A few months ago, I stepped back from coaching. Not because I didn’t believe in it, but because something felt off. I was trying to force it. The timing wasn’t right and the energy wasn’t there. Deep down, I knew there was another path I should be on. Another voice I should be listening to. I did what any self-respecting craftsman does when a project isn’t coming together — I took a break. By stepping aside and clearing my mind I was able to hear other voices — my woodworking tools. They were calling me. They wanted me to do something with that stack of maple and walnut in my garage.
So, I stepped away from coaching and immersed myself in my workshop — taking ideas from my head and turning them into something real and tangible, something I could wrap up and give to friends and family for Christmas. That process was therapy. It was cathartic. It was exactly what I needed.
There’s an old saying “when the student is ready the teacher will appear”. Likewise, when you are ready to do the work you’re meant to do, the right opportunity has a way of finding you. While I was focused on creating, a new client found me — someone who needed exactly what I have to offer, at exactly the right time.
There’s wisdom in woodworking that translates to other areas of life. A good woodworker will tell you that the wood knows what it wants to be. You can’t force it into a shape it isn’t ready for. Push too hard, at the wrong angle, with the wrong tool, and you ruin the piece. But work with it — respect its grain, its nature, how it reacts — and something beautiful emerges.
The same is true for coaching. You can’t decide one morning that you’re going to get a leadership coach or performance coach and transform your life. The transformation has to already be stirring inside you. A coach doesn’t create the desire for change — a coach enhances what you already know, feel, and need. A coach helps you get to that place a part of you has already decided you want to be. That readiness has to be genuine. It has to be organic. You have to want change with your whole being before any coach can help you find it.
Taking a break from coaching helped me see something I had lost sight of. I had been pursuing coaching to build a business, full stop. But that was the wrong reason. What I truly missed — what drew me to coaching in the first place after a career in federal service — was helping people. That was my why, and I had let it get buried under the noise of trying to grow something before it was ready to grow.
Working with this new client reminded me of how much I have to offer. Not just skills or tools, but a genuine investment in helping people help themselves. That’s the refocus I needed. That’s what I was missing.
If you’re forcing something right now — a business, a relationship, a change — it might be worth asking yourself: am I ready, or am I just impatient? Because when you’re truly ready, and the fit is right, change doesn’t just happen, it flows naturally and organically along a new and exciting path that takes you somewhere meaningful.
If you are ready to follow a new path, book a discovery session to see if coaching right now is right for you. If you know someone else who may be ready, do them a favor and pass along my contact information.
Thanks,
Lance
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