In this solo monologue for his "Start Your Day with the Coach" series, Certified High‑Performance Coach Shawn Butt ner reflects on the recent anniversary of his mother’s 60th birthday and uses the occasion to discuss how grief can serve as a catalyst for personal growth. He recounts how his mother’s death eight years ago prompted a period of deep questioning that eventually led him to leave a tech career and become a coach in 2019. Butt ner argues that loss can either trap a person in stagnation or be transformed into fuel for reprioritising life, clarifying purpose, and pursuing passion. He offers a set of reflective questions—about living one’s truth, happiness, and engagement—to help listeners assess whether they are aligned with their values. He cautions that severe grief may require professional mental‑health support, emphasizing there is no shame in seeking help. The talk concludes with a gentle promotion of his coaching services at shopwater.com/coaching and a teaser of upcoming offerings, encouraging listeners to apply the discussed reflections toward building a more meaningful life.
Chapters
Start your day with the Coach, the show where we talk about topics and habits to help you perform at your best as your coach, as your coach. Sean Butner Certified High Performance COACH I just wanted to start off this week switching it up a little bit and just talking a little bit about the power of grief. Because this past weekend it would have been my mom's, I think, 60th birthday. She had passed away eight years ago now, which is insane. I think I thought it was six. I don't know. It's been a while. But, you know, there's power in grief. And I wanted to do a video because if we take a look at what's happened this past year, there's been a lot of loss across the board for a lot of folks and family members and in jobs and doing things that we love. And we can either get stuck there and let that feeling consume us of we can't do X, we can't do whatever, or we can, you know, use that as fuel and energy to reprioritize, to really reflect, to really understand what we want out of life and to really get at building the lives that we want. You know, it's, you know, from my experience, it's why I'm a coach in a lot of ways, because when I got certified, I thought I was going to go into management and I should have some extra skills to help teammates and build high performance teams. And then the stuff happened with my mom and then I did the first certification and I, I think when things end with, you know, relationships or, or important people, when they die or they leave or whatever, it can really make you feel lost. I know I did. And so thinking about what did I want to do with my life, Did I really want to continue with tech? Did I really want to, you know, what did I want to do to make an impact in the world? You know, for me and coaching came along and I'm like, oh, this is it. This is my thing. And then it was years and years of plotting to move into coaching, trying to make it happen, and then eventually making the jump in 2019. So quite a while after my mom passed. But that moments of reflection of, am I making the most out of my life? Am I focusing on what's really important to me? You know, times of loss and grief can really empower you to change. And so that's why I wanted to bring this up, because I think, you know, I'm not a psychologist, so if you are struggling with grief, like you can't get out of bed and stuff you definitely should go talk to a mental health professional, and there's no shame in that. But if you just don't know, you have this heavy heart, you don't know what to do with it. You know, it's worth taking that cue and slowing down. So a couple of questions that I think are really helpful just in a general, like, what's your life purpose thing? Which is a really big brush to paint, but, you know, is it. Are you living your truth currently? And are you, you know, engaged with your life? Are you happy overall? Right. You know, there could be stressful moments, but overall, are you enjoying what's going on and if not, what needs to change? You know, I think, you know, my mom was always wanting to be like, find your passion. She's always wanted to be, you know, just be a good person. She's always, you know, be curious, read. You know, she was a very avid reader. Did not like school, but got into reading and absolutely just loved to learn about different things, different people, different ideas. And so, you know, that was really instilled into my brother and I, and it was always also find the silver lining in things, which is why I think this video is a little bit aligned with that. So to kind of honor her. And. And, you know, the questions go along with, how can you show up as a better person? How can you be more curious about the world? How can you, you know. You know, are you living your passion? Are you living your truth? Are you. Are you doing what's making you happy? Especially if it's work because you spend so much dang time there. So, yeah, I think a lot of us have experienced loss, and I think especially again recently, and we continue to, you know, it's part of the human experience, so we can't shake that, but we can accept it as part of the. You know, this happens in life. It's inevitable for everyone. Not maybe the best rousing motivational speech in the morning for you, but it's something that I think, you know, we all have so much time here. We all have our own gifts, our own perspectives, our own ways that we can contribute, that we can leave the world better, you know, for the future than we had it. So, yeah, reflect, you know, ask your. I hope you're asking yourselves these questions a lot anyways, but just reflect and, yeah, get after what is really important to you. Okay? So that said, guys, if you do need help trying to figure out how you can contribute more, you can always go to shopwater.com backslash coaching. That's still up have a couple of cool things in the works that I'll tease out a bit more as it gets more concrete, as I start to launch some stuff. So I hope you'll be excited with me on that, and we'll see you guys tomorrow. Okay. Take care, my friends.
