by Kathy Zering
Have you ever felt like you’re just going through the motions in life, without a clear sense of direction or fulfillment? If so, you’re not alone. Many people struggle to find meaning and purpose in their lives. Discovering your life purpose can be a transformative experience that brings numerous benefits. Below are my top 10 benefits of discovering your life purpose and how it can positively impact every aspect of your life.
Benefits of Discovering Your Life Purpose
Life purpose work with a coach like me involves a structured process of self-discovery, goal setting and personal development aimed at helping you identify and pursue your life purpose. With many of the clients I coach, we inevitably spend time either discovering or rediscovering their life purpose. It occurs naturally based on their current needs and struggles, and helps with providing a clear path forward. These additional 10 benefits of discovering your life purpose include:
1. More Clarity and Focus
One of the most significant benefits of discovering your life purpose is gaining clarity and focus in your life. When you know your purpose, you have a clear sense of what you want to achieve and where you want to go. In other words, using Thomas Carlyle’s famous quote: “The person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.”
Having a purpose and the clarity and focus that comes with it enables you to make better decisions and prioritize your time and energy on activities that align with your purpose, reducing distractions and enhancing creativity.
2. Increased Productivity
Knowing your life purpose can also boost your productivity. When you’re passionate about your work and see its direct connection to your purpose, you’ll naturally become more focused and driven. This can result in increased efficiency and a greater ability to accomplish your tasks and goals.
3. Increased Motivation and Better at Overcoming Obstacles
Having a strong sense of purpose can be a powerful motivator. When you’re passionate about what you do and understand how it contributes to your overall purpose, you’ll find yourself more motivated to tackle challenges and overcome obstacles. This increased motivation can drive you to achieve your goals and reach new heights in your personal and professional life. Much of my work as a coach involves helping clients identify and overcome obstacles, limiting beliefs and self-doubt that may be hindering your progress toward your life purpose.
4. Improved Mental, Emotional and Physical Well-being
Discovering your life purpose often leads to improved mental health. When you have a clear sense of meaning and direction, you’re less likely to experience feelings of emptiness or existential angst. This sense of purpose can provide a buffer against stress, anxiety, and depression, helping you maintain better mental, emotional and physical well-being. It can reduce stress, anxiety and depression while promoting a sense of fulfillment and happiness.
5. Greater Satisfaction and Fulfillment, Personally and Professionally
One of the most significant benefits of discovering your life purpose is the deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment it brings. When you’re living in alignment with your purpose, you experience a profound sense of contentment and happiness. You’ll wake up each day with a sense of enthusiasm and excitement about pursuing your goals, which can lead to a more fulfilling life overall. I see this in clients who are uncertain about their career path or unhappy in their current job, and we work together to identify a career that aligns with their purpose and passions.
6. Enhanced Self-Confidence
Knowing your life purpose can boost your self-confidence. When you’re aligned with your purpose and actively working towards it, you develop a sense of self-assuredness and belief in your abilities. This self-confidence can spill over into other areas of your life, making it easier to pursue your dreams and face challenges with resilience.
7. Stronger Relationships
Discovering your life purpose can also have a positive impact on your relationships. When you’re clear about your purpose, you’re more likely to attract like-minded people who share your values and goals. Your sense of purpose can also make your interactions with others more meaningful, as you’ll be more focused on building authentic connections and supporting each other’s growth.
8. Increased Resilience
Life is full of ups and downs, and having a well-defined purpose can help you navigate these challenges with greater resilience. When you encounter setbacks or face adversity, your sense of purpose can act as a guiding light, motivating you to persevere and learn from your experiences. This resilience can be a valuable asset in both your personal and professional life.
9. Positive Impact on Society
Many life purposes are not solely self-focused but also involve contributing to the greater good of society. When you discover your purpose and work towards it, you can make a positive impact on the world around you. Whether you’re advocating for social justice, promoting environmental sustainability or improving people’s health and well-being, your purpose-driven actions can ripple out and create a better world.
