I was feeling SO lethargic for the last 2 hours, and that class totally energized me! I have to recognize and award myself for being the first person to share my bio with the class, as I was excited to receive feedback from not only the teacher but from the other 12+ students in the class.

I did post my bio on the discussion board last week, and Linda commented that she wanted to know a bit more about how I felt when I was trying to find my new path. So, here is Draft 2 of my bio:

“Since I was a little girl of 6 years old, I always wanted to be an actress. Being on stage is where I belonged, and it took me places. It took me to New York City, where I majored in musical theater at NYU / Tisch School of the Arts. It took me on a cruise ship around North America where I sang my heart out for a year. It took me to Studio 8A in Rockefeller Plaza, where I got to be on “Saturday Night Live”. It even took me to The-Closest-Movie- Theater-Is-An-Hour-Away, PA and The-Town-With-A-Gas-Station,-a-Consignment-Shop,-a- Pizzeria,-and-a-Gun-Store, New Hampshire.

And all of a sudden, the life I was pursuing for 20 years wasn’t what I wanted anymore. I didn’t want to leave my home in New York City, where I built an incredible life for myself. I didn’t want to spend my “days off” sitting at auditions to sing 8 bars of a song and wonder where the day went. I didn’t want to get a job and have to pick up my life with one day’s (or one week’s) notice. I didn’t want to be a 35 year old waitress/ hostess/ temp/office manager. I wanted my days to mean something, to be valuable, to matter.

So I got a real job. And another one. And another. I went through seven jobs in four years, constantly trying to find “the perfect fit”. I’d get restless easily and fairly despondent, thinking that there was nothing else out there for me that I could devote myself to passionately and enthusiastically. One day I declared, “Enough! I refuse to accept that there is nothing else out there that I’m going to love doing!” I decided to put some chutzpah into my search. I was going to find My Perfect Career.

I enrolled in a Career Change Workshop at NYU, and through a series of personality tests, exercises, and conversations with my classmates, I realized that I wanted to help others find their own path, especially “creative types” that thought they wanted one thing their whole life and now have to rewrite their plans. I wanted to help them figure out what they wanted to be When They Grow Up.

But I didn’t want to limit myself to Career Coaching. I wanted to help people along with all their life challenges, but not in a Hippy-Dippy or a Tell-Me-What-Your-Parents-Did-When-You-Were-Five way. I wanted to be their springboard, their partner, their confidante, their cheerleader.

I wanted to be their Life Coach!

I went full throttle into taking classes at the International Coach Academy, where I’m enrolled in the Certified Professional Coach Program. I will then be certified by the International Coaches Federation, who “exists to Build, Support and Preserve the integrity of the coaching profession.”

I’ve been training my whole life to be a coach. My communication skills, my enthusiasm and sense of humor, my desire to help people find their passion, and my people-loving-personality makes this the role that I was born to play.”

I received very positive feedback, but that’s the norm for this place! However, I appreciated and valued the comments I received (very honest & thorough, my passion shone through, etc) and I also want to look into how I can incorporate how I relate to others in there (which was a suggestion that I received). It will be tricky in terms of not making my bio too long and not stretching the truth since I’m a virgin coach, but I see how it would be beneficial to have another paragraph on WHY I think I’m (going to be ) a great coach.

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Today I’m grateful for my one day off, and for an extra hour of sleep.