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What’s All the Fuss About Life Coaching?

Date: December 31, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Uncategorized
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Coaching in all it’s different forms- life, business, career- originates out of the field of Sports Coaching. In 1974 Timothy Gallwey wrote a book titled The Inner Game of Tennis which wasn’t so much about tennis but about the inner qualities of the tennis player which drive him to win. In sport and in life there are two opponents; the other player, and the self (self referred to here as our own beliefs and self talk about what we are capable of). The tennis player, and the player of life, has to compete with both.

Through this book people began to understand that as human beings, our level of achievement in anything be it tennis, business, wealth, or happiness, is in direct proportion to what we really think of ourselves deep down. And so personal coaching for the mind was born and is now used throughout the world to bring out the best in individuals and corporations, and unleash the human potential for excellence.

The thing to note about Life Coaching is that it is coaching to enhance your personal qualities, not directing or teaching of someone else’s ideas. A good sports coach doesn’t say to his pupil ‘No that’s not how you do it, here let me show you!’, and goes on to try and mould the student to be like him. Instead he identifies and maximizes the pupil’s unique strengths, and helps them transform any weaknesses into positives. He ‘coaches’ them on improving their own style of playing the game so that they are functioning at their ultimate best.

Similarly Life Coaching is not about telling you how you should be living your life. No coach will claim to be a life expert and if they do they are coaches to be avoided. Sure, Life Coaches are highly trained in human behaviour and will usually achieve great results in their own style of living, but the only expert in your life is you. As does the sports coach, the life coach will help you tap into your strengths while turning the tables on any weaknesses so that every aspect of your unique game of life is being controlled by you.

Coaching is increasingly used in companies to maximize and develop their best people. It’s not the systems that make a company powerful and continually reaching its targets, it’s the people that make up the company, the puzzle pieces that make up the whole. Systems are great to keep the company operating smoothly however without people working at their most efficient that’s all the company will do- operate smoothly. Coaching, all the way from the executives to the most junior employee, will bring out the best in people and create powerful results.

You may have noticed that all top athletes have a coach. They are at the top because their coach pushes the forward and supports them in staying there. All entrepreneurs have a coach, keeping them on a clear path to increased success in their chosen ventures. Most coaches have a coach! Because to bring out the best in others we must be constantly striving to better ourselves.

Coaching using NLP (the study of human excellence and how to replicate it in others) is the way of the future. It is the fastest way to achieve anything from overcoming a current challenge in your life, to realizing your biggest goals and dreams.

Find the coach that best suits your goals, who gives you the level of support you need, and who is genuinely committed to their craft; and you will find passion and purpose within you that you never knew existed. This new power that is unleashed from within you, your true human potential, allows you to function at a higher level mentally, physically, spiritually, financially, in every area of your life. And the changes are, without a doubt, deep and lasting.

Here are a couple of motivational quotes to get you started on your journey:

‘It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste time.’ – Henry Ford

‘Success is not for the timid. It is for those who seek guidance, make decisions, and take decisive action.’ – Jose Silva

‘If you don’t act now while it’s fresh in your mind, it will probably join the list of things you were always going to do but never quite got around to.’ – Paul Clithero

Will Everyone Have A Life Coach In The Future?

