Claudia Chan

Sharing with you my third story of why I hold coaching near and dear to my heart. I actually have many, these are just the top ones I felt were the core of what made coaching so beneficial to me.

Story 3: Tooting my own horn

Once I got married, I was free!!

So right away, I thought about building my business. (😂😂)

As a side story, why I wanted to build my business, because within the first week I started working in 2004, a nurse in the hospital retired. And this nurse retired after 40 years of working! I was like… uhh.. I don’t want to be here for 40 years!

Anyway, that was part of my teenage obsession too. (See story 1), is this all there is to life?

I ended up creating colouring journals. For a year or so, I learned how to create things from scratch and self published my own books!

Then one day, while I was posting on Instagram, I came across a post of someone’s wedding calligraphy.

No lie, right away I thought, “I can do better than that!”

And that started my calligraphy journey. I spent 9 months honing my craft. And proceeded to teach calligraphy and offered engraving service to brands like Dior.

Even though I was able to offer these things, a part of me still felt as if I wasn’t all that good. (Yes.. That is how judgemental my brain was to me, and still is sometimes)

When Covid hit, I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my business.

That was the time when I was exposed to “mindset” work. “If you feel you can’t do something, it’s because of your mindset.”

I started diving more deeply into it, I ended up taking a leadership program, and got more into coaching.

Throughout all this time, my husband was very supportive of me. And yet he’d say, “Babe, you know I always support you, but what about spending a bit more time into what you’d been doing so you can expand.”

But each time, my gut would reply with, ”but that thing is not lighting me up anymore, this thing lights me up now.”

(And partly it was true, and I’m still learning to trust my gut)

Then, during one of my own coaching sessions, this sentence popped up:

“Claudia, you jumped from one thing to the next because you’re afraid to showcase your talent.”

What?

A slap in the face!

I got called out. I mean, part of me knew I was good.

But part of me was judging myself so much that I difficulty shouting, “Hey look at me! Look at my work! Come and work with me!”

And the main reason was because my mom used to say, if you “sell too much of your stuff, no one would want to be your friend anymore.”

Among other thoughts, like,

What if they laugh at me and tell me that I’m delusional?

Who do you think you really are?

It took a lot of work to dismantle these beliefs, AND I’m still working on them.

Coaching helped me work through this difficult task, it’s reframing, working with the unconscious and conscious mind, and building that seed of courage to get uncomfortable.

Eventually, I was more proud of myself than I was critical of myself. And I felt more comfortable sharing.

Sharing my stories with you is a proof in itself.

Often times, we are raised to believe that it’s not good to brag about ourselves. When we work hard enough, maybe someone will notice us.

And yet at the same time, we also have to be proud of our accomplishments, and be able to share them with others without putting ourselves down.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have trouble sharing your wins with others? Or maybe when other people praise you, do you tend to brush them off?

If that’s you, I want you to know that you’re not alone. I used to do that a lot.

And today, I’d like to invite you to acknowledge yourself, praise yourself, celebrate yourself.

What are 2-3 things you’re proud of? List them out and share it with someone you know.

I know it’ll feel uncomfortable.

And those who are supportive of you will celebrate alongside you!

So share yours with someone.

If you don’t have anyone to share your accomplishments with, press the Reply bottom and send them to me!

I’d love to read about them and celebrate with you!!

Let’s be proud together so we can toot our horns together!