Reflections on perfectionism and my new Health Coach education

Life lately has been intense in many different ways and I’m juggling lots of emotions and big decisions at the moment. In this whirlwind of things, I made a big decision to invest in myself a few weeks ago. As you might already know, I am a health enthusiast and over the years, I’ve become more and more interested in not only nutrition but also how all parts in life relate to each other and how they impact your overall health and wellbeing. Cause in all honesty, we all just want to be happy right, but I’ve oftentimes felt frustrated of how hard it can be (or simple maybe if you have the right keys?). My early thirties have been a constant quest of searching for what makes me happy, what I want to do in life and how to feel fulfilled – a constant rollercoaster that sometimes drains me completely. Over this journey, there has been an education coming back to me over and over again, and that is the Health Coach Training Program from Institute of Integrative Nutrition and I finally took a leap and enrolled to it a few weeks ago. I keep getting questions on what I’m going to do with the education, but in all honesty, I don’t know yet. For once, I’m trying to trust the process and simply follow my curiosity. Maybe I will do health coaching in some form moving forward, but it could also be that this education is purely for my own personal development…. or something I don’t really know yet. As a person who loves to have control, this is for sure a challenging approach, but I’ve realized, I just need to try and do something differently.

I’ve always loved to learn new things and studying has always come natural to me. However, I haven’t always studied in a sustainable way. In hindsight, I’ve dedicated so much of my life to studies during my youth, traded fun for pure discipline and good grade. I think we all can agree that discipline in its essence a good thing, but it can also go overboard. I oftentimes wonder why I always studied so hard and I always come back to perfectionism and the ‘good girl syndrome’. I still struggle a lot with this even though it’s better today. At work for example, I oftentimes challenge myself to do good enough and to not strive for perfection, but it’s a constant inner battle. Constantly striving for perfection is not healthy and in my opinion I think it connects a lot to self-worth – what if I don’t deliver perfection, am I still good enough? The answer is of course yes, but the difficulty is to really feel this within.

With this education I hope to be able to dive into topics like this even further to challenge my perspectives in order to help myself, but hopefully also others in the future. The education is a 1-year program and I study about 8-10 hours per week so far. I’m only one month in, so I’m hoping to share more about the program later on 😊 But so far, it’s really exciting and I love how it views health in such a holistic way – not only looking into physical health but also emotional, mental and spiritual health. We talk about so many things beyond nutrition such as how your finances, your career and your creativity impacts your overall health. Naturally, there is also a big element of coaching to help you get the needed skills to support others in their transformation towards their health and wellness goals.

Since I left university, I’ve always had a feeling that I would study again and that I wanted to do it in a different way. Now the time has come for that, and with that, I’ve made a few promises to myself.

  • I will settle for good enough – naturally I need to pass my tests etc. my I will do my utmost to not be an overachiever.
  • I will follow what is fun and compelling to me – I don’t have to be an expert on everything. One of my intentions with the program is to find what is most exciting for me within the wellness space and lean into that more.
  • Make studying a nice ritual – I want to romanticize the moments of studying by sitting at a nice café, enjoying a cup of matcha etc.

Can you relate to my thoughts above? If you want to learn more about the program, I’m happy to share more, simply connect with me on Instagram.

Lots of love ❤