Instead, I changed my goal to being a licensed social worker/private practice therapist. And I’m there. Done and done. :-) 4 months ago

Complete this in 2013 13 months ago

From my personal experiences, I truly believe that I am kind of gifted in this aspect. I know I can’t just be a coach overnight, but I need to start preparing for that. First of all, I’ll try to coach myself to be a successful person. And in the meanwhile, I’ll keep my eye on life coaching resources. How many years would be a reasonable deadline for myself? 2 years? 4 years? Very much appreciate your advice or sharing. 14 months ago

So then I go away to college and I have oodles of money – my huge savings account, scholarships up the wazzu that was more than it would cost me to go through college, basically a lot of excess money.

My parents really kept a tight reign on money with us kids growing up to the point of stinginess and lots of rigidity. Do without. Do without. Guess what happened as I was no longer under my parents’ rule and away from home with a lot of money?

I blew EVERYTHING and spent it like there was no tomorrow. What took me years to amass and work hard for, in less than 2 yrs I blew all of it, lost my scholarships and got into some small debt. Good grief.

What happened?

It was the tight strings of my parents, though well-meaning, caused me to want to go the other way. I did without a lot of stuff I wanted under their control, so when I was no longer under their control, I went wild, having the addictive/obsessed personality I had. My parents were workaholics. That’s another form of addiction/obsessed.

What I could have used was some guidance when I was under their control to help me to spend my own money, instead of them using their’s. It would’ve given me a sense of ownership, even if it was something they thought was stupid.

Perhaps me buying a few stupid smaller items and learning that myself that it wasn’t a good idea would’ve gotten whatever that was burning within me squelched, but instead, it was suppressed and when exposed to oxygen, the fire ignited. If my parents didn’t see most things as bad, but said, okay, she has to learn and it’s better she learn while she is at home than away from home, I think this approach would’ve helped save me so much.

Also, in those first 2 yrs of college, my parents were going through a divorce and remarriage to someone else (my mom), and I was emotionally distraught over this. I think buying things helped soothe me, but thinking back, it would’ve been helpful to go to a counselor, which my mom would’ve never had me do as only people who are mentally ill need to go to a counselor and that wasn’t one of her children and certainly not her fault.

God bless my parents. They did the best they could with what they knew back then. We have all learned a lot.

I wonder if I had gotten the spending thing out of me in high school, had something like Larry Burkett or Dave Ramsey by my side & their thoughts on money, I wonder with all those monies, could I have been a millionaire before the age of 25 yrs old? Probably.

A lot of times children are told and dictated to what to do when they are younger. And, as they become young adults, parents still see them as these young kids and want to treat them the same way, but they aren’t the same.

So, teach kids how to make money, save, invest, give, spend, and manage their money. When you let them spend, let them spend on what they want, but also provide some guidance.

We don’t watch TV at our house, but the kids can periodically if they want. They just don’t want to. Same thing with eating junk food. Their grandfather asked yesterday if they wanted to go to McDonald’s for food, and they said they didn’t want to. They wanted to go home and have me make them a yummy meal. They were free to accept Grandpa’s invitation, but they chose not to because they know how McDonald’s food makes them feel and they didn’t want that.

Learning how to make good decisions not just in one area, but in the whole 360° thing is important.

Unfortunately, I didn’t learn my lessons in college THAT well and had to repeat it a couple more times in both of my marriages. 20 months ago

My early years I remember my parents had all of us kids working in our grocery stores, me, from the age of probably 2-3 yrs old. There were pics of me at the register and I looked like such a cute China Doll.

My parents taught me how to have a great work ethic and since we were little, we began (with our parents great help) saving our money. My parents taught the importance of saving, not showing off materially, living below your means, paying cash, owe no one.

I developed a great sense to save and live well below my means. My parents, especially my dad, would tell me to save for that rainy day, as you never know when that would come. Though my parents could afford much nicer things than what we had, they did not buy those things. They were pretty frugal in a lot of things.

We had a few nicer toys, but most of our toys were basic stuff like paper, pen, crayons, blocks. You had to use your imagination and create something. I don’t remember having a gazillion stuffed animals, all these expensive toys that kids now have, including mine. I certainly wanted those things, but didn’t get them, so I only dreamed of them, which, in the end, I really didn’t care that I had them or not.

Work, save, work, save, work, save. My parents provided for all our needs, so we didn’t have to spend our own money. By the time I graduated high school, I had quite a chunk of money saved up in the tens of thousands of dollars, and this was back more than 20 yrs ago. Heck, it would be a lot of money to me now.

What could have been done better in my childhood years? Saving and working wasn’t the issue, the issue was managing and spending the money properly. At some point, you must spend some of the money. A part of that spending would include intentionally giving.

I learned the concept of hoarding money from my dad and I somehow felt that I would never have enough, so I would save a bit more, and do without a little longer. Now, that concept would help so many Americans out, but taken to the extreme, it’s hoarding and hoarding is an addiction and any addiction isn’t good. 20 months ago

I’m thinking that I probably need to find some other way to make money first before doing the life coaching. I’ve been asking myself what aspect of life coaching do I want to be involved in.

For me, I think that would be financial & investing life coaching. That almost sounds like a financial planner, right? Maybe that’s it, but maybe it’s not.