10. Legacy and Longevity
Finally, discovering your life purpose can leave a lasting legacy. When you’re driven by a sense of purpose, you’re more likely to engage in meaningful activities and leave a positive mark on the world. This legacy can endure long after you’re gone, as your contributions and influence continue to inspire and benefit future generations.
Hopefully these 10 benefits of discovering your life purpose have convinced you of its importance in living a fulfilling life. Are you encouraged now to discover or rediscover your life purpose, ideally with the assistance of a coach? This leads to the next question:
When’s the Right Time for Life Purpose Discovery (or Rediscovery)?
Discovering or rediscovering your life purpose with a coach can be beneficial at various points in your life, depending on your individual circumstances and needs. One example of a situation when it might be a good time to explore your life purpose is if you’re feeling stuck, unfulfilled, or dissatisfied with your current circumstances, a (life) coach can help you gain clarity on what you truly want in life and how to pursue it.
Life purpose work can be particularly valuable if you’re going through a significant life transition like graduating from college, changing careers, retiring or experiencing a major life event like a divorce or the loss of a loved one. As a coach, I help clients navigate these transitions and rediscover their purpose.
Many people experience a “midlife crisis” or what I like to call a “midlife reflection” period in their 40s or 50s. Working with a coach during this time can help you reassess your goals and priorities.
Additionally, anytime you feel uncertain about your life direction or lack clarity about your purpose is a great time to be guided through the process of self-discovery.
And lastly, life purpose rediscovery can also help you if you’re striving for a better work-life balance because it will help you align your career and personal life with your values and priorities.
So there’s no specific age or stage in life when you should engage in life purpose work with a coach. The right time is when you feel ready and motivated to explore these aspects of your life.
The Process
The discovery or rediscovery of your life purpose involves a structured process of self-discovery, goal setting and personal development aimed at helping you identify and pursue your life purpose. The life purpose work that I do with clients is a highly individualized and collaborative process. I serve as a supportive partner, providing guidance, encouragement and accountability while helping clients uncover their unique purpose and live a more fulfilling life. The duration of the coaching engagement can vary depending on the client’s goals and needs. Learn more about working with me here.
Are You Ready for a More Purposeful Life?
Discovering your life purpose is a transformative journey that can bring numerous benefits to your life. It provides clarity, focus, heightened productivity, more motivation, improved mental, emotional and physical well-being,greater satisfaction and fulfillment, enhanced self-confidence, stronger relationships, increased resilience, a positive impact on society and the opportunity to leave a lasting legacy.
While the journey to discovering your purpose may not always be easy, the rewards it offers make it a worthwhile endeavor. So, take the time to explore your passions, values, and interests, and embark on the journey of uncovering your life purpose. Your life will be richer and more meaningful for it.
Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash
by Kathy Zering
I’d like to explain how I came up with the name of my company and my signature system, Energy Rapport™ Coaching – and what better way than in a short video (5 minutes).
You see, for a good portion of my life I either ignored or resisted my connection, or relationship, to energy. And by energy I mean the energy levels that we recognize in ourselves. Low energy when tired or scared, high energy when excited or creative or happy.
But it goes deeper than that, it’s the subtle energy that influences us as energetic beings. And this higher, lighter energy we can tap into to support us when we need it.
It could be from mother Earth or the Heavens above – think about how good you feel hiking in nature or after getting some sun and sea air. Or how you feel when witnessing an absolutely gorgeous sunset or sunrise where the whole sky looks like it’s on fire!
There are so many tools, techniques and resources to connect to energy, to build a rapport with it. And it begins with awareness and ease….and going with the flow. Life doesn’t have to feel like a struggle all the time.
As an example, in my late teens and college years, I remember napping when my body needed it. But in my corporate years, I just pushed through the exhaustion which only made things worse.
So, please take a few minutes to learn more about connecting to energy, Energy Rapport™. Click here to watch now.
Hopefully it’ll provide a better understanding of how I’m helping people by teaching them how to utilize their energy for the best and highest possibilities in their lives.
by Kathy Zering
What does everyone need to know about Energy Healing? Well, it’s effective and works. The end.
