Climbing out of the PIT

Angela Sterling-Noel Counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Hypnotherapy in Slough August 26, 2015

Many years ago I started my own personal development journey. It began in the pit of a disappointing experience of a failed marriage and left with the responsibility of raising my two wonderful sons.

I wanted to rise up and be the best mom I could be for my boys, a fire burned within me to succeed; I saw it as a challenge and I could not fail them and worst, I could not fail myself.

I began a search for new insights about myself when I embarked on training to become a counsellor, teacher and coach. For me, this was the beginning of a healing process and the start of a new career.

I visualised myself years ahead, children grown up and living my dream to be a woman who empowers people to live the life that they were born to be/do and to realise their full potential. This burning desire to soar has paid me dividends. The boys are a success and I have succeeded. I am running a private practice and training others to be a change agent in the lives of those they influence. I am privileged to journey alongside people from all walks of life and help them to ignite the flames of a burning desire to soar too.

So what did it take to keep the flames alight of my burning desire? Here are seven things that I discovered during my journey:-

1. I needed to identify what I wanted for my life. I wanted my boys to go to university and I wanted a successful career. So what do you want?

2. I needed to have a clear vision of what my life would look like in the future. So get into the habit of visualising your future life. Stephen R. Covey author of The 7 Habits of Highly effective people endorses this when he suggests that we “Begin with the end in mind”.

3. I had to have faith in God and myself; I had to believe with every fibre of my being that I would succeed. Get in touch with your inner core (that spiritual part of yourself) and do not doubt yourself – believe!

4. I read all I could read to feed my thirst for knowledge and information to spark my creativity. Books are my travelling companions and source of inspiration that keeps me nourished in the imaginary world of possibilities.

5. I had to stay encouraged, so I would seek out relationships that inspired and encouraged me. I needed to surround myself with people who believed in me. I would go to conferences, workshops and seminars where I could meet people who could support my dreams and keep fanning the flames. I met Dani Johnson, (Author of ‘Grooming the next Generation for Success’) who shared her life story and helped me, to believe that my past did not define me and could not imprison me. In 2010 I met Jan Ruhe; who I adopted as my mentor. I also have friends who give me daily encouragement, friends and family who, over the years have been a great resource as a support system that is vital to my success. I encourage you to get a support network that encourages and inspires you personally.

6. I was compelled to become organise in planning my life and organising my boys. Order is the key to succeeding; to name a few, it means writing things down, managing my time and money and planning my goals each year. So I encourage you to write down your dreams and goals for your life.

7. I had to stay focused on my vision – focusing on what I wanted was helped by creating a dream board. Jack Canfield mentions the power of using vision boards in the book entitled The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I shared my dreams with trusted friends and mentors, this decision to share my dreams kept the dreams alive, as others were my accountability partners who encouraged me. Staying focused meant that I would seek professional support and I kept praying.

I have shared my journey with you in the hope that it will be a source of inspiration to encourage and empower you to ignite that burning desire to soar, to live your childhood dreams and soar. A burning desire is your starting point to realizing your dreams.

Don’t get bogged down in the valley experiences and challenges of life because they will always be there. Use each challenge as a weapon for change to rise up and Climb out of the ‘PIT’. Start your journey now and remember you will never arrive at a destination, because as long as you are alive, you will always be journeying.

I would like to invite you to go on a discovery journey with me and together we can clear the blocks towards a positive outcome. Whatever it takes, you owe it to yourself to soar.