Humble beginnings

What does a 29-year old IT network administrator, a 33-year old piano teacher, a 42-year old radio producer, and a 50-year old corporate trainer have in common?

Not much…except these are all ME!  And part of MY story of how Cornerstone Learning came to be.

When I was a child, I had great ambitions for how I would live my life.

When I was 13, I wanted to either be a sports doctor, a drummer in a rock band, an over-the-road truck driver (which was really my desire to leave my small town of 150 people in western Minnesota, USA!) or a psychologist.

Interestingly enough, I became none of those things…even though most of these still actually weave strongly through the hobbies and activities that I am a part of almost 40 years later.

What it identifies to me is that our desires, our interests, our hobbies, our career aspirations….NOTHING is static or permanent.  We can make choices and decisions at any point in our life!

Where it gets really tough is when we start to follow a path for only one reason.  
Generally, that reason might fall under one of the following categories:

• Money
• Power
• Prestige
• Status
• Benefits
• Validation from others

What tends to happen, as we follow that path for one of these external reasons…is that we realise that the work that we are doing does not always match our deep inner desires.  Our core values.  Our desire to make our circle of influence stronger, more stable, more connected….whatever that “more” is to you.  

Generally, the deepest dissatisfaction is when our lives are taking a path that is moving AWAY from what really matches our desires.  It’s hard to pivot, it’s difficult to make a change.  But ANYTHING is possible if you have the time, motivation and determination to make a decision for CHANGE!

For me personally, when I look back over the multitude of jobs that I have had, the career paths I have taken, and the volunteer work that I have done, there is one common thread.  

Training, coaching, education and simply HELPING others to reach their full potential.

Some of the ways I have done this over the decades include:

• Tennis and gymnastics coaching
• Maths tutoring
• IT/computer/email one-to-one mentoring
• Piano teaching
• Radio production training – helping vulnerable groups find their voice to create radio programmes
• Corporate Training
• Business and Life coaching
• Women’s personal development groups
• Personality Type courses and one-to-one coaching

I would invite you to look through our website, Cornerstone Learning, and get a feeling about who we are…what matters to us…how we can help you to unlock your potential in either a coaching or a training space.

Eric and I have been on different business paths since 2000.  He’s always been the primary income earner in our home – his job at Boston Scientific over the past 26+ years has been steady, consistent, and determined.  I am so grateful for that steadiness…..as it has allowed me to be able to branch into the training, consulting and coaching work that I love.  And it has allowed him to become a true “expert” in his field.  It’s rare these days that people stay with a company for so many years.  It suits him really well and he’s accomplished a lot in his own professional life!

However, Eric and I do lots of things in the same arenas:

• He’s a business and life coach – and so am I!
• He’s a corporate trainer – more on the technical side of medical devices, but he helps people develop in their professional skills
• He plays the bass guitar, and I’m a drummer!
• He washes the dishes, and I eat off of them!  (that’s getting off track, but it’s worth sharing!)

Cornerstone Learning’s tagline is this: “Providing Insight for Life”..  That’s who we are, and that’s what we love to do.

Contact Us if you’d like to set up a meeting to find out how we can help you!  

And thanks for stopping by our website.  We’re delighted you’ve come!

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Photo credit to DomJ (pexels.com)