ANNA KNIGHT – LIFE COACH

It’s August – which means that Team Actually is on holiday. But we thought this might be a great opportunity for you to get to know some awesome members of the Actually community a little better! So welcome to our new August feature ‘A Day in the Life of…’ an Actually person! 

This week we are delving into the life of the awesome Anna Knight – a life coach on a mission to support women and non-binary people to rediscover their spark!

 I’m Anna Knight, life coach on a mission to support women and non binary people who feel like they’ve lost their spark to say YES to their desires again and create the limitless future of their dreams.

In 2017, I left my 15-year abusive relationship and after a nudge from some mental health professionals, I began accessing support from Newcastle Women’s Aid. At the same time, I also found a coach and began to heal from my trauma, learning to live fully and embrace my whole self. As my mental health improved and my confidence grew, I found a new mission. 

Through sharing what I was learning with the women in my support group, I was supporting them to heal as well – “I learned a thing in coaching this week” pretty much became my catchphrase at support group meetings! At the end of my time with Women’s Aid, the programme leader suggested that I trained as a coach to support other survivors… so I did!

My day starts when my alarm goes off at 9AM. This may seem really decadent, but being self employed has let me adjust my working pattern until I found a routine that works with my body clock and my physical needs. I’ve always been a “late to sleep, late to rise” kinda girl and now my working pattern reflects that! 

I have several chronic autoimmune conditions, so I’m managing a certain level of pain and chronic fatigue every day. “Spoon Theory” is a way of describing what it’s like living with fatigue, using the metaphor of a spoon to represent a unit of energy. Every activity I do uses a certain number of spoons, and when I’ve run out for the day I’m done and need to rest. Living with lupus means that I wake up with a different amount of spoons each day – today is a “low spoons day”, which means I modified my morning routine for maximum efficiency! My shower stool comes in really handy and I dress for comfort as well as style. 

I work from home in a lovely spacious office that I share with my fiancée – no commuting for me! Before the pandemic, I was out and about a lot more and our office was the smallest room in the home, but when I shifted to remote working much more often we rearranged the entire top floor of our house to make the former master bedroom into our workspace. Mel has one end of the room for her photography business, and I have the other end (including the bay window where my cats watch the local nature reserve). 

At 10AM I wandered into the office – it’s time to start working. The first thing I do every day is to draw a card from my current favourite card deck – Super Attractor by Gabby Bernstein. Today’s message: ‘When I’m grateful for what I have, I can feel good along the way to what I desire’. Well, I have some big desires that I’m working on aligning to, so I spend some time journalling about all the good things in my life right now. Gotta listen to the guidance as it lands! 

I’m a member of Sara’s JFDI Community, which helps me get really clear on what my business priorities for the month are and then break that down into weekly priorities. So next, I do a quick check in with my diary and my priorities – this morning, that means working on growing my email list. I have been working my way through a recent training Sara did on ways to grow your email list, and this morning my blog is getting some new posts written and queued up, all discussing an aspect of my new lead magnet (also designed with Sara’s support!)

I have an excellent virtual assistant – Steph Ward – who I delegate a lot of my business management and “techy stuff” to, but writing blogs is really fun for me so I still do them myself. Getting in the zone means candles, soft lighting and an acoustic playlist of “focus” music. Two hours later, the content is written, beautified and queued – must be time for lunch. 

Now it’s coaching time! My first client this afternoon is one of my ‘Joyful Future’ ladies – she gets one to one coaching from me, plus support whenever she wants on the Voxer app. We had a chat earlier this week about the “mum guilt” she gets when trying to relax – we use our session to dig into this and find a sneaky belief that her worth as a person is linked to her productivity. It’s not serving her, so she leaves with a new mantra she has created for herself – ‘resting is a sign of self-worth’. I can’t wait to hear what this frees up for her over the next two weeks!

Next, I get to work on a project I’m particularly proud of –  in February 2022, I was awarded a small grant to offer free coaching to seven survivors of domestic abuse. My next client is a few sessions in – we spend today exploring how she can reconnect with her body and lean into her inner ‘lover of life’ for the first time ever!

Last thing on the to-do list – preparing the next workbook for my group programme ‘Date Yourself’ – this week, we are exploring how we can apply the ‘acts of service’ love language to ourselves. Most of the group members are particularly good at giving these acts of service away (and putting themselves last), so I’m anticipating some juicy revelations on tomorrow’s call! 

7PM and the workday is done – time for Mel and I to get out into nature. We’re going to visit the swans at a local lake. I’m going to bask in the peace and quiet, and I’m sure Mel’s camera will be getting its daily exercise. Then it’s dinner, reading and bed, ready for tomorrow.

A massive thank you to Anna for letting us into your day!

If you’d like to know more about Anna or join her mailing list you can view her website here or LinkedIn here.