This is a question I’ve been reflecting on over the past six months while training with The Coaching School. It was also the focus of our final intensive module in gloriously sunny Cambridge a few weeks ago.

I started my coaching journey without a clear sense of what the path looked like or where I might end up. The idea of being able to effectively support people seeking to make positive career and life changes pulled me steadily forward. However, I wasn’t sure whether coaching would simply help me to broaden my existing skillset, or prompt a much more radical change.

This is why the Coaching School’s open approach appealed to me so much. My small (and extraordinary!) cohort of trainee coaches have been introduced to a wide range of tools, skills and new ways of thinking, and then supported to use them in ways that feel most authentic to us. We’ve also been learning through practice – finding and working with real clients alongside our training.

I tend to worry about being knowledgeable and confident enough before starting something new, so my training has pushed me outside of my comfort zone. But it has also revealed a very powerful truth; that you can never be entirely ready before starting anything big. If the calling feels meaningful and urgent, you often need to take a leap first, and learn afterwards. Without a doubt, one of the best things to have come from my coaching journey so far is the realisation that I am more than capable of taking these leaps, and the knowledge that I have the resilience to handle the outcomes.

What feels authentic to me now is continuing to stretch and expand my vision of what possible looks like and what I can achieve. It also means making coaching a much more explicit part of everything I do. By this, I mean that my focus will be on working collaboratively and directly with people who are similarly motivated by the idea of exploring possibilities and then experimenting and taking actions that will lead to positive changes – for themselves, their communities and the wider world.

That will include taking on more coaching clients! I’ll be writing more in the coming weeks about what coaching means to me and about the kinds of people I enjoy working with. But I leave this here as an invitation – if you’d like to know more, or think that coaching might help you (or someone you know) to take a similar leap, please do get in touch. I’d love to start a conversation.