Borrowed from http://paleoweightlosscoach.com
Hello again everyone. I have been silent here in the blogging world for a little while because I decided to prioritize my canning over blogging. While I was canning and not blogging, I was also doing some thinking about the direction of my life coaching endeavors. My business, Vision In Action, has only been open for 5 months so we are still in a growing and learning period. I began this business because I have an incredibly strong skill set for helping others improve their lives. I have always had a natural talent for this, but I improved upon it in college and truly honed my skills working in the social service world. As I set out with life coaching, I thought that I would just hang my shingle out to offer my services to anyone who had any goal of any sort. That’s a little general, don’t ya think? I shortly received some advice from a much more experienced life coach that I should target my audience (a marketing friend of mine put it: “By trying to please everyone, you please no one.”) It was at this point that I thought to myself, “I have worked with families with at-risk youth for 7 years, that is my niche.” Turns out, I don’t want to do that either. I am still very passionate about helping young people, but youth work is very intense work and I am beginning to feel that my journey in that field has concluded. I did some amazing work, but I have skills to lend to other areas of service…and in order to offer the top-level of service, I need to be truly energized by what I am doing.
Then, one day recently, it hit me: FOOD! I love food. I spend the majority of my time dealing with food: growing it, tending it, preserving it, and cooking meals from scratch. When I have conversations with friends and family, it so often turns to food and the ways that it can help us be healthier. I am over-the-top passionate about food. Food is what brings family and friends together to celebrate and discuss and share. And often there is no greater kindness than giving food to someone who has none. Food can bring people together, and tear people apart. It can nourish your body and soul or it can irreparably damage your most vital organs. Food is powerful.
I have also been on an incredible journey with food. I am now at a place in my life where food is something that I use to show others that I care for them and a way I keep myself healthy. I do have some food demons that I have struggled with and will likely struggle with my whole life. I have suffered from anorexia and bulimia, and I have had many times where I could find nothing positive about my physical body. This issue is so complex and my journey has been a wild one. I do not have plans to share my entire journey with everyone, but do feel that sharing this small amount with you all can help to illustrate where my passion for food comes from.
Some might say that sharing my indecisiveness over my niche shows lack of vision or stability, but I believe it shows that I understand how goals may look black and white at the beginning, but end up neon green. My goal has always been to use my unique skill set to help people do great things with their lives, it has just taken a bit to figure out in what way. I want to help people stop seeing food as the enemy and to see themselves as beautiful people. I am not setting out to help people stick to a specific diet. I am not a weight loss guru, and will never pretend to be. I want to inspire people to love food and be inspired by food, not to count every calorie and forget about the nutritional value that all foods have. This is about long-term, lifestyle change, not about losing 10 pounds for your high school reunion.
I have been around a lot of food-related issues over my life and have seen people use food to improve their lives and to cope with negativity. I know the healing power of food and have watched loved ones with cancer and multiple sclerosis use food for all of its positive benefits. I hope that my passion about food, educational and professional background, as well as my personal journey can help you find your way to loving food and yourself.
I am interested to hear some feedback as I start re-branding my business. I have no way of knowing if anyone is interested in this sort of service, but I have to follow my passion! Stay-tuned for more food-related changes 🙂
Eat. Drink. Be Merry. 