Katie was so stressed about work that she'd stopped enjoying almost everything else. She was cancelling plans with friends, avoiding social events and spending much of her time outside work still thinking about it. She'd begun to believe that being highly strung was simply part of her personality.
Then she saw the difference coaching had made to a colleague and thought, “I want that too.”
As we worked together, Katie discovered something important. She wasn't simply trying to do her job well. She was putting enormous pressure on herself to be seen to be doing it well. Every decision, every piece of work, every interaction carried the additional weight of what other people might think.
Once she recognised that need for approval, she began to loosen its hold. She could do her job just as well without making everything feel like a test of her worth.
And the difference was enormous. She was doing the same work with a fraction of the stress. Work no longer occupied every spare corner of her mind, and there was room for friends, hobbies and enjoying life again.
She'd discovered that the person she'd always believed herself to be wasn't quite who she thought.