It really is that simple. But sometimes people want to know more about energy healing, and why I combine it with my coaching services for long-lasting results.
What is Energy Healing?
Energy healing can be described as relaxation technique that helps release stress & promote your body’s natural healing abilities. Yet it is so much more.
As kids, we learned Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2, which proved to scientists that energy and matter are expressions of the same universal thing. In other words, energy is everything. And energy healing is directing higher vibrational energy that is all around us to bring about the body’s natural healing abilities on all levels: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.
There are various methods or types of energy, or vibrational, healing: Reiki, theta, sound, music, crystal, Healing Touch, acupuncture, homeopathy, flower essences, Chakra healing, and numerous other ancient methods. I use a combination of methods that I’ve been trained in to provide the best results based on each individual client’s needs.
Getting to the Root Cause
Energy healing is an ancient healing practice that’s been in existence for thousands of years. Unfortunately modern medicine, pill popping and other “quick fixes” that have been in existence for relatively short periods of time, are prevalent nowadays. And most times they don’t address the root cause, the energetic underlying, of what is causing a person’s mental or physical ailments. It will continue to show up, or worsen, until the root cause is healed.
I tend to work with people that have energetic distress, as I like to call it. In the fast-changing, uncertain and often turbulent times we live in, most people are experiencing distress. It’s energetic distress because it’s affecting one or more levels of the body in a subtle yet powerful way. It causes imbalances within us and challenges in our lives.
The levels of the body I’m referring to are:
- the mental body or mind (those thoughts that seem never ending at times),
- the emotional body (think of emotions as energy in motion),
- the physical body (where the slowing and blocking of energy flow creates denseness, discomfort and disease, or dis-ease…when the body is no longer ‘at ease’), and
- the spiritual body (your connection to something larger than yourself which varies by individual; it could be God, Spirit, the Universe, Nature, Higher Power, Intuition, Life Purpose, Passion, Love, etc.)
Energy Healing effectively works on all of these levels. It is a holistic approach to complete wellbeing and wellness, and can complement any current treatment plans you are following.
The Benefits of Energy Healing
Since Energy Healing works on the whole body, we see benefits in all areas. Commonly reported benefits of energy healing include decreased pain, ease of muscle tension, improved sleep & improved mental clarity. Additional benefits include:
- It’s safe and non-invasive.
- Promotes natural self-healing processes.
- Clears toxins from the body.
- Increases energy.
- Relaxes the body and mind.
- Relieves stress.
- Soothes anxiety and distress.
- Promotes feelings of calmness and wellbeing.
- Reduces overthinking.
- Promotes a focused, peaceful and positive outlook.
- Releases worry and replaces it with a sense of safety and comfort.
As you can see, Energy Healing promotes your overall health, is an excellent form of preventative care, and can help support your journey to wellness if you experience stress, anxiety, headaches, muscle or joint pain, chronic illness, poor sleep, tension or other challenges.
Life Changing Results
I’ve found Energy Healing is beneficial for anyone who’s looking for relaxation and natural relief of emotional, mental and physical ailments. It’s especially useful for people who have a large amount of stress, and can’t seem to turn off their mind from work or worry. Once you being to feel better, the possibilities for life changing results come next.
You experience relief in one area, and then notice other issues have resolved as well, without much focus or effort on your part. I’ve helped many clients whose initial complaint was a physical issue, like chronic headaches or migraines.
After the physical pain lessened or completely resolved, usually very quickly, they reflected back on other areas of their lives had improved as we continued to work together. Things like performance at work, self-confidence, emotional wellbeing and feeling more empowered.
Personally in my previous Corporate HR career, I experienced a large amount workplace stress that led to a physical illness. I credit Energy Healing as the catalyst for my disease going into a remission. And for experiencing stress reduction and hope again. It created the space where I could breathe easy again, start taking my power back and plan for a pivot in my career.
Going from HR to being a Life Coach, I now help hard-working professionals suffering physical and other ailments, mostly due to work stress and misaligned purpose (root cause). I use a powerful combination of Life Coaching plus Energy Healing techniques for life changing results. I find this combination to be more efficient, effective and meaningful than either practice on its own.
