Hot off of her retirement from corporate life, Chris was ready for some living.
For as long as she can remember, former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street had known what she wanted to do with her life. In a 1999 CBS News interview, Picabo stated, “It was my dream come true, what I had always dreamed of all of my life.”
If, like Picabo, you are lucky enough to have known your life path from an early age, consider yourself one in a million. For the rest of us, either life sets us off on a course that doesn’t feel satisfying and true to who we really are or we find ourselves becoming dissatisfied later in life. So we make a list of the pros and cons of our current situation, we look at trends in job markets, we talk to friends and colleagues, and we analyze the financial feasibility of a new path. Still, we’re not feeling satisfied with this newly envisioned path, if we can envision a new path at all. But what if the answer has been right in front of you the whole time and you simply cannot see it?
For many years, Chris Coladonato had been feeling stuck in her corporate work, unable to break free from what she had always been doing and the stories she told herself about what was possible. “I knew that I was meant for something bigger, but I didn’t know what that was or how to craft it,” she said. “I couldn’t put my finger on it, and I knew the only way I would find it was to do something big, something deep, to look inside of myself, when all I had been doing was looking outside of myself for the answers.”
A second career
After leaving her corporate job, Chris started a company in which she continued to do what she had been doing in her corporate work – coaching people on leading virtually. Yet even with the added independence of being an entrepreneur, something was still missing. She knew there was more. Even before her transition from corporate to working independently, she followed Melanie Spring on social media. As time passed, she became more and more interested in the kinds of things Melanie was talking about on Instagram, such as taking control of your life, never settling for a job you’re not in love with, and — the coup de grâce — listening to your intuition.
Knowing she could benefit from clearer intuition around her work, Chris decided to schedule a chat with Melanie. She didn’t feel like she could find a new direction without help. After Chris chatted with Melanie over Zoom about her life and her true aspirations, she decided to join The Remembering. As she explained, “I wanted different perspectives, to be pushed out of my comfort zone, because I had been living there far too long.”
The Remembering is a program designed to remove the barriers to your growth and progression into your life’s next chapter. It includes a VIP Retreat with luxury surroundings and accommodations that are designed to help you enter a mode of self-discovery and transformation. Throughout the experience, you’re mentored and supported to explore their deepest desires, wild aspirations, and fuller awareness around their life path, both personally and professionally.
The Remembering supports individuals as they give up playing small and step into a bigger version of themselves, defining and pursuing their purpose, and maybe even bucking the system along the way.
During the VIP Retreat, Melanie asked Chris to visualize herself five years down the road – where she wanted to be and what she saw herself doing.
As Chris reflected on the experience afterward, she said she envisioned herself, “on a mountaintop, outside of a tent at sunrise on a cold morning sipping coffee — I could see the steam rising from the mug — and looking around saying, ‘I have to share this with the world.’ It was at that moment, I knew I had to do something with nature. I had no idea what it was, but I knew I had to weave it into my work somehow. It had to be what I did, even though I was like, ‘who gets paid to take people out in nature?’”
The answers are within you
“Melanie teaches that the answer lies within you,” Chris said. For many people, going “within” for the answer may seem like foreign territory, but the Rebel Guides in the Brilliant Rebels Experience don’t leave you hanging with that premise. They guide you to find the answers within. “I vividly remember that there were a few times during the Experience that I actually begged Melanie to tell me the answer. Yes, I begged. And she kept telling me that the answer is within me.”
Following that advice, Chris went within. “While I had journaled for years and spent time reflecting, I don’t think that I ever trusted myself enough to really listen to myself,” Chris said. “I was always seeking the answers in books, podcasts, articles, etc. And while those are great resources for inspiration, when it comes right down to it, the answers you seek are within you. They are the ones that light you up, that make you go, ‘Oh, yeah, THAT’S IT!’”
The Connection Catalyst
Chris now leads groups of people into nature through her business, Connection Catalyst. And equally important was that, in her words,“I was starting to trust myself more, diving deeper into who I really was, and then one day I noticed in my journals that I wasn’t just ranting … I was really reflecting and asking myself deeper questions that led to actionable insights.”
Chris sums it up like this: “My Brilliant Rebellion is one of letting go. Letting go of what I thought others wanted, what I thought I should do, be, think and feel. Letting go of the stories that I held on to for so long. Letting go of all the thinking (which had served me well over the years) and really listening to me, my heart’s desire, my gut instincts. Letting go of the thought that something has to be done a certain way. That life had to be lived a certain way. Life was meant to be lived my way. I had forgotten that. And in a world that tells you what you should be doing, what is ‘normal’ and ‘expected,’ it can be hard to be you, really you. And that, to me, is what The Brilliant Rebellion is all about. Being authentically you, unapologetically you and living your life, your way.”
Standing on the fence
When asked about her initial concern about joining The Remembering, Chris shared:
“What if I went, and nothing changed? But then I thought, what if I didn’t go, would anything change? What future is possible with the support of Melanie and the Brilliant Rebels? And if the future is more bright and shiny than where I am now, I say yes. Because I know that I can’t do it alone. I need others that have said yes to themselves, surrounding me and sharing their ideas, hopes, struggles and love. For we are all in this together.”
