Rachel Fosterconversations are with ourselves and sometimes they’re with other
people.” I think that’s so true. It speaks to that experience of having
conversations and coming to a conclusion in our own head without
ev er actually having the conversation! We just tell ourselves stories
and, for many of us, they hold us back and get in the way of our taking
action, but we absolutely have to take action in order to move forward.
WRIGHT
Now you’re an executive coach, a consultant, and yoga teacher. How
in the world did that happen? It is so different from nursing.
FOSTER
It is different, yet there are lots of similarities; I’ve often thought
about this. I love what Steve Jobs said in his acclaimed 2005 Stanford
commencement address that I watched online recently. He said
something like, “You can only connect the dots looking back; you can’t
connect the dots looking forward.” As I look at how I got here, fr om the
roots of nursing, it’s been wonderful! It’s about being in service to
other s, so there is a common link ther e. As a nurse you help p eople
through challenges and tough times; you work with lots of people in
di fferent settings. I believe that I do the same thing in my current
work. It’s a twist, in a way, on nursing. I’m grateful for the education
and training I received during my nursing years because it’s helped me
understand people. I believe it has created a safe space for them to
sh ow up and share.
About twelve years ago, as a result of some personal challenges in
my career, I became interested in personal mastery and leadership,
which led me to the work I do today. At that time I was running the
operations side of a provincial research center and I had to come to
terms with what was driving me. In retrospect, that turned out to be
my ego. As many people will attest, it’s those kinds of moments in life
when we are forced to face reality and when things begin to shift. In
th ose moments we suddenly realize that we are where we are because
of the choices we’ve made, and that’s where it sounds obvious, yet it’s
profound. I know it ’s tough for some people to play with that concept
but we are where we are because of the choices we have made.