How She Really Does It with Koren Motekaitis

How many of you are in a job, or life that you are not too thrilled about?  But you tell yourself you should be grateful.  With unemployment being so high, you are one of the lucky ones to have a job, right?  That is what I used to tell myself.  I had this great tenured professor job, where I also coached sports.  How bad could it really be?  After all I was not digging ditches.  Yet it never felt good.  The red flag was my constant need for reasons to stay: great pay, benefits, retirement, job security.  See what I mean, those are not thrilling reasons to stay.  So I really don’t want to go into the details of my circumstances, but just know that the job did not feel good.

Back story

Five years ago, I felt hopeless.  I had the belief that my life was as good as it gets for me.  I had this “great” job, my family was healthy and I was able to “balance” (ugh-I don’t like that word) it all and do pretty well.  At the time I wished for more happiness, joy, fulfillment in my life.  But I was exhausted and thought I wanted too much out of life.  Can you relate?

Three and a half years ago, I went on sabbatical.  Sure I had research to do and was still teaching a few classes.  But wow the world opened up to my mind.  That is when I started my radio show.  I started seeing life in a different way…. I started seeing the possibilities.  First it started out that I could see them for other people.   Well in truth I was always able to see them for other people, hence my teaching/coaching years.  But I was able to see people build businesses that they enjoyed and create a life they wanted instead of being bound to convention.

That lead to my ability to see the possibilities in my own life and what I could do.  I became trained as a life coach.  I started coaching clients in December of 2008, all the while doing my full-time tenured golden handcuffs job.  As momentum picked up and I worked with more clients, I was having a blast and my clients were being served.  My life was also changing.  I did not see handcuffs in my life, I saw more possibilities each day for MYSELF!

Then began the mental drama.  Do I really want to leave “lifetime job security” for being fully self-employed?  Am I making a mistake?  My thoughts got so bad that even a few times I thought my family would become homeless.  Let’s face it that thought is a limiting belief that keeps us staying put in our stuckness.

Okay so is it true that my family will be homeless?  No.  How do I know this?  Well first off I have financially prepared for this departure for some time.  And during my adult life I have been great with money and providing for my family.  Besides I have been building my coaching practice, along with other businesses I run.  All the while I was employed at my golden handcuffs job.  I had multiple streams of income.  Next what if this life coaching gig does not work out? There are only 30 of my  type of college positions in the entire state.  And I would be leaving one of those limited positions behind.  Hello, I don’t want to be there in the first place so why would I want to go back.  Besides I have built other successful businesses why not this one?

2010

Last week, I made the final decision to break free from my golden handcuffs.  I dealt with my limiting beliefs to see if any of them were really true.  No they were there just to limit my creativity and ability to see the possibilities and see what I was already doing.  I have a thriving coaching practice and a radio show and other opportunities keep coming up.  But I  was running out of time to implement them.  So it was time to take the next step.

New Year, New Decade, New Life.  Now I am doing what I love.  I have broken free from my golden handcuffs - realizing they were more in my mind than anywhere else.  Often times I think of my interview with Julien Smith, co-author of Trust Agents and sought after speaker.  I asked him why he believed he could do what he was doing at such a young age.  His answer “Why the hell not me?”  That has been my new mantra for me in this new decade.  ”Why the hell not me?”

How about you?  What do you want in your life?  What are your limiting beliefs?