Colleen's Back Story
There is no question that the current chapter of my life is, hands down, my favorite. I am still a vital part of the Les Frenchies YouTube channel (and get to explore France with my honeybun). And, I have the freedom to spend my time developing and delivering Clarity Courses that I designed in The Clarity System For Living Well.
But, there are many chapters that came before that. At various times I have worked in hospitals (ER & psych ward). Trained butlers and nannies. Served as general manager of a large private estate. Was a public speaker. And marketed design services and team building in the construction industry.
For most of my adult life I worked as a meeting planner organizing logistics for large corporate events. First of all, because it was the first time I was paid to travel. On a deeper level, it was a great role for me, based on personality profiles that said, I am a future based person with practical organization and people skills. Planning ahead for things that may become problems in the future is natural self-expression for me.
I’ve never been afraid of trying new and interesting things. I have re-invented myself many times. What I didn’t realize at the time was that through all of these chapters, I was gathering a system of beliefs and practices that kept me true to who I am. What I was doing changed. But who I was being had not.
During that time, many colleagues started asking me to coach them. I was not a coach, I was a meeting planner! I had meaningful conversations and offered useful advice ( truth be told, I am still coaching a few people from back then). It wasn’t until someone asked me if I could help women re-entering life after being in prison that I organized my thoughts into a system. How could I teach someone to re-learn who they are wehn they are used to being “nobody”? Could I help them learn how to teach others who they are today in a way that would give them a chance in life without feeling like a fraud? Honestly, the work I did to create the training was as powerful for me as the work the ladies did putting their lives back together.
It was in doing this that I discovered the difference between re-inventing and re-aligning myself. Over decades I had been looking for some new thing that I liked. Maybe I thought I would like myself better if I liked what I was doing better. But I kept finding things that I got bored with instead of something I could do where I felt competent and rewarded for what I brought to the table. That’s when I realized the difference. Re-inventing, by definition, means remaking something into a new form. Changing the appearance of something (or someone) to have it seem different. But re-aligning is to set something back in place. To restore something (or someone) back to its original path. Re-aligning my day to day experience of life with who I naturally am makes all the difference. That’s what I want for all of humanity. The freedom to proudly be ourselves anywhere and anytime.
Yes, I have tried a lot of interesting things. I was good at them. I enjoyed many of them. But the thing that is the best SELF-expression of who I am is working with people to discover and re-align with who they naturally are. Antoine and I have lots of fun with Les Frenchies, but this is my passion.