When one thinks of coaching, one thinks of the sports field. Coaching, in essence, helps people to be the best they can be. That theme is spreading from the playing field to all areas of life as the profession of personal and professional coaching is exploding all over the world. The workplace was one of the early arenas. Today even the field of faith has taken on personal coaching,
What personal and professional coaching is not:
Coaching is not counseling or psychotherapy nor is it focused on the past. It is not consulting, in which the agenda is often set for the client or business by an expert. In the case of health coaching, it is not medical help as in a physician’s care, or nutritional counseling as by a dietician.
What coaching is:
Coaching is about communication and choices. It focuses on where a person is now and where he or she would like to go in the future. It involves a marriage of listening, observing, intuition and reflection in helping the client navigate forward through the processes of change. Coaching’s course runs through acknowledgement and attitudes, action and accountability, successes and celebration, and sometimes failures and course correction. Always, it is about empowering process and progress.
When being coached, what does one encounter?
Co-active coaching
In athletic coaching, usually the coach sets the goals, plans the strategies and calls the plays. In personal coaching, the coach follows the client’s lead in setting the agenda. Coaching is a collaborative, walking-alongside relationship between client and coach who helps to hold the focus and stay on course.
Clarification
Sometimes a person is clear in which areas they wish to be coached. Sometimes they are unclear. They just know something needs to be different and they need help clearing the fog. The coaching discovery process assists the client in clarifying values, aligning goals, identifying what’s working and what’s not, uncovering hindrances and establishing action plans.
Courage
Coaching not only offers support and encouragement from another person. It also builds in mechanisms for one to support and encourage oneself, for example: dealing with fear, overcoming negative influences, and taking new steps in positive directions.
Challenge
It’s easy to have blind spots in our lives. When we move into new territories that involve change, we run up against a variety of barriers. Some we know and want to learn to conquer, some we have chosen not to scale, some we don’t know and don’t want to know, others we don’t know what we don’t know, but sooner or later we find out -- the hard way. Coaching challenges and moves toward good end results.
“When we don’t question our limiting beliefs, we automatically become subject to them.” – Robert Middleton
Commitment
Commitment may seem an obvious step in making change, but there are many ways we avoid commitment. Unless we commit to embrace actions that will move us forward, we remain stuck.
Consistency
The struggle with consistency is often one of the reasons people seek coaching in the first place. The bigger the action steps the easier the fall, so it’s important that the coach pay attention to the do-ability of the client’s steps. Continual momentum is critical to establishing new lifestyle habits. Moving through the maintenance phase is often the longest part of the journey and where it is most easy to backslide.
Completion
The goal isn’t complete until it has become a cornerstone, bedrock behavior – second nature. Certainly there will be lapses, but they will not be the norm anymore.
Celebration
Achieved goals are meant to be celebrated. That doesn’t mean that small successes aren’t acknowledged along the way. It’s important to celebrate continually. Focusing daily on what’s been going well and being grateful can change our entire outlook.
These are the basics in which all personal coaches are trained. From this springboard, most coaches choose specialized niches in which they have more experience or special interest.
The final C in my coaching toolbox is Container.
Many people invest more in planning vacations or retirement than a wellness plan to take care of their bodies -- until they get sick. Without a healthy body, other goals might be compromised if not eliminated. Our bodies and our planet are irreplaceably crucial to containing life. If we take preventive care of both, we at least have quite a bit in our control. As a trained Health Coach, my specialty is helping people put traction under their wellness goals, approaching the total interconnected person – body, mind, emotions, spirit, relationships, and resources, including our environment.
For more information, call 319-277-7444 or email vauxcom@cfu.net
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