Knowing it All Usually Means You Don’t

There I was in a budget hotel in Malta, treating my Achilles tendonitis – a painful affliction many other over-exercisers will be familiar with. I was icing my ankle, eating peaches for dinner, and texting my friends about a guy I was dating: a biker who does shark diving and black diamond skiing

Ten years ago I was overweight and couldn’t even imagine being able to touch my feet, never mind treating injuries due to over-exertion from living my life. I lived a settled life, every night having a home-cooked meal with my career focussed husband in our glamorous kitchen before a butler did the dishes. Yet, that life was never truly me and I gave it all up and found myself in that budget hotel, enjoying peaches for dinner and nursing an injury from living my best life.

People would ask ‘what went wrong?’ when really, I sit and think ‘what went right?’. Maybe it was chance, maybe it was luck or maybe my mother’s prayers, in any case, I’d finally opened up my mind to change and whilst going through a mental transformation, the physical transformation was just as extreme.

There was nothing wrong with my life ten years ago, or so I thought. I wasn’t fulfilled, I was chasing after superficial goals. I was also a snob, stuck in my ways, thought I knew it all. I knew far less than I do now and I was wrong. I began getting clear on what I actually wanted from life. I have no idea what the future holds. I do know, it will be great. I believe we create our outcomes. I’m the only person responsible for my outcomes, as are you, yours.

I now know the impact of your beliefs on the rest of your life and how they are created in the subconscious. Ten years ago I’d say “that’s a load of cr*p”. I subscribed to many common but toxic beliefs such as ‘I already know it all’, ‘this belief work is for other people’, ‘I don’t need help’, and, ‘this is just the way that I am, I can’t change’.

My mindset was fixed. It didn’t allow for any creative thoughts, possibilities or growth. It didn’t allow me to even find out there was so much more I didn’t know.

I’m here to tell you that you can escape this limited mindset. With coaching, you can get to the bottom of those limiting beliefs to overcome them and my goal is no longer to climb that next rung on the career ladder or have the newest sports car, but to help others live in a way that actually fulfils them.

I used to think ‘only people who are struggling need a coach or a mentor’. Yet, Olympic athletes who are the best in the world have coaches. Steve Jobs mentored Mark Zuckerberg and Maya Angelou mentored Oprah Winfrey.

We are hardwired to resist change. Part of the brain—the amygdala—interprets change as a threat and releases the hormones for fear, fight, or flight. Your body is actually protecting you from change. Even if change is the most positive outcome long-term, our primal brain can’t distinguish from a genuine or an imagined threat.

In coaching, we look at your beliefs and those that no longer serve you. When you remove those hurdles, you open your mind up. The worst case scenario is staying as you are, the best case scenario is living a life of endless possibilities and happiness.