Hi, my name is Billy and I am a life coach. I forget that not everybody who reads these writings knows me. A life coach in general works with people who want to improve “life performance” as one would with a sports coach. Obviously this is a wide category of things but specifically for me, I work a lot with suffering.
I work with suffering a lot because the single biggest change I experienced as a human being was overcoming my own suffering. I kept my job, my personality, my anything and everything exactly the same and just stopped suffering. Turns out, life is kinda cool when I’m not in my own way.
I work with people 1:1 and also run a group coaching program centered around removing suffering. One of the containers inside the group coaching program is the business coaching program where I work with entrepreneurs of various fields to help them run a happy business.
I’m not interested in helping people run a business that makes a lot of money. I think there are better teachers for that. My entire premise is, even if you make 5$ I want you to make it happily. Money is an important part of life and I think more of us deserve to make it in a happy way.
In that effort I occasionally run a public-facing program that’s open to everyone. The most recent program was called Launch Pad. On the surface this program looked like a practicum of my online course about using Reddit as a coaching platform. People joined expecting a technical overview of the platform and strategies around conversion and such, but I think those are secondary to founding a happy business.
A happy business starts from a self-aware, mindful founder. A founder who is open and honest to themselves is confident in the face of a potential client call. A founder who is aware does not shrink in the face of criticism. They can get to work regardless of how they feel, and fearlessly focuses on benefitting others through their work. The Launch Pad program was focused on activities that build this specific muscle.
Happiness doesn’t come completely for free, though. It comes at the cost of letting go of what you thought to be true, what you considered to be “good”, and comfort among other things. It’s a tall order for anybody to do this kind of work for a week, but I had people do it for 4 weeks. They just had their commencement this morning.
One person joined and went through with the program even when their first language wasn’t English. They completed the work in both Korean and English. Another person had a car accident during the program but they still participated on the days they can. One person did 324 bows on top of the daily quests and came out on top. Each participant redefined what it means to be successful for them.
I do my work first and foremost because I believe in the value of my work. And as I looked into the faces of everyone who completed this program I just felt so tremendously proud of them. As much as they like to attribute their success to me, I wouldn’t be the coach I am without them.
But this is just one sample point in the grand trajectory of my coaching practice. I currently have and have had so many clients who walked the difficult path of finding complete freedom from suffering. Each and every one of them, I am proud of. They are often times older than me but in the eyes of the dharma they are like my children.
Not everybody makes it out of my coaching and many eject themselves for whatever reason. But even for them I feel proud of their ability to stand their ground and do whatever makes sense for them. The more I look at things to be proud of, the more I find them and when I’m surrounded by things I’m proud of, I find myself proud of me.
On this Valentine’s day perhaps the most important kind of love is pride for your being. Just by virtue of existence I am proud of you. You are living your life in the best way you can, you’re trying to figure things out, and you’re opening doors to tomorrow with hope. Some problems may take a bit longer to solve, but you’re engaging with it like a champion.
If you’ve recently joined my world of writings, welcome. I can’t wait to be proud of the changes you will make in your life through reading my words.
Billy Seol
July Life Coach
julylifecoach.com
