Coaching of most sorts can be defined in simple terms as ‘the continuing development of certain skills that when learned and improved over time, meet or exceed desired outcomes’.
Life coaching is a specialised skillset that operates via core and key strategies. These include the study of pyschology, beliefs, values, emotional states, identity, habits, lifestyle, and patterns of behaviour. It is a developed understanding of taking someone from where they are presently at in life, to where they want to go. And the creation of a meaningful and workable plan to do so.
To begin the process is to understand a person’s existing values hierarchy. These underpin behaviour and either help or hinder success. Establishing and following a forward projecting growth strategy will immeasurably assist this process.
Every day you have choices – what to eat, what to wear, what to do. And one of the most important things is what to think. That our thoughts create our reality is one of the most basic premises of personal development.
A great coach knows that in the case of ‘absolutes’, there are none – everything’s negotiable. The more you grow the more you learn and a cycle of never-ending learning is established.
One of the most fundamental and meaningful skills sets outcomed via coaching, is to understand your personal operating system.
To do this successfully a coach will:
• work with you to build a hierarchy of the values you presently hold (what is most important to you);
• how and on what do you spend your time (what are your daily priorities);
• are you introvert or extrovert more dominately (this elicits operating states);
• what types of language you use most frequently (key words and expressions used routinely in conversation);
• how you use your body language (matching and mirroring analysis);
• are you using more auditory, visual or kinesthetic expressions (I hear you (A), I see what you’re saying (V), I feel that (K) – all revealing of physiological operating systems)?;
• your language patterns – considering that only 7 percent of human interaction is effectively based on words – 38 percent on tonality – and 55 percent on physiology (a great coach will match and mirror their physiology to build rapport); and
• understanding your personal model of the world (how things are), (what’s true for you).
The use of emotive language is powerful. An astute coach will precisely describe your needs, wants and desires through actively listening and noting repeating patterns. When others aren’t congruent with how you feel about things – remember that we all operate from different values. And these values are strongly connected to identity. A cycle of growth, freedom and satisfaction begins to develop when you understand yourself at deep levels of awareness.
It’s been said that you can’t grow in comfort. That’s completely untrue. You do so when you’re aligned with an expert to support you to shift any and all disempowering states and start growing exponentially.
Coaching is fun! And what better way to nurture and grow yourself in the most personal of ways? It actively creates belief in what is possible for you. You might call it a shift. Or a pivot. But when you hold intent for something to change, and it happens, it is largely because you stayed the course and understood the process.
There is no glory in playing smaller than your very best self. So get yourself a great strategic life coach – today!
