UnderEarning Part 1

What is Coaching 2

What you focus on changes. 

This is the scientific crux of coaching.  What we choose to focus on we can change and change for the better. 

For me the shift happened with my first coach.  When I began with her, I was completely unfocused and not quite willing to admit it.  I knew, vaguely a lot of the things I wanted to accomplish but the busy work of my next lesson plan and being a coach were at the top of my list, not to mention any other number of hobbies I would begin and drop at a moments notice.  Once I plunked down the cash that changed significantly.  I knew I wanted to get my monies worth and that cash made the commitment stronger. 

She helped me narrow down my goals and put the important ones first.  My thinking cleared up and I felt so centered and present.  I was in charge of my time and my life, not circumstances or the next urgency.  Those urgencies that I figured out were really created by me and not being thrust upon me. 

The best part was that I discovered all of this on my terms in my way.  It wasn't someone preaching at me or telling me what to do.  I was learning what I needed to learn at the time I needed it.

Whether it's more mindfulness with your kids or a great promotion at work or finding our soulmate, coaching opens the doors wider by cultivating in us the transformation so that it occurs in our outer world. We are released from our own unproductive thinking.

By taking the time and money to commit to the coaching agreement, we exponentially increase our focus and our ability to make lasting important changes. We create the change we want in our lives.  And this change is easier, clearer and fun.

While we act partly as coach, mentor, personal trainer and manager, getting you to think more deeply and focus is where our power lies. The big part of what we do is act as a mediator to your thinking allowing you to think clearly, quickly and toward your own best interests.

Coaches are skilled at asking you the right questions, responding in a way that enhances clarity leading you to your own insights. It's a deep relationship between coach and coachee.  Profound insights leading to profound change.  This is where the magic happens in coaching conversations.  Why?  Because we're specifically trained to guide you to your best thinking and away from circular thinking and vagueness.

By getting to your core authentic self we help you create profound internal and external change.  We get you past your blind spots and over or around real and perceived obstacles.  Instead of a year from now saying I wish I had started sooner, you'll be basking in the glow of some of your greatest achievements.

Next Steps...

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -Chinese Saying

Think it's hard to take that next step? It often feels that what we're dreaming of is forever out of reach or we put it off until tomorrow, next week, next year. Waiting means more waiting.

1. Take small step. Any little step will do. The next day, take another small step.

2. Create room in your mind and heart for forward movement by letting yourself believe it's possible. Letting go of perfection and "if only this" or "if only that" works wonders for your creative mind.

3. Ask what small thing CAN I do here? Breathe. Give yourself time and space to answer.

When I first had my oldest daughter, I thought it might be forever before I got back into my mediation practice. Any moment for focusing on myself in such a quiet way was usually taken up with nursing or catching up on sleep. It was hard to concentrate. It was hard to focus inward when I was the main caregiver for her. I was used to going into meditation fairly easily and now I needed more time to quiet myself - time I didn't feel I had. In fact, I focused on how much time I didn't have. I focused on how I didn't have money for a babysitter and why getting a babysitter for just 20 minutes seemed silly. I focused on the fact that I was nursing and it was hard to get away. I focused on every part of the not having time.

Maybe you've made a similar transition in your life - a new job, a faster pace, more responsibility, a move, a change in the family. In the midst of all that goes on in our lives, it can be hard to focus on what's really important, what our next steps should really be. For me, I had to let go of doing any meditation in large chunks. I realized if I could only focus for five minutes, then 5 minutes would be progress. I also realized I could use help. I downloaded guided meditations which helped me stay focused. If I did get distracted, the words of recordings helped me get back into the meditation. My spiritual side opened back up for me because I was willing to take small steps. The steps beyond that have just flowed.

We can all take small steps to reach our goals. We don't have to know how you're going to reach the destination. The next step doesn't have to be the perfect step. We can let go of the "yes, buts." We just have to start somewhere. There's so much power in beginnings. And it's amazing what possibilities will open up to us once we take that step.

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What Is Coaching

What if your life got more joyful, satisfying and easier? Coaching is a natural part of life. Great business leaders use coaches to develop their employees. Coaches help by clarifying thinking, giving feedback, providing support and maintaining a healthy level of challenge.

Overall, coaching is about facilitating positive change. It is also about getting where you want to go easier and faster while reducing complications and roadblocks.

Now, more than ever, people are seeing the value of having a coach. Just as sports coaches give feedback and keep their teams on track, life coaches help all of us do and be our best. A coach is someone who is totally in your corner, focused totally on you. You have regular appointments to work on your goals and dreams so that time doesn’t fall through the cracks.

Think for a moment on the idea of the hero and the hero’s journey. It is the tale of a person leaving a familiar world, usually encountering a guide/teacher, experiencing an adventure/quest, meeting obstacles, learning and developing something new within themselves and then returning home to utilize that knowledge in helping the community in some way. Hero stories resonate with us so much because we all are on our own hero journey. We live for a purpose and we work to reach our goals. In that process we are changed. In a very real sense, coaching is a natural progression of this hero journey and coaches are the guides that people are utilizing to facilitate their own progress of personal development.

Your Life Is Your Job
You are on a hero’s journey. Remember, no one can do what you were put here to do. You are worth every penny and every bit of energy you expend on you. and Michael Jordan all had coaches. Isn’t your life really you main job? Show up for all the important roles and relationships in your life being your best and giving your best with the help and clarity of coaching.

Accountability Partner

A super great way to stay in action is to get an accountability partner. This partner is someone you have weekly meetings with (in person or over the phone/skype) to discuss what your goals are, how the week went and what plans you are committing to for the upcoming week.

How does an accountability partner weekly meeting help?

• Knowing someone is going to ask you about your progress.
• Verbalizing what's really important to you & your progress is amazingly energizing and focusing for the brain.
  
• When you spend dedicated time on YOU, the wiring of your brain changes. This focus and rewiring makes the change clearer and easier to make.
  

This weekly meeting will do wonders for your focus & progress!

When I speak to my coach, I know that she is going to ask me about everything I have committed to for the past week. As the week progresses, I hold myself more accountable and have a stronger commitment to my own actions. I begin my next week much more clearly focused on what my heart's priorities are. Instead of floating through the week on auto-pilot, I move much more mindfully and purposefully. I am grounded and centered in the life I want to be living.

Your accountability partner can be a

• professional coach,
  
• a friend,
  
• mentor,
  
• family member
• etc.
  

Your choice does need to be someone that can refrain from judging and offering much advice. The meetings are about you, your thinking and your progress, not their thinking or their way of doing things.

If and when you get a partner, I would love to hear how it goes for you.

Charting Your Progress

Charting your progress with you goals is a great way to stay on track and make sure the work you're doing is working.

Examples:

• Want to lose weight? Weigh yourself today and chart your progress on a simple graph.
• More Mindful? Use a scale or percentage. Maybe you'd like to be mindful 90% of the time. Where are you now? 10, 20, 30%? Chart your progress to stay on track.
• Want to grow your business? Evaluate your current income and expenses. Write it down. Decide on your goal and chart yourself weekly or monthly.
  

Action

It's almost October. It's been a full nine months since many of us made new year's resolutions. We may have found that sticking to those gets a bit lost in the busyness of life. So what to do?

Revisit your resolutions.
Write them down.
Prioritize.
Envision Success.
Enlist an Accountability Partner & Meet regularly. (friend, life-coach, trainer, etc.)

You don't have to wait a year to resolve for something better.