As a coach, I support my clients in overcoming procrastination, building confidence, and working through self-doubt. And then I catch myself doing all the things I know make it worse.

It is striking how similar I am to my clients. When people talk about building your ideal client, I realise that in many ways, I am my ideal client.I can do for others what I struggle to do for myself.

And the reason is simple: many, if not most of us, need that outside perspective. When you’re in the middle of it, you can’t see clearly.

That’s the real value of coaching: not having the answers, but having someone who can see what you can’t, and reflect it back to you.

There’s a Slovenian saying (and yes, we have many of these, though they tend to sound a bit odd in translation) that goes: Kovačeva kobila je vedno bosa—or “The blacksmith's mare is always unshod.” It reminds me that we often struggle with the very things we help others navigate.

I wrote about this in one of my earliest Substack posts back in September 2024. Here is the link in case you are interested: