Do You Have Fairy Tale Thinking?

You know fairy tales always have a lesson. That is why they are so powerful.

They show us our misguided or unrealistic thinking AND reveal a deeper truth. 

 Here is a little fairy tale that I once believed in, along with the real story! 

Once upon a time, there was a woman who had a mission. She wanted more than anything to serve the world by helping people become their best selves. She was called to become a life coach and was committed to doing honor to this noble profession.

She got the best training in the world, quit her job, and – just as she had dreamed – like magic the clients flooded in. She wrote a book that brought her a massive audience, and before she knew it, she was almost as famous as bestselling author and renowned expert on vulnerability, Brené Brown.

This is the story I told myself twenty years ago when I started my coaching career!

Some of the facts are correct. I did write a book. I did hit that magic six-figure income and have had a great career as a coach. I did have clients and, so far, I have lived happily ever after!

There was magic for sure – a lot of it, in fact. But it was in equal measure to a lot of hard work, many twists and turns, and plenty of failure. The reality was nothing like the fairy tale.

Here was what I learned. The lesson from this fairytale thinking of mine.

A couple of years ago, I took time to take stock. I looked at what had worked for me and examined the unnecessary suffering I had endured because I did a lot of right things in the wrong order.

If there is one thing I want coaches to know, it is this:

There are natural stages of growth, and you can’t skip them forever. A coaching business evolves through natural stages and it’s ONLY when you honor those stages in sequence that you can make confident choices about how and when to evolve your business.

Another way of understanding the four stages is to think of how we humans evolve through our lives.  Very much like we move through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and being an elder, there are four natural stages of a coaching business. 

Knowing these stages will help you grow your business at a sustainable pace, help you overcome the challenge of not knowing what to do, and give you confidence in yourself as CEO of your coaching business. 

That clarity and confidence will help you create a REAL dream come true for you and your business.