What Is Coaching?
Coaching is a practice in which a coach will ask thought provoking structured questions, to help guide and set goals to help you achieve the aspirations you desire. In a normal conversation the spotlight changes from person to person but in a coaching session the spotlight always remains on the person being coached. Advice is rarely given to the person being coached as the goal is to help open new thought perceptions and promote new possibilities for the person being coached to open up on.
So many young people don’t fully understand the concept of what coaching is and how it can help them, they go out looking for answers, but do not allow themselves to be curious about how to solve their questions for themselves and move towards what they want.
Why people go to coaching?
Some people feel lost, some want to remove negative habits, and some look at the negative things that are occurring inside their lives and want to commit to making a change.
On the other hand, people decide coaching is right for them as they want to take their already successful self to another level. It can help to maintain motivation and keep building discipline, working towards the long-term aspirations they have, and forging a strong level of accountability through goal setting and committing to it inside a time frame.
There are various different types of coaching which can help you in any aspect of life in which you desire to move forward in. There is: career coaching, relationship coaching, leadership coaching, mindset coaching, spiritual coaching, executive coaching, finance coaching and health and wellness coaching.
What can you get out of coaching?
Coaching can bring you so many enhanced feelings and results. When you invest into sessions your coach is there to fully support you and what you want to get out of it. They will try to understand your values whilst helping to remove that glass ceiling you have on yourself, which will increase your potential by large amounts.
Coaching is only as good as what the person being coached makes it. You will commit to actions but only if you follow through with them will the coaching have been worthwhile. A coach can push you towards your agreed outcome and give you those moments of realisation, but they can not get there for you, it is about you being accountable and following through with your word that you give to yourself.
You will become more self-aware of who you are, which will transform all aspects of your life, allowing you to ‘wake up’ and take control of what you want.
What coaching is not?
Coaching isn’t counselling: Counselling is a great practice to talk about your past, you may have things which you can’t get over and need help to address them. Counsellors can diagnose certain conditions and work through proven practices to move you out of that past and work towards feeling better in yourself in the present.
Coaching isn’t mentoring: Mentoring is receiving guidance and support from someone who has experienced life and wants to help others follow those same footsteps. Mentors will share their knowledge, wisdom, and skills to help see the individual grow.
Coaching isn’t consulting: Consulting is when a professional/expert in that sector you lack knowledge or skills in, will analyse your data and decide what’s needed to be done to help you progress forward.
Famous examples of coaching
Bill Gates: Coached by Bill Campbell The founder of Microsoft said “Everyone needs a coach. We all need someone who gives us feedback, that’s how we improve”.
Bill Clinton: Coached by Anthony Robbins, Former US president said “Tony teaches one of the most important principals of all, that you have choices in life and you have to make up your mind how you respond to whatever it is that happens. You have to make new things happen.”
Hugh Jackman: Coached by Don Saladino, The well known actor said “A Coach just has different perspectives, still to this day, the best have coaches because the coach can see what you can’t see, because you’re in the forest and they’re outside of it.”
My coaching experience
For me, Coaching has become a very important part of my life as it allows me to talk through the hard parts of life, which make them easier.
It opened a new reality for me and helped me build crazy accountability to everything I said. It helped me to instil discipline in my life. I make sure I always have inside my life as I know if I want to be successful, I need my own help and sometimes you just need someone to ask the right question for you to think different thoughts.
A good coach will help you have those moments of realisation, a great coach will help you have those moments of realisation whilst moving you forward to what you want to achieve.
How I can help
As a Coach I have learnt most of my craft through my story of life but sharpened my toolset through coaching training.
The training helped me to learn how to listen much more clearly and to understand a clients situation better than they might. By enabling them to reflect and clarify what they are saying, asking them eye opening questions to help them have a realisation that they can achieve more.
The art of asking a question never really struck out to me as being important, but once I understood the value it holds I began to really study it and think about how to use it to change other peoples thought processes to help them progress towards their aspirations.