One way that life coaching can help you
One of my core beliefs is that hiring is a coach is one of the best, most valuable, and most useful things you could spend your money on.
I mean it. If you have a home, and food, and some financial security — I think there is nothing you could spend your money on that would be better — for you, for your family, for the world — than hiring a life coach.
But I’ve realized that a lot of people — especially a lot of people who find their way to my world (typically professionals and creatives who are fairly together in their lives)… often have no idea what a life coach even does.
I think it’s time for a Public Education Campaign.
I will call it: *Life Coaching: What it is + Why It’s Awesome.*
(Imagine that text on a red silky banner, and me kicking off the campaign by cutting the banner in half with comically oversized scissors.)
As one part of this campaign, I wanted to share some specific examples of how a life coach can be helpful — taken from real stories from my clients. I hope it helps you learn more about life coaching, and I hope it inspires you, too. Look at what’s possible! If they can do it, so can you!
Today, here’s example #1:
#1. A life coach can help define the goal.
One of my clients recently came into a session feeling tired and tight in his body.
Yes, he was achieving some important financial and professional goals, but also, I always have stuff to do, he told me. It’s like I’m waiting for that place when…I won’t always feel like I have stuff to do.
I started by asking him, in detail, about what it would feel like, to not always have stuff to do. He told me about how he felt when he visited his folks – he doesn’t worry about working out, a rigid diet, or lots of plans, when he’s there. He just hangs out in his parents’ basement, watches tv, and maybe does a bit of work. I could see his whole body relax, and he looked more content.
Life feels easy when I’m there, he told me.
That was the first big realization: he hadn’t known when he walked in, what he actually wanted. He just knew what he didn’t want.
And once we knew that he wanted his life to feel easy, we were off to the races. By the end of the session, we’d discussed everything from his thoughts about work and working out — and believable, realistic thoughts he could think instead — to the hour-by-hour allocation of time in his workweek.
And he was grinning.
At the beginning of this conversation, I felt like I had to feel guilty about watching tv, he told me. Now I feel like I do plenty of work already, so I can just enjoy my life the rest of the time.
And he told me: Wow, my life is pretty sweet.
…
And that’s just a single-session example of defining + achieving a goal — other goals are much broader. Just a few other recent client goals have included:
Feeling sparkly
Feeling happy
Feeling momentum
Knowing what they wanted as a next step in their career
Taking the next, challenging steps in their career
Working fewer hours without sacrificing quality at work
Not being so tired all the time
…
Of course, sometimes we know the goal backwards and forwards. Even then, there can be more to know.
A different client, for example, came into our first session telling me she felt stagnant and bored. She wanted more meaning and fulfillment, she told me.
And yet, she didn’t exactly know what that meant. What do "meaning" and "fulfillment" mean, exactly?
For this particular client, it turned out that meaning and fulfillment were 80% driven by two qualities:
Meaningful connection with others
Learning
So those ended up becoming our true “goals” — and allowed us to explore things like:
How could she feel a more meaningful connection and learning at her job (that was kind of boring)?
How could she make more connections at her kickboxing class? At the drugstore?
What types of learning were interesting, even after a tiring workday or workweek? A bonsai class? Studying Korean?
How could she restructure her routines and days, so she had more *time* for meaningful connection and learning?
At the end of our coaching engagement, she told me: Wow, I feel so different than when I reached out to you. But it had also snuck up on her — this increased meaning and fulfillment.
…
And, of course, that’s just one thing a coach can help with — I’ll share more in later installments of this series. I hope you enjoy this series as much as I enjoy thinking about my beloved clients.
And if you’d like to hire me — and I strongly suggest that you do; I’m an experienced, highly skilled life coach — you can learn more here.
As always, I’m rooting for you. You’ve got this.
Katie
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