What Is Coaching?

There is a new group of helping professionals on the market that go by the label “coach.”  You may have heard of life coaching, business coaching, or even executive coaching.  All of these are forms of coaching, but the problem I am seeing is the confusion over what coaching is, and what it does for someone.

I think the best approach is to first look at what coaching isn’t:

1. Coaching Isn’t Counseling:  Counseling focuses on a person’s past and how it affects them today.  Counseling takes an individual from a dysfunctional way of living or viewing the world to a more functional level.
2. Coaching Isn’t Consulting:  Consultants are experts in their field.  They have a deep knowledge of a particular profession and can help a company develop a certain division or in a certain area. 
3. Coaching Isn’t Mentoring:  A mentor has “been there” and “done that.”  They have been in a similar situation as you and made it through.  They can teach you their methodology for overcoming or dealing with a particular situation.

So what can coaching do for you?  The best way I have heard it described is this: 

“Looking back a year ago today, are you better off in the following areas:

–          Professionally
–          Financially
–          Spiritually
–          Relationally
–          Physically

If you said no to any of those areas, would you like to be better off this time next year?”

A professional football player doesn’t need a coach because he doesn’t know how to play football.  He needs a coach to help him see things he can’t see about how he is playing the game.  He needs a coach to challenge him to perform better than he ever has.  He needs a coach to hold him accountable when he really doesn’t feel like following through.

It’s the same way with all of us in our personal lives. 

Coaching is about achieving those dreams that you have had for years but haven’t been able to make happen.  It helps you to focus your time and energy in productive ways to live life the way you have always wanted to live.  It’s for people who want more enjoyment out of life.

Sometimes we get so bogged down in how we have always done things that we can’t even conceive a different approach.  Sometimes we are so engrained in our sense of “normal” that we quit expecting better things, even though we are more than capable of achieving them.

Coaching helps you get out of your daily routine, and dares you to dream again.  Then it helps you discover the path to achieve those dreams.

Are you ready to live life to the fullest?  Find a coach, and start living out your dreams!  For more information and a free 20 minute coaching session, go to www.JohnnyWalker.Co