July 2019
My Coaching Journey……………………by Rhona
It’s hard to believe that I have achieved a total change of lifestyle and career in under a year – as I sit here in my beautiful country garden reflecting on the past year, I feel very proud and privileged to have come this far supported by so many lovely people ………….so here’s my journey….
I was an HR Consultant who, having been in the profession for 25+ years had specialised in dealing with contentious issues and was finding the work more and more draining. I knew that I wanted to do things differently, I wanted life to be different but at that time I didn’t know how – so having turned to coaching in the past and understanding the impact it had had on me – I set off in pursuit of an excellent coach. I did a couple of trial sessions with various coaches but none hit the mark until I was recommended to try Meryl. She and I hit it off straight away with a great chemistry – she has a brilliant energy and enthusiasm about her which makes you feel you really can achieve the world! I was also looking for someone who could challenge me in a supportive way and hold me accountable to the changes I wanted to make – she certainly did this in bucket loads and I would not be living my new life today if it wasn’t for the support and energy that Meryl has provided.
So now I had the coach – I just had to work out what I wanted out of my life and how to get there! Meryl and I had 5 sessions altogether over a 9 month period and I remember the first one vividly – questions like “so what do you want?” and “ what do you want your life to look like in five years”? …just had me stumped! I knew what I didn’t want – to be in HR any more but this was paying the mortgage and I wasn’t able to afford to just walk away from it ….or so I thought….
The topic that kept coming up during the coaching sessions was my love of dogs and animals which I have inherited from my dear dad (now 97 years old and still going strong!) He and I used to spend most of my school holidays on his cousins farm in Scotland – bringing in the cows for milking and herding the sheep with the sheepdogs – I absolutely loved it and those are the fondest memories of my childhood.
Since being a child and spending time on the farm, dogs have always been a part of my life and I lost my beloved 15 year old Golden Retriever a couple of years ago which was devastating. Me being me needed to fill the void quickly and decided to bring a rescue dog called Jake into our lives. He was a very damaged soul who had had no socialisation during puppyhood and had therefore grown up utilising the strategy of barking aggressively at all dogs to keep them away – this worked a treat for him so it became a reinforced behaviour that he would practice at all times. I recognised immediately that I needed a dog behaviourists support to endeavour to change his mind set and behaviour in order to help him to be the settled, fun and calmer dog I knew he could be. So I started working with a dog trainer/behaviourist and quickly recognised that I loved doing this rehabilitation/training work – was reasonably good at it and so maybe this was the new avenue I wanted to explore…Jake was the catalyst to my new life!
With Meryl’s help I explored the possibilities of moving into this unknown profession – what did I need to know, what experience did I need to gain, how would I get that knowledge and experience. I must say at times, it felt overwhelming ….and as I stepped more and more into the role of dog trainer I realised how much there was to learn and how little I really knew! But with the support of my coach I kept going – determined that there was a better life at the end of it. I chose to train with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT) as their philosophy of using only positive reinforcement training methods aligned with my values and I have attended numerous courses and shadowed a couple of awesome dog behaviourists in order to undertake their assessment process as becoming a qualified dog trainer is really important to me. Meryl brought a sense of humour, structure and accountability to our coaching relationship – she helped me see the way through the maze of possibilities ahead of me and helped me stay focussed on the end result. She also challenged me and gave me the confidence to realise that hiding behind the “I can’t afford to walk away from HR” was just an excuse I was using to hold myself back from doing what I really wanted to do.
So here I am – having moved house in the middle of our coaching programme as I could see that being in the West Berkshire countryside would bring endless opportunities for dog training interventions. The outcomes after just 9 short months are:
- – I have just taken my assessment to become an IMDT qualified dog trainer
– I have lots of dog training clients and brilliant testimonials that demonstrate my skills and knowledge
– I no longer work in HR – finished with that work a few months ago. - Am building the dog training business which I have called Paws 4 Transformation into what I want it to be – a lifestyle change to see me into retirement.
- We have moved house into the beautiful Berkshire countryside …and I couldn’t be happier!
– Oh…and Jake is a completely different dog too – much calmer, no longer barks at other dogs, a really happy member of our family! - When I look back on my journey I can’t help but feel incredibly proud and happy at what I have achieved in such a short space of time – it has been really challenging on occasions and I may have been tempted to give up if it wasn’t for the brilliant support provided by Meryl as my coach. I am living a completely different life now… such is the power of coaching – it really works if you are prepared to put the effort in to make the changes and BE BOLD!
Rhona