Yesterday, a client of mine had her first one-on-one coaching session. She had signed up and committed to a one-year weekly calls. She wanted help and guidance to walk her through what she dubbed “an important new chapter in my life”. She was dissatisfied with her current state of affairs and wanted to make important changes in her life but had no clue how to go about it. When I asked her what she wanted to work on, she replied: I don’t know, I have never done coaching before so I do not really know what we should work on or where to start!
Well here is a little secret for you! The beauty of one-on-one coaching is that you can start ANYWHERE you want. You are in the driver’s seat! It is YOUR journey! So you get to pick YOUR destination! I’m here as a co-pilot helping you making clear choices along the way, showing you different perspectives and alternatives, reminding you of your amazing skills and most of all, keeping you on track and on target – no major detours and off-track journeys.
As it turned out, there were too many priorities in my client’s life now, there were too many things she wanted to accomplish and she was in search for some balance and a sanity check. Wanting to go to too many places is a great thing. If people may look upon this situation as a problem, I would tell them it is actually the perfect ground for creating multiple opportunities!
Here is a bird’s eye view of how we tackled yesterday’s session:
My client had identified 4 important “projects” that troubled her. As it turned out they were each related to an area of the wheel of life, which was amazing because it demonstrated that my client was, consciously or subconsciously, looking for more balance in her life. Without divulging any personal information, I can safely say she had already targeted the 4 following areas:
o Relationships & Love
o Investments
o Personal Development
o Passive Income Business
We ended up adding 2 more ‘projects’, one related to making an important decision about her current `job` and the other one emerged from her answers to my questions. When I asked her how she was doing in the area of health and fitness, she immediately said “not much but I have been wanting to make a major change for a while”. So we added:
o Career & Job
o Health & Fitness including, eating habits, drinking water, sleeping time and physical fitness.
At this point a person might feel overwhelmed with the task at hand and all the “work” that needs to be done, but in coaching, it is the exact opposite. You actually feel excited at the prospect of finally getting the support and guidance you need to tackle what is important to you and as you’re well aware A Journey of a Thousand Miles Starts With The First Step!
At the end of this introduction, my client and I had identified that she did not have a motivation issue! Quite the contrary, my client was very motivated and she described that she would get up in the morning pretty upbeat and excited about her day. The problem seemed more related to managing her time and juggling all her priorities.
As it turned out, in her eagerness to be successful, she was undertaking too many projects, could not say NO to more (in her job and other areas) and was scattered all over. As a result, she was stretched, put in a lot of hours and despite the fact that she knew that she was an above-average achiever and deliverer, she had the constant feeling that she was missing the mark and that whatever she did was not enough.
Now that my client had laid all the cards, we could take a step back, look at priorities, look at time frames, put some order in all this and start setting some targets and action items.
But I had another objective in mind: I wanted to examine some of the basic behaviours that my clients typically demonstrated when going about life: She was obviously an over-achiever, very demanding of herself, with very high expectations and low empathy (call it tolerance) for less-than-perfect. I had also noticed that as a very bright young woman, she was pretty much at ease with logic and less tuned into her intuition (mind vs. heart).
I will not recount you the whole session. Of course, we concluded with some actions to which my client eagerly agreed to commit☺. Other than the concrete actions, I had also suggested that she thinks about how she could incorporate more “downtime” in her daily routine, which was the exact opposite of what she expected!!!
Interestingly, my client left the session with a new awareness (her own word) of how she sets herself up for disappointments and imbalance. She is now equipped to detect that behaviour and to question the demands that come her way (or are self-imposed) before she makes a commitment.
All of this happened in just the first session and we are both eager to meet next week and see where the next session will lead us and how the client’s life is getting closer and closer to her dream!
The big picture I wanted to share with you today is that, beyond objectives and action items, beyond priorities and deliverables, there is the mindset. And it is paramount to start by tackling the behaviour, the beliefs and the mindset that “run the show” if we want to successfully implement long lasting strategies not just quick fixes or short term solutions!
I hope you got a glimpse of how a one-on-one coaching session can start somewhere and take us to important unpredicted territories that are quite relevant to the subject at hand.
Keep in mind that this is just one example, from infinity of scenarios and possibilities, of what a coaching session looks like. None of the coaching sessions are similar, because every time, we deal with the particularities and uniqueness of each individual, her specific challenges, her unique gifts, her dreams and goals. And that is the magic of coaching! No matter where you start and how high you want to go, when you’re not alone, the journey becomes feasible and most of all enjoyable too!
If you want to know more about coaching and how it can help YOU live a better, more fulfilling and more balanced life, take advantage of my Complimentary session, where we will explore together your needs and options. Email me at myriam@soar2successnow.com or write a comment below and let me know how I can help!
To your Success!
Myriam Najjar
Your Success Strategist and Coach
www.Soar2SuccessNow.com
Soar to new levels of success
