Things Will Work Out

by Odilia McLeod

“𝗪𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿?”

Of course I was! I’d spent decades building it. I wasn’t going to wake up one morning, throw caution to the wind, and say, “Well, let’s see what happens.”

The question that usually followed was harder: “What if coaching doesn’t work out? Wouldn’t everything you built have been for nothing?”

For a while, that was the fear underneath the practical questions, but the more I examined it, the less sense it made. 𝗠𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗜 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲.

Neither was my psychology background, or the years I’d spent helping people work through difficult decisions long before coaching was my official job title. I was bringing all of it with me.

And if this path didn’t work out as I hoped? I would still have tried something that mattered to me. I’d have no regrets about giving it a real chance, and 𝗜’𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁. 𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱.

That didn’t make the risk disappear. It helped me see it more clearly.

So I made a plan. I looked at the finances, considered what might go wrong, and thought through what I would do if things took longer than I hoped. Fear was useful in those considerations as it made me ask questions I needed to answer. It helped me prepare better.

Where fear became less helpful was when it tried to turn “I don’t know exactly how this will go” into “I shouldn’t do it.”

Those are two very different statements.

Fear can alert us to a real constraint, a missing piece of information, or a contingency we need to build. But when it starts predicting failure or telling us that changing direction will erase everything we’ve accomplished, it’s worth pausing to examine the story it’s telling.

I couldn’t guarantee that leaving was the right decision. I could make an informed one, grounded in what I knew about myself, what I had built, and what staying would cost me.

I also had to ask myself a harder question: If this didn’t go the way I hoped, did I trust myself to find a way forward? I did and I do. That trust doesn’t guarantee success, and at the time, it meant I no longer needed a guarantee to make the decision.

𝙄𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚’𝙨 𝙖 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙥𝙪𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛𝙛, 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧? 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚?

______

If you’d like help sorting through those questions and deciding what comes next, send me a message. This is exactly the kind of work I do with my clients: Book a Free 30 minute conversation