By Shemika Dixon
I met Coach Toni at the beginning of my journey to become a coach. I had no idea then, the power of a good coach, how coaching could set me free and empower me to become more myself.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, I enrolled in a life/leadership coach credentialing program. The program was a way for me to use my spare time while working from home and add a valuable skillset to my resume. In the course, Coach Toni was my peer-to-peer coaching teammate. In one of our short training sessions, she helped me identify a fixed mindset holding me hostage in a profession and career that had run its course.
Active-duty military at the time, I was toying with the idea of retirement. However, the fear of “not having enough” financially kept me from taking any real steps towards leaving the service. In our session, Coach Toni asked a series of thought-provoking questions around my idea of “enough.” Her line of questioning helped me gain awareness of my fixed thinking then empowered me to question my belief system around financial stability. In doing so, I realized the fears I carried were projections from others and not truly my own. Together, we developed action steps and benchmarks that ultimately gave me the confidence I needed to make a career transition.
Over the past year, Coach Toni and I continued our coaching relationship. With her support I confidently applied for retirement and have successfully made the transition into the non-profit sector doing work that aligns with my true purpose in life. I am forever grateful!