Date: December 31, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Uncategorized
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Personal development has become so popular. It was only a decade ago, that people never heard of personal development. And life coaches? The only coach most people knew was the one for the favorite sport team. In this article, we will look at life coaching, and the trends towards to future.
When we look at personal development, self improvement, and life coaching, we find they fit together. A life coach generally deals with a system of improving the individual, so they can change the results.
You see, most people don’t think with that expanded view. Instead we are taught that we need to work harder to make better results. However, that is old thinking, and it looks like the world is waking up.
If we look at the personal development films around today, we see The Secret and many other films which would have been unheard of a decade or two ago. This has made a major shift in how people go through life.
More and more people are learning the benefits of personal development. The internet has supported this also. A few years ago, getting access to this great free information would have been unheard of. You may have had a magazine or two, and books, but those weren’t as accessible as going to Google and finding that information.
This has made more high achievers to look for life coaches online. And the life coaches have had a hard time finding unique individuals like you who wants to get more out of life – both professionally and personally.
This fusion has all come together to create a new industry of life coaches. And the trends speak for themselves. As more people want to get ahead in a competitive world, they need a life coach.
As the internet allows a life coach to easily gain access to those high achievers, they don’t have to charge expensive fees to cover traveling costs, and also they don’t have to have as big a marketing budget to get a client. This works best for you, and the life coach, creating a win-win situation.
Some of those in personal development are looking at a route to become a life coach. You perhaps may be in such a position yourself. And the life coaching industry now has more and more life coach certification and life coaching training that is making it easy to get into life coaching, and start your own practice.
The end result of life coaching is its impact. And the impact that life coaching can do is immense. It allows people to learn at a much faster rate. You don’t have to be stuck in a formal learning method, but can simply get help in the areas you need, and find the solutions you need now.

5 Tips for Mental Balance From a Psychotherapist

Date: December 31, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Advice
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Living doesn’t really need to be such a battle. As soon as we let go of just a few old thought habits, things are likely to become a whole lot easier. Here are just a few things you can do in order to maintain good mental balance: 1. Let Go of the Need to Be Right – Is working ourselves up into a state of needless excitement simply because of a need to prove we were right anything other than an exercise in frustration and futility? If only we had been able to take a small step backwards and look at the situation in a calmer, less egotistical manner, then perhaps we might have been able to see – and to react – a little differently. After all, what have we really accomplished by always being right? Does it really bring respect, or does it simply breed resentment? Simply by giving up the burning need to be always right, we free ourselves – and others – to get on with the really useful and productive things in life. We may play being the know-it-all, but who really likes a know-it-all? A little inner humility goes a long way in the mental balance department. 2. Let Go of Being Perfect – Understand that being excellent does not mean being perfect. Sometimes it’s easy to demand too much of ourselves. If we imagine that we need to be perfect because this means that we cannot be criticised, then we need to do some serious work on self-acceptance. Don’t waste your time attempting to make something absolutely perfect. It really is far more effective and useful to finish a task in a timely manner than it is to spend forever in a futile attempt to be perfect. There really is no point in dragging things on forever trying to get it perfect. Do your very best and then move on. Do this often enough and your best – and you – will just keep on getting better in a natural, progressive and balanced manner. 3. Let Go of Trying – And start doing. This is where those advertising people working for Nike were on the money: What a wonderful slogan! ‘Just Do It!’ With that attitude we pretty much guarantee positive results. And, of course, mental balance is all in the attitude. The problem with trying, as opposed to doing, is that whenever we try, we set ourselves up to fail. You didn’t try to open this page, you just did it. You didn’t try to get out of bed, you just did it. We give ourselves excuses when we merely try. Lying to ourselves about ourselves and making excuses for ourselves really isn’t the best way to achieve mental balance: We need to get honest. We either do it or we don’t. It really is that simple. The choice is simple: either we act or we don’t. Did I mention simple? When we allow ourselves to let go of trying, then we allow ourselves to begin doing. And doing allows us to move forward and grow. Set goals and start achieving them — go on, just do it! 4. Let Go of Mistakes – We can learn from our successes and learn from our mistakes too – and then we need to move on. Every single experience we ever have contains some kind of lesson – even the ones we don’t get right – if only we allow ourselves to see and learn. Mistakes are there, after all, to be learned from, which is why they’re called ‘successive approximations’ in the language of psychology. Each time we make a mistake it’s an opportunity to learn to get it right. Dwelling on our mistakes and beating ourselves up for them is a futile pursuit. Take the lesson and move forward. A well balanced self is a self that uses and is guided by life’s lessons. Such an attitude leads to a life full of excellence – and mental balance. 5. Let Go of the Past – The past is there for a myriad of reasons – to instruct and inform, for example – but it is not meant to be lived in. To do so robs us of all we ever really have: Now. When we catch ourselves continually spending time in the past, then maybe we need to think about working with a professional who can help us come to terms with and move on from the past. Each one of us has a past and each one of us has gone through experiences that were difficult and unfair. Because of this, each one of us has the need to forgive. Failure to do this makes us prisoners to the past. And if forgiveness seems just a bit too difficult at the moment, at least consider that anger and resentment does not hurt the person or people who have hurt us – they just keep us in chains to them. Letting go of the past usually involves finding a way to forgive – and don’t forget, this means forgiving ourselves, too. Do this and we truly will live in a state of real mental balance and inner peace.

