LELA House

Tag: transformation

  • Pocket Coaching

    Pocket Coaching

    As I’m a certified life coach, it comes a surprise to no one that I’ve worked long-term with a life coach. I may be biased, but I believe everyone needs someone they can talk out their quandaries with and set a plot forward for growth and momentum.

    I loved our biweekly Zoom calls, but what I didn’t love was the time between the calls. Now, for full disclosure, my ride-or-die life coach let me email him between sessions, and I did just that on occasion. But I didn’t want to overstep. Time is valuable, and I didn’t feel good encroaching on his time without compensating him for it.

    So during those in between times, I tried to remember questions I wanted to ask in our next session. I thought about prioritizing them, even, but mostly I just forgot.

    Sometimes during those in between times I needed a word of encouragement or some help brainstorming an idea. Sometimes I got what I needed in other ways; sometimes I floundered.

    Also during those in between times I struggled to hold myself accountable to what I said I would do.

    To be direct, life coaching is not about enabling or becoming a crutch for people, so I had my own work to do during those in between times. And I did it. Not always elegantly, but progress and growth happened.

    But I wondered what it would be like if I could just have a coach in my back pocket whenever I wanted to reach out – not necessarily for a long-term commitment.

    Then I wondered what it would be like, as an overwhelmed educator, and as a woman, and as a black woman, and as a woman who is now of a certain age, and as a wife, and as a mom, and as a writer, to have someone who looked like me and could relate to my multifaceted day-to-day life just hanging out in my back pocket whenever I was ready to reach out.

    And I thought that would be really cool.

    So I would like to be that for you.

    Pocket Coaching is 30 days of unlimited email coaching that allows you to reach out in your own way and in your own time. Maybe you need some ideas for practicing self-care. Maybe you’re working on a piece of writing and need an extra set of eyes. Maybe you’d like to rewrite your life story. Maybe you’d like some book suggestions for current challenges and changes in your life. Maybe you need some daily devotionals. Maybe you need a word of encouragement.

    Think of Pocket Coaching as in-the-moment support, like what we provide to our students and colleagues every single day.

    Except now it’s for you.

    30 days of Pocket Coaching just might change your life. Sign up at the link below.

    https://www.coachaccountable.com/offering/PYClF7cExmOmKXWrAuees4F7cUwRZsU

  • Wishful Thinking

    Wishful Thinking

    You know what I wish more people knew?

    That higher education professionals (those of us who work in colleges and universities) love our students.

    That we don’t just sit around in ivory towers isolating ourselves.

    That we pour out ourselves for our students. We stay late to help students. We lose sleep over best ways to help students. We go broke buying snacks, groceries, and hygiene products for our students who don’t have income. We research shelters for our students who don’t have homes and make sure they receive the support they need.

    That we become college moms and dads for students away from home. We keep tissues and granola bars in our offices for when students need to cry and have hunger pangs when they have worn themselves out with their tears. And we get real with them when they need it, too. We are often playful, but we do not play

    That we exercise presence with students during crises. We comfort students having anxiety attacks and help them breathe. We ride in ambulances with students who have overdosed. We hold hands with students giving police reports telling how they went drinking with people they thought were their friends and woke up having been raped. We do this all while protecting student privacy and confidentiality.

    That we do what we do because we love our students. Because it’s not the pay. We often make less than our K12 colleagues.

    I also wish people knew how much we love our colleagues. That there’s nothing like the friendship and support that grows in an institution of higher education.

    Just doing some wishful thinking.

  • What’s the Progress?

    What’s the Progress?

    You are, right at this very moment, making progress toward something. But I bet you’re probably discounting the progress you’re making because it’s not perfect.

    For today’s journaling prompt, write down ways you have progressed. You might just be surprised to see how far you’ve come.

  • Playing Small

    Playing Small

    Today’s journaling prompt is a series of questions for you.

