The rollercoaster ride of being a coach

Here’s a thing you might not know about me: while I absolutely, deeply and truly despise most fair rides, I love old-fashioned rollercoasters. They are shaky, unpredictable, and look like they’ve been put together with Duct tape, but they also make your heart soar.

Being a coach is just like that: terrifying, fulfilling, and a lesson in life.

1. It's really really scary

The other day, a friend of mine asked me how it feels to be a coach. The first word that came to mind was “terrifying.” But even as the word left my mouth I was smiling. Because when someone trusts you enough to tell you what they are scared of and support them towards their goals, it's both humbling and exhilarating. And, yes, really really scary.

2. It connects to something real

I have traveled a lot in my lifetime. Like, a LOT. The more I travel, the more I believe we are all pretty much the same and at the same time 100% unique. That’s how it is with the people I am privileged to coach. Everyone faces similar struggles, and yet each person comes with their own set of dreams, obstacles, and quirks. There is something deeply fulfilling about listening to someone with a different trajectory, personal gravity, and life story and hearing a clear echo of our shared humanity. This doesn’t only happen in coaching, of course: it is what happens when we actually listen to each other. Thing is, we rarely do, and the experience is comforting and real.

3. It's a lesson in life

I have never spoken with someone in a coaching setting who hasn’t taught me something. About myself, about life, about how to approach difficulties and allow joy. I realize that part of this is the privilege of being let behind the curtain: getting a front row seat to the reasoning behind a person’s behavior and preferences, an answer to the ever-present “why.” There is often pain in the discoveries we make together in coaching sessions, because there is pain in our lives when we look at them up close. Also, coaching is all about change. And pain and change travel together, someone wise once said.

I have written elsewhere about one of the oldest rollercoasters in the world, the Cyclone: its role in my life, and the way in which riding it on several occasions has connected me to my deep desire to live all out.

Being a coach is like riding the Cyclone.