Getting More Out Of Life With Life Coaching

Date: December 29, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Uncategorized
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Are you a goal setter? Are you a self starter? Do you feel geared for success? In life we find that coaches are present wherever there is high performance. From business men and woman to actors and actresses, and even athletes, they all rely on coaching. As you read this article, you will discover how life coaching can transform your life for the better.
The question is why do performance people keep performing ever better? We see Olympic athletes have coaches, and we see business people in the world’s largest corporations have life coaches.
Could continued success be down to having a life coach? It seems obvious, and it could be making an imprint that a life coach really could make a difference. But, how exactly could a life coach help you?
If you are like me, you are a goal setter. You set goals, and work about achieving them. You succeed, and now it is time for new goals. It seems like a basic process, and I guess it is. However, in practice it can seem a little more difficult.
We can say a day happens in 24 hours. But, life is not so simple. When you are stuck in the middle of achieving a goal, and problems present themselves, it can be hard to find direction, and achieve the success you seek.
Sometimes the goal takes longer than we anticipated. Luckily a life coach can really be our greatest asset at these times. These people not only have a strong personal experience of situations, they also have the added advantage of having a broader knowledge of situations, through coaching other people.
This third point view can be invaluable in practice, and can result in bigger breakthroughs. The time to achievement can be reduced also, and success can be felt sooner. As the life coach offers there advice, it offers a different point of view.
As you progress you will find that you can achieve so much more. And as life coaching deals with not only a certain area, but as a coach in life, they can generally help you with several areas of your life.
This is a big bonus; though many life coaches will specialize in a certain field. And here is where you will need to look at your needs before looking to find a life coach. There are many life coaches, and you want to get the best life coach for your needs.
Researching several life coaches is the best option, and considering that many will offer some free information or a free consultation, you can easily find the best life coach that will help you not only achieve more of that latent potential, but also achieve your best.

Life Coaching – a Coaching for a Better Life

Date: December 27, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Uncategorized
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To start with, let us first do away with a few doubts that people usually have about life coaching. Let us see, why life coaching is generally so sought after and why in the first place does it work? Firstly a life coach is someone who lets you be yourself and tries to connect with you in a way that you desperately need at some critical moment in your life. He/she makes you realize your own worth and at the same time you feel a certain responsibility to carry out what the coach has asked of you. The coach helps you to analyze the situation by following a certain detached approach so that you see it in a way that you have never done before. They do no tell you how to live but tell you how you should capitalize on all that you have at the present, and how you can multiply the same in the future.

People confuse life coaching with counseling. It should be noted that counseling deals with a certain calamity in your life like accidents, breakups, divorces, etc. Hence counselors try to find answers from your past but life coaches focus on your current and future situations. Coaches make one aware of their situation but counselors try to dig out answers to your problems from your past. Also counseling is needed when the person is almost unaware of what is exactly wrong with him/her or is not even in a position to fathom the gravity of the situation and the need to set it right. On the other hand people who come for coaching are fairly happy in their lives and want to seek a betterment of it or realize that the barrier they have is actually not too big to be unmanageable. Another thing confused with life coaching is therapy. Therapy in reality is some sort of treatment that one needs to overcome some kind of trauma. But people seeking life coaching are in perfect health and just have to realize, that there are certain things in their life that need some attention on their part. Therapy sets the problems correct but life coaching aims at finding new ways to move ahead and be successful.

