Oh hi, pal! Come on in, get comfy, make yourself a drink. Let’s get into it, shall we?

You know what sucks?

You know how we’re taught to dream big, right? Like every movie, book, or inspirational first-grade teacher basically said “Hey, kid, you can be an astronaut who’s also the first woman president with a lucrative side hustle as a veterinarian to endangered wildlife, because THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER (p.s., oysters are DISGUSTING, and you cannot change my mind. But I digress).

But sometimes “dreaming big” is a MAJOR drag.

I mean, how fun is it to dream big when the dream never frickin’ comes true?!

When real life smacks you upside the head and says “Hahahaha, oh you ARE A SILLY THING, to have believed that you can be happy and make good money doing something creative and true to your real nature, and be in a fulfilling relationship. Silly, silly, silly!” (and then real life skips off into the sunset like the bitch she is to go make someone else feel defeated).

So what’s a smart, creative, but deeply unfulfilled gal to do?

It doesn’t matter that you’ve done everything “right.” That you’ve built a successful career with a salary you could’ve never dreamed of when you were young and just starting out. That you married someone that everyone agrees is a good catch what with their safe, reliable job as a tax accountant and all. That you don’t HATE how you look, you suppose…in that one outfit that makes your butt look good, anyway.

Because, see, for a certain type of person (and I think you may know someone like this….ahem) — none of that is enough. Here’s what I often see with my clients:

• They can’t really describe what’s wrong…they just know that this? This life they’re in? It ain’t cuttin’ it. They’re restless. Bored, even.

• They distract themselves with shiny new objects: vacations, clothes, food, affairs — because they’re seeking something. Something else. Anything else.

• Even if they’re wildly successful at work (and they usually are) they’re just going through the motions because nothing about what they do for a living lights them up.

• Self-sabotage rears its hideous head at totally inopportune times, ruining beach bodies, savings accounts, and marriages.

And you know what that means?

• A resentment that grows, even though there’s nothing, specifically, to resent.

• A nagging fear that if things don’t change soon, they never will. A.K.A. OMG, I’M STUCK FOREVER.

• A continued and growing dissatisfaction with the way things are but with no idea how to even begin to change things.

• A feeling that their soul is splintered in two. That they’re legit two different people…and one of them is constantly trying to choke the other one out.

This, my friend, is precisely why I’m here, typing at you now. Because that stuff up there ^ That was me. Minus the affairs. But had Tom Hardy or Oscar Isaac come a-knockin’ at my door, you bet yer sweet ass I’d be affairing all over the place. Still would, tbh. Anyhooo.

I’m here to help you get out of that mess.

If you recognize any part of what I wrote up there ^ then you’re probably dying a little bit inside every single day. You’ve probably dug up your old college philosophy textbooks to brush up on “existential dread.” You’ve probably even seriously considered taking a trip to South America so you can chug some ayahuasca with a shaman and yeah, you know it’ll most likely make you shit yourself, but you NEED that vision quest.

Please, allow myself to introduce…myself.

I’m Jenna Watson, certified Martha Beck Wayfinder life coach, and former sufferer of all the above bullshit. I'm a lifelong “big dreamer” myself, but I let myself go with the flow for far too long, growing more and more miserable the longer I kept trudging along. Had a good job. Check. Did what I was supposed to do. Check. Kept up with the generally accepted milestones a person should hit in their life. Check. But I was dead inside half the time and felt wild-eyed and frantic for change the rest of the time.

The reason I never changed? Because I believed all kinds of external things needed to change so I could change. I also had NO IDEA where and how to get started (hell, I didn't even know what I really wanted, if I’m being honest).

I also believed plenty of other things:

• It would be too hard to (insert any one of my various dreams here) and I was too lazy.

• Big change was impossible for someone like me and I was too damn old anyway.

• I'd end up broke and living in a box under a bridge, trying to teach pigeons how to line dance.

I believed all that garbage, and I stayed stuck. And miserable.

My journey to becoming a coach started when I was, as the kids say, “going through some things.” Simply put, I was fucking miserable. My biggest problem was one I could barely articulate at the time: I felt like I was two entirely different people. 

I couldn’t even really explain it further than that. I just knew that I chafed against many parts of my life as it actually was, while yearning for something it most definitely wasn’t. 

Inside, I felt like a creative, brave, wild, free person in charge of creating my destiny. In reality, I was someone that felt trapped as I let my successful-but-boring life take over while I just went along for the ride. 

Here are just a few of the ways this “two-part-Jenna” expressed itself:

• Accepting bad relationships that I knew were surface-level at best, so at least I could tell myself I was in a relationship

• Entering into a marriage I knew was doomed but went through with it anyway because getting married is what you're supposed to do at a certain age...right?

• Eating out of boredom and frustration and therefore living inside a body that looked nothing like how I perceived myself from the inside

• Losing over 80 pounds and getting in the best shape of my life, only to regain half the weight because I didn't trust myself to maintain that version of me forever. Can we say #selfsabotage?

• Hiding my tattoos (that I love) so I could fit a corporate America persona (that I hated)

• Consistently moving up the ladder in a career that looked great on paper but wanting to stab my eyes out every single day I went to work or even just thought about it too much, frankly. The Sunday scaries were real.

• Constantly dreaming of what my life would’ve been like if only, I’d ________ (fill in various and sundry blanks, here) and getting pissed off because none of it was happening

Eventually, after reading a few books that didn’t make me eye-roll with an overly self-help-y tone and actually let me see a glimmer of hope, I hired a coach. The coach helped me see things in a way I’d never been able to before and also held me accountable for what I said I’d do. Shortly thereafter I took the training to become a life coach myself, and I can finally say that I know a thing or two about how to identify and articulate your biggest desires AND how to go get them. AKA, how to get unstuck and unmiserable.

I can now say I know what freedom feels like. I know who I really am, and I’ve learned how to let that true self guide me. And you know what? It feels AMAZING.

I’m a coach now because I want everyone to feel that. I don’t want anyone to feel trapped by their own lives. And I certainly don’t want anyone to shit themselves on purpose (just seeing if you’re still with me. but seriously. don’t shit yourself).

Why Inner Oracle?

First things first *puts on teacher glasses and whips out a chalkboard* let’s define what an oracle is, shall we?

OR·A·CLE

 /ˈôrək(ə)l/

noun

1. a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods in classical antiquity (see: “the oracle at Delphi”)

• a place at which divine advice or prophecy was sought

• a person or thing regarded as an infallible authority or guide on something

So you see, what I’m actually saying here is that I believe everyone — yes, even you! — has an infallible authority inside them that always has and always will know how to guide them to what’s right for them. Tapping into your inner oracle, well…that’s a skill we’ve mostly forgotten how to do in our modern age.

And that, petunia, is why I’m here. I’m here to help you get back in touch with it and learn how to leverage that knowledge. To know and consult your inner oracle. To braid each other’s hair and invite her over for sleepovers. To share a BFF necklace with her (with the “be fri” half being superior to “st ends,” of course). And, subsequently, to rock the hell out of your life!