I’ve finally started my journey towards earning my Certificate as a Life Coach! To say that I am very excited would be an understatement. I wish I had the courage to record my celebratory dance moves and share it with you. However, I can assure you that I will one day gather enough courage make this a reality.
When I begun my Co-Active Training last year, I was just about to embark on our fourth Half Way Cycle Event to raise funding in order for Lifesong Kenya to start providing a halfway house for male youth who exit prison without having a place to call home. My journey to becoming a life coach began in the most absurd of ways.
My desire to become a life coach started after I began going to prison and realized I needed more skills to compliment my work in prison. Through my training with Co-Active Training Institute, I am able to fulfill this dream. Not only am I developing a Coaching Program for our prison program, I am also able to earn income as a coach.
It all begun with buttons!
It all begun with buttons
Well, my journey to becoming a life coach actually begins in 2012 It was July when I first went to Nairobi Remand, Industrial Area Prison and met 100 male teenagers at Block D. I had a lot of reasons why I didn’t want to engage with them. But, I saw a reflection of myself when I was around 13 to 21 years old and needed a father-figure, an adult male role model.
And because I immidiatelt discovered and identified with what they desperately needed, I wanted to run in the opposite direction. I eventually started running by pushing their needs to other people and organizations that were already working in prison. But, I realized I was the right person for the job – I wish I had come to terms with this sooner than later. That way, I would have avoided the heart ache and disappointments that I had had to shoulder for the past 9 years or so.
I quit my job as an untrained TV Producer a few months after I first went prison. Overwhelmed by love and compassion for the boys, their families and the people they had wronged, I decided to quit my job in order to focus on developing a restorative justice program. To earn income, I decided to grow a Reading Club, learn how to create content and design websites.
Co-Active Training Changed My Life
A year later, the proverbial rubber met the road. I started facing numerous challenges, needed a place to stay and food. In addition to going to prison, I also started going to Dagoretti Girls Rehabilitation Centre where one day, children from Oshwal Academy came to visit us. Since they brought adult clothes that were dirty and old, we decided to get the most our of them bu harvesting buttons from them. And for a very long time, buttons sustained my dream of becoming a life coach.
As I sewed torn clothes and replaced buttons for girls at the rehab centre, I started affirming them and speaking into their lives. I asked them questions and engaged them in ways that inspired them to reach out for greatness. Then I would do the same thing with the other children and young people that I met through my work with Lifesong Kenya.
Being part of the Co-Active Training changed everything for me.
I noticed immediately during my first session, that most of the individuals on the training were leading organizations or companies where they had been thriving. Here I was, a broken man from Africa who had quit a job he didn’t train for to work without pay for the past 9 years!
Having faced stigma and rejection due to my work in prison, I didn’t think it was anything spectacular. But through interactions with peer coaches and front room leaders I was able to have a new perspective. I especially liked the Leader Within and found lots of value in it.
Forging ahead with hope
The training renewed my conviction that I had spent 9 years of my life doing something amazing. I also got the courage to rent out a facility that our team is turning into a halfway house for male youth who need transitional housing.
I may struggle to raise funding every month for Lifesong Kenya, and I may doubt my sanity every once in awhile. But I am certain of one thing. The male youth who will stay at our halfway house will benefit from the skills I am gaining through Co-Active Training Institute. They will also have access to the best coaches in the world such as Lucinda Davies, Anna Fraser, Clara Davies, Nick Stubbs and many more.
This will enable them to exit our program with more courage, clarity and the conviction. In the end, they will to treat women and girls with honor, respect and dignity. I am looking forward to an amazing certification journey ahead. Here’s a photo from our halfway house vegetable garden. I welcome you one day to visit and eat from the fruits of our labour of love. Let me end this here before I end up writing a whole book, alright?
I am a Teens and Youth Life Coach specializing in guiding teenagers, young people and their parents to develop resilience, discipline, motivation, and sense of self-worth. I am passionate about individuals finding clarity, courage and the conviction they need in all areas of their lives.
Check out our Born for Greatness website and learn more