Life coaches help you to find for you where exactly your heart lies, what you are really good at, what motivates you, what angers you and how you can deal efficiently with it, what holds you back and how you can work on it, what is it that is not letting you progress in your business, what new strategies, planning, time-management, people management skills you need to employ to achieve greater heights, what you can do to maintain healthy relationships, what your secret desires are and how you can tap your potential to the fullest and aim for better and newer avenues. These and many more things are what the coaches help you in. Coaching is very common in the IT sector where the pressures are sky high with deadlines, work-pressure, bad eating and sitting habits, irregular timings taking a toll on performance in work and everyday lives. The life coaches help young people to find a reason and purpose in their lives. They help people to overcome stage fear and social anxiety, leave smoking, drinking, and so on, do away with their hidden fears and guilt, depression, etc. Life coaching makes one come to terms with the fact that it is we, who are refusing to move ahead in life. It gives a new outlook about yourself and instills confidence in you, that you can achieve anything that you set your sight upon. Life coaches help to get some discipline in our lives to extract better from every opportunity. And also to find opportunities that lie hidden in front of you –be it in personal or in professional life.

So it is never too late to go in for life coaching. If you think you want the maximum out of life-go find a life coach and fill your life with a sweet fragrance of success, bliss and contentment.

Personal Life Coaching

Date: December 22, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Uncategorized
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There is a new phenomenon sweeping the U.K. which is helping people not only to achieve, earn, and do more but also to lead a more balanced and holistic life. It’s called ‘Personal Life Coaching’ and it really does help individuals be all that they want to be.
As with so many things this concept started in the U.S.A. in the late eighties. Following on from the once popular consultants and therapists, it has become the ‘personal coach’ who will now help sort out your personal and professional life. This new type of advisor will strategise with you in weekly sessions, either in person, on the phone or via email.
Coaching started out as a way to help frenzied entrepreneurs and corporate executives cope with a life that seemed to be careering out of control. As reported by the British Journal of Administrative Management coaching ‘takes a holistic view of the individual’ ensuring that work, corporate values, personal needs and career development are made to work in synergy and not against each other. However, what started as a ‘corporate client’ service has now become a valuable tool for any individual wanting to improve their life.
Borne out of the competitive pressures of today’s economy as well as the struggle to find balance in the frantic pace of modern life this Personal Life Coaching is now rapidly attracting devotees in Britain. CEOs, entrepreneurs, professionals, people in career transition and many others grappling with life issues are all turning to this new ‘tool’ to guide them through life’s difficulties and help raise them above the ‘fog’ to the clear heights of peace and self-satisfaction. There are now hundreds of coaches across the country and it is forecast that by the year 2004 it will be as common to have a coach as it is to have a personal fitness trainer.
Coaching is a very powerful, collaborative relationship between the coach and a willing individual, which facilitates that individual, through the process of discovery, goal setting and strategic action-planning, in the realisation of an extraordinary result. It is also a body of knowledge, a technology and a style of relating that focuses on the development of that human’s potential.
More and more people are tired of the frenzied, technological information age that we live in and are interested in a higher quality of life. Life where you have more time for yourself and your relationships, with more energy to invest in your emotional, physical and spiritual well-being. Whether you are a corporate executive working sixty hours a week, a single parent trying to raise a family or someone who is just tired of feeling stressed out and pressed for time, you have a choice about how to live your life. You can step back, re-evaluate your priorities and make a conscious decision about the future you would like to create.
Just as you would turn to the local gym or personal trainer if your body were out of shape, now you can hire a personal coach to improve the quality of your life. With their help you can shape up your life and overcome all the obstacles that get in the way of living the life you want – like hiring a personal trainer for your soul!
One might ask why a coach is needed, rather than a partner, best friend or work colleague. Quite simply it is because of the qualification, professionalism and experience of the person to whom you are talking – and the FREEDOM with which you can speak.
Most of us have experienced the desire to have a kind of heart to heart with someone who really understands workplace challenges, family demands, the need for love and job satisfaction and the importance of personal space. It is imperative that this ‘sounding board’ is a person to whom you can offload ALL of your thoughts, fears, ideas and aspirations. Often discussion with a loved one or work colleague can be restrained for any number of reasons – concern for their feelings, fear of displaying weakness, reluctance to share good, but perhaps unformulated, ideas or the unwillingness to disclose a secret.
One reason for the high demand for coaches and coaching comes from the increasing number of entrepreneurs, infopreneurs and self employed people seeking to be successful in an extremely competitive market place. It is now recognised that the right coach gives the professional or business owner a major and competitive advantage. It is estimated that over the last ten years well over a quarter of a million people in the United States have been coached. This phenomenon is now here and running in the United Kingdom and any businessperson or entrepreneur who wants to get ahead, who wants to have a major and dramatic competitive advantage will have their own personal coach.
The value and success of this ‘tool’ has been seized upon by hundreds of corporations worldwide including IBM, Ernst and Young, Deloitt Touche, Lucent Technologies, AT & T, Phyzer, Dupont, Delta Faucet, Kodak, Rodale, the FAA, Globe Business Services, Caterpillar Financial, JC Penny and Telus. All of these corporations have recognised the key differential between training and coaching – they each have their value but are distinctly different. A very interesting article published in the Public Personnel Management in the winter of 97 revealed a study done by the International Personal Management Association where training alone was compared with coaching combined with training. The study showed that training alone increased productivity by 22.4% while training plus coaching increased productivity by a massive 88 %.
Coaching contracts vary to some degree but generally a client will work with a coach for between six and twelve months for a monthly fee, which covers four weekly sessions. There are no additional charges and the coach does not take a percentage or a contingency- type fee or award.
Very simply, people hire a coach because they want MORE of something (money, time, happiness, success, freedom) or LESS of something (frustration, toleration, delays, procrastination). A coach is trained to work with a client on both personal and business goals as opposed to a therapist who works on issues- there is a huge difference. Having set those goals the coach will help you implement them and stay by your side until their completion. So the question is “Would you like to change your life? Do you want more time for yourself? Would you like to take better care of your health, reduce stress and create more balance in your life?”. The answer is to hire a coach.
Very soon the question will be not “Do you have a coach?” but
“Who is your coach?”

