Life Coaching: A Closer Look

I sometimes describe the aim of coaching as identifying and bridging the gap between "where you are" and "where you want to be." For some, this gap has been identified, perhaps for some time, and for them the main objective is to look at reconciling the discrepancy between the life they’re living and the life they’d like to live. Coaching offers a wonderful and efficient opportunity for clients to partner with a trusted ally in this effort.

For others, a bigger challenge lies ahead, as the gap I speak of has not yet been identified. Oprah Winfrey describes this phenomenon succinctly, when she says the following:

"What I know is if you're not looking at the shadows, if you're not looking at what is subconsciously running through the tape in your mind, telling yourself you're not good enough, you're not worthy enough, you're not smart enough, you're not enough, which is a tape that's playing for a lot of people... If you're not conscious of that, then you end up acting out of that belief system, and not out of what you know to be the truest or want to be the truest for yourself."

A sometimes-helpful analogy is to think of your thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, etc as controlled by an operating system that you did not intentionally install. The tape that’s playing in the background, while managing to call the shots, is not being fully heard by you. In other words, your reactions to past experiences laid the groundwork for your future actions, all despite your ever-present ability to choose how you respond to the world.

For those in this position, coaching is more than a wonderful and efficient opportunity. It is a bridge to a whole new world (Yes, I started singing the Aladdin song too), where clients come face to face, sometimes for the first time, with a game-changing truth, that attitude is not fixed, and can be altered. It is not just in embracing this concept, but in developing strategies for living accordingly, that clients experience extraordinary results.