At the core of Dr. Colleen Georges’ philosophy is the belief that a pioneer is someone who identifies and acts upon opportunities for positive change. Positive change that empowers others, enables growth, and inculcates strong values.
A pioneering leader herself, Dr. Colleen’s journey is marked by her relentless pursuit of positive change and a deep-seated passion for empowering others.
As a life and career coach, she helps her clients and students to maximize their strengths and take action to achieve their dreams.
Being an Award-Winning author, keynote speaker, University Lecturer, a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Life and Career Coach, and Organizational Trainer, Colleen helps people transform their lives and careers in more than one way. She mentions, “In my business, I work to help people bounce back from unemployment, toxic workplaces, and job dissatisfaction, as well as improve mental and physical wellbeing, boost confidence, and enhance life and career satisfaction.”
The Foundation
Talking about her childhood and growing up years, Colleen shows her gratitude for being raised by two amazing parents. They raised her to value kindness, compassion, diversity, education, and working hard.
She adds, “They role modeled these values and led me to strive to be the best person I could be.”
Most importantly, her parents taught her to be a person who stands up for others. “I feel my earliest experiences as a leader were the moments in my childhood when I befriended and was kind to kids who were being outcasted by others.”
Colleen further recalls how much she loved going to school and valued the importance of working hard because of her parents’ influence. She first-hand saw her parents work hard to achieve their personal, academic, and professional goals.
These formative years laid the foundation for her lifelong commitment to education and advocacy.
Approach to Coaching
In her role as a life and career coach, Colleen emphasizes the importance of understanding her clients’ unique backgrounds and objectives. She makes sure to have a 20–30-minute conversation with each prospective client.
Prior to the first coaching session, she asks her clients to complete some pre-coaching questionnaires to understand their strengths, challenges, objectives, priorities, and current life and career satisfaction. “During our first session, we discuss these items and begin to strategize how we’ll reach our goals together and where they want to begin,” she explains.
A firm believer in tiny habits, her methodology involves setting small, incremental targets, fostering a sense of accomplishment and motivation in her clients. “This tends to be very motivating and generates hope and confidence toward accomplishing even bigger steps.”
Moreover, she also makes sure to send recap/action emails right after her sessions to have a documented record. This helps organize the overall process and fosters accountability.
Finally, once a coaching relationship has ended, Colleen encourages her clients to share any additional questions that they might have and checks-in on their professional and personal progress from time to time.
Balancing Work and Personal Life
Through her previous workaholic habits, Colleen has come to the realization that a satisfying, joyful life is indeed a balanced life. Her daily routine is a testament to this belief:
I’m an early riser with a morning routine and I get up at 4:30am or 5am daily. I find I can get a lot accomplished early in the morning personally and professionally. I schedule all my personal and professional activities into my Google Calendar well in advance, including client sessions, post-session action emails, workshops, presentation prep, writing projects, business administration tasks, teaching, class prep, assignment grading, volunteering, breakfast/lunch/dinner (I make sure I eat!), self-care, treadmill, outdoor walks, audiobook listening, time with family and friends, travel time to outings, and downtime. These are the items that typically make up my day and week.
I hold around 20+ client sessions each week and maintain pre-scheduled time slots for my sessions. So, while I work seven days a week, I’m typically done with my sessions by 2pm on weekdays and 11am on weekends. This allows me plenty of time for activities that bring me peace and joy. I love to visit cool outdoor places like arboretums, gardens, parks, woods, meadows, waterfalls, and quaint downtowns so I plan at least one day or afternoon trip like this per week with my family/friends. We throw in some Halloween scare attractions, winter holiday lights attractions, ziplining, and other adventures too! My husband, son, and I make sure to plan several bigger trips each season as well for a longer getaway.
With everything scheduled in advance, I just have to wake up and follow my own instructions each day! It simplifies things so I rarely feel worried about having time for work and life tasks, since it’s all planned out. Of course, emergencies and unexpected things happen that can throw things off balance, but I try to move things around to make sure everything gets attended to as much as possible.
RESCRIPTing your Story
Colleen’s award-winning best-selling book – RESCRIPT the Story You’re Telling Yourself – brings together her years of training, research, and experience working with clients and students. It comprises practical tools to help us practice self-compassion, maintain accountability, and reach our goals in each area of our lives.
RESCRIPT stands for – Release Rumination, Engage Your Growth Goals, Seek Your Strengths, Challenge Catastrophizing, Restrict Regret, Invite Imperfection, Pursue Passion & Purpose, and Think Thankfully.
The acronym represents various steps towards self-improvement and empowerment, making it a valuable resource for anyone seeking to improve their self-dialogue and take positive action in their lives.
Colleen shares, “It’s been really cool these last few years since its release to have readers share the ways RESCRIPT has helped them be kinder to themselves and others, shift their perspective, and make big changes in their lives.”
The Pioneering Touch
For Colleen, a pioneer is an individual who’s willing to make a positive change. She integrates this ethos into her business, teaching, and personal life, advocating for not just people but also animals and the environment. Her 13-year tenure teaching a women’s leadership course at Rutgers University emphasizes social justice, molding students into advocates for diversity, equity, access, and inclusion.
She claims, “Knowing each semester I can support 20+ individuals in fostering positive change in their own and others’ lives is incredibly important to me.”
Colleen extends this commitment to social responsibility beyond the classroom. “Since my son was five (he’s 14 now), we’ve been volunteering together at our local food pantry and with community clean-ups and environmental organizations.”
Her dedication to these causes is further enriched by her recent completion of certification courses in ecology and environmental stewardship, reflecting her deep commitment to community service and environmental sustainability.
Vision for the Future
Reflecting on her 15-year journey thus far, Colleen remains passionate about continuing to serve others while enjoying a fulfilling life.
She mentions, “It’s still sometimes hard to believe that something that began as a little side hustle has become the thriving main hustle it is today. I spent the early years achieving so many big dreams – to do a TEDx talk, write a book, create a planner and gratitude journal, publish articles in psychological journals, and earn industry certifications.”
Her focus now is on enjoying her work, learning continuously, and experiencing successes alongside her clients.
