The Wizard of Oz

My life-coaching journey

Life coaching is very trendy nowadays. I am asked by every client and many people who want to become life coaches how I got from being a special education expert to being a life coach.

I dedicate this post to you, the person researching the site to learn about me, and to the aspiring coaches out there. Over the pages of my blog, I will explain the process I went through when studying to become a life coach, the connection between education and life coaching and why I believe it is a winning combination. I hope that you will be inspired. I believe that the more coaches there are in the world, the closer we get to a better world.

When deciding to do my life-coaching course, I already had a degree in special education and 20 years of experience in teaching and presenting. At first, it seemed like an extension of what I had been doing for many years. I thought it would be a professional development course, which would give me more tools to work with children.

During my course, I looked around at all my colleagues and found out that many of them came to coaching from a place they did not like. They were unhappy with their job, their relationships, their health or some other aspect of their life. I came from a different place.

In my professional career, I was a magician. I had the honor to learn from inspiring people and was lucky enough to work with amazingly wonderful educators. In education we say, “To teach is to touch a life forever” and for over 25 years, I definitely touched some lives.

I had “magic powder” to heal, to help both myself and others. I was the Wizard of Oz, teaching children they were gifted, telling them they had all the knowledge in the world, they had all the strength they needed to find their happiness in this life and even the sky was not the limit. I taught kids as young as two years old that happiness was a choice and their life was in their hands.

I sprinkled some powder on my students and watched them live a life of magic. I had a strong belief that it was possible to change the course of a child’s life from having emotional, academic, physical or social difficulties into a happy life, full of love and joy. I taught them there was no such thing as a learning difficulty, only teaching difficulties. I proved to myself and others that magic can happen. Every little bit of my powder only strengthened that belief.

For 20 years, before becoming a life coach, while touching hundreds of lives, I learned two things about my powder:

• The more powder I use, the more of it I have.
• The younger the person I used the powder on was, the more magic happened.

Following these two insights regarding my powder, I dedicated all my time to working with kids, surrounding myself with them to keep me feeling young and learning the joy of life from them.

My life coaching course took about a year, because coaching is a lifestyle. It is a special attitude, not just knowledge (I recommend a long, integrative course). While growing my life coaching skills, something happened to me. I learned that I was missing one very important belief – that my powder can be used as easily on adults.

I realized I almost gave up on adults. When I met a child with a problem, I used my wand without an effort. When I met adults with problems, I kept my wand tucked in, hidden from them. In my eyes, they were lost causes, so I did not try to help. Until that point, the oldest “kid” I waved my wand upon was a 21-year-old Dyslexic girl. For some reason, she was the line between kids and adults – beyond her was the un-touched zone. I never offered help to people past their 21^st birthday.

I thought I did it because I had absolute respect for the choices they made. I was afraid that helping them was a form of judgment. That judgment would have also wasted my magic powder.

During my coaching course, I looked at my magic powder box emptying, though it was full before I started. I used it on my colleagues and on friends who wanted me to coach them and the powder started pouring out on all sides. I was teaching kids there was no limit and yet, in my heart, I had a limit. The box I used was too small, with a sign saying “For kids only”.

Life coaching gave me the power to believe that adults are gifted too. They have all the knowledge in the world and the same magic I sprinkled on children, I can sprinkle on adults too. There are no “lost causes”. There are only “lost hopes” that can be changed with a bit of magic powder.

When I work with people on their career and I help them find a purpose, I realize again that working with kids or with grownups helps me live my purpose of helping others reach their full potential.

In my process of becoming a coach, I learned that I needed to extend the boundaries of my powder usage. I learned that I needed to change the size of my magic box and change the sign to “Hope for all ages”.

I promise to write more about my life-coaching journey.

Happiness to you all,
Ronit