About Ivana Pejakovic, B.Sc., MA., Life Coach
Ivana is a life coach working with teens and young adults. With distractions everywhere, it is easy for the younger generation to depart from the path of self-discovery and fulfillment only to end up disoriented, confused, and unhappy.
When working with teens and young adults, Ivana emphasizes self-love and self-awareness. Positive progress in life is only possible once the self is known, accepted and embraced. Healthy self-esteem and self-confidence and a good attitude is also fostered through the eradication of false beliefs, understating one's true value by focusing on what matters, and by developing a vision that is right for them.
Ivana addresses numerous teen and young adult issues, including low self-esteem, poor choices, bad habits, values, goals, sibling rivalry, timidity, feelings of inadequacy, poor self-image, and more. By working with Ivana, teens learn to accept themselves, feel good about themselves, and become mindful of their potential.
She directs teens and young adults to become aware of what they want to achieve and then she helps them reach success by guiding them to develop their level of focus and passion.
Education
Ivana's undergraduate work focused on goal-setting patterns and what makes it possible for people to reach their objective. She understands the importance of setting clear goals with realistic expectations, and she understands the importance of having passion for one's goals and the effort required to reach them. Primarily, she understands the significance of setting goals that are important to the individual and not setting goals that others want the person to achieve. Ivana's graduate work focused on the role of deception in social situations and its effect on the overall quality of the interaction. The focal point of her practical work was working with women who have negative body-image, low self-esteem, and who frequently diet. She has also researched how negative family mealtime patterns can contribute to eating disorders in children. Ivana has been involved in developing assessments for community outreach programs for underprivileged teens.
Philosophy on Life
Life is what you make of it. If you know what you want to achieve and you are willing to take steps today, with positive thoughts, a positive attitude, and self-serving beliefs, you will make the best of your life.
Happiness
"It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty an' wealth have both failed"
—Kin Hubbard
Happiness is probably one of the most sought-after goals in our culture. Fortunately, reaching a state of happiness is not difficult. If you take the time to learn who you are and what matters to you and choose to respect this person you will greatly increase your level of happiness. You will be happy when you stop chasing other's ideals and start to live your own.
Knowing who you are an Honouring that Person
"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power."
—Unknown
Who are you? How do you describe yourself? How do you think of your essence? If you define yourself by your social roles and career goals, you'll experience quite an awakening if those ever disappear. Nothing in life is constant, so you cannot use anything external to you (e.g. "I am a CEO", "I am a mom", "I am PhD student") to describe yourself. You need to know your inner being to deal successfully and confidently with life's challenges.
Life Mistakes and Self-forgiveness
"To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness"
—Robert Muller
It appears that the main purpose of life is to learn and grow, not just physically, but emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. Most of us will agree the lessons best learned were those that involved a major mistake or failure.
An important part of making mistakes, however, is self-forgiveness. Learn from your mistakes and move on. It is OK to make the same mistake twice or three times. Not all mistakes or failures are equal and therefore repetition may be required to learn and grow. Do not ruminate on what went wrong; instead focus on your goal and your new solution.
Self-love
"You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy."
—Unknown
I believe the barriers to self-love are false beliefs, social-comparison, a lack of self-forgiveness, guilt, judgement, perfectionism, and deceitfulness. When you are aware of how these obstacles interfere with your unconditional love for yourself, you will be able to eliminate them, forgive yourself, and love yourself for who you are. Love and acceptance of yourself will foster compassion for others.
The Present Moment
"Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life."
—Thich Nhat Hanh
Get into the habit of taking a moment to become aware of the sounds, smells, and visions around you. Learn to listen to what your body is telling you now. Living in the present moment allows the negative thoughts to stop (you'll no longer beat yourself up over the past) and allows the positive ones in (what can I do now to be a better person?). What happens to you in the present moment is not always desirable, but, it is your stepping stone to a greater destination.
Setting Goals
"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark."
—Michelangelo
To live a fulfilling life you need to feel like there is a purpose for your existance. You need to feel that you are moving forward and that you are contributing something valuable to the world. Setting goals gives your life meaning. Goals will excite your life as you work towards achieving them. Be sure to set your goals!
Fear
"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."
—William Shakespeare
The major problem with fear is that it stunts your growth as it keeps you from living the life you were meant to live. It prevents you from making good decisions, recognizing and taking positive risks (also known as opportunities), and it prevents you from finding joy. Fear affects the quality of your life, physically, psychologically, and emotionally, as it manifests into a feeling of chronic worry.
Stress and Taking Time Out
"Stress is not what happens to us. It's our response to what happens. And response is something we can choose."
—Maureen Killoran
There is a secret behind the source of all stress...it comes, not from outside (not from the numerous daily activities you need to do), but from the inside! From You! Stress comes from your pessimistic perception of the daily activities you have to do, from your unfavourable interpretation of and negative beliefs about everything that makes up your life. The good news about stress being self-created is that the experience of stress is under YOUR control. If you can create it...you can eliminate it!
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