Tuesday, January 8, 2008

More on Coaching

Often people are stuck in a workplace or in a dysfunctional relationship, or they cannot decide what career path to take. Or there may be other issues such as finance, ones environment or health. Finding ways for a change may not be easy because habits keep one from being open to new experiences or looking for new paths. Having a life/relationship coach at your side makes it easier to see the bigger picture. You begin to see things in yourself or in your world that you have never noticed. You discover your true vision in life. You learn to draw on abilities you may not have known you had, and you learn to shape your inner and outer environment in accordance with your personal values. Your coach is there to help you discover that what looked like a wasteland can become a world of abundance.

What is Life Coaching?

The term "coaching" is most readily associated with sports. Let's take prizefighting as an example. Becoming a successful prizefighter requires a natural talent which includes an ability to use ones arms for hitting and warding off a challenger's attacks and an ability to “dance” in the ring in such a way as to outmaneuver the other. The coach sees what the boxer's natural talent is. The boxer is then trained to observe what works especially well and what does not, and to exchange losing ways and movements for winning ones.

A life coach, just as a prizefighter's coach, is not his client's therapist or medical doctor. It is the coach's work to make the client better and better at what he is and what he wants to accomplish. The life coach, after finding out what his client needs and wants, helps his client to find and use his own natural talents to become a master in any arena of the “boxing ring of life."

Needless to say, not all are meant to become prizefighters. Many are drawn to be fishermen, gardeners or who-knows-what other calling. Through the coaching process the client finds out whether or not he/she is on the right path in life and then learns how to find fulfillment in his/her chosen direction.