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Continually grow as a person and find your work/life balance

The Ultimate Meaning of Life Reveals Itself if You Listen

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Self-Leadership Skills.

You can find your ultimate meaning in life by mindfully listening for what life asks of you as each challenge, opportunity, and crisis comes your way.“The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” ~ Joseph Campbell

After suffering a severe crisis, people often contemplate the ultimate meaning of life. After surviving the holocaust, Victor Frankl wrote Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything. After a different pandemic claimed two of her children, Mary Shelley wrote The Last Man which explored what makes life worth living. Walt Whitman wrote of this same question, after he suffered a paralyzing stroke.

These people knew suffering intimately. They didn’t try to forget. They didn’t try to pretend it never happened. They didn’t become embittered. Each one emerged from their crisis, with a valuable gift for the world. After allowing themselves time to fully experience their life, including the pain, they derived a sense of meaning from it. Then they bared their souls and we benefit today from their insights.

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Be Ready for Change — How Virtual Coaching Makes Us More Adaptable

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Handling Change, Self-Leadership Skills.

Coaches – how can you and your clients be ready for change, when you don’t know what change is coming? You can do so by preparing in these three areas… Doesn’t it feel like changes have been rolling in fast and furious, like the surf in a storm. If you work as a coach, no doubt you want to help your clients cope and be ready for change. How do you feel about change? As a coach, you most likely embrace it as a chance to experience something new and venture out past your comfort zone.  

But what happens when something comes crashing out of left field, completely blindsiding us? We may be left floundering ourselves. How can we not only embrace change but be ready to make the most of it? If we’re not able to do this, how can we possibly help our clients? These are the questions we can not afford to ignore.

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Are You Developing Self-Awareness Skills? It’s the CORE Way to Success

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Self-Leadership Skills.

Developing self-awareness skills is fundamental for breaking roadblocks, making progress, and achieving your goals; see how my C.O.R.E. formula helps.“In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Isn’t it true that when you’re coaching your clients, your focus is on helping them make the best of their potential, maximizing their strengths, recognizing opportunities and taking them? If you’re struggling with making a breakthrough, go back to the basics…the core of your success is that you and they are continually developing self-awareness skills.

Why is developing self-awareness skills at the core of becoming a successful leader, coach, team or individual?

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Find Your Passion, If You Want a Sustainable Business and Happy Life

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Embodied Leadership, Private Practice Advice, Self-Leadership Skills.

When you find your passion, your life is enriched and it gives you a clear direction and guideposts, as you build a business around your passion.“We should always have three friends in our lives — one who walks ahead, who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.” ~ Michelle Obama

If you’re like other women in my community, you want to make the most of your life while making a difference in this world. So how will you know when you find your passion? The people you serve feel right, and the service you’re offering brings you lightness and joy, even if it’s hard work. 

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Don’t Be Afraid of Starting a Life Coaching Business. It’s An Amazing Experience!

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Coaching, Private Practice Advice.

Have you toyed with the idea of becoming a life coach, but starting a life coaching business sounds too hard? Follow my journey, it’s one step at a time.“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.” ~ John F. Kennedy

A few years ago, I made a decision that has changed my life and given me so many unexpected benefits. I’ve always been fascinated with the positivity and forward-thinking stance of Life Coaching. So, in 2013, I decided that starting a life coaching business was right for me! I changed my branding, read books and took online courses to get up to speed with this growing field and to feel more confident and competent.

At times, I would feel discouraged and my own inner critic would creep in with statements like: “You were doing just fine, why did you have to go and change things?” Well, that was just fear of the unknown. And no, I wasn’t doing fine, I wasn’t fulfilled anymore. I was just afraid of making the change. 

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