Mark Quirk

What, I’m adding myself as a success story!  Isn’t that a bit, well, arrogant?  OK, I should say, that it’s not about suggesting that ‘I’m a success’ – it is about recognising reality.  I do struggle with over-eating, I often don’t want to exercise, I love chocolate and crisps, I sometimes find myself mentally beating myself up, I’ve been divorced and really didn’t see it coming, I’m a Dad and regularly feel like I’m screwing it up, I do forget to call my Dad, sister, and brother sometimes…

When you call yourself a Health and Wellbeing Coach it can conjure up an image of perfection.  But, I can tell you that it’s that complete lack of perfection that helps me to coach.  If you’d come to me thirty years ago… I had plenty of knowledge (or so I thought), and the world ahead of me, but so little experience.  And knowledge without experience can come across as arrogance, or judgement, or at least, make it difficult to be genuinely compassionate.  I may not have been through what you have been through, but I’ve screwed up with my own stuff often enough and worked with enough other people to help me set out my stall to be open, compassionate, accepting and not judgemental.

The learning that leads to the qualifications has certainly helped, and I’ll keep doing that, but it’s the experience of reality that refines it into something practical… and I like practical!