From constantly measuring herself up to others, Taryn Pieramati shares her story of how she found the courage to say yes to herself.
Tayrn Pieramati found herself at The Coaching Institute and is now a ‘professional coach’. Discovering that there was more to life than what she had been living. Saying yes to coaching and herself made her more connected to who she truly is.
Taryn is a Behavioural Profiling Consultant and a trusted expert in human behaviour who helps people optimise productivity, boost creativity and mobilise emotional sustainability.
“I remember when I first joined the community, this overwhelming sense of support from everyone like ‘Congratulations, well done for saying yes to yourself’”
How was life before The Coaching Institute? What were you looking for and why did you decide to become a coach?
It takes me a little bit of a conscious effort to think about who I was at that point. As I am such a different person now.
I had just turned 40 with two young children. I had been a school teacher for quite a while and had worked my way up in educational leadership to the stage where I thought I'd always wanted to be. Or where other people thought I should be in my career. So life was looking pretty good on the outside.
However, in my internal world I felt completely crippled with fear and a sense of not being good enough, constantly measuring myself up against the success of others.
I was addicted to certainty to the point where I knew I wanted a different life. Something was missing and I was just a bit miserable, but I was so risk adverse and stuck in this world of certainty.
I remember one of the calls I had with The Coaching Institute when I was first considering joining the school. We were talking about making sure my ducks were lined up.
That was my whole life. I was the mother duck running around in a frantic state, just trying to get all my ducks lined up. Now I know it never happens like that. You just need to start walking and they all line up behind you.
Was it a pivotal moment when you had the awareness to go it's up to me, I need to stop waiting?
Totally. I felt the frustration of ‘I've been waiting’, ‘I've been talking about this’, ‘I've been miserable for so long’. And it was just this moment where everything just dropped in and I was like, wow, unless I take full responsibility for this and just start walking forward, I'm just going to be chained where I am.
So yeah, it was a pivotal moment. And I remember why I originally wanted to come to The Coaching Institute. It was to learn some really great ways of asking quality questions so I could coach other people.
When you said yes to the journey, were you excited, were you nervous?
I was really excited. There was the sense of wow, I have just put myself first, I've done something for myself. And I remember when I first joined the community, this overwhelming sense of support from everyone like ‘Congratulations, well done for saying yes to yourself’.
But at the same time, the paralysis of the fear was there as well, like this nervous anticipation. I was still in that place of fear and analysing have I done the right thing? Is this going to work out? But I realised that yes, this is totally in alignment with where I'm headed and it feels good, like that innate wisdom. But at that point I was so in my head, that this was an unfamiliar feeling.
You joined because you wanted to learn how to ask people better questions. But what did you discover about yourself on this journey?
At TCI I learnt the success principles. I know them so well now, but at the time they were huge, the simple things. Like just taking responsibility for your own life was massive.
I learnt very quickly that the success that I wanted to experience as a coach had a lot to do on how willing I was to invest in myself. Not in just a money sense, but in a time sense, a healing sense, a growth sense. Because I was so used to making decisions for my life based on everyone else's idea of what was right for me, everyone else's opinions.
Turning that back around and focusing inward the last nearly five years has just been the most beautiful, yet challenging, gruelling at times, journey of self-healing. Just getting back to who I am.
What's your life like now?
I can honestly say that my life is beautiful now. I feel internally that I'm more in connection with who I truly am. I'm much clearer on my authentic unique self that I was born into this world as, and therefore making decisions in my life is so much easier.
There's more sense of a flow and my relationships have changed and evolved. I've moved closer into relationships because I've realized how to take responsibility in them and realize my own triggers and to be vulnerable.
And professionally things are great. I'm loving what I do. I'm in complete control of my own time and how I use my life.
I have two young children. They're seven and five now, so I can totally be there for them and prioritise time for them.
Yet I’m still earning a great income and spending my days doing what I love and connecting with awesome human beings. Life is awesome.
Are you proud of your success?
Yeah, I am totally proud. I honestly couldn't have done it without the support of all the people at The Coaching Institute and all the relationships I've made along the way.
And now I have this inner circle of people that I truly trust because I know I can show up and bring all of me and they can handle it.
What would you say to someone who's been inspired by your journey and is thinking about taking their first step today and becoming a successful coach?
I would say make one courageous decision to jump in wholeheartedly, be okay with feeling uncomfortable about it and just do it. It's a no-brainer.
“I learnt very quickly that the success that I wanted to experience as a coach had a lot to do on how willing I was to invest in myself. Not in just a money sense, but in a time sense, a healing sense, a growth sense”
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