Rumor on the street was that this season of Bridgerton was not as good as the others, so I went into it with low expectations.

But then I saw them: the buoyant hydrangeas bursting across the screen, ivy draping down the brick walls of the Bridgerton household, and, of course, I would be remiss to exclude Queen Charlotte’s hair — towering, extravagant, replete with jewels, swans, ribbons, bows. A masterpiece of engineering on full display for our collective enjoyment.

And I was hooked.

My favorite moment, however, did not take place in aforementioned household or even at a ball. Rather, it was a conversation between Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury.

Lady Danbury shares something she has been wrestling with. Violet asks questions that only an aristocratic English woman would ask — the kind that circle politely around the truth without ever quite touching it — and receives answers in the same spirit.

Then Violet repeats something that was recently said to her by her maid. But as she says it, you can see the wheels turning. It’s as if the words reach her at the very moment she speaks them.

“I often worry that to want to do something for myself is selfish… but I do want particular things… and I should have them… you should have them. It is not selfish to want something for yourself. You have a right to be as happy and or as free as you would like… life is meant to be lived.”

Life is meant to be lived.

You are meant to be happy. To be free.

Not everyone believes this, of course. And, not everyone can have this, of course. But in that moment, as I watched Violet make this pronouncement, I saw something shift within her. She realizes that her opportunity to be happy, to be free, to really live is not over.

Perhaps it is just beginning.

Lady Danbury needed her friend to say this out loud, just as Violet needed to hear it, as well.

Sometimes we need people to tell us what is true.

We need people to stand beside us and say: yes — that thing you want? You’re allowed to want it.

That kind of belief is powerful.

It’s also surprisingly rare.

And that, more than anything else, is what I love about coaching.

Sometimes we just need someone beside us saying:

life is meant to be lived.

Luckily for you, that’s basically my job.