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What is this life coaching?
Comments from Wendy Reeves, founder of LifeGoal
A survey carried out by the Association for Coaching in 2006 found that 98% of participants felt that coaching met or totally met their needs. The average value of coaching was 7.8 (on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is excellent), and 92% scored a ‘7' or above.
When I first started out as a qualified coach with my own company, I entered the world of business networking. This was a world I had little experience of and was naturally anxious about what to expect. I was now out there on my own. To develop my business I needed to put myself forward and market myself - tell the world what I do and what I could do for others.
I found, when talking to people about my job, I would often get a glazed look with an expression of "a what"? Or I might see a slight look of disdain, as if life coaching wasn't a proper profession, but something fluffy that had blown in from across the Atlantic that would ‘never work over here'. Or they would say, "not another one", to which I would respond with "fantastic! There can never be enough life coaches as every one of us could benefit from having one".
I knew they were wrong - and now, not before time, the tide is changing. Over the past few years I have seen a huge shift as coaching becomes a ‘must have', and has begun to make a huge impact on peoples' lives both personally and professionally. And this growth will continue as more and more people embrace coaching and recognise its power and potential for a better life.
The problem is that people, who have never experienced coaching, actually don't understand what it is and how it works. It is often confused with counselling or psychotherapy. If you do need counselling or psychotherapy then coaching on its own isn't going to work for you, but it may support these other forms of therapy. What's the difference? Coaching works on the future, it works on what "is" possible, as opposed to dealing with issues from the past. That is not to say that coaching doesn't refer to the past, but it does so in order to learn from and to help us move forward.
The pace of life is getting faster, thanks mainly to technology, which was supposed to give us back time! In fact, what technology has done is fill in the gaps in life we once had as well as dominating our way of working and how we communicate. In a way, we are forced to multi task - using technology to function day-to-day as well as dealing with the reality of living.
The result of this for most people is stress, being unhappy and dissatisfied at work, living with fears, limiting and negative beliefs, eroding confidence and self esteem; all of which has a sabotaging effect on our lives. It stops us having the life we want, and this is where coaching comes in. It helps us live the life we want to have, it helps successful people become even more empowered. It can help with the small stuff in life; "I have a project at work and just don't know where to start", or the big stuff; "who am I, where am I going and how am I going to get there"? Among other things coaching increases our confidence and self awareness, it helps us to identify our core values, and it gives us greater clarity.
After a successful career in Human Resources, Wendy runs her own coaching practice helping individuals on a personal level, sole traders and small business owners. As a consultant she has coached management at organisations, including: Sainsbury's, ASDA, Tesco's and United Biscuits.
Please contact Wendy for a free, no obligation, consultation on 0844 414 0901.
« Back to News | Published: 03/06/10