Her Next Chapters

41: Coaching: How to Overcome Self Imposed Limits

• Christina Kohl

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During an intense group workout at Red Rocks Amphitheater last week I realized the power of coaching and community. I know without a doubt that if I had been there on my own, I would have given up much sooner, and wouldn't have worked as hard.  

Included in today's episode are the insights I recorded on the drive home from the Red Rocks workout. The recording quality during these parts is subpar, but the energy level was high! 

Some key benefits of coaching and being part of a group include: 

  • investment (I'm committed to the work because I invested $)
  • accountability (showing up)
  • consistency (improving by regularly doing the work)
  • comparison (motivating, but also need to focus on ourselves)
  • leadership (an expert guide)
  • community (encouragement from others) 

While my insights were gained during a group fitness class, they apply to career and job search coaching as well. If you're in a job search and want the benefits of coaching, let's chat! As of July 24th, I have 3 openings for 1:1 coaching beginning in August. Here's a LINK to schedule a discovery call.

Also, if you're in the Denver metro area and want to join the Thursday morning summer workouts at Red Rocks with Missi, you can sign up HERE. 

Interested in my 1:1 Career Comeback Coaching program? Apply HERE.
Send me an email ---> christina@hernextchapters.com
DM me on LinkedIn ---> www.linkedin.com/in/kohlchristina
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Christina Kohl:

Hi and welcome to Her Next Chapter's podcast. I'm your host, Christina Kohl. I'm a mom of three and soon to be an empty nester. I'm also a certified HR pro who restarted my career after being a stay-at-home mom for over a decade. I created this podcast to connect with moms who have an empty nest on the horizon and are wanting to redefine their identity outside of motherhood, which might include a job search. On this show, we'll have raw conversations about our ever-changing roles as moms. We'll hear from women who restarted their careers and share tips for a job search after a career break. So if that's you, you're in the right place. Friend, let's get started. Hi, friends, and welcome to this week's episode of Her Next Chapters.

Christina Kohl:

So this episode is going to be a little bit different, or a lot different than usual. What you're about to hear is a recording that I did on my drive home from a workout at Red Rocks Amphitheater. So Red Rocks is this beautiful place. It's about a 45-minute drive from my house, and I've joined a bunch of others this summer for Thursday morning workouts, and you're going to hear me talk about it on my drive home. It's hands-free, so don't worry about that. I was safe driving. But you're going to hear some background noise from the drive and the car, the radar detector and all of that and, honestly, I tried to re-record it in my home office studio but it just didn't capture the enthusiasm and the, I guess, runner's high. I'm not a runner, just a disclaimer, but it's kind of like this after working out I was just really pumped up and excited. So that's what you're going to be listening to is just me kind of talking about my learnings and insights from this workout program that I did. So be listening in for things like accountability, again, I was there with a group. It wasn't just myself, so accountability consistency wasn't just myself. So accountability, consistency, comparison, leadership there's someone who is coordinating the group and that community and encouragement and investment. I invested in this program. So those are all some things that you're going to be hearing about. I'm going to let you listen in and then we'll kind of wrap up with some learnings, some summary afterwards.

Christina Kohl:

So, again, if you hear a truck passing by with a turn signal, that's why. So just kind of just know that this is real life. All right, here we go. Just had some thoughts. I wanted to capture them. So, I'm just leaving Red Rocks, where I did the Run the Rocks with Missy and her crew, and just had some thoughts about how this relates to, life. I hadn't been there for three weeks. We took a week off. I was sick and didn't go, but in the meantime, she keeps building up the difficulty, so I missed out on some of those difficulty things and today kicked my butt. Anyway, so that's another point of the lessons that I didn't even think about when I was thinking of wanting to capture it.

Christina Kohl:

But consistency, Consistency is key and I wasn't consistent. It's been three weeks since I've done Run the Rocks, which is Red Rocks, a beautiful amphitheater. Make sure I'll introduce you where that's at, describe it. It's a wonderful place. If you're going to be short of breath and exercising and working your heart out, it's a great place to do it. But consistency, I missed out on a couple of sessions, but Missy keeps making the sessions gradually harder and harder and harder and so I skipped that part. And this one was really hard for me and if I had been consistently last year when I did this, it was still really hard. Don't get me wrong, it was hard last year, but I felt like I was able to keep up a little better. It's not as hard as today was.

