Alice Hart-Davis is in week six of her online life coaching class with Jacqueline Hurst designed to help her achieve her goal. This week, she’s learned that accepting the changes life throws at you is much less stressful than trying to fight them
They say it takes six weeks to adopt a new habit and I’d say that’s about right. Just when I’ve got into the habit of getting excited on Monday mornings when the next module of The Life Class drops into my in-tray with the week’s assignments, I realise that we are through week six and fast heading towards the end of the course.
One of this week’s learnings has been working out what our dominant thought is – the unhelpful one that keeps coming up, time and again. Mine is ‘I can’t do it!’
One of this week’s learnings has been working out what our dominant thought is – the unhelpful one that keeps coming up, time and again. It slowly becomes clear to me that mine is: ‘I can’t do it!’ It is the first thing that enters my head every time I’m asked to do something – write a story, give a talk, take responsibility for people, or a project, look after someone’s dog… It’s not a thought that arises out of reluctance, but fear. Even when it is something that I know I can do perfectly well, my instinct is to panic and retreat.
Talking of which, I’ve landed not exactly a new job, but a new thing, writing a column for a prestigious publication on a subject which is really not my speciality. How did this happen? In a perfectly logical sequence of moves – the editor called me in, we had a chat about my contributing to the magazine’s beauty and fashion pages and I signed a contract … only to find out the following week that the brief had changed. No beauty (which is my specialism), only fashion, and not just ‘here’s a new handbag’ fashion captions, but analytical, interpretation-of-trends type fashion. Oh, and the readership is mostly male. And covers the whole of Europe.
There are always reasons not to but I know that is called ‘making excuses’
Cue, major panic, and a hasty Skype coaching session with one of my fellow trainee life coaches, who did a very good job of making me talk some sense into myself. Rather than fixating on the thought ‘I can’t do this!’ which was nudging me swiftly towards panic and that awful immobility that comes when you just don’t know what to do, she helped me get round to thinking that actually, I can write about anything that anyone throws at me, from model railways to test-driving cars to lifestyle and, yes, fashion too.
I can almost hear The Life Class founder Jacqueline Hurst’s voice in my ear, encouraging me: how would you feel if you just did it? How exciting would that be?
I’ve taken my eye off the ball when it comes to the book, again. I think I was so excited by all the progress last week that I felt, I don’t know, that it would be too much to charge on and finish off the proposal and actually send it off, so I haven’t. But I will. Honestly. There are always reasons not to (so much on the to-do list! Like, life-coach-learning, writing, blogging, book stuff, children, family admin, my skincare brand…) but I know that is called ‘making excuses’.
I’ll do it this weekend. Heck, maybe even sooner. I can almost hear The Life Class founder Jacqueline Hurst’s voice in my ear, encouraging me: how would you feel if you just did it? How exciting would that be? I think this course is working, in all sorts of ways.
What I’ve learned this week:
- That a support network is a very good thing, even if you’ve only met them virtually
- That I need deadlines to give myself a sense of urgency, even if they are deadlines I have set myself
- To roll with the changes that life brings. It’s less stressful than fighting them.
Jacqueline Hurst is a life and body coach. She believes everything is possible and that all women can become do-ers. Hurst’s new The Life Class is an online life-coaching course that takes you on your own personal journey of self-development and teaches you how to be a life coach in eight weeks. How? By providing you with a sharp, strategic syllabus which uses exceptional tools, techniques and concepts allowing you to truly understand what it means to become a life coach. Expect to gain knowledge, insider information, support and confidence. The Life Class prides itself on its high level of support throughout the course and encourages students to communicate via the Community platform. The Life Class believes that sharing knowledge, ideas and experiences is integral to becoming a great coach. thelifeclass.com | jacquelinehurst.com
Follow Jaqueline on Twitter at @jhurstcoaching.
Alice Hart-Davis is a freelance beauty journalist and the creator of Good Things skincare. She has written a beauty book 100 Ways for Every Girl to Look and Feel Fantastic and blogs on innovation in beauty on her own website. Follow her on Twitter.
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