Knowing what one wants to do in life is half the battle in getting where one wants to be. However, motivating one’s self to become it and inspiring one’s self to continuously do it on a consistent basis takes the other 50%.

Each and every one of us has a story to our lives. If I may share mine with you it would go something like this. As a young child, I always knew that I had a special connection with people and the ability to feel their inner emotions. Call it a sixth sense, a heavy dosage of intuition or a true awakening to what is real, but whatever it was I definitely felt different than others around me. My principals and teachers from my elementary, junior high and high schools must have sensed this in me because I was always the one chosen to tour the new incoming students around and help them become less nervous and feel more comfortable to their new surroundings. My parents also took notice because they would always see me talking to complete strangers and convinced me to stop this behavior because they had the inclination that these people weren’t worthy of being acknowledged or talked too. As the years rolled on and the more my parents told me to stay focused and become an educated person with a solid career with tons of money, the more I noticed that I was plugged into society’s normalcy of what we should do rather than what we were born to do. So year after year, I ignored my tremendous gifts with people and ran around the hamster-wheel doing what everyone else was doing in life, while missing the big picture to my true joy, peace and happiness I felt inside.

Through life’s trials and tribulations which everyone goes through, I felt like something was wrong and something was missing. Something big. Actually something huge in fact. The funny thing about life is that we never seem to grow when we are happy; we only seem to grow when something goes seriously wrong, when we are faced with despair, tough challenges, a sickness or even when someone close to us dies. For me it was a combination of things which included the death of my grandfather, then my grandmother and finally a very messy divorce that made me become something I wasn’t, bitter, angry and resentful.

“The funny thing about life is that we never seem to grow when we are happy; we only grow when something goes seriously wrong, faced with despair, tough challenges, a sickness or a close to death experience.

Brian Zahn

So after returning back from a funeral and finalizing my divorce something amazing took place. My now very empty house was filled with the ringing of the telephone and two weeks-worth of mail. I answered the phone with a somber and depressed voice. On the other end of the receiver was my dad checking up on me and to let me know that true happiness is more important than anything money could ever buy. Hmmm…this message was totally opposite of everything I was ever taught by my parents. In the large pile of mail were bills, coupons, junk mail and a brochure to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) that was accidentally put in my mailbox instead of my neighbors who it was addressed too. Or was it?

When it comes to my philosophy to life, I have always believed that nothing really ever happens to us, but rather comes from us. I also believe that there are no accidents in life. So, when I started to reflect on everything that most recently took place, I realized that I wasn’t starting with nothing, but rather beginning with everything. There seemed to be a shift in my perspective that brought me back to the child within me who was connected to something bigger than myself. This is exactly when I decided to attended SWIHA and become a certified life coach, and gave myself a free “get out of jail card”.

Through the Life Coaching Program, I learned so much about what we do to ourselves based on fear and resentment. It gave me permission to make new choices to my life and unplug from society on the should’s and shouldn’ts while dedicating my life in helping others (there truly isn’t any higher form of service than helping others) like I used to so many years ago but now had a title and certification to go with it. Along the way, I found many crossroads that allowed my true calling to find answers it was searching for. For instance, am I fearful, do I complain, am I playing the victim, am I helpless, am I not smart enough, can I change, am I deserving of doing what makes me happy and am I projecting other’s thoughts to not succeed. However, one answer in particular that played a huge roll was the question: What is your “WHY” in becoming a Life Coach.

What I found out and came to the realization was that my “WHY” had to be understood and big enough for me to see like a shadow on the floor following me around. Through KC Miller and Linda Bennett’s teachings and guidance during the Life Coaching program, only I could answer these questions and unlock the doors that were all closed by me in the first place. My “WHY” became bigger and bigger and by the time I graduated through the program, I was ready to help others find the key within themselves to their own happiness so they could lead a life that was more meaningful and fulfilling. I took action in every way that I could, which included making my own business cards, attending all types of business and social meetings, sending articles I had written called “From the Coaches Corner” to all newspapers nationwide to be published, got a trademark name for my business (Be The KEY™), started speaking and motivating others to live their lives without regret or fear to groups and businesses, and was even asked to talk to the new life coaching students at SWIHA. As you can see, my “WHY” allowed me to find my self-love, self-confidence, self-discipline, leadership skills, a new wife and family, a daily smile upon my face and reconnection to the person who was more gifted than I could have ever remembered or imagined that I could be.

My “WHY” allowed me to find self-love, self-confidence, self-discipline, leadership skills, a new wife and family, a daily smile upon my face, and a reconnection to the person who was more gifted than I could have ever remembered or imagined that I could be.

Brian Zahn

It’s important to understand that most people who go to college don’t normally pursue a career in what they first set forth for themselves. There “WHY” might not have been big enough because they were guided by others, like our own parents, friends or even society, rather than themselves. Only through self-challenges and growth can we truly follow our hearts in becoming what we truly want to be that will bring us joy. Even when most people claim they don’t have enough money to become this or that or do what makes them happy, we all seem to find a way in purchasing an expensive air conditioner, refrigerator, washer, dryer or car when they go out on us. So, what if we took a moment to really look to find solutions to our problems and/or disappointments?

What if we all continued to keep moving forward instead of just standing still? What if we all searched in finding just how big our “WHY” truly is rather than settling for less? And finally, what if we really understood that our goals, wishes and dreams can come true by just getting out of our own way instead of just constantly giving up? Maybe all we need to do is simply just take a moment to stop and slow down, take a breath, and understand that everything is possible if we choose the right illusion to our lives instead of the wrong ones and make better choices. WHY? Because I believe that we are all a “winning lottery ticket” and all we need to do is cash ourselves in. That’s WHY!