What is Coaching?

Put simply, coaching is a process that aims to improve performance and focuses on the ‘here and now’ rather than on the distant past.

A life coach is a type of wellness professional who helps people make progress in their lives in order to attain greater fulfillment. … Life coaches can help you clarify your goals, identify the obstacles holding you back, and then come up with strategies for overcoming each obstacle.

Good coaches believe that the individual always has the answer to their own problems but understands that they may need help to find the answer.

Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.

John Whitmore, in Coaching for Performance.

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Why Coaching

From time to time, we get impulses for change. It might be because we get inspired… We might see someone else having what we want… A new possibility might occur to you… You get a flash of insight… A friend or colleague challenges you… Most often it’s because something has gotten worse than we’re willing to tolerate and we say, “I’ve had enough!”

Whatever the reason, this impulse for change comes along at certain intervals in our life. However, we all know the impulse rarely lasts. Last week I had an impulse to exercise… (again). However, it’s not particularly consistent, and doesn’t always come at times when it’s convenient for me to exercise.

You may have thought: “You know – my relationship really could be better. Surely this isn’t as good as it gets.” And the next day the impulse is gone. Or “What would it take to double my profits? I’m really going to make some changes in this business when I get less busy.” A few days later your focus is on something else.

Or… are you the kind of person who takes on new projects with gusto, to find out that a few weeks or months later it feels old hat, and you follow a familiar pattern of switching to something else?

Impulses for Change Do Not Usually Last

This is why we human beings do not make many of the changes that are possible in our lives. Without Coaching – without a STRUCTURE – our natural tendency is to keep our patterns. Go to work. Make money. Keep the same relationships. Keep the same barriers. Want the same things to change. – but don’t change them. Feel an impulse for change – lose the impulse for change. Staying the same is the natural outcome.

Do We Need to Change?

No. But wouldn’t it be wise? These impulses for change are the signals telling you what is next for you in life. They are your intuition letting you know that you are missing opportunities. They are messages (sometimes subtle) about what you would “really” like to do in your life, what your business needs, the perfect job, who you should be with right now.

They are not only the signals that will help us achieve the goals we are striving for, but the signals that are telling us how to evolve as people. If we ignore these impulses we’ll feel restless at a very deep level – knowing something is wrong but not sure what. Not understanding this restlessness, we must seek ways of quieting it – TV, movies, alcohol, smoking, over-eating etc.

It’s important that these impulses do not get left by the way side. You want the secret to achieving your goals and having an amazing life?
Find a Way to Harness These Impulses!

The Coaching Structure

At it’s simplest, coaching may be described as a structure. Coaching harnesses the energy for change; those impulses that last from a moment to a few weeks. If you feel an impulse to exercise more, you may exercise somewhat – until the next impulse. But if you join a gym for a year and hire a personal trainer, you will be fit! In fact it would be very hard to avoid it, having set up this structure.

Coaching is a similar structure for any goal that’s important to you. You make a commitment to your goals, and to working for a certain time frame with a coach. This is often 3 months or 6 months, usually with one or more review points or follow-ups to assess progress. Normally, once twice a month by phone, Zoom or in person, you have a conversation with your coach and you commit to specific actions to move you forward.

Within a coaching structure your natural tendency is to pursue your goals and achieve them. It’s hard, in fact very hard, to keep your limiting patterns and your life the same when you focus so much consistent attention on what you really want and make commitments to a third party.

With a coach, the person who feels an impulse to change careers isn’t still thinking about it in three months time. He’s hired a coach, found a new career possibility which inspires him or her, has got a new resume and ten interviews lined up. 

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