Life coaching
Are you living the life you want to live, or the life people expect you to live? Most people answer "a bit of both". Sometimes the balance doesn’t feel right for us. Perhaps we’ve been focusing too hard on our career and then realise we’ve not had much time for friends or close relationships, or maybe we’ve been so focused on our family and building a base, that we’ve not had time to develop the interests or career we’d like for ourselves. Coaching can help you to uncover what you really want and facilitate your journey to realise your goals.
So what is coaching?
Coaching is a conversation that helps you on your journey of self-discovery. It helps you build the life you want. Coaching will support you by encouraging you to set inspiring, realistic and challenging goals for yourself. Your coach will explore options with you, help you discover what you really want and support you in generating action steps that work for you. Your coach will keep you moving forward, believe in you and expect the best from you. Essentially, your coach will ask you many questions that will help you to help yourself.
What does a coach not do?
A coach doesn’t judge, doesn’t advise and doesn’t recommend. A coach does not tell you what to do, or when to do it. A coach is not a consultant. Nor a fairy godmother. Changing your life takes effort on your part. A coach cannot change it for you, but CAN facilitate change.
The biggest challenge for most people when they want to make changes in their lives is having a critical friend, someone who would not judge or ridicule their ideas. Someone who could question them about how realistic an idea was without making them feel small. That’s what a coach does, and then some. A coach also holds you accountable for what you say you will do. Not in a ‘beating you up if you fail’ kind of way, but just someone who is interested and cares that you succeed. Someone who will give you the opportunity to discover more about yourself along the way.
So what is coaching?
Coaching is a conversation that helps you on your journey of self-discovery. It helps you build the life you want. Coaching will support you by encouraging you to set inspiring, realistic and challenging goals for yourself. Your coach will explore options with you, help you discover what you really want and support you in generating action steps that work for you. Your coach will keep you moving forward, believe in you and expect the best from you. Essentially, your coach will ask you many questions that will help you to help yourself.
What does a coach not do?
A coach doesn’t judge, doesn’t advise and doesn’t recommend. A coach does not tell you what to do, or when to do it. A coach is not a consultant. Nor a fairy godmother. Changing your life takes effort on your part. A coach cannot change it for you, but CAN facilitate change.
The biggest challenge for most people when they want to make changes in their lives is having a critical friend, someone who would not judge or ridicule their ideas. Someone who could question them about how realistic an idea was without making them feel small. That’s what a coach does, and then some. A coach also holds you accountable for what you say you will do. Not in a ‘beating you up if you fail’ kind of way, but just someone who is interested and cares that you succeed. Someone who will give you the opportunity to discover more about yourself along the way.
"I was stuck in a job I had started to hate, with a team I didn't feel part of (and didn't want to be, if I was honest with myself). I wasn't convinced that coaching would help and when I looked into it I was a bit cynical about the value of it, but I would never had made the leap from corporate gimp to (happy) small biz owner without the support of someone who believed in me. By support, I mean asking the 'right' questions, some of which were quite challenging. If my friends had asked them, I'd have been a bit defensive, but when it's someone objective, it seems ok, as you know your coach has no hidden agenda, they just want you to succeed!" T.K., Surrey
|
Your vision will become clearer if you look into your heart.
He who looks outside, dreams. He who looks inside, awakens. Carl Jung |
Change is not something that we should fear.
Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no-one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they’re meant to be. Anon |
Working within the Association for Coaching code of ethics, which can be found here
