Is Life Coaching Right for Me? Have you ever heard someone talk about working with a life coach and wonder, “Is a life coach right for me?” With the hectic pace of today’s lifestyle, it can be tough navigating big changes on your own while balancing everything else on the to-do list. As a life coach, people often assume working with me is like going to counseling; I’m here to tell you…it’s not! Through tactful coaching techniques such as learning how to live in a positive growth mindset, becoming outcome focused, journaling, putting constructive feedback into action, and more, you open yourself to opportunities you may have once thought impossible! Coaching is perfect for anyone going through a transition in their personal or professional lives. It focuses on finding your strength within, feeling empowered to achieve success, and cultivating creative ideas to take your life from good to great, and beyond! If you have big goals and dreams on the horizon, life coaching may be the perfect way to accelerate your progress and turn them into reality! This week, I encourage you to contact me if you’ve ever been curious about life coaching. My intention is to help you live an exceptional life by enhancing your journey and setting you on the path to achieve more! What does living your exceptional life look like to you? What big goals and dreams are on your horizon? How do you plan to achieve them? Are you going through a transition personally or professionally? Have you considered a life coach for support? Who’s holding you accountable for your goals? Are you reaching them?

Are You A Trusting Person?
I was thinking about trust recently and those who struggle with it. As I drove along, I concluded most of us are more trusting than we realize. Every day, many of us get in a car then jump on the road surrounded by others who are driving relatively untrained and are often distracted.
While continuing down the road, there were people on both sides of me who were texting and driving which is what got me thinking about how we trust our lives in the hands of others daily. It made me contemplate the irrational fears so many of us have about things that’ll never happen or come to be. I pondered how much time we often waste worrying over things we can’t control.
I’m someone who trusts easily and always assumes the best in others until they prove me wrong which takes a long time to build from. I always give people the benefit of the doubt and trust that they’re honest and wish the best for those they know.
To me, trust comes in many forms. Trust might look like getting on the road with distracted drivers, sharing personal stories that make me feel vulnerable, or trusting that someone will be there for me when I need them most.
I believe simply thinking we’re more trusting than we realize can help us let go of some of our worries. This week, I encourage you to trust that what’s going to be is what will be and to not let your worries or fears take more space than they should in your mind!
What does living your exceptional life look like to you?
Who or what will you place your trust in this week? What do you hope to gain?

Home
Is your home simply a place to live or is it more than that to you? By the time I was 18, I’d moved 83 times. During my coaching certification as an adult, one of the exercises we were asked to complete included drawing a picture of the home we grew up in and describing the lessons we learned in each room. I’ll never forget the feeling of such deep hurt when the instructor asked us to do this. It made me feel angry, sad, and picked on that they assumed we had all had a home.
Finally, when I was 25, I bought my first home and started to create what I wanted my kids to know their home as and what having a home should feel like. After a couple years getting my home just right, I decided to sell it so Greg and I could buy a much bigger home for our family that gave us 24 ½ years of joy. Together, we worked hard so our kids could grow up in the home I had always dreamed of. Was it big and beautiful? Sure, but that’s never what mattered to me. What mattered to me was living in a home that was filled with warmth and love where all felt welcome.
Throughout time, our home was a place where we welcomed many others for an evening, a week, a month, or an entire summer. To those in our lives, our home was a place to gather for fun and to celebrate one another. It was a place to pray and mourn together after the loss of a loved one. Alas, our house had not just become a home for us, it had become a home for many.
Over the last 24 ½ years, Greg and I calculated we’ve had over 4,000 guests gather in our home for more occasions than we can count. During these many years we’ve been blessed by our home and feel so grateful for all those who felt blessed by it as well. Our home was never perfect or fancy, it was lived in and it was welcoming. It was everything I had ever hoped it would be plus more.
During the last three months as we prepared to sell our home, it was very bittersweet. It was a tough decision to navigate, especially as others tried to tell us how to feel or questioned why we would sell now. In the end, it all came down to being the perfect time for us to share our beautiful home with another family. With our kids fully grown and onto the next chapter in their lives, it was time for us to start our next chapter, too.
For the moment, we’ve decided to spend a year renting an apartment that overlooks a beautiful cornfield. Now that we’ve taken this next step, life feels simpler, slower, and more peaceful. It’s my hope to visit many friends and celebrate with them in their homes over the next year as we now have a quarter of our previous space available to gather.
Reflecting on the recent sale of our home, my heart is filled with gratitude knowing that I learned what a home feels like and was able to raise my kids in a home filled with so many wonderful memories. I’m happy that our home was a place my mom and siblings could gather to create new memories together as adults. I’m blessed that our kids grew up in a stable and secure home that always had enough food and a safe place to sleep. While I’ll miss our big fires and holiday gatherings, my heart will always hold the beautiful memories we made.
This week, I encourage you to consider what a home is to you and if your current home reflects all that you want it to be for yourself, your family, and others. When the time comes for us to welcome others back into our homes, I hope that yours is everything you’ve dreamed of and more! What does living your exceptional life look like to you? What does HOME mean to you?
Whose home has had the biggest impact on your life? Why?Let Annie know your plan!What lessons are you teaching in your home? Which ones do you hope others will remember?

Are You A YES?
Do you say yes to trying new things without having all the details? Do you say yes when you have the opportunity to meet new people? As much as I’m able, I love to say YES! I love wondering what I’m getting myself into without overthinking it and jumping straight in. Does saying yes get me into trouble sometimes? Absolutely it does, but that’s half the fun! To me, discovering along the way is one of the best parts.
Before I expanded my yes mindset, I found if I asked too many questions before saying yes that I would talk myself out of something and regret it later or feel like I missed out. Fast forward to now where I take great joy in giving powerful presentations about choices, goals, and life changing events! Pursuing my passion started with a YES when I didn’t even know what I was doing.
I also said yes to an A Ride for Aids bike ride from Minneapolis to Chicago which took me on a six-day cycling journey and spending the nights in a tent. The only thing was, the longest I’d ever ridden a bike was 4.5 miles…and I didn’t own one. I had also never slept in a tent, and I didn’t know anyone with AIDS.
That ride was one of the most challenging, rewarding, and meaningful experiences of my life! Sometimes when we say YES without having all the information it leads us out of our comfort zone and teaches us how to trust more and be more open along our journey. Life grows more wondrous as we open ourselves up to new experiences.
At the time, I thought that ride was about losing weight. I made it all about me, which happens to all of us sometimes. What I learned along the way was the ride wasn’t about me or my weight loss goals; it was about compassion, hope, fear, family, grief, judgement, wonder, and LOVE!
This week, I encourage you to take a risk and just say YES! Whether or not you have all the details, invest in a new experience, lessons learned, and have fun along the way!
What does living your exceptional life look like to you? When did you risk it and say yes in the past, even though you were afraid? Let Annie know your plan! E-mail her at:Annie@AnnieMeehan.com
Are you more likely to say yes to yourself or others?

Locked In or Hunkered Down?

https://www.anniemeehan.com/2021/08/4207/