How is it with your inner fire?

Do you sometimes feel that your “inner fire” has almost been extinguished? That everything feels heavy and that you have to drag yourself through the day?

Then it could be that your personal values are under pressure or perhaps completely out of sight.

Our values are who we are. Not who we would like to be, not who we think we should be, but who we are now in our lives. Your values are, as it were, guideposts that show you how to stay true to yourself.

My inner fire was almost extinguished

My personal values are love, safety, independence, personal growth and diversity.

When we moved abroad from Amsterdam, I gave up my challenging full-time job as a manager in health care. You can guess how I felt the first few months. My inner fire was almost extinguished.

I no longer recognized myself and started working with a coach who has experience in coaching women who go abroad with their partners. It was nice to think outside my “beaten path” and to explore new possibilities.

Because of this, I have taken a path that I had never thought about in The Netherlands. I retrained as a coach and now I have my own coaching practice She does it. Every day I support women to make strong positive changes in their life. I love it!

Positive flow

If you stay close to your own values and respect them, you’ll find that positive flow. You make decisions more easily, you take on challenges and your work fulfills you more.

By the way, it does not always mean that living according to your personal values is by definition easy.

For example, I had a client for whom creativity is an important value. She quit her permanent job, because there was not enough room for her creativity.
She has started as an entrepreneur and now combines her work as an artist with assignments in the field of marketing and branding.
This means that her income has been halved and she has to make different choices than she used to. But, because she has followed her heart, she feels “on top of her world”.

Life you really want

In the first session with new clients (the discovery session) I always do a value exploration. These values keep coming back during the coaching journey, so that clients make conscious choices in order to ultimately be able to live the life they really want.

For example, I now coach a client for whom humour is one of her most important values. Her coaching goal is, after having taken care of the children full time for a couple of years, to start working again as a film producer. In her plan she works towards her dream job: producing truthful humoristic films about and for women.

How is it with your inner fire?

What are your most important values and do you honor them in your work life?

If you notice that your values clash with how you’re working, be sure to read this article. It gives some good tips.

Have a lovely day!
Eefke

PS: Curious what coaching could bring you and your career? I offer women a free coaching session of one hour, so you can experience it for yourself. Of course this conversation is both entirely without obligation and confidential.