Graduate spotlight: Jocelyn Auyeung on Transitioning from Teaching to Coaching

Jocelyn Auyeung made the transition from classroom teacher to life coach, helping moms manage time with their families and do the work they enjoy without guilt. Learn more at JocelynAuyeung.com

What were the specific worries that you had about what other people might think of you becoming a coach?

I was crazy to explore a different type of work and career since I had been teaching for over 15 years at that point. 

I was worried that people would think, " Oh, that’s cute that you’re becoming a coach. What do you even do?”

I was worried that people would assume coaching is a person giving advice.

Were you more worried about what your job would think, or what your friends and family would think, or what random strangers would think?

I was more worried about what my friends and family would think because I was following my intuition to pursue coaching and didn’t have a clear plan of what would be next.

How did you move through these worries, specifically? What actionable strategies did you use? 

Here are the actionable strategies that I have been practicing and continue to practice:

1. Allowing myself to ride the emotional wave of worry instead ofavoiding or battling against the emotion.

2. Reframing my critical thoughts that would amplify my feelings of ‘not enough’, worry, and imposter syndrome.

3. Cutting out the naysayers in my life who questioned my choice to pursue coaching.

4. Revisiting my “why” and the values I hold as a coach.

5. Connecting and surrounding myself with my “hype” community. Networking has been super helpful and important for me to stay grounded, supported, inspired, and motivated to continue the work I do as a coach.

6. Intentional time for introspection to deepen my self-awareness of what’s happening subconsciously.

7. Working with my own coach to help me process.

What have you learned about how to handle it when you worry about what other people think, since? 

I’ve learned that my worries about what other people think are figments of my imagination. It’s “my mind playing tricks on me.” Awareness of this has been key to helping me pause in the moment to practice distancing myself from the thought or challenging my thought because thoughts are just thoughts, not facts.

Also, worry is an emotion, and emotions have wisdom. Therefore, I’ve learned to allow myself to ride the emotional wave of worry and then become curious about the emotion asking what it’s trying to tell me. 

Finally, when I find myself worrying about what other people think, I notice it distracts me from exercising my courage to take the next step that will build my confidence.