According to her father, Caterina Rando was always that kid in the neighborhood that everyone ran to for advice.

“It’s true, I’ve never been shy in giving advice,” Caterina confirms cheerfully. “I don’t remember exactly what advice I used to give, but these days there are certain principles that I follow. I never criticize people or put them down. It’s not my job to judge your dream; it’s my job to help you get it. And, everyone has the right to ask for what they want.”

Such clear insight works extremely well for Caterina in her career as a success coach, keynote speaker and author based in her hometown of San Francisco.

High-energy, a positive outlook and great focus is evident in everything Caterina does. From her tagline: “Helping You Achieve Success with Ease,” to a catchy encouragement like “Expect Success,” she seems to walk her talk. Listening to one of her presentations recently, I found myself thankful each time she directed the audience to “take a deep breath” (something I often forget to do as I wade through my always-expanding-would-love-get-done” list). And by presentation end, I definitely wanted some of her enthusiastic confidence and wise expertise -- a response I’m sure she generates frequently.

Caterina came to professional coaching with a bachelors degree in Organizational Behavior and a masters in Life Transitions Counseling. Furthermore, she is able to assess emotional intelligence (awareness of your emotions when you feel them and being aware of other’s feelings about you). All this helps her to be clear about one thing: coaching is not therapy, and she is 100% about coaching.

Describing her own process of self-development, Caterina recalls: “In the beginning I went to all the seminars. I listened to all the experts. After a while I realized that they contradict each other! It just takes times and experience for each of us to find out what works best. [We need to] know that it’s an exploration process rather a definitive answer.”

In fact, Caterina’s path to coaching was not straight forward. She interrupted her advanced schooling to go to Italy for year. She later went into the family catering and café business. Then Caterina enlisted her own professional coach, who told her that she’d be a great coach. Judging by Caterina’s impressive client list, it seems her coach was right on the money.

Coaching and Self-Awareness
So what type of person enlists the help of coaches? “People who want to improve more come to coaching,” explains Caterina, who says that most clients are high-functioning individuals who come to her knowing already what they would like to work on. They know what their issues are, what’s holding them back. She states with clarity, “I need a certain level of self-awareness from someone who works with me.”

When asked about coaching as a self-awareness building tool, Caterina replies, “coaching is a container for noticing more.”

In life, personal growth is the only true achievement. Everyone, no matter their age, intelligence level, background or accomplishments can benefit by growing through personal awareness and insight.

After all, aren't we trying to grasp not only insight into how we can achieve our life goals, but also trying to constantly access the smarts of the soul? That's an education for a lifetime. And you have to pay attention!

So much life satisfaction can come from the simple feeling of progressing, of moving forward, of taking even the smallest of steps. So take self-awareness steps forward in how you think about yourself, in how you present yourself to the world each day. Get better at nourishing your relationships. Enrich your spiritual life. For a little inspiration, here are my top ten clarity-boosting tips:

"The Law of Process teaches us not only to break a journey into shorter sections but also to appreciate each step as if it were an end in itself. Every step becomes a small success in itself; that way, we succeed many times, not just when we reach our final goal. What we learn on the journey may turn out to be more important than reaching the destination."

From The Life Your Were Born To Live by Dan Millman

Have you taken life by the horns? I love this photograph because it was a happy time in my mother's life, when she was happily steering (couldn't resist the pun) her life. It's all in her expression: no fear, only humor and joy.

Sometimes it's helpful to take a look back to get perspective on where we are now and how far we've come.

Exercise: Find a favorite photo of yourself from your younger days -- toddler to 20s. What do you like about this photo of yourself? What emotions do you see? What part of your life does it remind you of? Secondly, select a photo from the present. What do you see now? Have you lost some characteristics of your youth? Briefly describe your feelings about the younger you compared to the present you. Does this inspire you to make any positive changes? Would you like to recapture youthful glee or playfulness? Or are you happy about the person you are today?


Please do not use photographs from this publication.

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Reprinted from Living Awareness, a free ezine featuring interviews, articles and exercises to inspire more life clarity, focus and joy. To sign up go to:
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To go to Living Awareness Edition One - Defining Living Awareness and The Law of Attraction CLICK HERE.