Tools, tips and education to help you live the life you choose

We’ve looked at what Success or Life Coaching is, who uses it and the philosophy behind it.  I guess the obvious question now is how or what do you actually do when you are coached?

The answer to that varies depending on the coach and their model.  The simplest is the phone a friend type coaching where you speak to your coach at regular periods say fortnightly or monthly, they keep you accountable for tasks, and talk about what is happening in your life.  Some coaches will do face to face sessions or group sessions, either face to face or on the phone.

Some coaches, like myself, offer a more comprehensive system with ‘homework’ plus phone calls and email support.  The ‘homework’ I use is a system of modules from Beyond Success, produced as a result of over 25 years experience.  These cover everything from the basics of sorting out your values, goals and mission to most other areas in your life such as emotions, leadership and relationships.

My experience is that using ‘homework’ really helps clients get the most out of our relationship.  They get great learnings from the work, so much more than you can cover in a hours call. 

Many people start your work with a coach by working out where you are in life, what is important to you and where you want to go can give them much greater clarity in their day to day life.  You can make decisions more easily if you understand your values and goals and can think ‘if I do this is it in line with where I want to go in life and my values?’

You can also have a specific target that you want to work on with a coach, improving a certain area in your life or skill, for example improve a relationship, or your communication or assertiveness.  It is up to you what you want to focus on, it can be professional or personal or both, coaching is about you so it is up to you to decide.

Life with a Success Coach should be one of change as you take action.  It can be a little scary as you start to take focussed action, set goals and step out of your  comfort zone.Your life will never be the same again, positive change will happen, things that may have seemed impossible before will now become your reality.  Sound incredible, just talk to any Success or Life Coach who has been around for a while and they will be able to tell you stories of clients who have achieved great things (keeping the clients identity confidential of course).

So if this is what you want in your life then what are you waiting for – the next post.  Why?  Well in the next post I will be talking about what makes a good coach and how to find one!

Well it is difficult to boil it down into a one line definition.  A short definition could be someone who assists you to be the best you can be.  I like to say that I help people sort out what is success for them and then empower them to achieve it.

It’ll probably help if we look at what coaching is not.  Some people use the term interchangeably with things like consulting, counselling and mentoring.  Lets have a look at what each of these groups do, plus friends and see what is different.

Starting with consulting, this is where you pay someone to go out there, research a problem and come up with a solution.  Often that is the end of the line for them, they leave you to implement their solution.  As a coach I believe everyone has the solutions for their problems and the resources to solve them.  Coaching involves helping your client to find these solutions by asking questions and making suggestions.  We then stay around to assist and support your actions and changes you make.

Counsellors are all about problems too, the difference is they focus on recovery or healing a problem by looking at your past.  As a life or success coach we look at the present and making it better and how to shape your future, getting clarity on where you want to go.  We don’t need to resolve past issues to help you move forward, sort out your goals and then reach them.  Both coaches and counsellors use similar techniques and can work together if that suits you.

So what about mentoring.  A mentor is usually someone who is further ahead in your field of expertise.  For instance, in the corporate world it could be someone higher up the management chain.  They generally provide you with support and insights they have picked up along the way to help you in your chosen field.  A coach is there to assist you with finding answers to all your life situations, not just for a particular area of your life.

Have any of you got a good friend who seems just like a success coach we have been describing here?  It is amazing when you talk to people who are starting out as coaches how often they say their friends say to them that have been coaching all the time.  The thing to realise is that not everyone has these natural talents or the skills to deal with you in a non-judgmental way, to assist you with finding the answers in your life without giving you well meaning advice.

Ok, hopefully having looked at these four examples that should help you in getting some clarity on what success coaching is.  If you want to do any of the following then a life coach can help you:

• Get clarity on where you are going
• Set your goals and help you reach them
• Learn to think big
• Identify the things or blockages that might be holding you back
• Hold you accountable on our journey, support your successes and help you through any setbacks.
• Achieve more than than you ever thought you could.

So there it is, you should now have a great idea of what success coaching is and what it can do for you.  I prefer success coaching to life coaching because when it comes down to it I think that is what people are looking for.  As I said earlier it is a case of finding out what success is for you, is it just feeling happy every day, or achieving some level of financial or corporate stature.  Whatever it is coaching can help you get clarity on it and then achieve it.  Go for it!

(By the way if you are wondering about significance of the photo to coaching, there is none that I can think of, except that it is beautiful and gives you a good feeling – just like coaching can.  I was looking for images when He came in and suggested I use one of his sunset shots so there it is – sunset from our front verandah, taken by Him).