I really love the idea of teaching and encouraging people, especially people who want to be taught and encouraged. Unlike a regular school teacher, whether it be elementary or college or high school, the students are not always thrilled to learn.

You don’t need a financial planner, but having a good financial plan will help you be successful financially. It’s not only doing the good things, but looking to make sure to avoid pitfalls and destruction habits.

It would seem ironic that someone who has so little financially currently and is in the mess that I’m in to be teaching or advising anyone anything financially. Or, maybe I am a good person to help others as I’ve been on both sides of the track.

Though I’m in this mess right now, it won’t be forever or for much longer. And, I am living proof you can do many things right financially and still face disaster from a different entity that may not initially seem like a financial decision.

I’m going to take several posts to discuss this. 20 months ago

9-11-11

Just a few more weeks to go and all 15 modules will be complete and then I can work on the niche modules! :) 20 months ago

I haven’t told many people I want to be a life coach and it wasn’t for any reason other than I just haven’t. Wanted to really give it some research and thought. Love the thought of helping people that is individualized.

Throughout my life, I’ve always been happy for others in their successes (so as long as they aren’t cruel or mean about it to me) and see the best in others, their potential. That is something I’m really good at, which has gotten me into some of the messes that I have been in, like the men I got involved with – I saw their potential.

Anyway, as far as men are concerned, no longer do I want to see their potential, but what they are now and where they have come from. If they haven’t come from anything and seem to be at a not so great now, and have lots of potential, NO THANK YOU!! Moving on!

I shared with what I thought was my friend that I was thinking about life coaching and rather than support, I got lots of negativity and scoffing, like only retarded people needed a life coach. After all, he’s a thriving success and why would anyone need a coach in anything in life except the sports that he plays in and is interested in?

I kept sharing that a life coach, or a coach is not someone who is counseling troubled, unmotivated people, rather coaches are there to help inspire, to help you rise to your best and they are for people who have some semblance of wanting to be better at whatever they are being coached in.

He wouldn’t hear it, rather he kept going on that high school students are troubled students that all need counseling, they are all drug addicts, blah, blah, blah. Just because he was a pothead and alcoholic in his younger years doesn’t mean that every high school student is that way.

In fact, I know a number of high school students and none of them are druggies or do they do alcohol. Then, he brought up the subject as to why would someone want to waste money on a life coach in this economy.

Seriously, if I had the money for trading, I would not start back at trading without a good trading coach. Not that I can’t trade or what not, but I don’t know or see everything and a coach is neutral to help me be better than where I am and since coming from an emotional tumultuous time, it would really help.

In fact, financial coaching also would be good, too, maybe even financial planning.

Yes, I’m hurt by my friend’s approach to me. While he’s been able to take 3 wk vacations several times a year to various parts of Europe, afford all that he does, he took into no account my kids have lived well below the poverty level now for over 2 yrs.

He really could’ve directed comments in a nicer way and asked questions rather than attempt to make me feel like a low life for even considering this. 20 months ago

I’ve been racking (sp?) my brain for months on what I should be doing for a living and nothing was coming to mind. I seriously LOVE trading in the stock market, but this IS something you DO need money to do. Could you start with $200 and grow it to millions? Possibly, but I no longer think that I am the one in a 100,000 million person that cna do this. Could I? Maybe? But, I’m really not going to set my hopes on this.

My heart is so passionate for my kids. Yes, we do have our rough moments that I sometimes write about on here, but those are fewer and far between. We have infinitely more amazing times than those bad moments.

I’m not always sharing in those times, as I would be writing about them all the time and then wouldn’t have as much time to enjoy my children. I really, really feel so blessed to be my children’s mommy and I take that so seriously.

When I get my finances straightened out that will allow me to get back on level ground and get back on track, I just didn’t want to go back to what I knew before. Though my training and education is in engineering and trading, I didn’t want to sacrifice a few years more in engineering where I’ve already lost 5 yrs track from being out of the loop, just to make more money to do something I wasn’t happy to do in the first place.

My stomach churns to think I might have to go back to engineering. But, I do think there was a purpose for me to go through all those years of schooling and work. It was for not for nought. I do have good analytical skills, and can organize my thoughts, am visionary.

I’ve also had many years of musical training.

I’ve had coaches that have helped me in transition periods of my life, but I had a desire to excel, to really do well. I was highly motivated already. Those are the types of people that hire coaches. They realize they don’t know it all, and they want someone who knows better to “coach” them to becoming better.

It doesn’t mean you will always need a coach. Maybe you need a coach for 3 months, 6 months, a year or 2, and then you can go on your own until the next hurdle you want to make it over.

So, what type of people are in transition periods? High school students as they are about to enter into adulthood. People in mid-life also or those wanting career changes. However, I like the idea of high school students where they are fresh. Though, the one challenge is they probably think they know more than others, but being a high school life coach is someone that isn’t there parent that is helping to coach them to make better decisions.

I don’t know all the ins & outs of this. I do need to make some appointments with a few life coaches I know to get their thoughts on what they are doing for a living and what it takes.

Having been through a lot of crap where I thought I knew it all, there were some things I did not know it all and it’s resulted in some of the crappy things that have happened to me, or that I allowed to happen.

So, the first step for me is to explore what it takes to become a life coach to see if it really is something I am interested in. 20 months ago