Following Coach Orders

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Coaches, lifestyle and career coaches alike, do it. They make you say and write things. They make you act on things. They force you to visualize and strategize.

There is this thing where you write out your purpose. It’s like your own personal mission statement, if you will. It’s about who you want to be. I mean, even God wrote out who He was in His Ten Commandments.

This has been floating in my head for weeks. The empty page glaring at me, with its lines. Weirdly, I dared not write out my mission statement. It was like I was afraid. Like, writing it out would announce it to the world and almost make it real, and make it vanish from the list of comfortable unattainables.

But then, I did it. I put pen to paper, and I wrote it out. I wrote out exactly who I wanted to be and what I wanted to achieve. Strangely, (and you may think I am crazy for saying this), it took courage.

I read, recently, a thought by Brené Brown that went something like this: Negative emotions are emotions we must allow. We should allow ourselves to feel sadness and anger. The key is not to absorb it and allow it to destroy us. Instead, she suggests, these emotions should act as a catalyst. They should produce a change in us that leads us to love, hope, faith and compassion. I feel like I have experienced a lot of catalysts, lately.

I have been learning a lot about who I am. With each passing day, I feel more solid. So, with all these changes, I decided on my mission statement. More importantly, I decided to write it out.

I wrote it down. It’s out there, universe. And I am ready.

I dare you to write yours.