How to Get Started with Energy Healing
If Energy Healing is new concept for you and you’d like to learn more, follow me on LinkedIn (@kathyzering), Instagram (@energyrapport) or Facebook (@energyrapport) and reach out in a PM if you’d like to explore working together.
Still have questions about Energy Healing and how it could benefit you? Let me know in the comments.
by Kathy Zering
Why does your work mean so much? I get it – the clients I work with are ambitious, hard-working, driven, and growth-oriented. I am too. In the past, a bit too ambitious, and overworking to the point of exhaustion and eventual burnout.
That’s why I’m writing this blog. To point out the benefits and other qualities of work, including the deeper psychological meanings that drive our choices and behavior. My intent is for you to gain an increased understanding about why your work means so much; and subsequently provide you with clarity so you can make choices about maintaining balance and harmony between your personal and professional lives, while still being able to excel and find fulfillment at work.
Benefits of Your Work
We spend a good amount of our time working, maybe 35, 40 or 50 hours or more per week; that allocation of time in and of itself gives work a prominent role in your life.
Work has many benefits and fulfills many needs; it’s a source of income that allows you to support yourself and loved ones with basic things like food and shelter. It also provides the funds to do activities you enjoy and to build wealth long-term.
At work, you learn new skills, meet new colleagues and clients, and definitely get challenged by different work situations.
Work allows you to contribute to the good of others and important causes. Many people link their work to a higher cause, it’s their bigger purpose and strong motivator. For example, I have a friend who became a pharmacist and eventually a pharmaceutical company executive with the higher purpose of helping to find a cure for cancer.
Work gives you a sense of identity and connection; it anchors you to your “work family”. It provides a sense of stability too, especially if you’re going through a challenging time.
When my mother died, and years later my father died, I was in my high pressure corporate HR career. The outpouring of sympathy from my colleagues helped so much. And the ability to focus on work activities in the following months was beneficial to healing my grief.
The Deeper Meaning of Work
This passage below really resonated with me. Internationally acclaimed poet and author David Whyte, wrote the following in his book: Consolations, The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.
“Work is frightened with difficulty and possibility of visible failure, failure to provide, to succeed, to make a difference, to be seen and to be seen to be seen.
Work, therefore is robust vulnerability, and a good part of the time, a journey leading us through very unbeautiful private and public humiliations.
We find the core essence of work, firstly through its fear-filled imagining, secondly, in the long necessary humiliations of refusal, courtship and apprenticeship, thirdly in the skill and craft we learn by doing and finally in the harvest of its gift and its gifting and, the surprising ways it is both received and rejected by the world and then strangely, given back to us.
Profit, recognition, wealth: are beautiful by-products only when they come as the children of this falling in love, this patient courtship; this falling down and getting up, this learning to live with and this long careful parenting of our work.”
I think this really speaks to the deeper significance of work and “to be seen and to be seen and to be seen”; especially true for those of us with a strong work ethic.
Balance and Harmony in Work, and in Life
I hope you now have a better understanding about why your work means so much. Keep this in mind when making choices about maintaining balance and harmony in your work, and in your life.
It is more difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance in certain organizations and industries, depending on the company culture, its values, and expectations. Before taking on a new role, ensure it’s a good fit for you.
Throughout your career, pay attention; stay aware of things like overwork, overstress, burn out, lack of boundaries, unhealthy competition, unrealistic expectations and work politics and how they are affecting you. Address them quickly and swiftly for your own wellbeing before they escalate.
I’ve seen the good and the bad of being hard-working and driven, during my HR career and now as a life coach working with career-focused professionals. It’s wonderful to work with people who have high standards and integrity. However, sometimes that quality leads to the imbalance that causes mental and physical exhaustion and illness.
If this blog resonates with you and brought you a deeper understanding of the role of work in your life, and what may be causing some of your challenges, let me know more in the comments.
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash
by Kathy Zering
You’ve decided to invest your time and money into improving yourself and your life situation. Do you need a life coach or a therapist?
