We recently connected with Melissa Z. White and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Melissa Z. , thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

When I think of risk, it reminds me of this quote.

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

Helen Keller said that, and I quite agree with the sentiment. I would actually take the thought a step further by arguing that risk avoidance can be damaging. It holds you back from realizing your fullest potential. Now, let me clarify by saying that we shouldn’t necessarily go running in the direction of every risky opportunity that comes our way, but with intentional consideration, we should certainly accept some calculated risks in hopes that it will reward us with greater gains.

I was my early 20’s when I had recently graduated from college after earning my first degree. I secured a respectable job working within the mental health and medical arena. I was already on the right path and making making achievements within the industry. My success seemed pretty well mapped out and secure. All I had to do was stick to the path and keep doing what I was doing. 

So, naturally, when I was presented with the opportunity to become voluntarily homeless while rock climbing my way across the continent for the better part of a year, I decided to give it all up and go on an uncertain adventure.

I am sure you are asking the same question that many others asked me at the time… Why?

 Frankly, I asked myself this question when the idea and opportunity arose. I had a very comfortable and pleasant life, one that others strive for. So, why would I walk away from it with no guarantees? Through this self-directed inquisition, I began to explore myself, my accomplishments, and my motives. I was always highly ambitious, and had been willing to put myself up against many challenges to attain my goals. For example, I worked full time while also conducting in academic research, and still managed to graduate a year early. So, I asked why had I chosen to push myself through such a rigorous and nearly inhumane workload, and just as important, what did I learn about myself from doing it?

I had learned that I had unconsciously observed and allowed myself to be lead into the typical formula for success… Go to college, earn degree, get a decent paying job, and work hard to inch my way up the income ladder until retirement. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this formula, and it certainly has the capability of producing good results and a comfortable life for many. It was already doing that for me only a few short years on that road. However, it wasn’t doing a whole lot to stimulate my own personal development on a deeper level.

I knew I had determination based on my fortitude to overcome challenges I had been faced with up to that point, but I wanted to test myself on a deeper level. I wanted to put myself in different environments and situations, to meet different people from different places and learn from them. I wanted to see how far I could make it, and how well I could endure being out of my comfort zone. I wanted to see how well I could do when I needed to show up for myself everyday in a different way with few conveniences. I wanted to do some soul searching to find what was in my own heart and carve out my own path. 

So, I quit my job, released my home, and hit the road with a small bag full of clothes, some canned goods, a sleeping bag, and some climbing gear in the back of a truck. After growing up in a small suburban town, the open road was exciting and offered as many breath-taking views as it did life lessons. I sure did learn a lot about myself. It showed me that I had a lot of grit, and I could depend on myself to creatively problem solve when I encountered unexpected new challenges, and I was more than capable of rebuilding stronger whenever I encountered a fresh start. It also revealed to me the beautiful complexity of the human spirit, who I was at my core, what was in my heart, and how to be open to life.

When I got the the end of that road, I recognized that the end of that chapter was just the beginning of the next and I used all that I learned to consciously construct my next level life. One that offered many new friends, exciting opportunities, a more lucrative job, a beautiful home, and a lifestyle that I never would have considered reaching for had I not taken the risk. I continue to take calculated risks today, decades later, and each one has lead me to greater strengths, more wisdom, and new heights with more beautiful views. I believe our life is meant to be an collection of interesting chapters, each building upon the next, but ultimately creating one exquisite adventure.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a military wife, mother of two awesome kiddos, and Personal Power Coach. When I look back over my life, I realize that I have been a coach in some form or another, personally and professionally, in many industries for decades. However, I didn’t really stop to think about coaching as a career until I became overcome by debilitating mysterious medical symptoms. 

After years of medical appointments and tests, I was finally diagnosed with a chronic and incurable autoimmune disease that was quite understudied and poorly understood by the medical industry. The doctors had very little to offer me in the way of information, treatment options, or guidance. I quickly recognized that it was going to be up to me to improve my medical condition. So, I put my own education and experience to use. Within a year I was able to vastly improve my condition and learned how to take back control over my body.

Astounded by my own positive results in my health and wellness, I took what I learned from the experience and quickly began applying similar principles to other areas of my life.

It was exciting to harness my personal power and use it to reshape and elevate my life. I held myself accountable to my own personal development, goals, and dreams. I developed and applied reliable strategies to nurture deep and healthy relationships, achieve respect and success in my career, undergo and recover from open heart surgery, improve my parenting, and create a lifestyle I am in love with.

I knew that if I could do this for myself, I could help lead others to embrace their personal power in similar ways to make significant, sustainable positive changes in their lives! This lit a spark in me and quickly became my passion and led me to my career as a holistic life coach and hypnotherapist.

Now, I am honored to serve individuals from all over the globe to identify and embrace their own personal power and use it to reshape any area of their lives. Together, we work with my 6 Pillar methodology and apply proven success strategies customized for each of my clients to elevate any and all areas of their lives. We identify the root cause of what has been keeping them stuck and holding them back from overcoming their challenges. We define their own authentic empowered identity and teach them how to use this new found power to dismantle the road blocks, act in their integral alignment, cultivate and enrich healthy relationships, and ulitmately construct a fulfilling life of purpose and sustainable success and happiness.

