My top ten reasons for personally hiring a life coach
I feel genuinely inspired to write this article. Not because I am a coach and I see the positive impacts that life coaching has on all of my clients for many different reasons, but because I am coachee! That is, I am coached myself! I have seen a coach in varying capacities for the past seven years - sometimes in intensive bursts if I have a specific problem I’d like to work through and sometimes less frequently (on say a monthly / quarterly basis) if I am purely wanting to maintain my continuous growth trajectory. I have used different coaches for different stages and different aspects of my life. However, one thing I can be pretty certain of, is that it is an investment I will continue to make for the rest of my life. It is an absolute non-negotiable for me.
Before we dive into some of the benefits of hiring a life coach, I just wanted to debunk one of the common myths around the “type of person” who may see a life coach. When I started seeing a coach, I was not unhappy! I was not a hot mess and I would like to say that I was functioning pretty darn well on a day-to-day basis!S
o, what was the problem? I was living in Sydney, one of the most beautiful cities in the world; I was working in a great corporate banking job, earning a nice crust and climbing the ladder with vigour; my social life was thriving, I was meeting loads of awesome people and exploring everything the city had to offer; and I was living the dream.
But…it wasn’t my dream! As I jumped out of bed in a morning, thrashed myself at the gym, bust my bum at work, schmoozed my way through the Sydney social scene I had not for one minute stopped to really think about whether this was what I really wanted in life. I am a little embarrassed to say that I had taken society’s definition of success and flipping well rolled with it! And the result? I was left feeling a little bit flat, frustrated and generally unfulfilled.
Is anyone with me???!!!
So, I sought out coaching, for no specific reason other than I wanted some guidance on why I wasn’t high fiving myself out of bed each morning! What was niggling at me and how did I get out of my little funk and start living a life that lit me up? Throughout my journey, I have been questioned, prompted, prodded and poked! But my friends…I have never looked back!
My personal top 10 reasons for hiring a life coach and the resulting benefits
1. Coaching has provided me with clarity around my purpose and passion in life.When I first started to see a coach, I was pretty competent at knowing what made me happy in the short term. If I was feeling a bit flat, I’d go for a run, arrange to go for brunch with my bestie or throw myself into the ocean for a swim. However, I had no idea what my overriding purpose in life was or where to start looking for that matter! Uncovering my vision and true passions in life has been a game changer for me. I have gained that longer term perspective of exactly how I wanted my life to pan out and I am able to live every day with a sense of purpose.
2. Coaching has enabled me to work through solutions to specific problems.I have engaged with coaches for specific problems throughout the last seven years. For example, when I started my own business I had a heap of challenges and I needed to someone to bounce my ideas for overcoming these challenges off. Having a coach has helped me to identify specific barriers that were holding me back from achieving my goals and having another set of eyes to work through a solution to these barriers was incredibly valuable. Often, when you are immersed in a situation, you just cannot see what is not working and having a coach has helped to pull me off the dance floor and onto the balcony where I can see the problem and the formulate the solution much more clearly.
3. Coaching has encouraged me to fully engage in being whole and present.When you are racing through life at a gazillion miles an hour trying to achieve a goal or arrive at a destination, it is easy forget to enjoy the journey. Implementing practises such as mindfulness and gratitude has enabled me to start living more in the moment and finding joy in some of the most simple things in life as opposed to striving constantly for the crazy big goals.
4. Coaching has helped me to devise structures and systems to improve my productivity.Goodness knows I was winging it in life…and still am in a lot of ways! However, by implementing structures and routines into my life, things have started to tick along and goals have been achieved with a lot more consistency. I have incorporated systems into my life such as a consistent morning ritual to set me up for a winning day, effective meeting agendas into the work place to eliminate time wasted and techniques to efficiently manage my emails to boost my productivity levels. Honestly the list is endless with this one!
5. Coaching has assisted me in creating a more balanced life.I am a recovering perfectionist and a very “black / white” type person. This means that when I have a particular task to focus on I have a tendency to submerge myself in this one task and lose sight of the other aspects of my life that need holding up to keep me happy! For example, if I had a major deliverable at work, I’d have been tempted to spend every waking hour on that task forfeiting my fitness goals, time for myself and much needed sleep! This did not make me happy - duh…of course it didn’t! I am a multi passionate person and if one area of my life is dominating it means I am dropping the ball on something else that is just as important to me. I understand that life will not always be a perfect balance and we should think of it more as a continuous blend where we look at the different areas of life that are important to us and ensure that we are doing a little bit of all of them at each point in time to ensure generally that balance is maintained.
