Energy Is Everything
Writing by Sara Calabro on raising your frequency
Why coaches don’t tell you what to do
It can be disorienting and initially disappointing to discover that your coach doesn’t tell you what to do. In school, at work, and in medical settings, we’ve been conditioned to look to outside experts for answers. Experts are great. And coaches are experts too—just not in giving answers.
Ask yourself a different question
Are you stuck on something? A decision about your job? Your business? A relationship? Where you live? Where to travel? What to wear? Who to invite? What to say? What to order? One of the fastest ways to get unstuck—on any topic, in any area of your life—is to ask a different question.
Magic is the new gratitude
A routine gratitude practice has been shown to boost energy, decrease stress, improve relationships, and build resilience. If you have a gratitude practice that serves you, keep doing it! For me, despite abundant evidence supporting gratitude as a beneficial practice, I haven’t had luck with it.
You don’t have to quit your job
There can be this idea that in order to show up differently in your life, you need to blank slate everything—quit your 9-5 job, start a business you LOVE, collect passive income while barely lifting a finger, and live happily ever after. This is a misunderstanding.
Case study: Coaching after a layoff
My conversations with D. started when he was weighing whether to continue along a traditional corporate path or explore an entrepreneurial venture that aligns with his passions. After a few conversations, the universe intervened: D. received unexpected news that he was being laid off. We got to work.
The anatomy of a reinvention
Reinvention is not linear. The stages of your process may repeat, overlap, go faster or slower than expected, and/or resurface just when you thought you were done. Although each reinvention is unique in its timeline and direction, I’ve identified three distinct stages.
You can own the holidays
This is not a pep talk about loving the holidays. You don’t have to love the holidays. You don’t have to hate the holidays. You don’t have to do anything. This is an invitation—to spend the holiday months paying more attention to how you’re being than what you’re doing.
3 signs it’s time for a reinvention
The desire to reinvent oneself is deeply personal. Sometimes it’s externally motivated, and sometimes it’s coming from inside. Despite the personal nature of each reinvention, I’ve noticed some patterns in how people develop a desire to make big changes. I’ve identified three main drivers of reinvention.
Why I renamed my business
Starting a business is a funny thing. It makes you feel proud. And it makes you feel embarrassed. It makes you feel bold. And it makes you feel scared. It makes you feel empowered. And it makes you feel insecure. The swings of entrepreneurship are something.
Train yourself to trust yourself
A common obstacle to making changes in life is lack of trust in ourselves. Maybe you don’t trust your instincts, or your decision making, or your ability to be with the discomfort of disappointing people. Whatever flavor of distrust you’re harboring, it’s probably not serving you.
How working with a coach changed me
I just completed a six-month coaching engagement. This was not my first time working with a coach but it was the first time I had a transformational experience working with one. Here are the results I got from working with a coach for six months—and what I'm planning next.
How seasons affect you: Fall
As a human being, you’re part of a natural ecosystem—a fact that can be easy to forget when you’re moving through life. The seasons are here to remind you of your wildness! While each season shifts the energy in and around you, fall is especially noteworthy.
Redefine “one day”
When we talk about doing something “one day,” it’s usually said with an air of wistfulness. I’ll take that trip one day. I’ll leave my job one day. Talking about your dreams this way infuses them with resignation. It doesn’t have to be like this. You can flip the script on “one day.”
How to avoid decision remorse
When we fear regretting our decisions, we live on the fence—caught between the person we are and the person we want to become. This is no way to live. I have a powerful strategy for hopping over the fence and into a life of action—and never regretting another decision.
There’s a season for everything
What do I want to do with my life? This question plagues so many people. It plagued me for decades, too. “What do I want to do with my life?” stopped being a problem for me when I started asking a better question. A seemingly small distinction is actually a life-changing reframe.
Reinvention is a radical act
The dictionary defines reinvention as “the process through which something is changed so much that it appears to be entirely new.” Entirely new! Just reading that gives me a jolt of excitement. If you're also excited by a fresh start, remember it is always available to you.
Being ready requires one thing
Is there something you’ve been wanting to do? Or try? Or say? Something that’s been on your mind or heart for a while but you never feel ready? Your “I’m not ready” stories separate you from the life you know deep down you’re capable of creating.
Make late summer about you
You’ve heard it a million times: Put on your oxygen mask first. Still, so many of us put other people’s needs before our own. We do it in our families and with friends, at work, even with acquaintances and strangers. Late summer is an excuse to prioritize yourself.
How to not regret your life
Two types of performance come up in coaching. One leads to external rewards. The other leads to internal turmoil. Many people arrive at coaching wanting improvements in the first type, yet addressing the second type is the unlock for achieving external results.
Who were you when you were young?
When we’re young, if we have an impulse to paint a picture or play an instrument or ride a bike, we don’t run it through a filter of what other people will think or how much money we could make doing it. We just do it. Who were you before fear and judgement clouded your view?