End of 2021 Sharing and Thank You

EPISODE 38 | END OF 2021 SHARING AND THANK YOU

[00:00:00] INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Becoming Me, your podcast companion and coach in your journey to a more integrated and authentic self. I am your host, Ann Yeong, and I'm here to help you grow in self-discovery and wholeness. If you long to live a more authentic and integrated life and would like to hear honest insights about the rewards and challenges of this journey, then take a deep breath, relax, and listen on to Becoming Me.

[00:00:35]
Hey! I'm making this video for all of you who follow my work in one form or another. Maybe you have been following my blog for a long time. My blog – A Journey of the Heart. Or maybe you listen to the Becoming Me podcast. Perhaps you've subscribed to my newsletter, which is titled Begin Again. Or maybe you've come across my work in my pastoral ministry in church, or you attended A Leader's Spirituality, which I taught twice in this year.

[00:01:15]
Or maybe you're one of the people who have, you know, discovered me maybe on my social media or one of the above, and have reached out to me and you've become my coaching client at some point in this year. So, this is an update and I thank you. I wanted to share a little, you know, a little bit of what 2021 has been for me, and how you guys have all played a role in my ongoing growth personally – but also in my work.

[00:01:48]
So, you know, I took this plunge a little bit over a year – about a year and a half ago now – to venture into this; into speaking and teaching and journeying with people on this interior journey – I would say kind of like, professionally – on my own, not as an employee under any organization or office. Really out of – it came from an obedience to God, right.

[00:02:24]
I have been discerning what my call is for the longest time, in many ways, since I was a girl, right. And I've shared some of this in the Becoming Me podcast, or in my blog, in one way or the other. So, what has been happening in the last year is my ongoing discovery and clarification of what this call is.

[00:02:49]
And it was a big leap into the unknown – trying to do this work and learning all these new skills that I've had to pick up; including what I'm doing right now, you know – making a video of myself, which I actually am not really keen or enjoy doing. But somehow this year – and I would say even just, maybe in the preceding few months – that part inside me, that just wants to reach out and share with you.

[00:03:28]
Because I know, you know, you're out there – there are other people out there who struggle with similar insecurities, who are afraid of being vulnerable, who are simultaneously, you know, gifted and also handicapped and just not quite knowing how to find your way in the world or how to integrate the different parts of you –

[00:03:50]
– how to integrate, you know, your love for God and your desire to love and serve Him, in whatever faith it is that you may profess. And at the same time, discovering what it means to be human – because sometimes I think integrating that spiritual-self and you know, and the rest of our humanity, that can be a struggle.

[00:04:11]
So, because I am so in touch with the struggle – I mean, most people don't see that. I think only maybe my husband has like the front row seat in seeing, you know, how messy it can be, how difficult it can be. And you know, just a few people in my life who have that very deep insight into my struggles – who have accompanied me and taught me and mentored me and be in my community.

[00:04:40]
Sometimes, it feels like the further I go in this journey, the smaller that community becomes because sometimes, I think it's just, you know, as you enter into places where fewer people that, you know, in your life have entered, it's just the situation – it's just the case, right? That you've – it's harder to find people that you can share as deeply with.

[00:05:04]
So, I really cherish and I'm grateful for every single one of these people in my life who have poured into me, who have supported me, who have held me, who have – I would say sometimes – who have tolerated me, loved me in spite of how difficult I can be. And you know, I think I can be a very difficult person to live with.

[00:05:27]
That's actually how I feel about myself. So, a big area of my growth, my own interior journey growth, has been coming to extend that kind of hospitality to myself. You know, to say, "Ann, you're a mix of, you know, a lot of different things. Just because you have so many insecurities and so many imperfections, and because you're imperfect and because, you know, you have all these, you know, you struggle with so many compulsions and addictions –

[00:06:03]
– that doesn't mean that you don't have something good to offer others." And because God has really met me in all that mess. In fact, I found that God just, you know, where I can encounter Him most deeply is in my sin and in my mess. And He has made something beautiful out of all of this – out of my life and He continues to do so.

[00:06:26]
And that is the only reason why I do what I do. I'm just trying to be who He created me to be. And it has been such a privilege to find in the last year, that there are people who actually feel blessed by my sharing of my messy journey. That so many of you have sometimes kind of like, dropped me a message or an email or become my client, right –

[00:06:54]
– because you have found, you know, my sharings, my teachings, or of my facilitation to be helpful to you. So, a big thank you because just knowing that I have an audience that is being fed by the work that I'm receiving, you know, the work that God is doing to me – in me, that itself has a huge encouragement for me to continue doing what I do.

