Naomi Saelens Life Coaching

Transform yourself to transform the world.

Just recently I was honoured to be part of Huawei's Winter School for Female Leadership in the Digital Age together with

To be able to work with the next generation of leaders and support them with developing their full potential is incredibly meaningful. All the more, because I believe a different kind of leadership is so needed in this world. A leadership that centres itself on compassion, collaboration and the understanding that we are all born equals and there is a place for everyone in this world.

I believe that women have an important role in this:

They create, they nurture and they transform - often with a strong desire to contribute to a better world.

That transformation has to begin with yourself: in how you see yourself and what you are capable of. How you support yourself to flourish and give the best of what you have.

So on this day, to the women, past, present and future:

May you be deeply rooted in yourself
May you know your worth without any doubt
May you know how necessary your voice is
May you know the magnitude of your power and how needed you are in this world
May you know that you never stand alone and that we stand together

With many thanks to the entire Huawei team and in particular .herr .epicoco

So many of the roots of my work lie in my own life - especially as a mixed-race woman, who didn't feel a deep sense of belonging within the communities that I grew up in. Feeling like "the outsider", I tried to perform my way into belonging, only much later realising that my belonging started with me. It had nothing to do with having to be better. It had everything to do with simply being me. To be able to work with clients on this same journey of belonging is something that gives me incredible meaning.

And yet, as my work continues to evolve, I came to the realisation that belonging is something that is very much relational. Yes, belonging starts with yourself, but it's also something that is highly dependent on the context in which we live and work. How open are we truly to diversity? And how does our context impact how we see ourselves?

Incredibly grateful to have been part of the first Diversity Quest Train-the-trainer on Inclusive Organisation Design that focuses on exactly this question: how do we help create organisations where everyone feels seen, heard and included?

Thank you so much for including me .m.nijman and . Can't wait to see where this journey takes us with

Self-care isn't a luxury, an afterthought or something that you should engage in times of emergency. Self-care is fundamental to your life and allows you to fully flourish. It's easy to fall into the idea that when life and work gets busy that you just need to work harder. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Slowing down, rest and nourishment are fundamental in recharging - allowing you to feel your best and in turn, give your best and have your greatest impact.

The bigger a game you want to play, the better you have to take care of yourself. Self-care is how you love and value yourself, but is equally a way of showing up at your best for those you live and work with.

Consistent, preventive self-care is critical in maintaining the necessary energy, inspiration and motivation needed - and helps build resilience for when we have to move through choppier waters.

Or as I often like to say,
when you feel better,
you'll do better.

It’s easy to forget sometimes how far we’ve come if we don’t take the time to look back once in a while. Transformations take time, they usually don’t come in leaps and bounds, but rather in the small, every day steps that we take. If we don’t take the time to to look back and see: “how am I different today to how I was some time ago?” we may miss how we are perpetually changing. With every little step, learning and evolving.

I went through some old photos from Bali recently, my home for 4 years. It feels like a lifetime ago and yet, that time provided much of the foundation for where I am now. Honestly, the first years in Bali were hard in some ways. I arrived with my confidence at an all-time low after a difficult job experience and yet at the same time, starting a new career – I had my coaching degree, but still limited experience in coaching and none in building a business. There were so many times when I thought I’d absolutely lost the plot. With support, hard work slowly started paying off, but it wasn't – and still isn’t always – smooth sailing. And yet, today, here I still am. There are days that I've wanted to give up, yet I'm grateful that I never did. I get to do what I love most – helping people to reconnect with themselves and each other - and as I grow, my work continues to evolve further. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

So if you’re doubting yourself today, then take a look back and remember how far you’ve already come. Get some rest, take a deep breath, do whatever you need to do to recharge – and then continue on your journey.

What a journey we've had! and I were honoured to take part in Summer School for Female Leadership in the Digital Age last week in Lisbon, bringing together 27 future leaders, each one representing one of the European member states.

To say that we were inspired by their level of thought leadership, courage and drive is an understatement. To be able to contribute and ignite their leadership even further through the Mentorship Evening that we hosted is something that is incredibly close to our own purpose and hearts.

Leadership isn't simply about what you know, we believe more than anything, it's about who you are as a person. Women's leadership truly has the capacity to transform the world we live in, bringing in key values like compassion, connection and sustainability. This requires a strong self-awareness, the courage to stand out and the ability to forge lasting threads of connection. Ultimately, we are all stronger together.

With much gratitude first and foremost to .herr and the entire Huawei team for bringing us into this coalition to support women's leadership.

