M A G A Z I N E
Leading Myself to Lead Others
My Resilience and Mindset Change Story If someone had said to me 6 years ago that in 2021 I would be starting up my own coaching business, I would have laughed at them. The thought of doing anything remotely like that would have been unimaginable to me and the reason for this was that 6 years ago I was not in a great place emotionally, mentally or physically. I had been enjoying a successful corporate career as a leader, motivating, growing and developing people and teams. I loved helping to build and nurture strong relationships across all levels within the business I worked in. I was a confident and capable woman who was completely comfortable delivering coaching and training initiatives to large groups of people from employees to senior leaders. But in 2015/2016, all that started to change. I started to have trouble concentrating and remembering the simplest of things. I suffered with vast changes in my mood and confidence, experiencing huge lows and I doubted myself and my abilities. It was really tough and left me frustrated, tired and feeling out of control. I didn’t realise at the time but I had headed into peri-menopause and the impact that it had on my mood and cognition was extremely challenging. The real impact for me was at work, all the things I was comfortable doing suddenly seemed impossible to me. Standing up in front of people, running meetings, taking on new projects completely scared me and I couldn’t understand why. 34
I suddenly found that I was full of self-doubt. I’d lost all sense of purpose and identity and I just didn’t know who I was anymore. I hated feeling out of control, so I started to work more and more to prove to myself, and others, that I was still capable. The stress , anxiety and overwhelm resulted in me taking time out of my career for three months to recover. What I did know was that I had to do something and I used this time for self-reflection and took the opportunity to understand what was happening to me and why. I started to spend time on myself, focusing on what I wanted and needed. I changed my lifestyle, focused on my health and wellbeing which allowed me to understand how to manage my body and mind. It helped me to identify my sense of purpose and gave me the motivation and focus to start to take back control of my life. I successfully got my head back in the game and returned to work and spent the following three years continuing to work on myself and share my knowledge with others.
E M P O W E R I N G W O M E N . H O S P I TA L I T Y . R E TA I L