Well, as with most things, it depends. It depends on a lot of factors. We all need a little help sometimes. And it’s important to choose the right kind of help for your specific issues and what you’re hoping to get out of it.
So here’s what you need to know before reaching out.
What is Life Coaching?
I get this question a lot from people who are curious about life coaching or working with me, and they’ve never worked with a life coach. They usually know about therapy from personal experience, from friends or family going to therapy, or from seeing it in movies or TV shows (remember Frazier or even the Sopranos).
Life Coaching can be therapeutic, but the two professions are very different. I like to describe life coaching as a partnership with the life coach asking insightful questions that clients wouldn’t ask themselves, so that aligned and helpful answers can come to light. I believe you know yourself best, you just need a little help in the form of coaching questions and other support to experience that clarity or a-ha moment where things begin to make sense and can begin to change.
Life coaches also help you evaluate your current situation so you can get crystal clear on your true desires and goals. They encourage your progress, and provide you with accountability, support, structure and tools so you can produce your desired results more quickly and efficiently.
How is Life Coaching Different from Therapy?
The Core Difference
Most therapy involves a diagnosis of some mental or psychological disorder – a problem that needs to be treated because it’s disrupting one or more areas of your life. Life coaching typically takes someone who is already functioning well, but may still be suffering, and helps them to develop and grow to the next level.
When my Mom died expectedly I found a therapist to help me with that tremendous loss. I continued to function at work well, but my personal life was disrupted by my grief and sorrow; I didn’t think I would ever get past it. I needed support to work through the depressing thoughts and to function in this new world without my Mom. Therapy was the best choice for me at that time.
Past, Present, Future
Another difference is that therapy typically goes into depth about various issues, usually dealing with the past so that you can function better. And life coaching focuses primarily on the present and future and is more action-oriented and results-driven.
Types and Specialties
There are various types of therapy, like talk therapy, psychotherapy or hypnotherapy. There are also specialties within life coaching based on the coach’s skillset, training and experience.
In my life coaching business, I work with hard-working professionals dealing with a lot of stress and pressure (like me when I worked in my corporate HR job). I combine life coaching tools, like what I call thought-healing (or what others call mindset or mindfulness), and I combine it with my specialty, energy work, that is very effective at getting to the oftentimes hidden, or subconscious, root cause of what’s preventing you from achieving your goals. We meet weekly or biweekly for consistency and momentum, and before long goals like reducing stress, feeling better, improving relationships, or having more fun in life are achieved.
Sessions
Lastly, sessions with a life coach will feel a lot different than ones with a therapist. Life coaching provides structure and accountability while therapy is more open-ended.
In my coaching sessions, I combine inner (energy) work and outer work – but there’s an underlying structure tied to the client’s prioritized goals. This structure helps us celebrate successes and progress, and discuss challenges or unhelpful blocks slowing down progress. And in each session there’s always homework for the client to accomplish between sessions.
So, Which One Is Best For You?
Do you need a life coach or a therapist? Actually, you don’t have to choose, if you need both. I have life coaching clients who are also actively in therapy, that’s perfectly fine. I’ve also had clients who I referred to other professionals, including therapists, for more specialized support.
The most important message here is to get help. I’m a big proponent of getting help rather than suffering alone. Especially in the challenging times we’re living in, life can be hard.
Some of us grew up being taught that asking for help is a sign of weakness and have a hard time with it, but you must push past that limiting belief for your health and wellbeing. It’s that important!
Over the years, I have had a hard time seeking out help, but I’ve come to learn and now know that most people love to help other people. It’s unhealthy to suffer for long periods of time, thinking whatever you’re grappling with will get better on its own; it usually won’t. There are resources out there for you, you just have to find the best one for your specific needs.
If you’re not spending time investing in your mental and emotional health, with a life coach or a therapist, you will not only continue to feel terrible but you’re blocking your ability to be the best version of yourself, in your personal life, your relationships and in your career.
Do you have any questions about life coaching not answered above? Drop them in a comment below.