    • What’s your passion?
    • How are you playing small?
    • What would your passion tell you to do differently?
  • Beautiful Brokenness

    Beautiful Brokenness

    We had storms in our area a week ago that left trees decimated. Everywhere you look – trees uprooted, branches strewn in power lines, conglomerations of limbs laying in yards and streets.

    And it’s so beautiful.

    Each tree has a new chapter to its story. A new way to differentiate itself from the other trees. A new way to display its inner beauty to a world that never would have seen it, if not for the destruction. New scars out of which will grow new branches. Or not. Maybe the scars themselves won’t have any new growth, but the flesh surrounding the scars will.

    So when you look at yourself and see brokenness, don’t discount it, but see the beauty in it, too.

    You’re writing a new chapter. You’re differentiating yourself from the crowd. You’re displaying your inner beauty. You’re growing through your scars.

    And it’s so beautiful.

  • Literacy Educators, Apply for Complimentary Coaching Today!

    Literacy Educators, Apply for Complimentary Coaching Today!

    Educators also deserve coaching in their lives. I don’t just mean coaching on how they interact with students and colleagues or how they interact with and present their content, but rather coaching that supports them as they navigate their complex lives. I wrote about this in a previous post you can access by clicking HERE.

    I believe this so profoundly that I am offering 3 months of complimentary virtual executive life coaching to up to two educators.

    Because I love words, highly regard their power to transform individuals and societies, and because I understand the emotional load that accompanies helping learners wrestle with self-expression, I’m offering the complimentary coaching to educators who daily help learners access, navigate, and use the written word. People I have in mind are writing center faculty and staff, writing instructors, literature instructors, English teachers, reading specialists, librarians, etc. (K-12 and higher ed). But you know who you are and how you show up in the world. If I didn’t name your particular role, but you still help learners access, navigate, and use the written word, please feel free to apply.

    The 3 months of executive life coaching includes 6 one-on-one 45 minute sessions of coaching via Zoom and access to all materials (ie: worksheets, videos, data tracking, etc.) offered through my online coaching platform. Coaching will run September 2021 through November 2021.

    This is a $1000 value.

    The application opens 7/1/21 and closes 7/31/21.

    Please apply and pass along the opportunity to anyone you think may be interested. If you have questions, post them in the comments, so everyone can benefit.

    Click to apply today!

  • Literacy Educators, Apply for Complimentary Coaching Today!

    Literacy Educators, Apply for Complimentary Coaching Today!

    Educators deserve time for themselves and strategies to make the most of that time. One way to do that is through using reading and journaling as self care. I wrote a whole series on reading and journaling as educator self care that you can access by clicking HERE. (You’ll need to scroll to the bottom of the page if you want to read the posts in the order they were published.) Educators also deserve coaching in their lives. I don’t just mean coaching on how they interact with students and colleagues or how they interact with and present their content, but rather coaching that supports them as they navigate their complex lives. I wrote about this in a previous post you can access by clicking HERE.

    I believe this so profoundly that I am offering 3 months of complimentary virtual executive life coaching to up to two educators.

    Because I love words, highly regard their power to transform individuals and societies, and because I understand the emotional load that accompanies helping learners wrestle with self-expression, I’m offering the complimentary coaching to educators who daily help learners access, navigate, and use the written word. People I have in mind are writing center faculty and staff, writing instructors, literature instructors, English teachers, reading specialists, librarians, etc. (K-12 and higher ed). But you know who you are and how you show up in the world. If I didn’t name your particular role, but you still help learners access, navigate, and use the written word, please feel free to apply.

    The 3 months of executive life coaching includes 6 one-on-one 45 minute sessions of coaching via Zoom and access to all materials (ie: worksheets, videos, data tracking, etc.) offered through my online coaching platform. Coaching will run September 2021 through November 2021.

    This is a $1000 value.

    The application opens 7/1/21 and closes 7/31/21.

    Please apply and pass along the opportunity to anyone you think may be interested. If you have questions, post them in the comments, so everyone can benefit.

    Click to apply today!