Who’s Your Secret Self?

Tell me: what did you love to do as a little girl?

For me, my two loves were horses and basketball.

To get into middle school, I wrote an application essay about how future me would grow up to become a professional equestrian basketball player – a two sport Olympian who raised her family full-time in Spain.

Seriously, you can’t make this up.

Now this is where I have to be honest and say I actually don’t have much athletic ability… so my dream career was sort of over as soon as it started.

But sometimes I wonder: if I had actually had any true athletic talents, would I have gone for it?

Or would I have been realistic instead?

Inside each of us is a secret self.

The side of us who feels most like home.

Our Secret Artist Self

Our Secret Writer Self

Our Secret Dancer Self

Our Secret Horseback Riding Self

When we were little, we were free to express these sides of ourselves out in the open.

Girls who love to paint are given art sets for their birthdays.

Girls who love to dance are enrolled in lessons and competitions.

And then, somewhere along the way, we’re told we have to hide these parts of us.

We’re told to focus on what will make us money.

We’re told to go where the jobs are.

We’re told to be realistic.

Who is your Secret Self? The one you know is still inside of you? 

What is the part of you that feels truest, most authentic, most alive – but that you keep hidden or even cast aside a long time ago?

The idea of a secret self is so common In my coaching practice that I’m no longer surprised when a potential client books a call to talk about finding a new job – 

– but spends most of our conversation confiding in me their desire to do more writing, spend more time with their art, or pursue their passion projects.

It’s one thing to know you have this Secret Self, it’s another thing to decide you’re open to a reunion.

Many of us think that there’s only one version of ourselves that we can present to the world – and it’s often the perfectionist or socially-appropriate one that wins out.

Instead of thinking about yourself as one-version-fits-all, I want you to play with the idea that there are actually many facets of you…

Just like a diamond glinting in the sunlight, you can embrace different sides of yourself whenever you want.

There’s room for all of you:

The Grownup.

The Moneymaker.

The Creative.

The Artist.

The Romantic.

The Playful.

The Motivated.

The Rested.

And they are all authentic. Because they are all you.

In coaching, you have the opportunity to reconnect with all of these sides of you – and to design a career and life for yourself that enables each part of you to thrive. 

I have a few spots open for new clients to start as early as mid-May – will you be one of them? Submit your interest form and we’ll schedule a time to chat about the changes you can expect when you reunite with all the parts of you.

I can’t wait.

Onward,