Write this website down – https://livetrue.co.uk/ and this link to a new program that Alison recently released – https://livetrue.co.uk/work-wonderland/
Over the course of the past year, I have been fairly prolific in putting out content aimed at recounting a number of experiences aimed at helping those that read the posts.
This particular post has been a long time coming, and I promised to put this forward a long time ago on behalf of a breakthrough coach – Alison O’Leary.
Alison O’Leary is the power behind this site and the messenger that arrived in my life by seeming coincidence back in August/September 2017. She has provided me guidance that has resulted in a significant series of breakthroughs – more than any counselor, coach, or mentor to date – aside from my parents.
This is heady stuff, and she would likely say that I did all the work.
That’s the true indicator of a strong leader, and a tell tale sign of a world class coach.
To be brutally honest, I have done a tremendous amount of work. Yet…
She provided the single biggest freeing question and piece of advice that I have received in a long time. It allowed me to return to two fundamental questions that my father had blessed me with a long long time ago.
She has recently launched a new platform aimed at increasing career clarity and life-wide clarity and alignment based upon her coaching philosophies. I can say that she has an amazing gift for showering people in the light of increased clarity and purpose. She has the experience to help you or me with knocking off the baggage we hold so tightly onto that many times prevents us from the true journey that the same limiting baggage is holding onto US and keeping us from realizing our best selves.
No joke.
Here’s the backstory to meeting Alison.
So I had just arrived back into Boston in July of 2017, and I had one night to hang out. I found myself on the South Shore – visiting one my closest brothers I have. He is among my best friends ever, he’s been there for me when the doors were literally locked shut and the score at the time was not very favorable for a few of us…
Too many stories to recount – the main point for this post is this – he knows me better than nearly anyone, and he has seen the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows of my life since we got into a fistfight the first day of practice for Babson soccer along with another one of my closest brothers in the same locker room also part of the same melee. 18 years old, wow.
Anyway – I found myself up very, very late catching up that night, and I was outlining the myriad ways I could take things to the next level in this newfound chapter of my life.
I was one full year removed from the divorce being legally finalized, and there were a slew of things going my way at the time.
Yet, I was still digging for more.
I had established a framework to establish a number of aligned goals in my life. I had cultivated a number of habits that were powering me forward, even on my weakest days of indecision. I had already achieved a number of things for the year that I thought would take much longer as I had planned during my sabbatical in Clearwater, FL earlier in the year.
Why was I so animated at 2am that day after a very, very grueling preceding 18 hours???
I was talking with my bud about the journey towards isolation and breakthrough.
I was so damn close to figuring out what my actual vision was for my life, and cultivating the blueprint that would take me to the 51 year old version of myself – deliberately.
I had developed a few concepts and action plans that had already unlocked substantial output both directed inward for my inner development and the outbound deliveries were getting magnified – also based upon the framework I was executing against. The concepts worked for me, and in some cases – they were combinations of concepts I had uncovered in my independent study over the past two years as of July 2017.
Yet – I could not spit out the formula for the fire I was seeking in my life. I knew I was close, the energy was palpable, and I was definitely taking daily action aimed at juicing my energy and attitude to increasingly predictable levels that were ever higher.
In a word – fire.
I was lit that night, from within. I was seeking the answer that would get me to that vision that could take me forward on lightening bolts or summer breezes – depending upon the need at the time.
I was unbelievably frustrated.
I was clearly white knuckled on finding the answer.
I was in the midst of pouring over a number of web-based courses. Books. Blogs. Amazon reviews of more books. I was going back to notes from prior coaching sessions. I was going back to notes from prior counseling sessions. Hell, I even revised past performance reviews for clues. I was praying. I was doing all of this, and many times on many days – many of them on a single day.
I was grinding.
I was thrashing.
I was close though, so damn close.
So my bro was closely studying me as I was ranting and probably waving my arms and likely sweating while doing all of this. He calmly looked at me and goes…
‘Based on all the stuff you have shared. Based on where you want to take this all. I have the right person you need to speak with. I think she’s gone through the same thing you have started to go through, and she can probably help you. And if she cannot, she will be a good person to know – she knows a ton of people… Would you be open to this?’
I probably cut him off with the ‘YES!’
Looking back – this was a moment to quote my partner in crime.
A true moment.
Perhaps a coincidence depending upon your perspective.
From my perspective – that night and subsequent introduction were EXACTLY what needed to happen. Perhaps in a future post, I’ll explain what else happened just prior to that conversation and subsequently in more detail.
There are no coincidences.
So fast forward a few weeks, and I find myself on a Skype video call with Alison to do a very cold introduction based upon an email intro from my bro.
She was incredibly engaging, right off the bat. She could do the corporate executive speak as easily as the direct conversation you can have when you are among close friends.
The initial introduction was compelling for me. She immediately caught my attention by reflecting back to me where she thought I was on a gut level. I now understand better how she did this, and I am in the midst of learning in more detail for my own career purposes.
We agreed to spend more time kicking around ideas on the next Skype session.
Two sessions later, I arrived into the session incredibly hopeful and frustrated with my lack of clarity on what would TRULY take me forward as a fully energized version of myself.
It was during this session that she asked me about that passion. That fire I was describing. She asked me where I felt it. She pointed out the energetic surges I was garnering in my daily were an awesome indicator.
She then asked me a very pointed question. The great coaches give no answers, they just ask incredibly useful questions.
From there, I took that question and lived my life for another 4 weeks or so, until I had the promised breakthrough while on a short jaunt to Boston in October. I’ll never forget that night when the clarity came.
I will post down the line on what a Clarity Bomb is like when it goes off. I’ll promise you this – it is transformative.
Sometimes, you need to be careful what you wish for. I had this grand vision that the clarity would be like driving an automatic car when you have been used to getting the gears and clutch jammed for years on a stick shift.
Well, I was still driving a stick shift, and in many ways still caught in second gear. I at least knew where on the map I was headed, yet there was more confusion to be battled.
On my next session – her experience in this ‘post clarity bomb’ world really was astounding.
Again with the questions.
Again with the patience of advising me on possibilities.
Yet it was different than the other sessions I had held with prior coaches, counselors, and mentors. The purpose was sharpened as a result of the questions offered my way. The actions were established by me.
Instead of driving a car in stick shift. I was given a sail boat, a map, and a nuclear power based engine that was fully stocked.
Since that first post ‘breakthrough’ call – I have maintained regular contact with Alison as she has continued on her own journey of building her coaching business.
If you are in need of some executive polish in your life, she can help you.
If you are in need of some clarity in your career, she can help you.
If you are in need of some alignment in your life, she can help you.
If you want to have fun along the way, and break through some white knuckled frustrations along any of those lines mentioned above – I bet she can help you.
Then again, maybe you reading this post today is just a coincidence.