Coaching of any kind can be difficult. The difference between coaching and therapy is that coaching is focused on how to move forward. While your coach may ask you things about your past to reveal the root of a behavior, coaching is not necessarily about healing. It’s about acknowledging things that might be getting in the way of you living your best life or achieving your objectives.
A coach has perspective. They can see things that you can’t because they aren’t in the forest with you. They can see your potential and your struggle. Their job is to help you see it for what it is and identify how it is impacting you. Once this happens, they help you establish different behaviors to arrive at alternative outcomes.
This topic is especially sensitive for me right now. I recently hired the BEST Life Coach in Spokane. Afterall, I can’t expect people to work with me as a financial coach if I don’t have a coach, right? If your doctor never went to see their doctor, would you still trust them to be your doctor?
The worst part about coaching? From a coaching client perspective, it’s being vulnerable. This is so difficult for me. That in and of itself could be an objective for my coach and I to work through. I digress. Coaching is about pausing long enough to answer a question instead of dismissing its significance by saying, “I don’t know.” The mere act of asking a coach for help is a vulnerable action. Who wants to admit they need help? Who wants to be uncomfortable? Who wants to be held accountable? Who wants a coach to be asking the questions, only to be silent to give you, their client, an opportunity to truly dig deep to get to the answers?
Coaching isn’t for everyone. People who want to be coached have to be in it 100%. Clients must also have some idea of what they want to accomplish out of the coaching experience. For example, I had one client tell me in our first session that he wanted to buy a Tesla with cash. As we worked together, and about three months later, his perspectives are evolving. His money is going towards long-term housing, retirement and planning for a wedding! Coaching will get you exactly what you put into it. If you don’t bring focused awareness, you’re late to your session, you haven’t done the prework, you haven’t followed up on action items, you aren’t on time or you miss your coaching session, you’re doing yourself a disservice and might as well start flushing cash down the toilet.
What is something that you’ve been struggling with? My first objective with my coach is to stay focused on my definition of professional success. A lot has changed for me in the past year. I don’t get the constant praise or feedback that I used to from colleagues, team members and residents. In my coaching practice there are no promotions. My work today is to serve people and help change lives by asking questions and unveiling behaviors that stunt their progress as they work towards financial freedom. Doing that…is success to me.
Most of the coaches I know offer sample sessions or a complimentary coaching session. They want you to be able to experience the value of coaching. It’s not easy to verbally explain the value of coaching. But once you’ve been through a coaching session, you will likely enjoy the fruits of the focused time and attention to your growth objectives.