Do I need more certifications?

“Do I need to get another certification before I can hang out my shingle and get paid for this? I feel like I need to take another course.”

My BFF Holly asked me this the other day. 

Let me give you a little background on her, so you can guess what I answered:

*She has a B.A. in Fine Art, a Master's in Counseling from Harvard, and just got a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. (Now I get to call her “Dr. BFF”). 

*She's trained in Spiritual Direction, and regularly taught a Spiritual Formation class at a large church in Houston –so popular that they turned it into a podcast.

*At least one member of the Houston Astros calls her regularly for emotional & spiritual guidance.

*She's worked as an artist, designer, healer, therapist, and educator for years, while raising three beautiful boys and working to promote racial justice & equity in her city.

Now she wants to start a coaching practice to help people who've experienced spiritual/church trauma, and want to safely navigate their spiritual side now that their old faith no longer “fits." 

–But suddenly Holly the B.A./M.A./Ph.D/S.D. is sure she needs just a few more letters behind her name before she can start doing the work in her own coaching practice.

Sigh.

“I think you're just putting it off, Holly.”

“You're right, you're right… I'm just nervous… OK I'll do it. –But first I'll need to spend a few months developing a curriculum for my clients, fleshing that out and making audio & trainings & a bunch of other tools."

“Ughghghgh, I'm about to get all business-coach-y on you, Holly.”

“Bring it, Jane.”

“Let me ask you this: if your ideal client called you and said, 'I really need you to help me, but I can only do ONE session with you. Tell me the concepts you want me to know,'… WHAT would be those few main ideas you'd want to cover, if you only had an hour to teach it all? There's your curriculum. Now repurpose material you've already taught or covered on your podcast to go into more depth. Add some sessions, and you've got yourself a Coaching Package.”

“Oh man. I was just trying to over-complicate it again, wasn't I?”

“Yep. We're friends because we both get what it feels like to be an overthinker.”

“This is great. I'm going to go for it.”

“Awesome. You're ready, Holly. Can I turn this into a blog post?”

“You bet, Jane.”

Fear is super sneaky. It can shapeshift into overthinking, perfectionism, distraction, fatigue, over-complicating, over-planning, and a sudden desire for extra certifications and degrees (that is, beyond the required ones for your profession).

This is why I like to keep asking the questions (as you may have seen in the Soulful Solopreneur workbook) “How can this be easier?” and even, “How can this be fun?”.

These questions don't just strip away the extra layers of suffering you may have wrapped your project in; they compel you to go ahead and take action.

What's your favorite way to postpone taking action? 

(My current, cold-weather version is to futz around with the logs in my woodstove until the fire is just right).

What's something you need to take action on? 

How can you make it simpler?

You've got this. It's time to do something. Myself and “Dr. BFF” agree. 

-Jane