Jim is a leader at home, work, and in his community. However, Jim was struggling with problems in different areas of his life. He knows that he spends too much time at work, doesn’t pay enough attention to his personal life and is having trouble prioritizing the different projects he has to handle. He is beginning to feel overwhelmed. Sound familiar?
So Jim talks with his friend, Kelly, and tells her how he is feeling. Kelly provides Jim with great advice. She suggests that Jim should see a life coach in the area and let the coach help him. Kelly explained that the coach would be able to help Jim prioritize the different areas of his life, help him create a better life balance, gain clarity and focus, and can make him feel better about himself.
Many executives, managers, and leaders often mistake a life coach for a mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist or a therapist. This misconception often leads people to believe they do not need a life coach since they feel as though nothing is wrong with their mental health. However, a life coach is designed to help improve a person’s professional and personal life by working with them to achieve their goals, overcome challenges, and gain clarity and focus that results in increased productivity.
So you may ask "Why do I need a life coach?" Here are a few reasons:
1. Difficulty Making Life Decisions
Life coaching is about encouraging and empowering the client in their personal and professional life. One of the biggest problems many people face is a difficulty to make life decisions. Some may be minor, such as deciding to join a gym or repaint your house, while other decisions can be major, such as a decision to start a business or change careers. People have different reasons for being afraid to make decisions, whether they are scared the decision will be the wrong one or that they may let themselves or someone else down with whatever they choose. While life coaches are not intended to make the decisions for the client, they are meant to guide the client and inform them about their choices and the pros and cons of their decisions – which enable the client to work toward making their own choices.
2. Prioritizing Projects and Timelines
Life coaches can be a great tool in many areas, especially for getting assistance with organizing and prioritizing a client’s projects and deadlines. For some clients, they are unable to organize and prioritize the different aspects of their life, including work and personal business. When they cannot get these affairs in order, deadlines and timelines are often missed or projects are forgotten altogether. A life coach can help the client take a look at everything happening in their lives and determine what is most important to accomplish and what they want to work in or out of their schedules. It also helps the client to feel less overwhelmed with their schedule and feel more empowered to tackle what they need to get done in their own timeframe.
3. Urgent Situations
Have you ever come across some form of urgent or high risk situation in your life? For some people, they need help finding out how to cope with these situations and how to overcome them. These types of situations can cause a large amount of anxiety and can put a lot of pressure on a purpose – which usually makes them shut down and avoid facing the problem. For a life coach, the goal is to help the client focus on the problem at hand and make them realize the options they have at their disposal – but can very quickly use. The focus goes back to making key decisions and prioritizing different aspects. A life coach can help the client recognize an urgent or high risk situation while giving them the tools to address the situation and remain calm while working through them.
4. Lack of Balance
It is important to have a healthy balance between our professional and personal lives – one area should never overpower the other. But, with many people, finding the right balance that works for them is the hard part. Some people find they spend too much time in this personal life and ‘blow off’ their work responsibilities. Others are just the opposite in that they spend too much time at work and forget to pay attention to their personal lives outside of the office. Life coaches know this is generally defined as a life balance - a balance between major aspects in our lives. When client feel their life balance is outweighed by one area or another, they seek help from a life coach for ways to make things more even. A life coach can use a variety of tools to help the client create organization in their life and ultimately create a plan of action to help them sort out their own life balance and what works best for them.
Since many individuals are not aware of what a life coach is or does, they are also not aware of the benefits a life coach has to offer. In Jim’s case, he liked Kelly’s suggestion and signed up right for a life coach. The life coach helped Jim develop a vision, create a gameplan, and achieve his goals in both his professional and personal life. Jim reaped great benefits from better organization skills, improved decision skills, greater productivity, and even boosted his confidence.
And you can reap these benefits too!
Sign up today for coaching that's right for you by emailing bathomascoaching@gmail.com or visit www.bathomascoaching.com/coaching-services.