6. Coaching has challenged me to continuously grow.As human beings we have an innate need for continuous learning and growth and regular coaching ensures that do not become stuck in a rut and feel stagnant in life. Through coaching I am encouraged you to continually make steps towards my dreams and aspirations.
7. Coaching has allowed me to simplify life and create space.I alluded earlier to the fact that I was not “a mess” when I first sought out coaching…but I was definitely messy! My room was messy, my work space was messy and this resulted in my head space being pretty messy at times too. My first ever coaching session focussed on how I could get a bit more organised by decluttering my life! We looked at different areas of “mess” in my life and brainstormed solutions to declutter and simplify so I had space to think through problems more clearly. I continue to challenge this aspects of my life with coaches if I feel as though certain things are slipping. Decluttering and simplifying has really boosted my productivity and creative flow.
8. Coaching has helped me to create new habits and behaviours.This is something that will likely be touched on in every single coaching session I have in one way or another. Looking at existing habits across all areas of life and how to replace unhelpful habits with new, more helpful habits / behaviours is an ongoing practise of self development for me. This could include anything from eating / drinking habits, habits that have cropped up in relationships, bad habits at work etc.
9. Coaching has allowed me to develop better self awareness.This is biggie and one of the most important techniques to work on as it will complement all of the other tools learnt through your coaching experience. Understanding who you are at this point in time - what you are thinking, what makes you tick, how you are behaving, which strengths you are utilising, where you are becoming unstuck - is imperative before you can even think about what you want to change in your life and who you want to be. If nothing else, I can hand on heart say that I know myself pretty flipping well these days! I still have a lot I want to work on but I am clear and focussed on what these things are and where my priorities lie because I have a strong sense of self awareness.
10. Coaching challenges my thinking and empowers me to reframe my thoughts.We all have thoughts…and a crazy boat load of them too! Some of them are helpful and essential in us performing to our ultimate potential and others act as roadblocks and prevent us from achieving our goals and aspirations. Coaching has not only made me more aware of these thoughts it has also provided me with strategies to challenge and reframe these thoughts so they do not stand in my way. You really can rewire your brain to think differently!
So there you have it. 10 of my own, personal benefits of hiring a coach…and believe me, I have at least another 10 that I could divulge!
So, the million pound question…why do you need a coach to achieve these benefits?
Guys, we are living in the year 2017 and I’m not sure you’ve heard but there is this crazy cool search engine thingy called Google??!! What I am trying to say (in a slightly facetious way) is that all of this information is available to you if you want to access it. You do not need a coach!
However, in my eyes there are just some things that a coach can provide that you, your MacBook and umpteen cups of tea cannot!
We will hold you accountable
Have you ever broken your word to yourself? Haha…me too! There is nothing quite like giving a commitment to a third party and then working your bum off to get it done so as not to let them down. What is that all about?!
We will speed up the entire process
Of course you can research all of this yourself but where do you start looking and do you even know what you are looking for in the first place? As a coach, our job is to tease the problems out of you and then support you with our experience, resources and knowledge to help you find the necessary solutions. Before I was a coach, I spent 10 years working on myself (part time) and now I get to work full time researching and understanding human behaviours and how I can help people to become happier and more successful at whatever it is they choose to do. We know what we are looking for and can hopefully make the whole self development experience a little less tedious for you!
We provide a different way of thinking
You…and your head…and your problems…uggghhhhh!! It is a recipe for procrastination, frustration and not a lot of action. A coach can provide some perspective and an independence that comes from not being slap bang in the middle of the issue! Coaches have the ability to challenge your way of thinking whilst still being able to put themselves in your shoes and look at things through your vision / values filter.
You don’t need a coach—you are perfect just the way you are. Coaches are just here to help you obtain clarity and empower you to expose your unique gifts to the world faster.
So…what is it that you would love to work on with a coach?
What would you do if you had nothing holding you back? What are your unique strengths and how do you utilise them to live your happiest, healthiest and most successful life?
If you are curious about how your business and personal life could be enhanced with the support of a coach, please contact me on laura@thevibrancyhub.co.uk or via the contact form below. I will help you to understand a little more about the coaching programmes I offer and to arrange a free discovery call to see if we could be a good fit. I so look forward to hearing from you and helping you to thrive in all aspects of your life!
Love, Laura xx