Meet Caitlin Morris

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Caitlin Morris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Caitlin below.

Caitlin, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

To be honest with you, looking back, I now realize that I was on a journey of already living in my purpose long before I ever had it named for me.

My story starts with burnout at the ripe old age of 28. I was working in an industry that wasn’t in alignment with my values and the way that I was living. My personal life wasn’t reflected in any of the work that I was doing. I didn’t realize it at first, but realized after time there were certain projects and brands that I was gravitating towards because they represented something that I believed in. More often than not though, I was working on projects and brands that were the opposite of who I was and what I believed in for this world. That being said, I got really jazzed every time I got to work with the entry-level positions in that industry and support those humans on their growth journey. I loved being a mentor to them and offering support in a way that I never had.

Believe it or not, it wasn’t until I experienced a workout class that a new set of doors was opened for me: Within a few months of that class, I auditioned to be an instructor and got accepted into a training program to be a fitness instructor. Going through that training pushed me outside of my comfort zone in a way I didn’t see coming and yet it was completely worth it on the other side. Almost ten years later, getting to support people in a safe environment to do something outside of their comfort zone, where they get to recognize and celebrate that they were capable of more than they knew, has been transformational for me.

In my tenure with the fitness company, I started training other instructors to teach classes and eventually worked my way up to train other trainers as well. The same theme kept popping up for me over and over and over again: I loved seeing people for who they were, holding them where they were at and at the same time holding a bigger future and vision for them than they were holding for themselves.

When I finally learned about coaching and got introduced to this world, it felt like a natural next step. It was an evolution of what I had already been doing and what lit me up.

So to answer your question in full, when I look back on the places where I was burned out and frustrated and didn’t like how I was showing up? That was not my purpose. The places that lit me up, that I felt excited and scared in but kept showing up and doing it anyways because I loved it? That was my purpose.

And so I just kept following that trail, listening to my intuition and trusting that I was being guided in the right direction even though I didn’t know what the final destination was yet. I also had to give myself permission to let go of the life I thought I was going to live and start enjoying the one I was actually in.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am so grateful to say that I am a coach and get to do this work for a living. Following that passion and purpose of mine, I decided to go through two different coach training programs: one was a functional health coaching certification and the other a life and leadership coaching certification.

In my experience, no matter where we are and what we want to do, if well-being is not a really strong foundation, it makes getting where we want to go really difficult. And that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen for you, but what do you want the journey to look like and how do you want to experience it? So I love being able to weave those two certifications together in a powerful way to support the unique human and experience that’s in front of me. We are all the leaders of our own life and my clients get to define that fact for themselves.

I think a lot of people have an idea about coaching that I get to tell you what to do and that’s not it at all.

I believe that the person I work with in a coaching relationship is already whole and creative and resourceful on their own. So it’s my jam to reflect their greatness back to them. People already know what they need and coaching is just a place and space to get curious about the situation in a non-judgmental space so that you understand the path forward, the next right step for you.

We all know what we ‘should’ do to live a happy life and yet the reason so many of us don’t feel like we have it is because actually putting those practices into place looks so different for each of us in our own individual lives.

I love when I get feedback from my clients along the lines of, ‘Wow! I already had this awareness but by working with you, now I know exactly what I need to do about it!’

Life is crazy and busy and we will always relate to it that way until we slow down and choose that we are worth it. Choose that we get to decide a different way to relate to time and our lives, our value and life in a way that supports us. In a way that lights us up.

That’s what coaching is all about for me and I pinch myself I get to do this every day.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Developing my self-compassion and befriending my inner critic has been instrumental in my journey. For me, it’s been less about taming my critic – because I was relating to that part of me as bad or wrong – and more about building a relationship with that part of me. When I notice the doubts creeping in, I get curious and think about what that voice is trying to protect me from. Then, I go and take note of something I did well that day, pat myself on the back for keeping my cool with my kids or talk to myself kindly in the mirror, something. Cultivating that compassion from within is allowing me to keep failing and trying and showing up again and again and again. It’s given me permission to know my worth and accept that my best is my best and that’s good enough. It allows me to receive help and to ask for it and to know that I am worthy of that help as well. Being able to give myself doses and doses of self-compassion on a daily basis has allowed me to be here right now.
Allowing a community to support me. Knowing that I don’t have to have all the answers by myself and I can’t – back to befriending my inner critic. Change is hard, growth is hard, building a business and doing something that other people in your life might not be doing is really hard. And, being able to reach out to friends who are building their own businesses or moms that have young kids to say, ‘Holy cannoli. I’m having a tough time today and here’s why’ is huge. They’re the first ones to say, ‘I’ve been there and it’s okay.’ They’re also the first people that I can celebrate a milestone with. Change and growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum and when we can be vulnerable and share the journey with others, magic happens.
Redefining growth for myself and avoiding comparison traps. I believe that we’re all here for a really unique and beautiful reason and each of our journeys is supposed to be different. One of those reasons for me is creating Rerooted which is my paradigm for change. It allows for change to happen in cycles and seasons in an empowering way. When we relate to change as a cycle instead of a spectrum, it allows us to release the shame and guilt of why we can’t figure something out and to keep beginning anew.

For anyone who is early on in their journey, my advice in developing areas like this for yourself is to first know that it takes time. Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle. I used to tell that to the instructors I trained all the time. It’s easy to see someone doing their thing and think that you will never get there. But the only reason that they’re in the middle of their story is because they kept writing. So decide what you want these areas to look like for you and keep taking the next right step towards that.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

Count me in for going all in on your strengths! I equate developing a weakness to putting salt in a wound. You already know that skill doesn’t come easy to you. Why continue to reinforce it and feel like you’re banging your head against a wall? That’s a waste of time and energy.

For the majority of my clients, the goals they have are a reflection of their “weaknesses”. That’s why they want to work on that thing! Because it doesn’t come easy to them! And that’s ok. When we leverage our strengths and the things that we’re already good at, it’s way more fun.

For example, I have a client who is really good at relationship building. We worked together on bringing her community into achieving her fitness goals. For another client who excels at strategic planning, we leveraged her love of spreadsheets to create a meal prepping plan for her whole family.

Leaning into the strengths we already have allows us to develop that self-compassion, too. “These are the things I’m good at and I love that about myself” vs “I don’t do X like Susan so there must be something wrong with me”.

When we look to building a village of different people around us, that includes our different strengths as well. We can’t be everything to everyone and we shouldn’t be. Every single one of us is different and brings different strengths to the table. What a beautiful world it will be when we can know and celebrate that truth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.coachingwithcaitlin.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_withcaitlin/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-morris-acc-a-cfhc-10458520b/
• Other: https://medium.com/@_withcaitlin

Image Credits

The photo of me in a white tank top that says GRLPWR in a fitness studio is by Julie: https://thelovemachinephotography.pixieset.com/

Everything else is by a friend or me 🙂