Life Coach Training Is The First Step To Making Positive Changes In Lives

Date: December 13, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Uncategorized
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Certain fields of endeavor are designed to help consumers, while others focus on business to business. There is yet others which are designed to help keep a support for the progress of society. Never has life coaching been so important to people, than it has today. Life coach training is the first step to making that positive change in lives.
We can easily underestimate the good that a life coach can do in peoples lives. You have qualities and skills, and these qualities and skills people need. But, it can’t just stop on those qualities and skills. There needs to be something more – in comes life coach training.
So, you want to help society, and people. Becoming a life coach is one way to make that happen. And it happens for many reasons. Imagine for a moment, the clients you serve will be enabled to do so much more. This productivity at least in a small way helps with society’s progress forward.
Becoming a life coach requires a lot of learning. This learning is accomplished either through life experience or through life coach training courses.
There are many benefits that go with life coach training. With the life coach training, you are sure to find a structure which is essential learning that you will apply in your day to day life coaching practice or life coach job.
However there is one person who will benefit greatly from life coach training courses, and it is not all the coaching clients you will coach, rather it is you! You will learn a systematic system of personal development, which allows you to go from finding a goal, and making it happen, in the shortest possible time, and with the least resources.
The life coach training will also apply to the problems you face in your day to day life. Just because you may go through life coach training, and become a certified life coach, it doesn’t mean that all your problems will go away! However, you will find that you have the resources to find solutions. And as you go through these, more practical experience you will have for your coaching clients.
Life coach training involves finding out how to help clients to both discover and reach their personal goals. As a coach, you will utilize several methods to teach the methods for establishing and achieving goals. The foundations of life coaching exist in executive training, but more and more individuals are looking for life coaches.
Using various forms of counseling, such as mentoring, psychology and sociology, you will life coach your clients with various methods to help them find solutions. Life coach training then becomes a great way to discover the core areas, and also help you become as equipped as possible to deal with all your clients needs.

