Monique Nanninga followed the Master in Coaching at Johan Cruyff Institute in 2018. Now, two years later, the former business professional and entrepreneur looks back on her journey
Monique: After a career in marketing for 25 years, I left the corporate world behind me two years ago. I was completely fed up with it. I have been an entrepreneur ever since. To push the boundaries in sport and business gives me so much more personal satisfaction than always ‘wanting and having to do more’ in the first half of my career.
During the Master in Coaching, I was faced with the chance to take over a sports hotel in the French Vosges. I went on an exploratory mission, which runs as a common thread throughout my Master in Coaching journey. Or better said, the other way around: my Master in Coaching journey is the common thread in the steps I undertook towards my new adventure in France.
I started the program to get in contact with like-minded people, because I was missing this as a freelancer. When I look back at my time during the Master, it mostly brought me closer to myself. I noticed that reflecting is a more powerful instrument for me than evaluating. I already looked at myself from a small distance and went back to certain situations and emotions. I call this evaluating. But since my first reflection report, I have noticed that looking at myself from the inside out—reflecting—leads to much more exciting insights.
During (coaching) conversations, I now have a feeling deep inside of my own strength. I now know what confidence feels like. I can reach out and touch it. Before this program, I often said that I had confidence in my own abilities, but now I know that saying something and feeling it are two completely different things.
Without the Master in Coaching I wouldn’t have had the guts to start my adventure in France. My life has been a rollercoaster the past year, with lots of ups and just as many downs. I had some pretty difficult encounters with myself, but because of the insights about myself I dealt with those downs, or disappointments, better than I would have done before the Master. I probably would have already quit and opted for the certainty of ‘leaving everything as it is’ if it wasn’t for the Master in Coaching.
I am now the proud owner of De Sportherberg, a hotel that is focused on cyclists, mountain bikers, triathletes, trail runners and hikers and I wouldn’t have missed this opportunity for the world.
STUDY PROGRAMS JOHAN CRUYFF INSTITUTE AMSTERDAM
- Sponsorship 360: International Sport Marketing and Sponsorship (Amsterdam & London, English, Start: April 2020)
- Master in Sport Management (Amsterdam, English, Start: September 2020)
- Master in Coaching (Amsterdam & Arnhem, English, Start: February 2021 – Dutch edition: September 2020)
