Grace Kelly is an established success coach. She helps people open to their inner wisdom and true confidence to create healthy, stylish and accomplished lives and careers they truly want.
Grace Kelly
Grace specialises in helping coaches define their message and get it out into the world so they can make an impact and a living doing what they love.
Retreating: Letting Go and Finding Yourself
I’d been aware of retreats for some time before I made them a non-negotiable in my life. To me they always seemed like a luxury, something I’d love to attend but didn’t have time for given I was building a brand new business.
Interestingly, having moved to Italy, hosting coaching retreats was something that had flashed through my mind often.
Up until attending my first retreat I’d been very busy accumulating information.
I was investing heavily in trainings to grow my business.
I’d been coaching and travelling the world hosting clients in glam locations from St.Tropez to L.A but I hadn’t really considered a retreat for myself until something felt terribly off.
I woke up one morning in the luxury of a 5 star hotel, these hotels had become my home in the previous two years and despite the luxury, a great big part of me felt disconnected.
It had started with witnessing myself unable to relax and enjoy life; everything was very serious, very driven by the intellect. No matter where I went I didn’t feel at home.
I was tired a lot and feeling like I couldn’t hear myself, overwhelmed with information I’d absorbed over time. At the time I’d created multiple 6-figures within 18months as a new coach, this was unheard of for someone like me who was unknown in that industry. However my confidence and security felt dependent on succeeding even more, on keeping up, on having the right amount of money in the bank or being in the right environment. Looking back I see I’d lost myself. My wellbeing was tied up in my circumstances.
It was when I was faced with a major opportunity about my business, something that promised to take me to the next level, that I realised I couldn’t keep going like this anymore. So I stepped off the information overload and away from mastering more techniques and initially took time out to reconnect to myself. This was my first experience of retreating, a kind of self-enforced retreat.
Initially I just took time to do nothing, to eat wholesome food and to read books. I was blessed that I could afford to do that. At some point though I felt something was still missing so I began to look into officially attending a retreat.
I craved connection to like-minded people and the support of a coach who could see things more clearly. Finally I came across a retreat that was happening in Spain and I decided to attend. That weekend changed my life. During the course of those few days my mind got quiet, quieter than it had ever been, it almost scared me. This quiet wasn’t a result of meditating or chanting or doing anything in particular.
In fact we weren’t doing any exercises at all, instead we were exploring, with the retreat leader, the principles behind every experience in life. Something about hearing these Three Principles filled me with hope and peace whilst also settling down the noise in my mind.
Now in a more settled state of mind I was able to have an insight about how I’d been operating in life. I’d known that something had been off and ultimately blamed it on my work load and external circumstances. Now hearing these principles, I could pinpoint exactly what had been going on.
I saw for the first time that I was living insecure and that this insecurity had me in a constant feeling of self-consciousness and not good enough, as a result of which it was very difficult to feel at home in myself and hear my own wisdom. This insight, which I believe come forward thanks to my state of mind quietening down, had an immediate and lasting impact.
Initially I woke up to how seriously I’d been taking myself and my business, how I’d begun to identify my self-worth and confidence with my level of success, with my bank balance and with public recognition.
I also saw that this seriousness had manifested itself as a deep feeling of self-consciousness to the point I couldn’t relax and connect with others or myself. I was uptight most of the time, often worrying about how I measured up to my peers, how I looked and compared to others. Something about becoming aware of all this through that retreat helped me relax and let go of that self-concern I’d been holding onto for years.
The retreat was more impactful than any training I’d ever invested in, it led to an effortless life shift. I finally felt at home in myself.
I began making clearer decisions rather than spinning on what to do next. My relationship got stronger and we finally got engaged. I managed to double my profits without using the tried and tested internet marketing techniques I’d built my business on.
Needless to say I began to make retreats my go to form of support, often taking myself off for weekends to refuel, settle down and see something new that would ultimately help me achieve my objectives.
Who knew that going within was really the answer.
Of course you hear that all the time but it’s not until you put it to practice that you see the results for yourself.
Eventually I brought retreats into my own business model, recognising that when my clients first came back home in themselves through this quieter state of mind, then they’d go off into the world and do better, better than they could with all the best advice in the world.
And so they did.
Some of my clients are creating new businesses, breaking through their income ceilings; others are ditching the rules they’ve made up and swapping business for art or writing or corporate for something more refreshing and aligned.
Today I invite people to join me for retreats in Puglia, Italy, we host these a few times a year and they tend to attract people who are looking to find their true purpose in life, people who want to feel more fulfilled by moving to a whole new level and way of being in life.
Overall these individuals walk away clear, at peace, connected to Self and wisdom and are ultimately able to increase their performance and results when it comes to their business life.
Whilst the initial part of each retreat is spent looking at each person’s ideas, vision and purpose, the real juice is found in the level of clarity and inner direction that arises when their thinking and insecurities settle down. My job is to support that process and the container of a retreat combined with peaceful Puglia does the rest. This is the ultimate transformational travel experience, coaching, food, wine & style.
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