I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free.
~Michelangelo
This quote captures the essence of my work with people who are in a life transition and ready for significant change.
At the heart of us is a unique and creative person with inner wisdom and infinite imagination.
You are already whole. There is nothing to fix, there are no broken parts. All you may need is some help seeing your world and your stories in a different way.
It takes a second to change everything as you perceive it now.
Often, the essence of who we are lies buried beneath standards and ideas that are not even our own.
I know, because I spent years thinking in ways that did not support me, with beliefs and fears that kept me from a great life.
When what’s in your heart becomes clear to you, when you can hear its longings and messages and then act on them, your life becomes infused with joy and ease.
Your mind rests in a state of clarity, peace and delight.
In deep conversation, you discover what matters most to you and how to create more of it in your daily life.
Freedom is the outcome.
Freedom to think clearly, in ways that are creative and life-enhancing.
Freedom to be yourself and do what makes you most excited to be alive.
Together, we carve away what holds you back from leading a life that you love.
We make the invisible visible.
Becoming Yourself
I don’t fit in.
Not neatly, anyway.
I’ve tried.
It didn’t work.
I thought I had to.
I tried twisting myself into a pretzel but since I didn’t bend that way, I began not to love who I was.
In trying to please others and the system, I lost confidence in myself.
The worst part of the long lesson?
Thinking others knew me better than I knew myself.
Thinking I had to be like the mainstream or corporate culture and keep my own light under cover.
Playing small.
You can do that for only so long and then you start to lose heart.
It took many years to realize that what was unique about me is what made me valuable.
I want you to get that as soon as possible. In your bones.
There is a way to fit in as yourself, make a contribution and be in integrity with yourself.
Gentleness
After years of working intimately with people, and of listening to my own inner judgmental voices, I realized that cultivating gentleness, vulnerability and compassion into daily practices leads to self-encouragement and results.
I believe gentleness and effort work best together for me and for others.
This is a fast, bustling, extroverted world.
Some of us thrive in it.
Some of us lean towards simplicity, quiet, introspection, reflection, intimacy and walking softly.
In whatever ways you show up in the world, you can create your own sacred space and sacred rhythm.
You can follow your own heartbeat, find your own values and carve your own path – the one that suits you.
That’s what I want for you.
There is a way for you to wake up in the morning, in your unique, strong power, and look forward to your day with delight.
Yes.
Delight.
And maybe a wee bit of mischief.
Life needs some stirring of the pot.
Bold, creative, passionate, funny, messy human
What I learned over time is that the more you can be yourself, the more successful you become. And happier.
Counter-intuitive you say?
For over 30 years, I worked as a leader in the private and public sectors. I was directly involved with training, facilitation, leadership development, change management, succession planning, performance management, mergers, acquisitions, selection and integration of people and systems.
In each organization I reported to or worked closely with CEOs, presidents, vice-presidents and other senior executives.
I designed and led initiatives for them, coached and consulted to them and their leaders, led two training and organization development departments and worked at all levels. Wherever there was a need, there I was — in non-unionized and unionized environments with warehousemen, nurses, surgeons, sales reps, marketing executives and front-line staff.
It was a long and rich corporate career.
Then, I left
Just before my 60th birthday, I decided to start my own private consulting and coaching business so I could pass on what I’d learned through this brilliant approach called coaching.
It was that or gamble that I would have many years to live and do what I had in me to do.
I didn’t want to take that chance.
Mortality thumbs its nose at us at this stage of life.
That’s where you come in.
I’ve got hard-won wisdom to share.
I know a lot about being eccentric and real in work and in life, and what happens when you try to fit in.
Trying to fit in is like carrying a huge sandbag around and it doesn’t let you move or breathe.
That’s not what I want for you.
My uniqueness won out and couldn’t be suppressed. And it became my critical edge.
And it’s yours too.
You’ll see.
Leadership
The day after I resigned, I headed off to The Coaches Training Institute’s prestigious, internationally-recognized 10-month Co-Active Leadership Program.