[00:07:25]
So, this communicating the sharing of, you know, my reflections, my thoughts, it's a big, big part of who I am. And I got to say a part of me was very relieved – I mean, I was very relieved – when I realized that I could actually join this love for sharing with a profession. You know, I used to think that this was something that I could only do on the side, maybe with friends, maybe in ministry, you know, outside of the real work that I need to do in my life.

[00:08:06]
And I never thought that it could expand to really be my life, you know – the totality of my life includes this part of myself in a very, very big way. And I'm so delighted to know that there's a place for me to be who I am. Now, there's another dimension of who I am, apart from, you know, from the sharing and the telling of stories and reflecting about this interior journey – is in systematizing, and really actively facilitating another person's process in making this journey, right.

[00:08:51]
And that's a part that I've been exploring in so many ways over the last decade, actually – how that's meant to come; am I meant to teach, you know? Am I meant to be an academic? Am I meant to go and train to be a spiritual director? Or to study theology and, you know, and inform people in, you know, in catechesis.

[00:09:17]
Right, so, because a big part of my life in the last decade was in full-time ministry within a parish within – I mean, within a church kind of context. So, I considered all that. And at each turn, as I continued to discover my call, I kept having the sense that no, you know, it's a bit of this, but not that, you know – a bit of this and not that.

[00:09:40]
And I was so afraid of becoming like a, you know, a Jack of all trades and a master of none. And I didn't realize until maybe the last year or so, after I had surrendered that fear. I mean, I've kind of like thought, like, you know, I'm not going to stop trying to make myself what I'm not just because I think being a specialist in one area is better or, you know, more professional or more legitimate than kind of having a network of, you know, a mishmash of – a mishmash of different things.

[00:10:15]
But in the last couple of years, especially as I expanded my toolbox in what I learned, in what I've been formed in myself. I have realized that there is a place for somebody with, you know, a gift of synthesis of different things and different aspects and how they come together as a whole and being able to see how things can come together in a particular way – for different individuals in the way that they need it to be.

[00:10:51]
One of the things I keep repeating in my content, is there is no one size fits all. There really is no one size fit all. And we all come from different places – we're at different parts of the journey. The way that we're wounded is very different.

[00:11:06]
So, what are the first principles in making the interior journey, regardless of what our wounds are, what our biases are, you know, where we are on the journey. That has always been my curiosity – what are the underlying first principles underneath, you know, making this interior journey. Accompanying people into, you know, fuller of life, right – into fuller life.

[00:11:35]
And I think the next little part I want to say is maybe a bit of a foreshadowing – that the last year and a half, right – as I started doing the work that I've been doing now in Becoming Me, and in Parrhesia; which is actually the company that I formed for my consultancy and coaching work.

[00:11:57]
And then a few months ago, this year, I set up Integrō Formation, which is actually now my main website, integroformation.com. It is the hub, you know, that kind of connects my content, as well as the services that I offer. So, I feel I have hunkered down in the digital space – for good or for or ill, but that's where I feel my call is, right – to embrace the digital space as the medium to deliver my messages and also the main medium through which I will speak, teach, facilitate, and coach.

[00:12:36]
And as all these pieces are coming together, I am finding a way to work with individuals who have come to the point where they say, okay, I've heard your content, and it speaks to me. I want to take action my own life. And you know, maybe I think that there's a piece that you can help me in, that you can help me with.

[00:12:57]
And I'm delighted to have experience doing this kind of work in a group container, in the course I've been teaching – in A Leader's Spirituality, but also in my one-on-one work.

[00:13:09]
So, next year I will be teaching one run of A Leader's Spirituality. Okay, and I'm not going to say very much about what that offer is. Because you can actually find a link from my website. But if you're someone, especially if you're a Catholic and you've been finding it difficult to integrate all the stuff that you know about your faith, okay –

[00:13:34]
– maybe you're quite well formed in your faith, in terms of intellectually – you've attended classes, formation classes – but you find that there's a disjoint between what you understand and how you can embody that faith, especially in the context of leadership. And this doesn't have to be you as a leader in a church kind of context or ministry.

[00:13:55]
It could be at work. It could be in your family, where you have some kind of a role in which, you know, you need to play – it as a responsibility. And you struggle with integrating playing that role as a leader with your identity as God's beloved. Okay, if that kind of speaks to you, I invite you to check out A Leader's Spirituality.

[00:14:19]
I will only be doing one run of this, next year. So, if you think at all that you might want to check it out, you can go to the website on which I will link to in – I think maybe below this video. You can find it from my integroformation.com website and register your interest with Catholic Leadership Centre.

[00:14:41]
So, because I'm offering the course through Catholic Leadership Centre. And as far as I know, right now, that would be still – maybe the main offering in terms of a course, where I can bring you systematically through teaching you certain frameworks and guiding you; how to connect with yourself and how to integrate the knowledge of your faith with lived faith.

