#LifeLessons // The Biggest life learnings Of Anne Jackson

Name: Anne Jackson

Age: 55

Instagram handle: @onelifecoachingme

Job title: Master Life Coach; Founder & CEO - One Life Coaching Middle East

For over a decade, Anne Fatima Jackson has been helping people navigate life’s messier moments, from relationship breakdowns and divorce to career reinvention, identity shifts, and personal growth. As the founder of One Life Coaching ME, she blends psychotherapy theory with coaching tools to support people through real change, not just quick fixes.

Her clients include everyone from expat families adjusting to life abroad, teenagers and neurodivergent individuals finding their way, to C-suite leaders and entrepreneurs facing high-stakes decisions. Anne is known for tackling tough topics -  like emotional abuse, burnout, and resilience - with compassion, clarity, and a deep belief in lasting transformation. She’s not just a coach, she’s someone who helps people feel seen, supported, and empowered to rewrite their story.

Today, Anne shares with us her three most hard-earned and heartfelt life lessons:

Over the course of my life, and especially through my work as a therapeutic coach, I’ve come to understand three lessons that have shaped not only how I live, but how I help others.

These are not things I read in a book or picked up in a seminar. These are truths I learned the hard way - through experience, pain, reflection, and finally, clarity. And while they now form the foundation of the work I do with others; they began as deeply personal turning points in my own story.

1. Clear your emotional baggage - properly.

For years, I believed I could simply leave the past in the past. That if I just got on with things, pushed through, and focused on the present, I’d be fine.

At one point, a relative even told me, “Just forget it happened, say three Our Fathers, and move on.” But of course, I couldn’t, none of us can, not really.

The coping mechanisms that once helped me survive my past began to weigh me down in the present. Eventually, I realised I couldn’t carry on like this so I sought out a psychologist and began the hard, transformative work of therapy.

It wasn’t easy - it was confronting, emotional, and at times exhausting, but it was also the most powerful thing I’ve ever done. I rewired thought patterns that were never really mine; I made peace with my past and began living by my values, not my trauma; and I found real joy for myself as well as for my children, which was the best bonus of this work.

That’s why I push back so strongly now when I hear people casually say, “We all carry baggage.” We don’t have to. It’s like dragging a full wardrobe behind you every day, utterly unnecessary and quite frankly ludicrous. And processing emotional baggage is not about talking it over with friends, as loving as they may be. It’s about conscious, structured inner work with someone trained to help you untangle and reframe what’s kept you stuck. That’s the real shift.

2. Know who you really are - through your values.

I grew up believing that being "nice" and “pleasing others” was the path to success.

I didn’t understand that in doing so, I was often betraying my own values because, quite frankly, I didn’t even know what my values were. Learning to identify and live by my values was a game changer. It gave me the confidence to say no without guilt, to set healthy boundaries, and to lead a life that felt aligned, not performative.

So many people confuse values with vague moral ideas or what they think they should care about but your true values are deeply personal and often surprising. Once I discovered mine, and really owned them, I stopped living on autopilot and started living on purpose.

That’s when life shifted. Decisions have become easier, relationships have become healthier, and work has become meaningful. Authenticity isn't just a buzzword - it’s the engine behind a life that actually works.

3. Make your passion your profession - and stop chasing money.

Fresh out of university, I landed a prestigious international role with a well-known multinational firm. It ticked every box: title, salary, image, status but it baffled me as to why I wasn’t feeling that inner joy from having this job.

I didn’t yet know that there’s a huge difference between confidence and self-worth, or that success without authenticity can feel hollow. It took me years - and two career changes both of which I loved and excelled at - to realise that true fulfilment comes from doing the work you’re meant to do. Helping people clear their emotional baggage and discover their own version of success isn’t just what I do now, it’s who I am. And yes, the money followed, but that’s no longer the point. Money is simply a resource. Purpose is the reason.

These three lessons aren’t abstract ideas. They’re lived truths.

They’re the foundation of the work I do - not just because I went back to school to study them but because I’ve truly lived them. And the more I’ve owned them in my own life, the more I’ve been able to help others do the same. That’s what real success looks like to me.