How I Became a Life Coach

I am a lover of life, what should I do with that feeling?

Discovering ‘Life Coaching’ was a Thing

I first heard about coaching through Daniel and at a time when I really wanted to tap into his mind. I asked myself “Were all our friendly and romantic encounters leading to something?”. Daniel was coming over for dinner that evening, and asked me if it would be ok to come over slightly later as he had an appointment in town. I was very curious, who uses the word ‘appointment’? If it were a medical appointment surely you’d just say you were going to the doctor’s. In any case, later in the evening, he opened up about the appointment. He had had a coaching session. Daniel communicated how he didn’t want to pursue the romantic side of our relationship further and he acknowledged that I was clearly indicating that I wanted a romantic relationship and commitment, which was true. This honesty was very refreshing and it was the conversation I needed and wanted. Despite the fact that it was sad to be closing this door on part of our relationship, I appreciated the very genuine connection we had had from day one.

To answer the question I posed earlier, did the connection we have then lead to something? The answer would appear to be no from what I have just told you but the answer is, yes, it did. This didn’t happen immediately after, but after a few months it led to a very strong friendship, a friend that I can confide a lot in. As I was doing my coaching training and indeed afterwards in setting up my coaching practice, I’ve had a friend who also understands the process of coaching and someone I could share the things that were shifting in my life as I was being coached. I was very grateful for the clear communication very early on in our relationship. Moreover, it got me curious about ‘life coaching’.

My Love of People and Life

What really got me into life coaching, however, was the word ‘life’ in ‘life coaching’. Many people describe me as being positive, uplifting, energetic, enthusiastic, and with a huge passion for life. What I said to myself before starting my coaching training was ‘Caitríona you are such a big lover of life and you need to share this with the world.’

I have a lot of love and compassion for others and it brings me a lot of happiness to see people succeed for themselves. I graduated in Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering in 2013 and a very pivotal part of that was my exchange programme (ERASMUS) in France. All of my subjects were in French with the exception of one which was Geopolitics, taught in English. I was the only native English speaker in the class and I took on a side project of correcting the vast majority of the class’ projects for this module. I enjoyed helping my friends and noticing how they may have translated their ideas from French to English. I got a lot of satisfaction from them learning how they could communicate an idea better in English. In the end, I submitted a ‘copy-paste Wikipedia project’ as I got so invested in helping my friends’ better their projects. Getting a lower grade caused no such affliction, the topic hadn’t excited me and there was a lot of passion in the work I was doing for others and the language aspect to it. 

Teaching

It mightn’t come as a surprise that I transitioned from my work as an engineer to teaching English to adults. This brought me to Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Scotland, and aboard a Japanese NGO cruise ship. Teaching has been such rewarding work for me, seeing the potential in every student I’ve taught and experiencing that progress with them.

During the pandemic, opening my laptop at 7am in the morning to a Sicilian student’s 8am and finishing the day with a coaching session for a client after their working day became a norm. My highly extroverted self was engaged with people while we were in complete lockdown, I was lucky. Being completely engaged in my students’ and clients’ learning brought a lot of happiness. 

Recruitment

Curious about how I could combine my engineering knowledge and my passion for people, I  have also worked as a recruiter and in the science and engineering space. As a recruiter, I became invested in my candidates professional lives and their personal situations. I recruited people transitioning from one role to another, from one industry to another, people relocating back home to Ireland, and assisted professionals new to Ireland working in a new country for the first time. Seeing the potential in my clients and their ambition was really rewarding as they built on their success stories whether it was being hired into a role with me, receiving an opportunity elsewhere, or signing up for a course to upskill, for example.

The hardest part of my job, however, was not being able to help everyone that wanted to be in the chair in front of me and I couldn’t accommodate everyone given the niche roles and requirements my clients were looking for. Despite that, I championed everyone who had made an effort to work with me and pointed them down an avenue that would be more useful for them. This can also arise in coaching, sometimes a potential client is more suited to another coach or professional, and the excitement comes when you are in front of the person that you can help. 

Becoming a Life Coach

Being very driven to expand how I can help and touch the lives of people, my mind went back to what Daniel had told me about life coaching. I had this drive to make people’s lives better and not solely through language teaching. I signed myself up for a course to learn the skills of coaching with a course accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

On this note, I would like to end by telling you that becoming a coach has been a powerful extension to my professional and personal life. Sharing my life coaching skills with the world is one of my very happy places. I enjoy what it has brought, what it is bringing, and I look forward to what it will bring. If you are interested in having a coach in making your life happier, I would love to hear from you.