Charlotte Ferreux, Thrive Coaching and Consulting CEO, has over 10 years of experience in coaching and consulting on a global scale. She is a Certified High Performance Coach (CHPC), a Master Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner (MNLPP), Master Certified in EFT, Master Practitioner in Hypnotherapy, and a Master Reiki Practitioner.
She’s managed and consulted for billion-dollar organizations like Lululemon Athletica and has had the incredible experience of coaching for a 3rd party company (Growth.com) while achieving an extraordinary reputation of being a top coach (for her quality of 1:1 coaching) for the Fortune 5000 company globally. She also provided coaching for those in over 18 different countries world-wide. Read below from Charlotte on how she has ambition but doesn’t lose herself in the process.
My life is busier than it’s ever been; I’m doing more and accomplishing more than ever. But yet I feel the most at peace, the most aligned and the happiest I have ever felt. I don’t feel overwhelmed, stressed or overworked. Even when I don’t reach my goals or if my results aren’t at the level I was hoping for – I don’t let that derail me completely.
Here are the top 3 things I do to maintain high ambition in my life without losing myself in the process.
White Space
If you are keeping yourself so busy that you have no time to pause, think, reflect and make connections as to what’s really going on in your life – you’re just going to keep spinning those wheels. Give yourself enough white space in your day just to BE – to think, listen to yourself, journal and reflect. This is where you get clarity as to what’s going on for you – why you’re not reaching your goals, why you’re feeling a certain way, why there’s tension in a certain area of your life.
You need to explore those areas. In my white space time, I really listen to my body. My body tells me when something is not aligned or something isn’t right. I allow myself to feel what I’m feeling; I observe it without judgement. It’s not meant to make me feel bad or guilty or judgmental of myself. It’s information that I can use to move forward.
But you’ll never gain that information and that clarity unless you give yourself the white space to actually explore and listen.
Self Care
How we look at the world and the situations that happen to us is based on how we feel about ourselves, what we’ve gone through and how we feel on the inside. This is why self care is so important; if you don’t treat your body and mind properly then things are going to feel harder than they need to. With strengthening your mindset, it allows us to look at every situation without immediately jumping to the negative; we can look at it and move forward in a really positive way.
Here’s an example. You have an off day; something doesn’t get done or you didn’t get the result you wanted or it just didn’t go as planned. If you’re not feeling good about yourself, if you’re not taking care of your physical and mental selves, then the easy path and the instinctual path is that you’re going to head into a really bitter place. You’re going to either place blame, feel angry, be judgmental and really hard on yourself. You start an internal dialogue that sounds like “I knew I couldn’t do this”, “I’m not good enough”, “I’m not worth it”, “look at all these other people succeeding but I can’t”.
When you’re in a really healthy state and your self care is on point, how you see and think about that bad day is totally different. We can look at that bad day and think “Okay. Today wasn’t great. How can I do better tomorrow?” It allows you to look at every situation as a lesson and an opportunity for growth.
That is all based on how you take care of yourself and where your head is at in terms of your mental strength and mental clarity. So often, people get to a place where they just quit because they can’t handle those bad days, the ups and downs, the rejection and the way they allow themselves to feel about themselves throughout the journey.
Gratitude
You should feel great about yourself throughout the entire journey – not just on the good days or when you reach those goals. That’s like saying you only love your children when they’re well behaved; that’s ridiculous. Love yourself and enjoy the entire process because this is your LIFE.
How do I do this? I live in gratitude and I am in healthy control of my life.
Everything that comes into our lives can teach us incredible lessons…IF you allow them to. I am so connected to a deeper purpose and I truly believe that everything we are handed in life is there for a reason. Sometimes, we learn that lesson instantly. Sometimes, that lesson takes years before we really understand why we had to go through the things that we did. But the lesson always comes.
That’s why I have such gratitude for every moment in my life. I give thanks for each moment – even the worst ones. Because through those moments is when you learn the most important lessons and you really grow the most. That’s how you learn what you need to change, who you need to let go of or what you really need to add into your life.
My goal for you is that in 2023 you get the tools, clarity and support you need to feel free. Regardless of what may be going on around you – I hope you feel the freedom that you’re in healthy control of what’s going on inside of YOU. It’s not about controlling the external or falling victim to our circumstances.
Start moving forward with some changes that will actually be long lasting. Let’s stop with the superficial stuff and going for the quick wins. Dig deeper in the process and I promise you you’re going to feel different, you’re going to BE different and your results are going to be elevated.