After all, I had been a salaried employee all of my life, and wanted all of the cards stacked in my favour for embarking on this unknown entrepreneurial life.
From what I had heard, I thought that this program would give me the strength needed.
The program was challenging.
Who wanted to be a leader anyway? I asked myself this many times as I was going through this rigorous program.
Too much work.
However, a year after graduating, and after a second year on the leadership team as an assistant to the facilitators of another CTI leadership cohort, I understood that I needed to share these lessons about taking responsibility for our life and its impact.
And about stepping into the person you want to be – the leader of your life everywhere, with full permission and no apology.
I had not had this kind of mentoring and the lessons I learned took a long time.
I want you to get this body of knowledge, the mindset shifts and the practices that will be the guides you need to truly thrive as you are.
You will be serving both yourself and your world.
Bringing vibrancy and love to the world
On a cold autumn day in Montreal, 23-years old and heavily pregnant with my daughter, I walked into an art gallery where a Russian artist was hanging paintings for his upcoming exhibition.
I had dropped out of a Masters in English Literature at 21, a world that in my young mind romanticized poverty, alcoholism, depression and living in attics.
Too heavy for me.
Too close to home.
I stared at the paintings.
They were glorious with colour.
Bright, joyful, vibrant, they made me happy.
And on that day, I decided that if I did something with my life in the world, it would have to bring this kind of joy.
I did not want to add darkness to life.
I had choices.
This was my choice.
Doing this creative, ecstatic, rich and deep work with you.
I am not about surface conversations, things or sitting on the edge of life.
Give me deep conversations of the heart, soul and spirit.
And I love the practical. The sacred is everywhere if we look and we need to be grounded in our bodies and in life.
How I get you to be in both spaces is going to be a surprise, and it’s going to be what works for you even if it’s not what you are used to doing.
You want to do things differently or you wouldn’t be here.
We’ll deep dive in to where the gold is – within you.
Whatever you find is gold.
I will help you see yourself that way.
And then you will release your authentic self into the world bit by bit, drip by drip, shining brightly.
And if you want more…
In the late 70s, I became a Certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher and a Holistic Health Educator.
Massage, stress management, meditation, bio-feedback, Polarity Therapy, psychodrama, Gestalt Therapy, and more modalities than I can remember came across my path.
I’m mentioning this because more people do yoga and participate in the healing arts now than I ever imagined possible in those early years, and my total history contributes to what I know, who I am and what I do today.
And now…
In 2008, I began a new life.
I left one that had been killing my soul for a long time.
No hard feelings. Mostly.
I moved to be in my daughter’s adopted city of Vancouver, and two years later, through the magic of life, I went dancing and met the man who was waiting for me to walk into that dance class for 4 years.
From him I learned to love animals because he had a cat that I adored. 
That sweet soul died and a rescue walked into our home 10 days later. Simon joined our family.
Life is sacred.
No one knows what’ll come.
I know what it takes to make conscious choices, lead myself into thinking and actions that serve, tap into inner wisdom, and I want to share my best so you can get to your best sooner than I did.
You are worth it.
Don’t wait until something happens or wait for the perfect circumstances.
Set your course right with wisdom and practices that will last you a lifetime.
Don’t delay.
Your life is waiting.
Cut-and-Paste Bio
Miriam Linderman wants to live in a world where people are present to everyday wonder, lead kindly from their hearts and minds and are in service to something bigger than themselves.
She believes that we are all leaders of our lives and as such we are responsible for that one precious life and our impact.
We can choose how we think, what we believe and what we do no matter where we’ve come from or our age.
It’s never too late.
Miriam spent over 30 years as a corporate leader in training, leadership and organization development, with roots as a yoga teacher and holistic health educator.
She is a certified professional coach who helps other professionals find deep confidence, gentle power and wise courage as leaders of their work and lives.
Miriam is also a workshop leader, speaker, writer, and a blogger for The Huffington Post.
For more information, click here for her website or copy and paste this into your browser: https://miriamlinderman.com
