Tara Larkin of Pursuit Coaching will be hosting a five week seminar for women entitled Put Busy to Rest:Coaching for Women Taking on the World. The seminar runs every two weeks starting on March 1st from 11-1 pm and is focused on helping ambitious women who feel overwhelmed by their busy schedules reclaim their time and take back a sense of control in their lives.
The seminars were born out of Larkin’s own experiences as a stay-at-home mother, she says.
“I was always on the go, busy, always feeling committed to something, feeling out of touch with myself, what I wanted, what makes me feel alive,” says Larkin. “When my kids were older and I wasn’t needed as much I realized I’d given a lot of time to others and not made myself a priority… I got to a point where I was feeling resentful and frustrated because I felt unappreciated, even if that was true.”
Larkin says she reached a breakthrough one day thanks to the support of her husband, where he took her aside and told her no one could change the way she was feeling but her. “I was so mad at the time,” she says, “I mean, how bold of him to say that – but he was right. And he told me that whatever I needed, I should make it happen and he would support me… so I took a coaching course at Mount Royal University in Calgary.”
Taking the course, Larkin says, “brought me back to the person I know I can be… you can’t pour from an empty cup and my cup had been empty.” She decided to start her own company as a way to help other people by sharing what she had learned from her experiences, she says.
Yukoner Lael Lund, who took Larkin’s summer 2016 Women’s Leadership and Empowerment workshop, says Larkin’s course had a positive impact on her life even months after the course was over, because it gave her time to reflect on herself. This allowed her to move forward with things in her life that were previously holding her back, she says.
“It was interesting going through (the course)…. a lot of times we get caught up in our lives and rarely get to take the time to step back and look at ourselves… it’s a subtle process and (Larkin) has a gift for asking the right question at the right time. This kind of reflection is a bit of a gift to yourself,” Lund says.
Larkin stresses that while she is there to coach people, it’s not about her “giving personal advice” she says, but rather about “ choosing how busy you want to be,” and recognizing, “what’s most important to you.”
“It’s about asking yourself if what you’re tolerating, what you’re putting your energy into, is that really serving you? It sounds like a selfish way to talk, but if you’re burning the candle at both ends, soon you don’t have a candle left… this course is about helping women believe in themselves, helping them tap into their innate abilities and reclaim their inner strengths,” she says.
For those interested but unable to attend the current seminar, Larkin will also be hosting an overnight women’s retreat at the Boreale Ranch April 8th and 9th.
Registration for the course is now open. For more information on the workshop and other upcoming events people can visit www.pursuitcoaching.ca.