[00:15:04]
And the second big way in which I'm going to be focusing on working with people is in the area of consultative coaching. But I call it "consultative coaching" because my style of working with you is not just asking questions, and kind of like holding space for you to discover what you need to discover –

[00:15:29]
– there is quite a big component, a teaching component when I work with you, even one-on-one. I will share with you knowledge that I feel is pertinent to the context that you're dealing with. I direct you to resources that would help you – that is not just with, you know, not just what I would provide. A big part of my work is connecting people with a variety of resources at the pace and at the time that they need it to make this interior journey.

[00:15:55]
So, I make recommendations. For some clients, also, there will be a mentoring component, right – where I share specifics of my own experience in growth and struggle that would help you where you are. Right, so, it's really a – it's a combination of things.

[00:16:16]
And I also use the Myers-Briggs instrument; that Step 2 version of that instrument, right – MBTI®, which is more than just the four letters. It's a lot more in-depth. I only use the in-depth version because for clients who work with me, you are interested, or they are interested in developing or growing in self-knowledge.

[00:16:36]
So, we need to go a little deeper because we're going to reflect on what is it that you're learning about yourself that you're comfortable or not comfortable about, why that might be and where in your life you've been aligned or misaligned with the temperament and personality that you have. Right, so, a more in-depth understanding of the personality and temperament that you have.

[00:16:56]
I also use the Motivation Code™, which has a different assessment and instrument that looks at what drives you. What are the motivational drives within you? What's the unique motivational flow that you have, and how do your motivational drives integrate, you know, in a very unique way in you. So, similarly as with the Myers-Briggs, I use this just as a tool for you to see a fuller version, a fuller picture of yourself. But also – and this is a very important thing – to see where you may struggle to be yourself, and to begin to invite you to maybe understand what are the scripts in your life that have made it such that you can't embrace the way that you were designed or the way that you're created.

[00:17:45]
Right, so all this is kind of me facilitating you to the process to begin that lifelong journey into a deeper walk with yourself and with God. Although I haven't really marketed my coaching service, I am, as of now, fully booked, in terms of my coaching capacity for, I think pretty much the first quarter of 2022.

[00:18:09]
I have updated my website with some information on how I work. So, the very first contact, if anyone is interested in doing one-on-one work with me is a one-off consultation called an Explorative Integrative Life Consultation.

[00:18:27]
Right, so this one is a 90-minute session, okay. I will give you some questions to think about before the session. There are no strings attached, it's prepaid. And at the end of the session, we will have an assessment as to what would make sense to be the next step for you, okay? And sometimes, with quite a few people, I mean, the next step is not something that I can do, or I can help you with, right.

[00:18:52]
But I can direct you and maybe suggest to you what your next step would be – that would really be fruitful for you. If the next step would be something that I can help you with – because I have a particular, you know, particular array of, you know, service or ability that I have – then you will be invited to sign a coaching agreement with me and we'll enter into a coaching relationship of at least 8 to 10 sessions so that there can be a systematic progress for you.

[00:19:25]
So, I've experimented with this in the last year. There hadn't been any packages that are used in the last year, but I have arrived at knowing now, you know, what are the steps that would best carry someone through a particular area of their journey into knowing yourself better and what you're struggling with.

[00:19:46]
And so that subsequent of that first eight to 10 sessions, whether you're working with me or someone else, you will have something more solid to come back to in terms of knowing who you are. Okay, I'm not saying that you're going to be crystal clear just after those 8 to 10 sessions with me, but you can be a lot clearer as to what –

[00:20:09]
– what your motivations are, what personality and the temperament you have, and how to understand the struggles that you have – whether it's at work or in life and in relationship, et cetera – in light of the way that you are and learning how to lean into that design rather than resisting it, and how to grow in maturity and become more balanced while honouring the unique temperament, personality or motivational profile that you have.

[00:20:36]
So, that's kind of like, I'm just happy to share with you what I've discovered in terms of the way that I will work and continue to grow my work. So, keeping all of you in my prayers as well in your life, and all the transitions that are happening in your lives. May you also find pockets of spaces to just, you know, be still, be silent and remember who you are.

[00:21:01]
And remember that you are still becoming and to not give up no matter how difficult this journey is. God be with you.

[00:21:11] CONCLUSION
Thank you for listening to Becoming Me, where new episodes drop every first and third Wednesdays of the month. Remember, the most important thing about making this journey is to keep taking steps in the right direction. No matter how small those steps might be, and no matter where you might be in your life right now, it is always possible to begin. 

The world would be a poorer place without you becoming more fully alive. Don't forget to visit my website at becomingmepodcast.com and to subscribe to my newsletter as well as to this podcast. Until the next episode, Happy becoming!