I had a plan for my coaching session with Ian. I’d prepared. Ian brought something different. Ian bravely and purposefully brought his discomfort and struggle.

He knows this is a space where it can be brought into the open, explored, examined.

I have created a safe space.

Ian is a courageous man. A purposeful man. An engineer. Here’s a problem. How are we going to solve it?

Ian is in transition. After four and a half decades of work, three of those building and running his successful engineering business, it’s time for a new chapter.

A young 62, he’s got enough courage and desire for change to quit while he’s ahead. He isn’t being pushed by circumstance to exit his business. He is proactively choosing to forge a strategic path leading his business and his own life into new chapters.

Sounds good when you say it. Kind of upbeat, snappy, clear.

Doing it is a different matter.

Even though I know he’s moving powerfully and effectively through the steps that will inevitably lead him in the direction of his nourishing, satisfying, enjoyable new chapter, this journey is tough. Hard. Scary.

It is not, as I often say to clients, for the feint hearted.

Good job he is equipped. You don’t get to leading a successful business for thirty years without courage, flexibility, resilience, thirst for learning, stamina, vision, boldness, and a spirit of adventure. Ian is equipped with character and experience, the trick is releasing the version of success and productivity and accompanying habits that have served him well and discovering new ways of, as he puts it “getting his kicks” that also enable him to relax more and prioritise non-work things like travel, family, volunteering, and other as yet unidentified adventures. It’s a journey that requires courage, time, patience, openness, and being kind to oneself.

In the old days of starting and growing his business, the approach that served him was reliant on strength. Forging, driving, making things happen. Always reaching for the next thing, for growth.

In this new chapter, I suggest the approach will draw more on reflection, insight, wisdom, and discernment. He will make choices and take actions designed to create internal outcomes not external outputs.

With his material needs taken care of, it is a state of being he is after.

Being happens in the present. Here, now, and in the spirit. It’s not off in the distance or in the tangible. A lifetime of reaching ahead is a hard habit to break and unlike the challenges of building a business, progress towards “being” is only felt. It’s hard to measure, almost invisible.

This journey is uncomfortable. Ian is bravely venturing into new territory though without the familiar 3D evidence (orders, clients, cash, cars, buildings, workforce etc) to show for his efforts. A bit like the whole entrepreneurial journey, it is a lonely job. It requires faith, courage, purpose, and putting one foot in front of the other. Keeping going. Picking yourself up again when you stumble.

Being alongside Ian, cheering him on, offering guidance and helping him see himself more clearly is illuminating.

It’s helping me see how much I now know about the path from there to here. The journey from moving and shaking with external goals to finding, allowing and living internal goals.

Ian is such a courageous powerhouse. He is on the path to a new version of success. It’s a total pleasure and a privilege to be alongside him for some of the way.

The most important advice I have for him, and anyone making such a brave and important journey, is to be kind, gentle, compassionate and patient with yourself.

You will get there AND it’s a really big deal.

If you would like expert guidance and support on the changes you’d like to make in your life, book a free exploratory call with me.

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