Christina Kohl:

And in life, let's talk about the analogy. When you're not consistent in life, it's hard to get back into the groove first of all, but you also need to go through things in order to be ready for what's next. So, as you are facing an obstacle or a challenge, maybe you know I talk a lot about interviewing and job search. Maybe you went to an interview and you haven't interviewed in years. This is the first interview you've had in a while and you bombed it. You totally bombed it. That's okay.

Christina Kohl:

Sometimes you just have to go through stuff and you can't just expect the first time to be an expert. You have to go through it, like I was talking about earlier, earlier podcast, about there are hard things and you can't just take shortcuts. Sometimes you just have to go through the experience because it's going to prepare you for what's coming next. So I missed two sessions and I was not as well prepared for today's harder, more intense workout. So make sure that you have that perspective, or try to have that perspective. When you're going through hard things and maybe they don't go your way, know that you are showing up and that you have to go through some seasons t hat may not be fun, that might be challenging, but when you look back and you connect the dots you can see like, oh yeah, I get it. That was hard, but prepared me for where I am now, and if I didn't go through those hard things, I wouldn't be ready for what I'm doing now. So, kind of like me today, because I missed a few weeks and I wasn't quite ready for today's intense workout. So the other thing, though I still did the workout, all of it. I did it all. I was not the first one up, I was not the second one up, I was the last one up the stairs.

Christina Kohl:

So Red Rocks is a natural rock, an amphitheater, and the seats are all built into the side of this mountain. It's surrounded by these beautiful, gorgeous red rock formations. It's the name Red Rocks, but there's not a lot of flat spaces in Red Rocks, unless you're going left or right. If you're going up or down, it is up and it's intense, even the down. The down is easier, but still you've got to watch where you're stepping, because it's a natural road formation. Yes, there are some steps that are built in on the side, but we kind of did both. S o, I did it. It's not just going up and down the steps, it's running up to them and then doing planks or push-ups or dips or mountain climbers and then going up some more and maybe going up sideways.

Christina Kohl:

I did big steps in the bleachers and so it's a really intense workout in the most beautiful place and I knew just by listening to my body, I'm not going the first one or the second one. I knew by listening to my body I'm probably gonna be the last one every time and I gave myself permission to be okay with that. And and everyone else is like doing their planks. I was just arriving and they're finishing up and moving on to the next station, if you will, the next climb. I could have just like climbed with them. Well, maybe not because I needed to stop and rest, but I rest my heart rate and my breathing while I did the dips or the planks or the mountain planks, whatever it was. So I did it and I gave myself permission to be going at my pace and I did it to my body's ability and I did way, way more than I would have done by myself, which is the last lesson of this is community and leadership. So Missy was leading.

Christina Kohl:

If I had gone just by myself? Because I even thought as I arrived, like what if I got the dates wrong? What if I'm here and nobody else is here? Well, I'll still do stuff. I know it won't be as good of a workout as Missi's, but I'll still do stuff. But I know I would not have done the level of intensity or for the duration that I did today. W ith the group, the social aspect of there are other people doing this hard work too and they're doing it and I want to do it too and I don't want to cheat myself and I want to keep up with the group, maybe not at the same moment in time, but keep up doing everything.

Christina Kohl:

And in translating that to other areas, if you are in the job search, again, I talk about that a lot on this podcast. If you are job searching, whether from a stay-at-home mom, you know position, getting back into work or just pivoting to something new. If you are job searching, the power of a group can be really helpful, and not the power of comparison. So I guess that's another theme here is comparison. I gosh, I'm passing a semi, so it's really loud anyway. I just I was talking about comparison, so it's very easy to compare myself to others in the group. So, hey, if you're listening, I'm gonna call out your names.

Christina Kohl:

I mean Erica, she was on it. She was like up those stairs and I'm like where's Erica? She's not even. You know, she was fast. Marguerite, she was keeping a fast pace and I don't think she's missed the last couple weeks. So the last two weeks that I missed. Usually Marguerite and I are on pace, at least at the beginning, and then she'll eventually outpace me, but not today. She was pacing way ahead of me. If I was just focused on comparison, I would have been discouraged and probably gave up. But it wasn't about the comparison, it was about the social and the encouragement, like they're doing it so I can do it too.

