We are pleased to be featuring Karen Draper as our Coach in the Spotlight in this week’s blog. Karen is a qualified Coaching Academy Coach, having previously spent her career in teaching and education. She runs her own successful coaching business (Synergies Coaching) and has a genuine interest in other people’s hopes and dreams and is passion about helping to facilitate their success.
I have had a blessed life and have a marriage that is bonded and kind. I met my husband at eighteen and have always realised that I struck gold. However, like so many other people, I had a profound change of heart and soul because of tragedy. When my father died in 2017 and then a few years later when I lost a very dear friend, a reckoning came. I knew that my life was fair whizzing by and that I needed to slow and reflect a little, making sure the dreams I had pursued relentlessly were still valid. I was on a demonic spiral of doing and have been all my life. Working long hours had become a badge of honour as opposed to a love affair and I was neglecting my health. I was in a world I loved, education, but a job I had fallen out of love with and at 57 was sure of one thing, I was not going to retire in a role that demoralised me after a professional life I had undertaken with passion and purpose. I tried to adapt and make the best of the situation but soon realised that I wasn’t the girl for compromise. So, my first thought on accessing the course was, selfishly, me and my need to offer myself to the world authentically. It was my cousin that asked if I had ever thought of coaching and pointed me in the direction of The Coaching Academy - after the first Introduction to Life Coaching session I was hooked.
After completing my first module, Values and Beliefs, I knew I would never be the same again, and never accept a life in service where my values did not align. I learned so much about myself, about the world around me and about how to take the courage I had drawn on from childhood to move into what Sharon Blackie, author of ‘Hagitude’ and a kindred spirit, calls the wisdom of elderhood. I knew I had so much more to share so to immerse myself in this potential future and commit to the course I went part-time in September 2021 after 30 years of full-time work and then resigned in June 2022. Like I said, the clock is ticking and I cannot afford to procrastinate.
After crafting my website as a way of reinventing myself, from designing the logo to writing all the content and choosing the colours, the tone, and the style to reflect the ‘Me’ I wanted to unleash I realised that this was not going to be a corporate journey. I was going to collaborate with people who wanted to work with me, and my mission was to engender courage, conviction, and self-belief in those that give selflessly every working day, helping them break through the fear of external validation to the core of their philosophy. I work with individuals inside and outside of the education system, teaching and learning staff, leaders, and governors. I help them to align their values, rediscover their passion and most importantly be bold in their beliefs, valuing their uniqueness in a world that would like to marginalise or homogenise us all. With that, there has come new possibilities.
I am now a coach, writer, trainer, and professional friend to those who are ready for something different. And I have banned the word retirement in any discussion I have with those I love, especially my mom. Rewiring is the new me! I started running after 41 years of not running, completing the couch to 5k and my first 5K in September 2021, then a half-marathon in my home city of Birmingham in May 2022 and in 2 hours and 19 minutes. That became one of the top 5 days of my entire life!
Anybody embarking with a commitment to influence the lives of others needs to be prepared to do the work with and for themselves first. You cannot live a life of achievement vicariously through your clients, respecting them means you must always be prepared to craft, and bear witness your own transformation. ‘We need to walk our talk.’, but then what a blast that you can galvanise the future - what an awesome responsibility and a wonderful privilege.
Thank you Karen for sharing your coaching journey with us!
If you are feeling inspired and would you like to have a coaching business you can run from the comfort of your own home, then do book your free place on our Introduction to Life Coaching webinar.
The Coaching Academy was established in 1999, and is now the world's largest coaching school.
In that time we have trained over 14,000 people to become life coaches.
We are accredited by the International Coach Federation and the Association for Coaching, and we're rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot.