I am always so proud of each of my clients and the amazing positive shifts they make in their lives. Their joy is my greatest reward!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what has helped me to stand out and build a positive reputation within the coaching industry is my genuine respect for my clients and my dedication to serving their needs with the highest level of care and capability.

The work I do with my clients is inspired and shaped by my personal experiences, observations and insights gained through working with countless individuals from all walks of life. My principles and techniques are backed by my extensive formal education degrees and certifications in psychology, neuroscience, neurolinguistic conditioning, life coaching, health coaching, and hypnotherapy combined with my experience working in industries such as medical, mental health, substance abuse treatment, academic research, and human relations. I feel this all combines to provide me with unique insight on human behavior, cognition, and how to translate that into successful strategies to serve my clients needs and desires.

I feel the purpose of my journey, and all the knowledge I have gained along the way, is to share it with whoever is seeking ways to improve themselves and their lives. Although we may often share common human needs and our challenges may have common themes, I recognize that every individual’s experience is uniquely theirs. Therefore, I don’t expect my clients’ life challenges to fit within the framework of canned, one-size-fits-all products and services. To me, a client-centered practice means listening to my clients’ needs, and creating products and services that are tailored to help them in a variety of delivery methods and price points that are widely accessible. I care about people, and truly want to help empower them to take control and construct deeply fulfilling lives. I feel that if we are going to help create a better world, we must try to meet people where they are and inspire and empower them to elevate their lives. This is how we can create a ripple affect that make a greater collective impact in the betterment of our world.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think there is a very common struggle among many people. We all have to find a way to create a sustainable living while also crafting a life that serves us and feels good.

So how do we do it? Simply put, by initiating our determination and resilience. The American Psychological Association defines resilience of the human spirit as, “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”

Many years ago in my pursuit of this very quest, I was burning the candle at both ends and trying to find the balance in raising my daughter, being the bread winner and working my full-time career to pay the bills while trying to build my dream business and dream lifestyle. Then suddenly, I found myself struck down by mysterious medical symptoms that was eventually diagnosed as a rare autoimmune disease. Specialized doctors had little to offer me in the way of treatment, guidance, or education that could be employed in any effective manner. My options were basically to either accept my situation and new handicap, or figure it out on my own. Well, I am just stubborn enough to not accept that I was to live out the rest of my life in suffering. I was determined to improve my health.

Autoimmune disease wasn’t something I was born with. It was a reaction that my body was having as a result of the environmental factors and stress of the lifestyle I was living. When I took an honest look at it in this light, I quickly recognized that this was my body’s way of shouting out to me that I wasn’t giving enough of my attention to it. In fact, I was downright abusing it with the strenuous pace I was requiring it keep up with. I needed find a better balance between caring for my body, caring for my responsibilities, and caring for my dreams.

Since the autoimmune disease must be a reaction to the life I was living, and I created that lifestyle by my choices and actions, then that inevitably meant that I must therefore also be capable of making choices and actions to change it. I dove into tracking patterns, good and bad. I looked at what was triggering negative reactions and outcomes, and what was leading me to more positive outcomes. The more I studied it, the more I learned. The more I learned, the greater power I began to have over healing my body. I made shifts in my health habits, lifestyle patterns, and took intentional actions until I went from handicapped to reclaiming my body by myself.

This isn’t the only example where I demonstrated resilience in my life; however, because it handicapped my physical body in a way that made my other pursuits near impossible, it immediately commanded my attention and efforts, there by becoming a pivotal example for me.

When I reflect on it, I realize that there had been many other times in my life that provoked resilience prior to my illness, and many others after. They just revolved around different circumstances and required different lessons and skills. However, it was the intentional observation and dissection of this particular health circumstance that provided me with a hyperawareness of the principles, methods, and techniques I was using to confront and overcome the challenge at hand. The ability to heal my body on my own clearly marked how much more resilient I had become. Through this study, I gained a greater knowledge of how to embrace and wield my own personal power and intentionally adapt and apply it to shift and improve all other areas and circumstances in life. Like my autoimmune disease being triggered by the lifestyle and stress that was ultimately a result of the decisions I had made and actions I had taken along the way, the circumstances I was experiencing in other areas of my life were also a result of my decisions, actions and patterns that I had either consciously or unconsciously created. So whether I felt it was good or bad, I recognized that it was my doing, owned the responsibility, and understood my personal power to change what I needed to to create outcomes I desired.

Personally experiencing the way this mentality and practice has completely transformed my life has led to a passion for using all that I have learned to help countless others to positively transform their own lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.MelissaZWhite.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/MelissaZ.White
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelissaZCoaching
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/melissazwhite
• Other: Facebook Community: www.facebook.com/groups/ELEVATIONwithMelissaZ