5 Years into a 10 Year Vision

Thanks to those of you who have opted to hear from me as I grow &joy Coaching. This is the first in what will be an approximately-monthly update. I’ll share my own perception and experiences, as well as tools and perspectives that can support you.

Looking Back and Growing Forward

Launching &joy as a coaching practice has been more than 5 years in the making. I first visualized this way of spending my day in a personal development activity with Matt Corker during my yoga teacher training with The Sacred Fig at Cocoon Portugal in May 2019. It wasn’t totally apparent that I’d call it &joy or that I’d be coaching individuals and teams. What was clear was that I’d be working sometimes remotely from a home office near the water and sometimes from client spaces and that the central tenet of our work would be communication.

In developing my business plan over the last 3 years, I’ve narrowed the primary focus (for now) to individual coaching and facilitating workshops for teams who want to make their work “work better.” “Work better” is quoted here, because work is a verb and a noun that doesn’t work for many people, and it’s also not up to me to decide what an improvement looks like for you or them. All of my work is client-led, meaning we continuously refine the focus to support the client’s needs. Coaching is primarily a practice of listening, and it’s taken me hundreds of hours of training and practice to refine my listening abilities. Truthfully, I’ve probably just scratched the surface, and I love contemplating how listening impacts our lives and our relationships. 

Coming to the end of the 2024 calendar year and a major manifestation of my 2019-2029 vision, I’m grateful to say that in the last 10 months (the time since leaving full-time start-up employment), I’ve worked with dozens of clients across coaching and facilitation, and I’ve gradually reached a point where I’m supplementing my former full-time salary. So many people have asked over these months how the business is going. At first the question bothered me. It felt nosey, rather than supportive, as if I needed to give them a monthly earnings report. Realizing no one had asked for that, I’ve gratefully and honestly answered that I’m happy and I’m healthy, and those two factors matter to me more than anything. 

Leaning into Writing

I’ve also done quite a bit of writing this year. Many mornings start with one of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Letters from Love, a download from my subconscious that tells me what I need to know. I’ve spent time every week with my beloved Moleskine planner, a harbor for whatever goods can’t be stored in my mind, calendar appointments I want to prioritize, and more recently “junk journaling,” too. Each month, I’ve populated the &joy Blog with at least one post, and more frequently sprinkled Instagram and LinkedIn with posts to create awareness of my coaching practice. And the middle of the year was spent revising and refining a 20-page business plan, which has become the guiding framework for my working hours. I’m grateful to have spent time writing in all these ways. Putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) has helped me process the world, and I’ve seen that the periods when I write align with the periods when I’m most satisfied. I believe it’s not correlation, but causation. 

This is not the point when I tell you that I’m dropping my work to become a writer. One of my favorite perspective shifts is to consider what if it’s not A or B but A and B? What if it’s not 1 or 2, but what if there’s a third option? I’m launching this newsletter to lean more into writing and to bring more writing into my work and business. 

Some of my favorite writing is reflective writing, and I’m also overjoyed to be reaching the pre-production stage of a card deck designed to help you and others with reflective writing. Send me a quick reply and/or forward this message if you know a journaling-minded person who would like to test the early version of “And What Else?”

As I get ready to take one calendar down and hang another on the wall, I’m spending time to look back on the past months and forward to the upcoming ones. I’m thinking about what I’ve done and not done, as well as who I’ve been and who I want to be. Who does the world need me to be right now? Primarily, rested and present. 

Tools for Reflection

If you’re looking for tools for reflection, here are some of my favorites: 

• Pen and Paper. Whether post-it notes or a journal, let whatever comes to mind release itself onto the page or pad. (Yes, this newsletter is sponsored by trees, who are currently cycling sugar through their roots, preparing for a new season of growth.)

• Start / Stop / Continue: look back at the past week, month, or year, and forward at the upcoming chapter, and brainstorm what are habits or behaviors that you want to start, stop, or continue. Pick a few to prioritize. 

• Roses & Thorns. The roses are the highlights or positive aspects. The thorns are the challenges and the lowpoints. Share with yourself or a group. You can also add your bud(s), what you’re looking forward to, and your gardener, who you want to appreciate for supporting and nurturing you recently. 

• Join Caveday’s annual review. They’ve got free one-hour reviews on Dec 18 and 23, or a special two-hour, member-only edition on Jan 3. See you there? (I’m also a Cave Guide, and if you choose to join Caveday’s community of focused monotaskers, I get to support you in some of your focus and I get a small percentage of your membership fee.) Alongside nearly non-stop focus hours, Caveday also offers weekly, monthly, and quarterly planning sessions.

• Coaching. Even as a coach, I work with coaches to dig deeper into my own needs and to transform situations that seem stuck to start thriving. I’m starting to schedule discovery calls for January clients, if you or someone you know is curious to explore coaching.

Gift a Compliment

Clients have been following up, and these heartwarming comments are some of the best gifts of the season.

🎁 "that intention we set together is something I come back to every day. It's really helpful."
🎁 "I hit a HUGE milestone this week!"
🎁 "I talked to all members of the leadership team and the feedback was very positive."

Remember that in the season of gifting, your words can also be rich with meaning and value for others.

Memories from 2024

I’m looking forward to sharing more reflections in this newsletter in 2025, and feel free to reply to share themes that you’d like me to explore in future editions. 

In joy,

Stephen