What is Life Coaching?

Are you curious about Life Coaching? Wondering, what is it REALLY? The International Coaching Federation (ICF, http://www.coachfederation.org/) states, ?Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.?

Coaching supports you to powerfully live in the present and focus your attention toward the future you REALLY want to create. Erickson College (http://erickson.edu/) which provides life coaching programs explains: ?A coach encourages and sponsors you towards the ownership of skill-sets that encourage and support you to increase your creativity, productiveness, effectiveness, etc.; whatever it is that makes the difference to you to make the key choices at this stage of your career and your life.?

I see coaching as a transformational conversation where I hold the space for my clients to tap into their inner resources and strengths. I support them to live from a place of confidence where they know their authentic self and share their unique gifts with the world. From this place of confidence they achieve their goals with more ease.

Effective solution focused coaching supports people to focus on what they want and find creative ways move forward. Yet, many of us are focusing on what we don?t want ? and we don?t even know it! Think about how often you spend time worrying, scared, stressed, etc. Most likely you are focusing on what you don?t want to happen or what you don?t like about something or someone.

?Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don?t want,? says Esther Hicks in Ask and It is Given. This is about the Law of Attraction ? you attract what you spend your time thinking about (over and over and over). Many of us are thinking about and focusing on all the things we don?t like about our lives, our relationships, our jobs, our bodies, etc. And we wonder why the same things keep showing up!

To attract what we do want, we must spend more time focusing on and thinking about what we DO want. Erickson College life coaching programs explain that ?Solution Focused Coaching moves to free people from negative thought systems. Many individuals are trapped by negative beliefs and held hostage by them.? Imagine what you can achieve once you are free from these negative thought patterns! Seriously, imagine it.

TRY THIS: Think about what you DO want. Have fun! Pretend! Pretend that you have it. Daydream about it ? like when you were a kid. Allow yourself to daydream and really get into it. See yourself living your dream! What do you see yourself doing that?s different? What might you hear others saying as they acknowledge what you?ve achieved? How does it feel to be living this? Write down everything you notice. Think about it often. Notice what new opportunities or ideas start to show up.

Focusing on what you want can take practice. For some of us resistance, excuses and other feelings might get in the way of even thinking about what we want. Life coaching can support us in moving through that resistance and transform it into deeper self awareness and understanding.

Life coaching is a powerful ?advice free zone? that provides the space for you to discover your true strengths, values and inner wisdom and to live within those strength and values. This can support positive growth and a new way to relate to yourself and others.

A coach will ask you powerful questions to move you through your inner road blocks and question you toward your own new path. Marilyn Atkinson, founder of Erickson College and Rae T. Chois, founder of BLISScipline AIM free LIVE daily mediation (http://www.blissciplineAIM.com), wrote a masterful life coaching book, Step-by-Step System, about the Art and Science of Coaching. They say, ?Asking great questions that help people move into their own strengths and access their priorities might be called the front piece or engine of the coaching conversation.?

A coach will NOT offer advice or keep you focused on what went wrong. A coach will NOT try to 'fix' you. She or he will empower you, through questions, to discover, learn, grow and create more of what you want.

Is coaching something that might benefit you? As a professional life coach I believe everyone can benefit from coaching. It is a co-creative process (you are involved) and you must want to be there and be a participant. Coaching is only effective and appropriate if you show up as a co-creator.

Five questions to ask your self to see if coaching might benefit you:

1. Is there some area of my life that could benefit from a change or a shift?
2. Am I ready for something more in my life (i.e. more abundance, more prosperity, more satisfaction, etc.)?
3. How committed am I to improving myself and my life?
4. What might I let go of to really make room for what I want?
5. How might my own improvement benefit others in my life?

If you answered yes to the 1st two questions and allowed yourself to ponder the last 3 questions ? I invite you to explore coaching.

Your next step is to find a coach that fits your needs. Interview various coaches. Ask questions. Trust your inner wisdom to choose the successful partnership on your journey toward your magnificent future!