A Life Transformed

I am privileged to have received an inspiring and beautiful account from a lady who, just yesterday, we featured on our Facebook page for having achieved New Insights certification as a life coach.

Whereas most trainee life coaches expect their coaching efforts to start bearing real fruit for their clients only after they become qualified and start coaching for reward, Carli Clark was able to experience the fulfilment, that comes with seeing someone grow and develop through coaching, long before achieving certification.

I’d like to thank Carli and her client Zanele for submitting this story and giving me permission to share it here on the Blog.

“Those who hunger and thirst after the right use of prosperous ideas shall find their lives filled with abundant blessings.”

– Catherine Ponder

The story in Carli’s words

Even before I started the practice coaching that formed part of the requirements for New Insights certification, I had a dream that as and when I obtained the knowledge, skills, wisdom and experience to improve my own life, I would share that knowledge with everyone in my employment, wherever I might find myself in my life journey. 

I shared this dream with my husband one night. He listened carefully, then looked me in the eye and asked: 

“Do you really think that is such a great idea? Your employees won’t stay with you for very long if you help them to gain in self-confidence and uncover their life purpose. You would forever be needing to replace those who leave to pursue their dreams.” 

I smiled as I told him:

“That is exactly what I want to achieve. If I can help those people around me to see their true potential and create and live more rewarding and fulfilling lives, then I have done a good job as a coach.”

Today, I’d like to tell the story of Zanele Mabaso who started working for me some two years ago as a domestic worker.  

Zanele and I would often talk in the kitchen and from our little chats I could tell that Zanele felt less than happy in what she was doing. Unfortunately, she suffered from a very low self-esteem and constantly questioned her own abilities. 

I felt inspired to offer Zanele life coaching – not as part of the requirements for certification as a life coach but rather as a separate initiative.

However, soon after we started with coaching I thought to myself “This is a mistake”. The coaching process seemed to drag on. I often had to divide one typical session into two or three sessions. Nevertheless, something told me to persevere as I did not want to let Zanele or myself down. 

I used a lot of pictures and examples in an attempt to help Zamele understand the tools and techniques presented in the New Insights Life Coaching Programme.

I own a large number of self-help books and suggested to Zanele that she might like to read some of them to increase her knowledge base and to help inspire her throughout the coaching process. I was surprised and delighted to find that Zanele really took to this reading, on average, a book a month.

Despite what seemed like progress I had some inner doubts about whether the coaching was really resonating with her. Zanele would smile, nod her head and say “Yes” a lot but I couldn’t help wondering whether I and my coaching were really getting through to her.

Well, I have since learned a very valuable lesson and that is never, ever to underestimate anyone, no matter what their level of education – and never to underestimate the power of life coaching to help people.

Zanele’s lifelong dream had always been to become a nurse but she never thought it possible and could not imagine a way to make her dream a reality.

As we slowly worked through the life coaching programme we came up a number of different action steps, some very small, some more substantial, that could bring Zanele closer to realising her dream.

Whereas becoming a nurse was the big goal, we focused our short term sights on Zanele’s personal development and growth.

As fortune would have it, one day I read an article in our local newspaper about a cleaning lady who had become a nurse at the age of 50. I gave the article to Zanele to read and she was truly inspired. 

I said:

“Zanele, this is you, this is what you want!”

Then I proceeded to ask her what she could learn from this lady and what she had done in order to become a nurse. I also suggested to her that she put the article on a wall in her room where she could see it and re-read it every day.

The article motivated Zanele to follow similar action steps to those taken by the lady in the newspaper article.

Just two weeks later Zanele approached her local hospice and began volunteering her time one day a week. 

Four weeks later Zanele approached another hospice to ask about volunteer work but didn’t get any response. Rather than get put off by this she became more persistent not wanting to take “No” for answer. 

Some time later Zanele managed to contact the manager of this particular hospice whom she convinced to put her through an induction programme. 

Zanele continued to volunteer her time at the hospice even working night shifts. all without pay, while still maintaining her job with me as a domestic worker. At that time Zanele was required to make a lot of sacrifices but she showed an admirable level of determination to reach her goal. 

In July this year I said goodbye to Zanele as my domestic worker. She is now working full time as a hospice care worker, while continuing her training. Her monthly salary is now almost triple that which she was making as a domestic worker.

It is impossible to describe in words how both Zanele and I feel about her magnificent transformation from a shy, insecure domestic worker to a confident, motivated hospice care worker.

Zanele has since told me that the patients love her and that one specific patient would not allow anyone accept Zanele to care for her.

It seems to me that God has provided a ‘vehicle’, in this case another person, to act as a catalyst to help Zanele manifest the life she always dreamt that she wanted. 

Zanele is much closer now to achieving her goal of becoming a certified nurse. It is just a matter of time. I have no doubt that she will get there if she continues to apply the tools and techniques that she was exposed to in life coaching.

With that thought in mind, Zanele is committed to continuing with life coaching on her days off in order to complete the programme.

Thank you for allowing me to share this message.

Love and Light,

Carli Clark.

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