Pick your niche, they keep saying. And for the past 3 years, I've tried to bridge this dam but just recently came upon the solution. I am and have always been passionate about healthy living, health, nutrition, and fitness. Well...until now, I was blind. There is a way to make this happen. Its been right there all along.
I know what I want: My Writer's Life will be focused on writing for the health market. That may include medical, but it's more about writing for people like you and me. People who just want to feel better, live better, and make their lives more fulfilling.
Beyond my writing business is a growing healthy coaching business. My intention is to build a strong practice that includes workshops, e books, one on one coaching, and study groups.
Let me back up a bit here. Why am I qualified to do this? I used to wonder that myself. It's kind of like: How do you know what you know?
I've devoted some 35 years to living healthfully. My story began when as a teen, I nearly drowned in negativity, violence, and using alcohol and drugs to escape the pain. I will always remember the day I got a powerful message: "God did not create you to sit here and drink and drug your life away. I have bigger plans for you" Yeah, it sounds corny, but it happened. I got that message while coming down from some high. That was in 1974 ...
Since then, my life studies always bring me back to this place of knowing my passion, my place, and my mission. It's also why the corporate world has never quite fit. I've worked in technology, medical supplies, aerospace, insurance, and even beverage distribution. I've always been the outsider, never quite feeling at home in these places. But talk about fitness, health or lifestyle management and I light up like an electric circuit.
I've managed a health club, taught and practiced yoga for nearly twenty years, maintained a routine fitness program for longer than that, and I've studied foods, nutrition, and health maintenance since I was a teen. I've studied massage and alternate healing, neurolinguistic psychology, have published articles on health and self care, and enjoyed the gift of caring for elders. And most recently, I've nurtured and helped an ill spouse back to reasonable health after an 8 year run of nasty gastrointestinal problems made worse by wrong meds and bad doctors.
If you are like me, you make the most of forced changes. I truly believe that many of us are blessed with opportunities to change when we learn to slow down, listen to our hearts, and ask in meditation or prayer for direction.
That is how I came to find the IIN program. It came to me when I was ready! The program itself has been around since 1992, but only recently did they create this distance learning program. And it's affordable!
I just finished my first health coaching session. As you may know, I just began formal studies from the best nutrition school in the world. The Institute for Integrative Nutrition teaches people like you and me to become health coaches and more. It's the kind of program I wish I'd found in 1985.
I knew my purpose then. I'd been awakened by my survival from what might have been a fatal skiing accident. I was in awesome shape and was an expert skier. I'm blessed that I survived at all, but I stood up and looked around knowing that things must change. I'd fallen some 900 yards, pounded against rock hard moguls as I cartwheeled downhill in an uncontrollable free fall, and finally shot through some trees, and eventually stood up to look around and wonder if I was alive.
As I recovered, I searched for the core, the root of my being. I needed to know why I survived and what would make my life meaningful. The core thread of all my soul searching always came back with: Help others build their self esteem through exercise, recreation, and healthy living practices. Help others live a balanced, healthy life. Lead others to live well and be well.
Like many others, I don't like science. Until now, I couldn't figure out how to do what I knew I was meant to do. I took jobs that met my skills but not my passions. I chased after success, but never found fulfillment.
I did a job matching profile through an online resource. I ended up with a short list of best suited careers.
The program was good except I didn't have the happy path, only the titles and no help identifying affordable training. I had no motive to return to school for 4 years when I knew the formal programs weren't working for me. But the hot list kept calling me back. The hot items for me:
Holistic Health Coach
Writer or Copy Writer
Human Development (which for me means Empowerment)
Public Relations
Here I am, several years later. It's my time to pull it all together. It works. It fits like a glove!
It's simple. The older I am the more I want to make a difference. If I died tomorrow knowing my best contribution was writing a how to guide for a server failover, or making sure a project was completed on time and on budget, I'd die without meeting my purpose.
So I begin Month ONE with great enthusiasm. I hope you'll join me as I go forward into this exciting new career.
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