Better understanding who you are and why you do the things you do can help you build a life of purpose. This is where life coaching and Len Davey comes in
We often hear phrases like “do what you love” or “find your purpose”, but this can be a challenge for many, especially for those with disabilities who might need to adjust their goals after an injury or illness, or have access to fewer resources to guide them. Where do you even start? Life coaching can offer some guidance. We speak with Len Davey to learn how it impacted his life and how he is now changing the lives of others.
Journey to life coaching
A series of coincidences lead to Len pursuing life coaching. It started with a spinal cord injury in 1977 and a lack of resources to guide him through this difficult time.
“Very early on in my ‘new normal’ as a paraplegic, there was nothing like QASA, life coaching, or any other organisation that offered assistance after a tragic incident; especially where I grew up in Vereeniging. You had to adapt or die,” Len recalls. He chose to fight and started doing his own reading to help him through this time.
“Early on in my quest to come to grips with reality, I came across a book by Norman Vincent Peale called The Power of Positive Thinking. This made a massive impact on my life,” Len says. Prior to his accident, Len was very active, playing numerous sports, including participating in competitive swimming, and even playing drums in a rock band named Brute Strength. After reading Peale’s book, Len found the courage to once again be active.
“I bought a 1000 cc Gold Wing Motorcycle, built a sidecar for my chair, hand controlled the gears with solenoids and toured Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with a friend during the war. Not long after, I met my wife, and personal angel, Colleen. We moved to Durban with our two boys, I applied for three jobs. I got all three, chose one and the rest is history as they say in the classics,” Len notes. In 1982, Len married the love of his life, which he describes as “one magical moment”. He event started drumming again.
“I couldn’t play my kick-drum anymore, so I switched to percussion, until one day we turned the kit around. I played the full kit and Colleen played the kick-drum. We started playing in the worship group and later joined a band called Dogs in the Yard. We played at company functions, weddings and private gigs. It was such fun.”
Gaining new insights
Aside from the personal achievements, Len was able to achieve quite a lot in his professional career. He held several titles with different companies, including sales director, and even started his own business in 1992. The company, Contra Cables, specialised in electronic cables and computer networking equipment. He found his passion for coaching at his last job.
“In my last company, Mindgrill Solutions, I had a staff of 15 people and quite enjoyed helping them with their personal issues. Somehow, helping other always leaves one feeling better. I attended and hosted many motivational lectures and courses for myself and my staff. I really enjoyed it. I often thought that I’d love to do something like this for a living, once I understood how life worked,” Len says.
During his time with Mindgrill Solutions, Len learned of life coaching from a salesman. When he retired for medical reasons, Len started delving deeper into the world of life coaching.
“I decided to study this amazing profession. I started looking for the best vehicle to reach my destination and found this amazing company called New Insights. What a journey we went on! A two-year course comprising of both theory and practical components with my own personal coach. It changed my life,” Len explains.
“It was during the 72 hours of free practical coaching (a prerequisite to qualify), and seeing the impact it had on the volunteers, that I realised that my path to understanding who I am, and why I did and do the things I do, could have made such a difference in my life had I known and practised the concepts of life coaching as taught by New Insights,” he continues.
Finding purpose
What started out as a mild interest grew into a passion, and then a purpose. Len explains: “One of the sessions that we cover is on purpose (our purpose for being here). It was during this exercise that I discovered that this is not just a passion, but, in fact, my purpose to share this knowledge in order to help other people build a life of purpose.”
He does caution others that a life coach can only do so much to help: “It is, however, a journey of self-discovery. You get out what you put in. No one can do this for you, but a good life coach with a good programme can help you achieve the life of your choosing. You are not a victim but a victor.”
Len has taken all of his experience and knowledge to establish his own life coaching business, The World Within. The name was inspired by a passage written by James Allen in As a Man Thinketh:
Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he build for himself heavenly mansions of joy, strength and peace.
World within
Life coaching with Len is offered in 13 sessions on a bi-weekly basis via virtual sessions on Skype, Zoom or Whatsapp that are mainly voice-only. Each session is designed to build on the one before with opportunity for the client todigestthematerialanddosomehomeworkin between. The sessions are roughly 60 minutes atR500persession,andthevoice-onlyfunction allows for more comfort and less distractions.
“This leaves the client to concentrate on the lesson in the comfort and safety of their own home or office, without the concerns and distractions of appearances,” Len explains. The first session on goal setting is free of charge! This, Len hopes, will be a great way for people to test drive the value that life coaching has to offer.
“The best investment one will ever make is in oneself. This is not some hocus-pocus, self- help scheme designed to relieve one of one’s hard-earned cash. So, before you invest, test drive the process for yourself first hand, to be certain this is for you and that I am the right coach for you,” he explains.
The other sessions include the following:
- Resources and milestones (chopping up goals into bite-size chunks in order to achieve them);
- Beliefs;
- Motivation;
- Values;
- Rules;
- The six human needs;
- Communication and projection;
- Responsibility;
- Questions;
- Long-term goals;
- Purpose; and
- Celebration time.
More information about each session can be found on The World Within website. Len leaves us with a quote by Laurie Buchanan: “Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing”. Visit The World Within website here: www.theworldwithin.co.za
