What is Coaching? What Does Coaching Provide?

What is Coaching? What Does Coaching Provide?

Life coaching is about having even more of what you want in your life. Take an athlete for example: coaching is not about fixing his game, it’s about him becoming even better.  What coaching provides specifically for each client is different. The bottom line is, we’ll be after specific results that will make a difference in your life, and have fun in the process! Here’s more:

From time to time, we get an impulse for change. It might be because we get inspired, or we see someone with something we want, or a new possibility occurs to us, a flash of insight. Or maybe a friend challenges us. Often it’s because we reach a point where we are no longer willing to tolerate something, and we say, “I’ve had enough!”

For whatever reason, these impulses for change come along, but they rarely last. For example, sometimes I get an impulse to exercise. It’s not consistent, and it doesn’t always come along when it’s convenient for me to exercise. Or the impulse may be, “You know, my relationship really could be better.” And the next day, the impulse is gone. Or, “I know what I can really do to make some great changes in my business, when I get less busy.” And then you focus in on something else. Or you take on a new project with gusto and in a few weeks you are bored with it, and switch to something else. So impulses for change don’t last, which is why we humans don’t make nearly as many changes as 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 things to change, but they stay the same.

These impulses for change are your intuition telling you what is next in your life, if you act. They are messages about what you’d really like to do in your life, your business needs, the type of person who would be best for you to be with right now. If we ignore these impulses, we feel restless on a very deep level. And we may seek ways to quiet this, with addictions to things like TV, smoking, and/or over-eating.

A coaching structure is a way to harness these impulses – the energy for change. For example, if I feel an impulse to exercise, I’ll exercise, maybe once, until my next impulse. But if I hire a personal trainer for a year, I’ll get myself into my best physical shape ever. In fact, it would be very hard to avoid getting in my best shape ever, if I set up this accountability and structure with a wise coach.

Life coaching sets up a structure for any goal that is important to you in your life. You make a commitment to your goals and to working with a coach for a certain time-frame. This is usually a minimum of 3 to 6 months (so you can see some real results). Normally, we meet once a week 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! In fact, it becomes hard to keep the old patterns in your life when you focus so much consistent attention on what you really want, and make promises to a third party.

With a coach, the man who feels an impulse to change careers isn’t still thinking about it in 3 months’ time. He’s hired a coach, he’s found a new career possibility that inspires him, he’s got a new resume, and ten interviews lined up.

With a coach, the woman who wants to organize her business so that she has time for herself isn’t still complaining about it in six months’ time. She’s hired a coach, created an empowering time allocation, set her boundaries, hired an assistant, looks obviously happier and is therefore attracting more clients.

With a coach, a man who wants to finally learn how to have a happy, lasting romance isn’t still longing for that in two year’s time. He’s hired a coach, learned how to have a healthy long-term trusting relationship with a woman, and he’s having that, perhaps for the first time in his life.

So, here’s the key: without a coach, the path of least resistance is to keep your life the same. Impulses for change often do not last long enough to act upon. With a coach, the path of least resistance is to achieve your goals! Impulses for change are converted into momentum. Getting a life coach – getting into a coaching structure – is a powerful way to harness your energy for change and help you move forward. Aren’t you curious what your life could be like in 5 years’ time, if you harnessed your impulses for change, carried them through, and had fun while doing it? Follow your impulse now to get your own life coach.

See also: Why is a coaching structure so valuable?