Over the last few years something felt ‘off’. The long hours, increasing pressure, constant change, lack of progress and increasing frustration was taking its toll and I was approaching burnout. What was making everything feel even worse were the significant hormone shifts and, I didn’t know it at the time, but undiagnosed ADHD.

I could no longer carry on as I had before. I was questioning my real purpose, was feeling more and more detached, emotions were getting in my way and I didn’t feel I was making a difference. I started questioning myself and my ability and thought I needed a change. That’s when I ventured out into the charity and private sectors, like an adventurer looking for ‘the’ rock, place or piece of treasure. But, still, something was missing and still I remained exhausted. I ended up back in the comfort zone of higher education and some fabulous teams and institutions but, as we entered the third round of voluntary redundancies, I knew I needed something else as I couldn’t carry on as I was, but I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do or how to do it. I felt stuck and a bit lost.

So, I secured some coaching of my own as I knew this was a helpful way to explore these types of challenges. Through this I explored my strengths, values, experiences, perspectives and limiting beliefs and realised the one consistent element I’ve genuinely loved, and received consistently positive feedback about, has been developing individuals and positive team cultures. In that moment I realised that I wanted freedom, I needed less ‘hustle culture’ and frantic energy and a greater work life balance to nurture those things that were most important to me (friends and family).

All this exploration highlighted I wanted to be self-employed where there are still challenges and pressure but I have more choice. I also discovered I wanted to to do coaching full time. That coaching really is my true passion, it lights me up, it energises me, it’s what I’m good at and I want to do it all of the time. I also have a passion for helping other people stay well at work and prevent burnout instead of feeling like they need to leave or go off sick just to cope.

When I compared how I felt looking at coaching and self-employment as my ideal future, versus doing what I’d always done for another few years, it was a no-brainer. I emphatically did not want to progress any further up the greasy pole to get even more stress and pressure and friction (and, through reflection, realised I’d actually turned down opportunities for Director level roles a few times in my career). It’s just not for me.

Getting that clarity that I needed about who I am, what I really want, what I need at this point in my life, and why, then enabled me to explore ‘how’ do I make it happen.

And this is where I am now - a self-employed, professional mindset and career coach, supporting individuals to stay well at work, or return to work after absence and I work with leaders and managers to cultivate compassionate and positive, high performing team cultures where employees can thrive and perform at their very best.