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 How I came to my Path
Benoit Foucher narrates how passion and stress helped him move from being a tennis pro to a stress management trainer.
"What is the relationship between being tennis professional and a stress management coach?" is the question I have often been asked, since I moved to Hong Kong in July 2007.
...and my answer has always been in one word: "passion".
The "passion" I discovered during my tennis professional career. The “passion” that has been guiding me and that now, by a twist of fate, is leading me to slowly abandon my initial career, tennis, in the process of starting a new one, "coaching". I am now embracing coaching with even more passion, as it stands much closer to my own values.
Psychological issues or gifts of life ?
In my personal and professional experience I have been observing one widespread pattern: people who lead a dull, unfulfilling life, do not try to produce much change. Only a tiny minority is actually trying.
For the large majority, that is most of us, we prefer to keep our life as it is- after all, it looks so much safer to keep the status quo- rather than meeting the challenges lying on the path to our dreams. Challenges most often called: fear of the unknown, and fear of failure.
For many of us, every time hardship knocks at the door, we answer by procrastination, arguing: “later, not now! when I will have this or that; when I will have time for this, or time for that; not now !”
These, have been my own reactions, as I have also had the good fortune to manifest these moments into my own life. The first one occurred while I was playing an ATP “future” tournament (2nd division of the international tournaments) in Japan in 2002.
Lonely, financially unsecure, and in a deep fog emotionally speaking, here are some of the questions I was asking myself:
- why is my life so tough ?
- where has gone my passion for the game ?
- why can’t I suddenly express all my skills at the end of every match ?
- what will I do after my tennis career ?
In brief, a total reconsideration of everything I had been seeking. As I started to meditate, answers progressively came to my mind:
- first, I decided to tackle my own psychological tennis issues, and consult specialists to help me find clarity.
- then, I chose to stop my career for a while and take an examination as tennis coach, in order to have :
- a basis of resources I could count on in challenging times
- a source of fulfillment in sharing my experience with other ambitious players
From these two simple decisions came my new passion, avoided for a long time: to inspire and to guide.
 The importance of “Values”
Soon after, I realized that, being aware of my values, my tennis career was no more aligned with who I really am. My most important values were and still are, to help, share, love and inspire. A position, you will agree, not easy to hold, when on a tennis court, in the heat of a fight to win.
Nevertheless, my new awareness was a source of happiness and strength, and at that time came the best results of my life as a tennis player. Most importantly, my passion for personal development was born to help me and to inspire others.
From this realization, and through my tennis coach work, I soon started to help tennis players, from the international level to the beginners, and finally lived in harmony with my core values!
What came next isn’t short of extraordinary: I attended personal development seminars, provoking the encounter of a fantastic woman with whom I have had a fulfilling relationship, and I also met many renowned coaching and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) experts.
Progressively, I started to coach and train athletes so that they no more consider their own stress as a source of failure but rather as a resource for their best.
As it was not enough yet, the overwhelming desire to launch my new life took the upper hand and by April 2007 I decided to completely redesign my life around training and coaching.
The beginning of a new life
From this decision on, I moved to Hong Kong, said good bye to my past life, with its occasional lows and highs like friends, family, French culture, a relative material security, and most importantly, the as yet greatest love of my life.
Since then, I have settled down in Hong Kong, with its huge cultural differences and wonderful possibilities,
in order to step by step shape my ideal new life… not without its share of occasional challenges.
The first six months were the toughest, most stressful - a great training for stress management! - and an ideal way to learn the most about myself!
Loneliness, the search for a work, a visa, a flat, a social life, friends, all hurdles, I met one by one.
On top of it, the mourning of my past wonderful relationship happening at the same time provoked the biggest crisis and the best opportunity for self-growth while consulting specialists, trying new self-development techniques, and going in the deepest areas of myself I never dared to go before.
Lessons to turn a life around
During this personal adventure, I have had the good-fortune to go through a few lessons which have proved to be helpful experiences to me and to inspire my clients. Let me name a few:
- Absolutely each challenge, each difficulty, like lost tennis matches, bring gifts if we are ready to accept them.
An example: I feel now more confident than ever to help any kind of client, even though as they are going through a crisis. As my first consultation in Hong Kong, I had to deal with a couple in intense relationship crisis, nevertheless, I felt completely available to them.
- Even more than before, I have realized the importance of creating a passion in every area of my own life; with these assets, one or two occasional crisis won’t be enough to wreck the ship of my whole life, thus, providing available strengths to solve what needs to be solved and live happily no matter what.
- Most importantly, keep your passions alive and believe in what you can do. My parents always encouraged me in this way (even though they might have feared for me!) and this is the path I am dedicated to follow now. As a reward, I can now inspire friends and clients who also want to follow their own passions.
A life of constant learning
As of now, I am leading workshops, coach on relationships and stress, from a personal and professional angle, to prepare for stressful events or to live a more passionate life. Every time I am doing my passionate work, I cannot but smile when I look back at my own path, knowing that there was a reason to endure these difficulties : I had to jump over obstacles, sometimes much bigger than I expected, and I can now see that it was for my own inspiration for a fulfilling life.
I wish you all to come closer to your own passions, and to have the courage to follow them. Life may be too short to let these go by - let’s live now the best we can dream of! Let’s go!
to contact Benoit:
9651 8536
www.stairwaytoshine.com
link to his Directory listing
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October 31 - November 2
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