Michael de Jong.

Let me introduce myself. I'm Michael de Jong, 38 at the time of writing, living in Utrecht, and a coach with both a creative and a business background.

My path has wound around quite a bit, if you look at where I've lived and worked. I once studied music, then moved into IT. Built a career, made it to manager — and still wasn't satisfied. It took a fair amount of coaching and self-reflection to discover that the creative part of me needed attention again too.

Once I understood that, a lot of things fell into place, and I could take steps again on a path that actually made me happy.

These days I'm firmly back in a creative life, and I try to apply creativity — and make room for it — in both my coaching and my work in the corporate world. I've learned to recognise creativity again as a basic human need.

And that's what I find beautiful about coaching. It brings you back into contact with yourself. It surfaces things you thought you'd lost. And it enables you to choose for yourself, and from yourself, again — and to stand differently in life.

For me, that meant facing experiences in which I'd learned that the bar always had to be higher, that things always had to be better — an exhausting belief that kept my musical background exactly where it had been for far too long: in the background.

Inspired by my own experiences in coaching, and the remarkable insights it gave me, I trained as a coach myself: lifestyle coach, creativity coach, leadership coach — so that I can pass these meaningful moments of growth on to others too.