Half and half make beautiful

These words from Amara van der Elst, were spoken at a coaching session with my client, a mixed-race woman.

Being mixed often means that you occupy the space in-between. Never quite fully part of one or the other, by default an outsider – a growing feeling of not being enough as you navigate a world that looks different than you.

To try and feel safe and belong, she learned to perfect, to please and to take care of others. Her energy focused on the outside world, eventually resulting in burnout, rather than her precious inner world: true belonging however grows internally from self-acceptance and self-love.

Our work focused on deepening the roots of belonging within herself:

• Building awareness of the impact of her mixed race identity

• Carving out more space for her Asian side

• Practicing self-care and self-compassion to nurture her whole self

• Identifying her strengths and passions, so she has a stronger sense of what she has to offer, including her mixed-race background

I’m so proud of all she has done to reclaim her belonging, confidence and power. No doubt she will use her strengths and experience in the best way possible! She’s a living testament to the power of love and beauty of two different worlds coming together.

How can you be willing to be afraid?

This was asked by Erika Chalkley the other day in a webinar - what a brilliant question!

We can't live our lives without sometimes being afraid. Some of the most meaningful things in our lives require courage. The courage to grow, to put ourselves and our work out there, to speak our minds, to develop meaningful relationships with others - to name just a few.

This will require you to allow yourself to feel vulnerable, even to be afraid at times. Confidence follows courage and action. So how can you be willing to feel that level of vulnerability and to show up courageously?

The word courage itself comes from the word heart and provides us with some helpful clues with courage practice:

- who are you at heart? Connecting to your values can be a great source of inspiration as you courageously take action.

- Connect to your heart's intention behind what you are wanting to do. Why does it matter?

- Bring compassion in for yourself and speak to yourself in an encouraging and kind way.

- Be compassionate to your fear itself and embrace it as a part of who you are rather than something that needs to be pushed away

What helps you to be more courageous?

What dreams and desires have you left behind because of your self-doubt?

Owning your desires and needs is critical to living a life of joy and fulfilment – and yet so many of us deny ourselves the time and the space to feel and act on that which lives inside of us: the career that is calling. The impact you want to have. The book that wants to be written. The art that wants to be created. The life that wants to be lived.

You may not listen to what you truly need or desire, because…

- you believe it's selfish to do so and yet you hear a little whisper "what about me?"

- you believe you will get to it “one day” and yet that day never seems to magically appear

- you don't believe you have what it takes and yet there's still a small voice that says "there's more in me"

The result? Exhaustion and a lack of life energy. A burning question that says: is this all there is?

Here's the unequivocal truth:
Your needs matter. Your dreams matter. Your voice matters.

Self-doubt doesn’t have to hold you back from the life you want to live. You simply need to decide to do something about it and invest the time and resources in yourself. Let your dreams be bigger than your fears.

Self-doubt, a theme that’s close to my heart. For years, I tried to hide and compensate for my self-doubt through perfectionism, proving myself and adapting myself to my environment. It was exhausting, that little voice in my head that just kept saying "you’re not good enough". Over time, I got further and further disconnected from myself and my own strength until I learned that everything I was looking for was already within me - just as it is for you!

When you are deeply connected to yourself, with your desires and what makes you unique, then you really step into your own strength and leadership.

Are you interested in learning more about this? Please join and myself for our free webinar on Monday 26 April at 19.30 CET, where we will be sharing our knowledge about:

Rising above your inner critic
Rediscovering your authentic, feminine leadership vision
The power of a guiding coalition

Please come and join us!

Registration link in my bio. Please note the webinar will be in Dutch.

What lights me up when working with my clients is hearing the dreams and ambitions they have. The leader who wants to support her team to feel a deeper sense of belonging. The yoga teacher who wants to use her experience of living with brain damage to support others. The lawyer who is passionate about helping to create a more sustainable world.

All wonderful human beings who have so much to give. They are talented and capable, yet they experience self-doubt, which impedes their ability to live their lives joyfully and put out their work.

It would be an incredible shame if those dreams weren’t brought to life. I also know that there is often an ache inside: the life not fully lived, the potential not quite tapped into.

If that’s you, know this: your self-doubt doesn’t say anything about your abilities. The fear that you are experiencing is often an indication that what you are working on is something that is important to you – and in fact, you should continue pursuing.

Don’t deny yourself your dreams and desires. Your life and your gifts are too precious.

If you’d like to learn more about how I support these brave and wonderful humans in managing their self-doubt, please feel free to DM.