Ryan Gilchrist, Athlete / Videographer
When Ryan came to me, he was at a cross roads in his life. He was at his first major life transition, having just finished high school and about the embark on ‘the rest of his life’.
This can be a very overwhelming time for young adults, given the number of choices and options they have and feeling the pressure to do the right thing. In amongst that is figuring out who they are as an adult, what their passions are and making sure they make the right choice to set themselves on a path to success.
Ryan was no different to many kids in how he felt at this junction. However, what made him unique was his exceptional talent in BMX and MTB Enduro Racing. He was a state and national champion and had a dream of racing in the Enduro World Series. He was also top of his class and was a prime candidate for any of the best Engineering or Health Sciences programs in the country. He couldn’t figure out how to do both and whether pursuing his dream was irresponsible. The indecision overwhelmed him.
We started our coaching with an EQ-i 2.0 Assessment and used his results to help him navigate the path ahead. This is the story.
Why was I open to talking to Dagmar?
I had never thought of talking to a life coach. I was in the most difficult part of my high school life, studying for exams that were (apparently) going to dictate my entire future, and at the same time facing pressure to enter into university courses, I knew nothing of and was completely unsure about. All of this was taking an extremely large toll on my mental health and was decreasing my ability to study effectively, creating a vicious cycle that seemed to have no end. The decision to see a life coach was suggested by my Mum. She had seen Dagmar before and encouraged me to have a go.
What was my experience with Dagmar as a coach?
Dagmar was very friendly and made me feel extremely comfortable. I have had trouble articulating my issues to people before but Dagmar broke down these barriers and I felt as though I was able to talk about my situation freely. The session had some emotional moments because a lot of the issues I had been facing were related to stress so having such a comforting coach made the sessions feel less like a doctor’s appointment and more like a conversation with a friend.
What did it facilitate?
I had a lot of balls in the air at the time I was talking to Dagmar and was really struggling to make sense of my situation. Talking to Dagmar wasn’t an immediate solution but more of a stepping stone to working out my priorities and becoming more comfortable with the uncertainty of my situation. One of the more impactful exercises was a visualization session where Dagmar asked me to visualize myself in a perfect situation where all of my goals were achieved. I never thought too much of it until now…
What are the results now?
18 months later I have found myself in a situation where all of my goals are starting to become reality. In my visualization session, I was racing in North America at the Enduro World Series round in Whistler. In the session, the visualization felt far-fetched and impossible. Today I booked my tickets for not just the Enduro World Series round in Whistler, Canada but the entire World Series. It was just a visualization 18 months ago and now to see that an actual plan has been put in place to make the visualization possible has been incredibly satisfying and makes me feel so positive about my future. I can truly say that my session with Dagmar was a catalyst for this positive plan.
Recent Comments