The Difference Between Life Coaching and Psychology

Date: December 12, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Uncategorized
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Its very common to hear people ask questions regarding the differences of life coaching and therapy/counseling. As a certified life coach that has met with hundreds of clients, I’ve had an opportunity to become very aware of both the differences and the commonalities between the two professions. This is well worth a deeper discussion and I’ll provide all the answers to the common questions I’ve heard regarding how these two services compare in this article.
As a side note, if you are looking for in depth information on how to become a life coach or are wondering what a life coach is, these linked articles may be a better starting point for you.Fundamental Differences of Life Coaching and Therapy
When I first decided to enroll in a life coach training program, a clear distinction was made as to what coaching was and what it was not. The job of a coach is to support a client to see clearly for themselves the right action to take. Fundamentally, a coach is dedicated to the principle that the client has their own answers. The coach recognizes that a client is not ‘broken’, they are whole and complete and nothing needs to be ‘fixed’ to engage an individuals passions and dreams. The coach is not a consultant prepared to provide an answer to the client and they are not an expert trained in providing a diagnosis. A client that engages a life coach is hiring an expert in self inquiry, in empowerment, goal setting and motivation.
OK, this does not sound a whole lot like a therapist or counselor. Certainly someone trained as a psychologist does have the skill set to diagnose, to provide counsel, to give the answers that a client may need to hear. This is one fundamental difference between coaching and counseling.
A mentor of mine told me that a psychologist is trained in healing the pain in the past whereas a life coach is trained in focusing on your dreams and passions and turning those into action. The result of counseling may be therapeutic, the result of coaching is always action in the physical world. If you were to look at the timeline of your life, the domain of a psychologist would be the day you were born up until today, the domain of a life coach would be today and into the future.What are the Commonalities of Life Coaching and Therapy
Both life coaches and therapists are trained listeners. They have developed a communication skill set that provides a space for clients to express themselves – albeit on different topics. A coach and a therapist will frequently meet in a similar setting – usually in an office for a scheduled time frame and they will meet on a regular basis as agreed upon. Life coaches will often offer phone meetings for clients as well which is something less often seen in a therapist setting.
Both a therapist and a life coach will communicate with you on a very personal and deep level. As such, both professions act under professional guidelines for confidentiality. I’ve had a number of clients tell me that they were working with a counselor in addition to the coaching and this has been a fantastic mix for them. Sometimes with these clients the topics shared in coaching may be similar to those shared in counseling. The difference is the focus of the conversation. Whereas the therapist will have a higher tolerance and ability to delve into the deep seeded ‘issues’ that are present, a coach will remind the client of their visions and goals and focus on potential solutions.What about Solution Focused Brief Therapy?
This is a very interesting question. About a year ago I had a client point out to me that they felt that coaching and therapy were very similar. I mentioned the differences noted above and she asked me what I knew about Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). I had to admit I did not know much. She had been trained in this field and began to discuss how it is a branch of therapy focused on the present and future rather than the past. The focus is moving a client via action towards that vision.
Hummm. Wasn’t that interesting. Indeed it does sound a lot like life coaching. Now the methods and processes may be unique (and each coach has their own methods anyway), but fundamentally it sounds similar. The only difference I can clearly see is that SFBT seems to engage a clientele that is dealing with a ‘problem’. Life coaches are prominent in working with individuals and business clients for the purpose of achieving more success in life. This may or may not be related to any problems or issues perceived by the client.
Now if you are trained in SFBT – I would personally love to hear from you and have you write a guest article on my blog to provide more detail for my readers. If you’d be willing to do this – please contact me, I’d love to discuss more with you.What’s Better Coaching or Therapy?
Clearly the world of therapy at the date this article is written is immensely more popular than that of life coaching (however life coaching is gaining a lot of momentum). Life coaching as a profession really only emerged in its infancy in the mid 90’s. Therefore, therapy is better recognized and has a well documented track record. But is it better?
I believe that the question is really one of fit. What is it you are looking to achieve as you are considering a coach or a therapist. Is your focus on the past or the future. Are there overwhelming feelings and emotions that you need to work through to move on, or are you engaging in a vision of the future and you can’t quite figure out how to get there. Asking yourself these questions will provide you some instant guidance as to the appropriate path forward.