Sailing along the beautiful coastal emerald seas of Antigua I met a yachtie named Selina. We instantly connected on life, work and entrepreneurship.
She talked about her dessert catering business in English Harbour and boutique offering handmade dresses along the popular shops aisle. Selina understood well the needs of the luxury industry and precisely how to cater to the individuals arriving into the harbour monthly with the look of wanting mixed with solitude.
After a glass or two of sparkling wine (it is vacation after all) we dug deeper on a emotional level dipping into the topic of relationships, self-awareness and what brought us to where we are today.
The beauty of people is that they are emotional creatures willing to connect and open up anywhere in the world under the right circumstances. I love meeting people simply to hear about their lives, hardships and victories.
Selina shared the story of her Father, an alcoholic who hid his disease for many years. Until one day he checked into the famous Crossroads Center founded on the island by Eric Clapton.
She expressed the tortured circumstances her father struggled with as he faced the reasons for his sordid attraction to booze.
She recounted the techniques he carefully mastered to hide his addiction, ensuring the neighbours, extended family and locals didn’t follow his purchase patterns at the liquor store.
His closest friends had a look of complete confusion when they heard he had recently checked out of Crossroads, started attending weekly sobriety meetings to maintain his commitment to his new alcohol-free lifestyle or realized suddenly while he held Perrier or Ting at party’s instead of Ten Saints beer or Old English rum.
The social hurdles are just as cumbersome as the personal ones when struggling with addiction.
Selina was interested in leadership coaching and how EQfootprints practice helps support and lead people in their professional lives.
“In a short amount of time I can identify the barrier(s) that constantly trip the individual up, and we work together to lift those barriers, permanently”, I explained.
I am commonly asked how do you motivate people who are stuck and don’t want to lift the barriers?
Typically when a client seeks coaching they have unlatched a tiny secret. It’s an itch they can’t fully scratch, they understand there is another facet of themselves to explore, they are essentially ready to work on themselves.
I have a unique ability I share with my clients. I see past the barrier and I am able to have the right conversation to expose and explore the appropriate sequences to their next success. I seek to enable them with proper tools and confidence as quickly as possible.
Often the barriers we face in our personal lives are the same ones we face in our professional lives.
Fortunately I can refer my clients to highly qualified psychologists in case they wish to continue their more personal journey removing the foundational barriers and dig deeper to those constraints not as directly related to their professions.
Seeking the learnings from individuals can happen anywhere, some of the most interesting stories are still out there waiting to be discovered.
I look forward to learning more about the Crossroads Center and how I may be able to support them in the future with coaching.