Last month, during my week-long promo for my new coaching program The Music Inside You, I wrote the following:

I used to see my coaching as what I did around my job. But now, my banking job feels like what I do around my coaching

When I wrote this, I was musing on my priorities and what keeps my monkey mind ticking over.

But being a coach who banks rather than a banker who coaches is starting to become true from a whole new angle:

Time.

Yesterday, I hopped on a bus, then a train, then an underground train and finally another big train to travel from London Town to the glorious curry houses of Birmingham.

No, I wasn’t hunting for the UK’s tastiest Chicken Madras.

Instead, I was leading a 2 hour session on Navigating Uncertainty & Ambiguity for an Extended Leadership Team of about 50 colleagues. And that was after I’d nipped into a breakout pod (very futuristic!) to run a one hour virtual session on State of Mind for another group of 15 colleagues that morning.

So it was a bona fide Buddha of Banking day if ever there was one.

What my boss makes of me gallivanting around the country delivering training sessions I have no idea.

But she can’t be too concerned given her support for my next foray in the merry world of coaching trainings:

A 15 month Executive Leadership Coaching Certification which my employer is sponsoring me through. A certification which will mean even more time coaching, being coached, tuning into trainings and travelling back to Birmingham for various two day events.

I have to say, I’m really excited about this certification.

Not just because I might actually find the UK’s best Chicken Madras with all the time I’ll be spending in the UK’s Curry Capital.

But also because it will add a few more twines to my bow and open up more opportunities to coach.

Not that this was my plan, mind you.

There was no plan. 

Sure, the 50 odd workshops I’ve run over the last 18 months probably helped the powers-that-be realise that I take sharing what I've learnt with my Zen-terns as seriously as I take my own personal development. And this must’ve helped. Especially as the big cheeses aren’t handing out these sponsorships willy-nilly.

But I never set out to first take American “supercoach” Michael Neill’s Genius Catalyst Certification, then run a bunch of workshops, then snag another coaching training.

There was never a multi-step plan like that.

If I set out to do anything, it was simply to follow what Ken Roberts calls “The Rich Man’s Secret” from his book of the same name: 

Take the first step, no more no less, and the next will be revealed

That’s pretty much all I’ve done since stumbling on The Subtraction Method. 

Taking the next step really is a simpler, more fun and more effective way to play the game of life vs the strategies and spreadsheets I would’ve fretted over in the past. And you can bet your bottom dollar I won’t be straying from The Rich Man’s Secret any time soon.

That’s also why I have zero plans for what comes after this new certification.

But I do have faith that opportunities will crop up. 

They’ll be fun, exciting and profitable opportunities. 

And I’ll be waiting for them when they do, train ticket in hand and flipcharts at the ready.

To fulfilment,

Tom

p.s. if your team could use some Buddha of Banking wisdom to help navigate uncertainty, hit reply and let's talk.