Living with Peace, Joy and Courage
I was living the dream. To any observer, confidence was my hallmark. I had a law degree, a happy marriage, beautiful family and a successful career as a legal marketing executive with a large staff. Financially, I was living comfortably and could travel and volunteer. I appeared to be focused and “purpose-driven”.
The thing is, the “purpose” I was driving was simply holding my life illusion together, which had nothing to do with my authentic self. Over-achieving was all I knew. “No problem, I got this!” was my natural response as a pleaser, not realizing at first that my own needs were crashing to the ground faster than ever before despite my crazy pace managing and maintaining it all – at work and at home.
Whatever was thrown my way, I would figure out. Until at one point I couldn’t.
Getting caught up with the external validation that came from making others proud, happy, satisfied (whatever the expectations) once fed a need of mine. I recognized a shift happening within me – the self-inflicted need to be everything to everyone was taking its toll. No matter how much I pushed to achieve, I still felt empty and unfulfilled. Hopeless.
Slowly and forcibly, I was feeling anything but courageous. While making everyone else’s needs a priority, often justifiably as my daughter was struggling with significant mental health issues, I became very risk-averse, narrowing my life into a tiny channel. I was basically imploding, on the verge of giving up, accepting that this was my life.
Corporate life was draining my life force. Persistent levels of high stress, constant change and instability, longer and longer hours, office politics and always being connected to a device became my norm. In the myopic view of my life, there didn’t seem to be another way. Looking around I saw my colleagues struggling too. Yet I didn’t feel that I had a choice.
I sunk deeper. Internally I was exhausted, coping, paralyzed and frantic all at the same time all the while on the outside I maintained the facade of calm and confident. I even began suffering from auto-immune issues. It wasn’t until I was jolted awake from a crisis with my daughter’s mental health that I knew in every cell of my body that this is it – something must change in a big way. I was nearing 50 and began feeling like I was running out of time to make real change. It was now or never.
I needed alignment – with myself, my values, my passions and all that was deeply important to me. As educated and successful as I was, I didn’t have a logical way to proceed. I found myself asking, “Is this all there is to my life?!”, not having a clue where or how to start on a different path. By the grace of everything I knew, my intuition and wisdom saved me.
Fast forward to now:
I’m Greta Kjos – here to tell you: This is NOT all there is to life!
My history of feeling lost, stressed and exhausted are now just that: history. History is a great teacher of awareness and now I have tools for change whenever past patterns that don’t serve me come up. After my personal wake-up call and seemingly nowhere to go but up, I made some courageous choices, taking some baby steps, then larger steps toward a life I imagined was possible. I left my well-paying career of 22 years, went through extensive leadership and life coaching training to become a Certified Life & Leadership Coach, and now coach individuals and teams to be courageous and make the choices that serve them more holistically and completely.
I dove head first into reclaiming my authentic self, while recovering from the illusion I was living that left me emotionally spent. Slowly I was able to rescue the very parts of me that allowed me to stand in my truth, which had a profound impact on those I touched.
My “purpose driven” life has now taken on a completely new spirited energy. I am embracing my “labels” – mother, grandmother, speaker, author, business leader, entrepreneur, Reiki practitioner, to name a few – with a new vibrant lens! I’ve implemented the self-discovery tools attained during my coaching certification training with Coach For Life as a lifestyle. This coaching program, fully accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), supports my goals as a lifelong learner, and gives me cutting-edge tools to use as a service to my clients.
As a spiritual warrior with powerful wisdom and intuition, I created the beautiful life that was waiting for me all along. I evoked my power from within using a blend of self-mastery, compassion, confidence, courage and more. These same experiences, beliefs, emotions, intuition and knowingness were used to develop my one-of-a-kind life and leadership coaching packages, workshops, retreats, Tide Pool Talks (launching in April 2021)… and to write my first book, I am the Ocean, which will be coming out in late 2021!
Are you ready to wake up to your magnificence? To find peace and joy regardless of the stress and chaos around you? To be the best you as a leader? To live the life that you are meant to live?
I’m here to support you.
In addition to my roles as a national speaker, author, workshop facilitator, retreat leader and the owner two businesses: this coaching business and Heart + Sol Adventures (check it out!), I’m also certified in Reiki II and mindfulness. Following a life-long calling to live near the ocean, in the Fall of 2020 I packed up my belongings and moved to Oregon. Today I live happily and with gratitude in Gold Beach, Oregon with my faithful dog, Gabby. For fun, I walk the beaches for agates and sand dollars, hike or bike in the Redwood Forests, watch beautiful sunsets over the Pacific, enjoy the sea lions and migrating whales, travel whenever I can, and spend as much time as possible with my three adult kids and five amazing grandkids. In short, I’m fully aligned with my purpose and values, and living the life I was meant to live!
If you are committed to growth and ready for change, your time is now.