“It is my mission to help people claim the exciting, fulfilling lives they were born to live.”
Splitting her time between Arizona and Colorado, Whitley draws from more than 45 years of personal development and communication experience to guide her clients toward a future that matches their true calling. “This isn’t therapy,” she said. “Therapy focuses on the old story. Coaching deals with your new story.”
Certified through the International Coaching Federation and armed with a master’s degree in communication, Whitley describes coaching as a future-focused journey. “We do a deep dive into where you are right now and where you want to be in the future, what you want your life to look like – and then we address that gap between those two places. We find strategies and practices that help you get to where you want to be.”
Getting Clear About Your New Identity
At the heart of Whitley’s approach is her signature system that provides a roadmap out of stagnation. Moving clients from frustration to forward motion, she helps them find clarity about what they truly want.
“Getting clear about what we really want out of our life is so important and it’s something that we really don’t ask ourselves very often. Women, especially, are often taking care of other people and we lose knowing what brings us joy, what brings us love and what brings us to a place that makes us feel alive. Sometimes we need to go back to childhood to see what brought us joy, because it’s been so suppressed for so long.”
She helps clients become more aware about how they talk to themselves and others, and particularly the language they are using. “I was working with a young gal whose hopes and dreams were many. But she said she didn’t want to make too much money. After several statements like that, I asked, ‘Is that really what you want? You don’t want money?’ She said, ‘No! That’s not it at all. I didn’t realize I was saying that!’”
Another key focus in her coaching practice is identity. “We start with the words ‘I am…’ and flow with it.”
One of her clients was a woman who recently lost her husband. Whitley says she was grappling with her grief and also “at a complete loss for who she was,” now that she wasn’t part of a couple that had been together for decades.
“Through coaching, she finally gave herself enough grace to take some brave steps in honor of her husband and come out of her house to do the things she loved doing with acceptance for that grief and that change. ‘Who am I now?’ is a really difficult question and it’s important to have someone by your side who believes in you when you’re having trouble believing in yourself.”
Meeting Your Priority Bully
Whitley cautions that getting overwhelmed and distracted by tasks, other people’s priorities and imagined emergencies can keep us from living the life we want. “Sometimes we fear our own greatness, or we take on other people’s priority and deem it more important than our own or we may believe that a clean house is more important than moving toward the person we want to be.”
And that’s when we need a Priority Bully. “Notice I didn’t say ‘priorities,’” said Whitley. “I’m talking priority, as in one. We may not be aware that having more than one priority is even an issue, but multi-task thinking and doing can steal days and months from our progress if we let it. Having more than one priority scrambles the eggs of our brain.”
The Priority Bully becomes a persona to make us sit and do the thing we need to do, she says. “If you try to get up to do something else, it will stand at the door and say, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no no. Go back to your desk and finish this project’ or whatever it is. This Priority Bully will punch other priorities in the nose. It takes a really aggressive stance on helping you do what you want to do for yourself. So, you call in this bully to handle all these distractions that come into play. She’s pretty effective!”
Whitley also encourages setting hard deadlines, hiring others to take on some of our tasks and challenging ourselves to do the things we don’t want to do, faster. “I want our not-to-do lists to be longer than our to-do lists.”
Creating Your Own Reality
Whitley’s passion for empowering others stretches back to childhood. She recalls creating vision boards as a kindergartner and leading meditation circles with her friends at age 10. “I have always believed we can create our own reality,” she said. “I just needed to find the courage to fully step into that truth.”
After decades of studying, she launched her coaching business five years ago, shedding the fear that had kept her on the sidelines. Today, she sees her work not as a job, but as a calling to serve others by helping them discover their own worth, creativity and power.
“I believe we are all meant for more,” she said. “It is my mission to help people claim the exciting, fulfilling lives they were born to live.” FBN
By Bonnie Stevens, FBN
Hear more from Master Life Coach Donna Whitley on Zonie Living at Star Worldwide Networks, https://starworldwidenetworks.com/episodes/getting-unstuck-becoming-who-we-are-meant-to-be-with-life-coach-donna-whitley-video
She can be reached at donna@donnawhitleylifecoaching.com and followed on Instagram at dwhittles33.
Courtesy Photo: Certified Master Life Coach Donna Whitley has created a process that guides clients to create and live the life they want. She shares her signature system on Zonie Living, shown above in the studio, at StarWorldwideNetworks.com
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