It’s been a little over three months now, and everything flows differently, even the air I breathe. That’s the impact coaching had on me.
One day my father came home with a small card that said María Murillo Life Coach, a phone number, and an email address. He told me, “Nat, I think this can help you turn your life around.” A couple of weeks went by, and I couldn’t bring myself to call “María,” who was a complete stranger to me. What was I going to say? “Hi, I’m Natalia. HELP ME, I’M DEPRESSED!!” I didn’t think so. She’d think I was crazy.
So I have to admit that after standing Maria up several times, I finally met her at Starbucks. She gave me a folder and explained what coaching was, and I thought, “Now she, who doesn’t even know my name, is going to give me advice on how to fix my life,” which by then was a complete mess. I was caught up in a web of entanglements, lies, fears, and conflicts that had me sleeping for almost half the day and hating my life for the other half. We worked together for maybe three weeks, and then Maria finally decided to tell me, “There’s something you haven’t told me, or there’s a piece missing. I don’t understand why there’s so much conflict in your life, at home.” I laughed and decided to tell her what I had tried so hard to hide: that I had an illness, that I spent all my time lying to please people, to make myself look good, so my dad wouldn’t scold me or deny me permission, that all of this had brought so much sadness into my life because I wanted to stop lying and simply couldn’t, since so many lies only led me to tell another and another…
That’s how we worked on a plan of positive habits, obviously, from drinking two liters of water a day to reading for at least 30 minutes daily, and of course, it included not telling a single lie for 21 days, even if it meant confronting past lies.
Along with this plan, María encouraged me to embrace my life, to love myself and see how beautiful I am, the many qualities I possess, to forgive and not forget but learn from the people who have hurt me, and the most difficult part of all this work was to truly believe it.
Today I have a life plan, I’ve defined my mission in life, I’m enrolled in university, I’m looking forward to traveling with my dad, and I have thousands of projects on the horizon. María has been like a mother to me, a great friend, and of course, the best coach I could have ever had.
Today I’m certain that the best people in the world are those who are able to share their knowledge, like you, María.
I love you.
