From holding back to bold pursuits - How Ritu realised her creative vision

"I felt confused and out of touch with myself before starting coaching with Simone. I felt that I had mostly progressed in my career based on intuition and could not present myself authentically.

I lacked the confidence to speak the truth. I mainly was complying with acceptable norms. I was conflicted in undermining myself to honour the needs and expectations of the world.”

With this huge, entangled ball of confusion, I landed in coaching.”

Ritu Bhardwaj is a filmmaker and photographer working at the intersection of sustainability and media production. Her work has been at the forefront of issues related to climate and social justice around the world. She’s the founder of a collective of independent artists in India called Common Thread Media crafting narratives for mindful growth. She is also a steering team member at Survival Media Agency.

Ritu wanted to be more confident and assertive in pursuing her creative ideas for documentary projects in the social and climate justice space. She was looking for coaching to support her in asserting her needs and goals.

Ritu re-counts her coaching journey:

“Simone was kind and attentive. Going through my needs assessment form, we identified three significant goals together:

1) Be more assertive and confident.

2) Have more focus and priorities for my career goals.

3) Honour my needs.

We started my coaching journey by assessing my beliefs and self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviours that hold me back. Simone then tailored the subsequent few sessions to identifying the root causes of these beliefs and how we could bring a shift in them.

Over the six sessions, we worked intimately together to identify deep-rooted emotions that caused limiting beliefs and replaced them with positive ones. Simone helped me bury my past trauma and identify patterns and provided me with practical tools and affirmations to progress.

I realised that my energy was scattered because of my scarcity mindset. I constantly worked hard and was burning out in the process. This was a critical eye-opener. And for the first time in my life, when I was offered to choose from 7 work opportunities, I chose to take a break instead. It was very empowering. It was my first win from coaching.

Working on my self-sabotaging behaviours helped me become more assertive and speak the truth in more situations. For the longest time, I felt that people did not care about my needs. I now realise that people respond positively to my needs when I put them across in a rational manner without evolving emotions like pity or agitation.

I have seen a significant shift in how I perceive the world, how I respond to it and how people react to me after coaching.

I see coaching as a 'silence' between my perception and response. And this silence brings all the change. Taking a pause between what happens and how I respond to it radically transforms the outcomes of a situation. Simone has helped me build a more loving relationship with myself. When I am happy and loving within, I can share it with others.

To count the tangible outcomes, I was able

• To work on my dream farm project this year, which is near completion.

• To slow down in terms of work and achievement aspects of my life.

• To see success beyond work.

• To take a break and live in a forest for a month.

• To correct people when they were trying to project their ideas / visions onto me.

I feel more centred and confident with Simone's help.

I no longer feel the need to control life. I am happy to flow with grace and confidence.

All this was possible because Simone held a safe space for me to share my deep and dark emotions. She helped me work through them and gave me practical tools for different situations. Her objective view of things, subtle humour, and kindness kept me engaged and committed throughout the coaching process. I particularly enjoyed the meditation sessions with her as they allowed me to tap into my core. And she kept me accountable during the process.”

Ritu recognized that the cultural norms, past experiences and societal expectations she grew up with were holding her back from pursuing her professional goals. Through coaching, she adopted new behaviours that reflected the person she wants to be today and used these to make the changes in her professional life.

If you’re ready to make changes in your professional life, book a free 45-minute discovery call to discuss your challenge.