Fuck it. Stop holding back and go all in.

Fuck it. Stop holding back and go all in.

(Andrea was a bit sweary and would approve of this title)

Andrea joined the Kickstartology Coaching program after being diagnosed with a terminal illness because she was committed to LIVING for the time she had left.

Without the anchor of work, Andrea wasn't sure who she was anymore, and furthermore, she was lonely because she and her partner Harald had moved to New Brunswick pre-pandemic and had not yet made many local friends.

Andrea decided that she wanted to find her people in the community and wanted to do something that matters because, as she put it, "there's only so much time you can spend cross-stitching".

• Someone will think I'm stupid
• There are some awful people out there
• I'm so old and I'm from away, why would they want to be my friend
• I don't know how to approach these people
• I don't know what I want to do

And things didn't always go according to plan. Andrea came away from one volunteering stint thinking the people there were all assholes, and her last birthday which she had meticulously planned was a comedy of disasters.

But she started getting really good at saying "Fuck it" when things didn't go according to plan and focusing on what matters more. Her disastrous birthday turned into the best birthday with so much laughter. She put herself out there and did find her people. She tried new things and found out new things about herself, she didn't expect to like yoga or cruises. Working with a local photographer and artists she put together a photoshoot project to capture the different sides of herself. Her relationship with Harald moved beyond old patterns and into the best partnership she could have imagined. She had a blast travelling to new places and making more friends... once she decided to stop being self-conscious about meeting strangers she took it to a whole new level.

And she made a difference.

She put so much love out there. I keep hearing new stories about her from different Kickstartology members about the messages she sent them and the impact she had on them.

Andrea and I first met over a decade ago when we worked at together at Rogers. We connected over our disdain of undeserved authority and our love of dogs. I had not spoken to Andrea in a number of years when she reached out about coaching but we quickly picked up where we had left off. At first, I was nervous about coaching Andrea hard because... she was dying, but I soon realized that her limited time is exactly why I needed to stop holding back and go all in. This gave her what she needed to stop holding back and go all in for herself and what she cared about the most. Her most significant gift to me is that now I coach all of my clients like this because all of us are operating on finite time and all we have is right now.

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Kickstartology is raising money for the Save our Scruff dog rescue organization in Andrea's memory.

We're asking you to donate here, and you are invited to a special zoom coaching event:

Take this time to check-in with yourself and make sure that you aren't holding back and keeping yourself from living the life you wish you were living. All you have is right now, make sure you are making it count.

Prepare to be coached.