Hi, I am Dr. María José Ramírez
WHY CHOOSE ME?
BECAUSE I HAVE GONE THROUGH THE SAME CHALLENGES THAT YOU HAVE…
In my early twenties, I felt hopeless and did not feel like I could achieve much, even if my results showed the opposite.
Running 10K was one of the many things that I thought was impossible for me. I would always see other people as smarter, more talented, happier or luckier than me.
One day, a friend helped prepare me to run 10K, despite the negative comments of my family and friends saying that running 10K was “unhealthy” and that I was “obsessed” with sports.
In the race, when I was about to cross the finish line, I realized how much I had limited myself by having the wrong beliefs about my capabilities and what I was able to achieve. I had many mental blocks that were preventing me from living life fully and going after what I really wanted (or being able to recognize it).
Achieving something I believed was impossible made me feel invincible - like I could do anything. Then, inevitable questions came, like: What other things was I capable of doing? How far could I go if I broke through my mental barriers?
BECAUSE I STUDIED TO SUPPORT YOU…
When I ran my first 10k, I was studying psychology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and started looking for ways to free myself from my mental barriers. This brought me to organizational psychology, since the other areas seemed to focus on “problems” or “illnesses”. I studied every tool and strategy that could help people flourish, like positive psychology, motivational interviewing and coaching.
I completed a Master’s Degree at the University of Ottawa in Canada and studied with my mentor Terry Olick, Ph.D., the mental performance consultant of many Olympic Athletes. I learned and applied the mental skills that were necessary to perform consistently at a high level not only in sports, but in any discipline, and in life.
Then, after several years of teaching at a university and working with athletes, musicians, and other performers, I started looking for ways to go deeper. I wanted to help people reflect, learn from their own experiences and performances, and to transfer what they learned to other areas of their lives. I also wanted to learn how leaders could facilitate growth in others. That led me to a Ph.D. in positive youth development and experiential learning at The Pennsylvania State University, where I developed a model that I use as a framework to work with my clients.
After I ran my first 10k race in 2004, I decided to face my fears, and ended up running many more races, including 10k’s, a 21k and even 42k race. I qualified for CrossFit regionals, I traveled solo across the world, lived and studied in four different countries, and made friends with people from many different nationalities. I became fluent in three languages, and worked doing everything from selling Christmas cards to being a motivational speaker. I even spoke at the General Assembly of the United Nations! I have been interviewed multiple times on TV, and in newspapers and radio.
I have worked with hundreds of people, including athletes, musicians, CEOs, leaders, teachers, lawyers, parents, children and many more, teaching the necessary skills to lead, perform and live joyful lives - all things that never imagined I would be able to do before I ran my first 10k.
One of my main lessons I’ve learned is that if you want to perform consistently at a high level, you have to move away from outcome-based thinking. It seems paradoxical, but when we focus on the outcome, we tell ourselves stories about it, which influences our ability to perform and achieve our desired results. In order to excel, we have to be willing to move away from an outcome-based perspective, which will lead to higher performance, consistency, resiliency, more fun, and ultimately more satisfaction in our chosen field and in life.
I can show you how.
I admired her nimble approach to learning - she showed me how she could leverage knowledge and techniques from seemingly unrelated fields to achieve rapid effectiveness. I am confident that her online coaching will be extremely engaging, and will create a heightened level of self-management and performance for any person willing to challenge themselves and entrust their outcomes to an expert.
— Mark W. Harris, L.H.D. Global Consultant in Internationalization of Education and Global Citizenship