Sahiba Singh Dhupar

Soft Skills Trainer, Image Consultant, Life Coach

“Having grown up in a comfortable environment, liberal thinking and a very chill household, my strength lied in a diversity of cultures and I was a happy child. Growing up, I sailed through a cushioned path, had simple wants and needs. Studies were a passe, I was more interested in theatre, public speaking, oration. But that was school. Not a life goal.

My first job after my MBA as a recruiter, my interviewer gave me life advice - “Work can be taught to anybody, however character confidence and charisma cannot.”. I was shown that I had something more than what the job required. I didn’t understand what I wasn’t seeing.

By 23, I found a wonderful husband, a settled life, it was easy. 6 months into the marriage, I found myself being prescribed to sleeping pills. I was an insomniac with everything but an ambition. Those pills were my subconscious trying to tell me that this was not my end goal. If I had the dream to have a house, a husband and a family, well… now what? This can’t be it.

My quest for self-realization had me looking inward into what I was good at, or who I wanted to be.

Soon I started a job with a Canadian firm that focused on providing life-skill training for children and adolescents. This seemed like something I could do, I would talk to the kids on topics like sexual abuse, bully-proofing, menstrual hygiene and being able to connect with people on a base level had me thriving. Training and coaching instilled some sort of gratification in my life.

Now I began to understand why my father would advise finding passion in your career was possible only if it is built on a person’s inherent traits, rather than having to hone acquired skills. And my innate skills included oration, empathy, empowerment, motivation and I am thankful my life pushed me to do more than just a corporate job based on my academic qualifications.

Yesterday, I was known to be frivolous, and a “fickle-minded-Gemini” with no persistence in life towards anything and 6 years later, I have proved to myself and my family and friends that I am above that title.

Today, I am a Certified Soft Skills Trainer by Scotland Qualification Assurance, Certified Image consultant by ICBI, Certified Etiquette Coach by British School of Etiquette, Certified Transformational and Emotional Intelligence Coach by Transformation Academy Florida, NABET Certified Trainer, British Council Certified English Trainer, Language Expert by Cambridge through TKT and I continue to equip my armoury of life-skills that I choose to impart to people with. I take pride in the fact that not only did I find my passion, but it also wasn’t meant to be just for me.

My motto in life is to have people believe that they need to work on themselves, for themselves. Nobody else can live your life other than you. Lastly, I only wish that my fingerprints should not fade from the lives I touch.”

Interviewed and transcribed by Maryam Syed