It was a proud moment for me recently when I received my Life Coaching qualification from the NZIBS. My last formal qualification that I had received was in Pharmacy, in 1990, some 30 plus years ago, a long time between drinks!

Whilst my pharmacy career has been incredibly rewarding for me and my family, and I am still currently a director and shareholder of a successful chain of community pharmacies, I have had in recent years that feeling, the one that you get in your gut that goes something like, “am I now living the most fulfilling life I can be?”.

Never die wondering, no regrets on my death bed, are a couple of mantras that I have lived my life by, so the time had come for me to pursue a career that I felt I was put on this earth to do – Life Coaching. It was important for me to have a structured process to becoming a Life Coach which included obtaining a reputable qualification. 

Searching the internet, I found the Life Coaching course via the NZIBS website. And what a rewarding journey gaining this qualification has been for me. Initiating a career change at this stage of my life threw up many challenges that I was not prepared for, loss of identity, self-doubts, vulnerabilities, to name a few. These are to be expected initially, but throughout the training and gaining an understanding that these feelings come from historical places, that I now have no control over, has made it easier for me to look forward and live for now and in the future.

The self-reflection and awareness exercises and assignments through-out the course created a fantastic opportunity for me to learn how to manage these and many other life and coaching skills. I gained so much more out of the training than just a tick box to gain a formal qualification, learnt a lot about myself, and how I wanted to coach in the future. I want to serve high achieving, functional and successful people, to support them in redefining their purpose, find their pathway to significance, achieve their dreams, and become higher versions of themselves.

I am excited about the prospect of having a conversation with people about opportunity and possibility, and having my clients living the life they deserve to live, because I am, and it is awesome. Check it all out at www.mylifecoaching.co.nz.

Michael Riordan

Graduate of the Life Coaching course.

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