Christina Kohl:

But also, you know, just being with the group, there's accountability, knowing that, okay, I could go to Red Rocks anytime I wanted. Well, maybe not anytime. I can't go during a concert without a ticket and I certainly can't climb the stairs and do push-ups and mountain climbers on the stairs at Red Rocks when there's a concert. But I could go any other morning of the week. I was there with a group. I showed up on time, did the work. So there's both an internal accountability and external accountability going on. But I'm not gonna, I've never ever gone to Red Cross by myself or without a group program to exercise.

Christina Kohl:

That's not something I'd do on my own, but because I signed up for this program and because this is what is happening, I set the alarm, get up, I make the 45 minute drive and have my water bottles and have everything ready the night before and I do it. I'm so proud of myself that I did it. I didn't give up, I didn't walk away, I did it and I'm going to be energized for the rest of the day because of it. All right, that's it.

Christina Kohl:

I hope you could hear and catch that enthusiasm that I had with that runner's high. I tell you I was on a high the rest of the day, just like my blood was pumping and it took a while for that to like calm down. So I need to do this more often. I think is what the real lesson is. But hopefully you heard some of the other nuggets of wisdom there that because I invested in it, I paid for this program. I was more committed and I showed up. It would have been so easy just to hit the alarm, turn it off and go back to bed, but nope, I paid for it. I'm going for it. I'm going.

Christina Kohl:

The accountability to myself to do the work, and accountability to my coach, who was there ready and she prepared a whole thing. And we're not going to do it on Friday, we're not doing it on Wednesday, we're doing it on Thursday mornings, folks. And then the consistency the fact that I missed a couple of trainings. That really made it harder for me. So I have been trying to work out more between then and the next session so that I feel stronger and better. But definitely that consistency, when you stop doing the things that you need to do, whether it's working out or in your job search or any other area of your life, it shows. And so that consistency piece was a real eye-opener for me that day when my heartbeat was pounding in my eardrums.

Christina Kohl:

And comparison, knowing that it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing, I'm going to do my best, I'm going to do what's right for me, and that's what I did that day and I know, without a doubt, if I hadn't been there with the group, I would have quit way sooner and I wouldn't have worked nearly as hard. So there's that community piece of encouragement. But you just got to be careful not to get so caught up in the comparison, because it can just shut you down. Oh my gosh, she's already at the top and I'm just getting started. Why bother? Right gosh, she's already at the top and I'm just getting started. Why bother? So you got to be careful with that as far as comparison and just run your race and keep going.

Christina Kohl:

And in leadership, I didn't really talk about that as much during my drive home. Missy is the personal fitness trainer who coordinated the Run the Rocks and she's been doing this for a while now. She was the expert and it was great because we wouldn't have gotten as nearly as good of a workout. And, like I said, I certainly did more with the group and more under Missy's leadership than I ever would have done by myself. And I'm going to tie this back into the job search Just like I could have worked out by myself if I showed up on the wrong day, the wrong time and nobody else was there, I could have done the stairs at Red Rocks by myself. I would have been much slower, it would have been much less effective, I wouldn't have had the same results, but I could have done it.

Christina Kohl:

If you are in a job search, particularly a career gap job search, you can do that yourself. However, if you want coaching, if you want to be coached, this is my expertise. I'm a certified life coach. I'm also a certified HR professional and, as we've talked about many times on the podcast, I myself successfully returned to my career after a 13 year career gap. I know all the pitfalls because I stepped into all of them. I can help make your job search more effective and shorter. So, if you're listening to this episode in real time it's being published on July 24th there are three spots open for my coaching program starting in August, so I'd love to connect with you and see if I can help shorten your job search, make it easier for you and help you to do more than you would by yourself.

Christina Kohl:

You don't have to go alone. You don't have to climb that mountain by yourself. Starting with career clarity, the job search strategy, networking, building out your resume, your LinkedIn profile, cover letters, interview preparation and, finally, salary negotiation. I'll be with you every step of the way. If you are interested, then go to the show notes. There's a link there to submit an application and to schedule time with me to see if it's a good fit.

Christina Kohl:

One quick side note if you are in the Denver metro area and you want to join me under Missy's leadership at Red Rocks on Thursday mornings, I will put a link in the show notes for you to sign up. We have four more weeks of early morning workouts at Red Rocks. Would love to have you join. All right with that, my friends. That wraps up this week's episode. In the meantime, have a great week and we'll talk to you next time.

Christina Kohl:

Thank you so much for listening today. I hope this episode hit home for you and, if you haven't already, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn and say hello so I can personally thank you for listening. Until next time. Remember, your story is uniquely your own and your next chapters are ready to begin.