gave me a big boost, both in confidence as in experience, and I am grateful for their help in reaching my milestone!

So what’s the next etappe of my journey? Well, a lot of work is happening behind the scenes right now, which will result in an professionally updated website launching Follow the Adventure into the big world of Coaching, Training and HR Consulting services.

So stay tuned for more milestones to come. And…you are most welcome to join me in a coaching session!