Life coach Mary Schiller argues that most people ignore their inner voice and follow external strategies that don't feel right, leading to lower joy and income. She urges listeners to "follow the fun" and choose work that aligns with passion, like writing and video creation, rather than chasing constant social media posting.
Hi there, it's Mary, and I am sitting here on the floor of my living room here in France because I wanted to have a different kind of conversation with you. And you may hear some children in the background because I live across from a school. You may hear the occasional car go by. We're just going to let it all happen because this is just the way life is. And I was inspired to come on because of a comment that someone made in one of my courses on Insight Timer. The person made a comment that one of my courses really made them stop and think about how they had been living their life, whether they were listening to themselves or not, and acting accordingly. And it was like some kind of light bulb went on for the person. Saying, you know, that's what it means to live an authentic life, is listening to myself, acting on what I'm hearing, and going forward from there. What I have seen over all my years of coaching people, whether it was life coaching or business coaching, but particularly as I have done business coaching, is that people are not listening to themselves. They are listening to everyone else but themselves, it seems to me. The fact is, there are millions, literally millions, I do think it's millions, of strategies that you can try to have a wonderful coaching business. But you know what? The strategies don't mean anything if you aren't living a life that feels like you, if you're not filling your time with things that you enjoy doing. So, for example, if you run across someone who is teaching a strategy that uses advertising and it makes it look like, oh, this is the shortcut, this is what you need to do. And yet in your heart of hearts, in your gut, you're feeling like, I don't want to spend money on ads. I don't want to do this, but you do it anyway. That's not being authentic. And I'm speaking from experience because over these past several years, I started as a professional coach in 2016. I have gone in those directions from time to time myself. And you know what's happened every single time I have not listened to myself and I have followed someone's advice that really didn't feel good to me? I didn't enjoy myself at all. I didn't enjoy myself. And you know what else happened? Yes, I helped people. I still managed to make some money and things like that. But generally, my income declined. But way more important than that, my quality of my daily life declined. I found myself doing a lot of tasks every day that were not fun, weren't enjoyable, had nothing to do with my actual strengths. That were, you know, yes, a little bit challenging because I was learning something new, but not in a fun way. And that's what it's all about for me. You know, for years I have had this saying, follow the fun. And what I've meant by that is we need to follow the fun that is in our heart. We need to allow ourselves this freedom of expression like we had when we were children. When we were given a piece of paper and a bunch of crayons and we made a beautiful picture just out of our own glorious creativity, that's all still available to us. It's all still there. We have just learned to push it down to the point where it's sometimes difficult to hear that it's even present, let alone access it and use it. At this point, you may be saying, okay, Mary, I hear what you're saying. That I need to listen to myself. I need to act on what I hear. I need to listen to inspiration, follow the fun. But what if I just don't know what to do? What if I just don't know what to do? Well, whenever somebody says that, I think what they're really saying is that they are afraid to do what they want to do. I really think that's what it's about. I can relate to that. But here's the thing. Life is about doing things that sometimes feel uncomfortable, that sometimes are like, ooh, can I really do this? There's an excitement there, but there's also a little bit of fear in the background. I find that the most exhilarating way to live because it means that I don't know what's going to happen next. I don't know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow, let alone this afternoon. And I find that really exciting and fulfilling and interesting and fun. And it's why I work for myself instead of being in a cubicle job where things are the same every single day. I mean, goodness gracious, what a bore. That's not how we're made. And people are not made to do the same thing day after day after day after day. So if you want to work for yourself, if you want to be a coach or whatever kind of entrepreneur you want to be, It's time to embrace this sense that you can do anything you want to do. There are no rules here. There are no limits on what you can do or how you can do it, because the answer isn't in the specific how. The answer is in listening to yourself and acting from there, even if it looks completely nutty, like you can't even believe what kinds of ideas are coming to you. You are allowed to express yourself. You're allowed to be who you are and to be that fullest expression of you. As a quick personal example, I've recently realized once again that what actually lights me up is giving live talks. I love talking to people in that kind of setting. I just find it really, really fun. I also like using my voice with audio and video as well as in my writing. Those are the ways that I like to express myself. I am not personally interested in appearing on social media every day. It's just not what I enjoy doing. No, not happening. So You can find another way. I'm recording this video tomorrow. I'm giving a live talk to a bunch of wonderful people. I'm creating audio courses for Insight Timer and making money that way. I am working on new book projects. I use platforms where people can find me 24/7 without my story disappearing in 24 hours. Like YouTube, like Amazon, like Insight Timer. That is what works for me. That is what I enjoy. You may not like any of those things, but the fact is you have to start from what you love. This is your life we're talking about. This isn't some fantasy. This is real. This is you. This is how you are spending your precious time. And let's not forget, Time is not a renewable resource. We only have so much. Spend it doing what you love to do. There's always a way to move in the direction of success, whatever that looks like for you, that lights you up, that is the fullest expression of who you are. And that is my dream for you. Thanks for watching. Please subscribe. I'll talk to you again soon. Bye for now.
