A purposeful life
I am a certified life coach and mentor with 9 years’ experience as a life coach, delivering life coaching services across countries and continents.
My coaching is supported by over 45 years’ experience in corporate life, participating, leading and steering in major change initiatives, often involving technology-driven transformation.
My why? To help people to live purposeful lives, enabling personal transformations and empowerment.
WHAT IS A PURPOSEFUL LIFE?
The field of positive psychology informs us that many of our problems are not the result of deep, inner conflicts or emotional disorders. Rather, we experience stress and distress when our lives lack such positive ingredients as happiness, fulfilment, and energy.
According to Professor Victor J. Strecher, (2016) there are two distinct sources of happiness: Hedonistic and Eudaimonic.
Hedonistic happiness is the happiness derived from the pleasure we derive from the “good things in life” – beauty, good food, drink etc. This source of happiness, rewarding ourselves with a burst of dopamine, is short-lived.
Eudaimonic happiness, on the other hand, is the happiness one finds when they have developed a deep understanding of themselves and are living in harmony with that understanding.
He argues that people motivated by eudemonic goals report greater overall quality of life in terms of satisfaction, self-esteem and positive feelings than those who achieved hedonistic goals.
Similarly, Japanese psychologist Michiko Kumano (2017) describes these two types of happiness and argues that ikigai is aligned with eudaimonic happiness, leading to the highest and most lasting form of happiness.
This has been playing on my mind throughout my journey as a life coach and as a result led me to research a number of Life Purpose discovery methods, including Ikigai.
Ikigai is a Japanese word originating from the island of Okinowa and it refers to the lifestyle of Okinowa residents who appear to live a longer active life – sometimes up to 120 years or more, owing at least in part to being engaged in purposeful life pursuits.In the words of Michiko Kumano, Ikigai “entails actions of devoting oneself to pursuits one enjoys and is associated with feelings of accomplishment and fulfillment”. (Kumano, 2018).
The Ikigai approach suggests that you can live a purposeful life by aligning your strengths, your values, and your contribution to society with how you make a living.
PURPOSEFUL LIFE COACHING
Most people have not yet found a clear Life Purpose, but they still want to live their lives in a purposeful way – living each day in a happy, fulfilling and energy-filled way. Ultimately, for many this is the right way to discover their life purpose – to lead a purposeful life, filled with happiness and energy, and in doing so their life purpose will start to emerge.
But in both cases, I believe the process is the same, to understand your roots, who you are at your core, to discover and plan concrete goals and objectives and to live each day in a purposeful and “intentful” way.
With this in mind, I have developed (and continue to develop) a collection of online “toolboxes” that I introduce to clients who want to live a purposeful life, as a support guide for homework between coaching discussions.
If you’d like to learn more, book a free coaching session!
WHAT MY CLIENTS SAY ABOUT ME
At one point in my career, I was looking to define my purpose and identify a career path that would allow me to work in a field aligned with my purpose and my skills. And this is when I met Graham Honeywill. I had worked with several coaches before and Graham was able to help me bring it all together and define from within my Life Purpose. Graham used the Ikagai method as a framework for our work together. He gave me some preparatory work to do ahead of our sessions and then during our calls he geared the discussion in a way to allow me to find the answers to my questions in a very natural and almost obvious way. The experience was enlightening and powerful. Graham has many qualities useful for efficiently coaching. He has a significant and long corporate experience, he is not only a great listener, but he is also aware and up to date of the latest strategies and developments of relevant industry champions. He always connects your life experience and questions with those industry champions to make you see the overall picture while keeping the details in mind. Graham has a noncommercial approach to his coaching activity and he does not put any pressure to try to impose a number of coaching sessions. In addition, he is very generous with his time and for my sessions we always went beyond the pre-agreed session length to deepened and complete the discussion. I highly recommend working with Graham to assist you in finding your life purpose and to answer the questions we all ask ourselves at one point in our career and our life. Graham can really have a long-lasting positive impact on your personal growth and development.
Graham was the first person who listened and asked me fundamental questions in regards to who am I, what I want to do and what I am going to do with the rest of my life. Now I am a step further, figuring out how to get the word around that I am available to work by recording my cello playing to most unique projects. What Graham does, as a mentor, coach, as a friend, as an amazing human being, in Growthroom and in all of his other projects – is truly unique and it restored my faith in people. I recommend to everyone to book a one on one coaching session with Graham.
I’m a mentee in EntryPoint Program. Attending your workshop led me to review my life with different perspectives. I truly appreciate what you taught and shared with us.
Graham has worked for Hiab from March 2017 to June 2018 with a variety of assignments. His latest task was to act as project manager for Hiab´s global ISO re-certification program commenced in October 2017 and closed in July 2018. The project was by nature complex with a very tight timeline, close to mission impossible. The set up worked across all Hiab’s business lines and also involved external advisors and notification bodies. Graham exercised excellent coordination and communication skills and he showed extraordinary professionalism completing the project meeting all set targets and deliverables. In my opinion as project owner, Graham reaches his full potential in the mid-layer of strategic targets and operational execution when project team members need frequent support and guidance. He provides clarity and structure to complex processes.
Graham is a great communicator and project manager. At home with ambiguity, quick to grasp details but always looking at the big picture. Business, customer and stakeholder focussed and adaptable. He has a strong results orientation, especially strong with change management and getting results delivered through people and teams.
Graham is an excellent facilitator and organiser – with a strong customer focus and plenty of experience. If you want to get something done, with lasting results, I can recommend Graham.
“Graham is visionary, energetic and goal oriented. He has strong facilitation skills with an ability to bring people together”
“Very useful experience, led to clear goal setting (and achievements) but also made me aware of aspects of life to be thankful for.”
Graham’s life coaching sessions were a great help when I wanted to clarify my business and life goals and dreams. The coaching made me step out of my comfort zone, and that truly is the area where the magic happens. The tasks Graham gave me helped me in my personal change process. The sessions genuinely helped me explore my different career and life opportunities. Graham inspired me to expand my career and life vision of what is possible and to take courageous challenges to move to the direction that I wanted. I can warmly recommend Graham as a life coach. He’s very warm and experienced. Also he’s a very good listener.
Through Amberbuzz Life Coaching I now have the tools I need to steer my career based my values, not just for the sake of doing it!
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