Yesterday was my first session with my coach. The first session is called the intake session, where the coach first introduces the coachee to coaching and how things will proceed. We had already agreed fees and I had signed a coaching agreement, so Elizabeth proceeded to tell me more about how things would proceed in the future (wearing her mentor hat as well as her coach hat). After all the formalities and explanations, we began our session.
We reviewed my progress since the last session, and she asked me what I wanted to talk about in this session. A few days before the session she had sent me some forms, interviews and surveys to fill out which had really helped to clarify my thinking about who I am and what I wanted. They asked questions such as, "what accomplishments, in your opinion, must occur in your lifetime so that you will consider your life to have been completely fulfilling and well-lived with few or no regrets?" and, "if you had a five-year goal and you had the continuing services of a coach to help you make it happen (and money was not an issue), what would that goal be? What difference would you like working with a coach to make?".
Those surveys were great because they really got me thinking!!
I decided that I wanted to carry on with the "Wheel of Life" exercise. In this exercise, you draw a big circle and then divide it up into slices which signify the most important areas of your life and how satisfied you are with those areas at the moment. So far we've covered Career, Health and Relationships! That has been realllyyy interesting...
When I finish a coaching session I feel energised and uplifted and I also feel motivated. Also, importantly, I start looking at my motivations and reasons for why I want what I say I want. And I start to think of what do I REALLY want.
Coaching is such a great process, I would suggest anyone who needs a little bit of help seek a coach out because you will find yourself achieving things at a greater speed and with more efficiency and happiness than if you rely on yourself to keep yourself motivated.
Also the really great thing about having a coach is that (unlike having a friend to talk to), a coach will ask you the difficult questions and will challenge you to do more. For example, one of the challenges Elizabeth has set me this week is to coach somebody. Now, I have not studied coaching at all and I have only been coached twice. So the prospect of asking someone if they mind me coaching them is really scary. But I would love to give it a try anyways! Because I think I would have an idea of what I should be doing. And it doesnt have to be for long or on a complicated matter, and I certainly won't be charging. But it would still be a great opportunity for me to see how it feels to be a coach. And it will help me fix the idea in my mind that I am already the great coach that I want to be :)
Quote of the Day
"Anyone can dabble, but once you've made that commitment, your blood has that particular thing in it, and it's very hard for people to stop you."
— Bill Cosby
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