LIFE COACHING

COACHING TO LOSE WEIGHT:

It has been one year since I started my Executive and Life Coaching Practice.

I am pleased and encouraged with how this new service has helped my patients get quicker results in areas they were experiencing difficulties.

A popular concern is weight loss, and I’m thrilled with how many clients have steadily lost weight over the last few months. The key is to develop a new lifestyle through a combination of Life Coaching, Homeopathy and Nutrition.

Marital relationship issues is a close second, and coaches men and women on how to become more agreeable to, and supportive of, their mates, so that they both enjoy a more fulfilling life.

Third is pursuing your life dreams, careers and passions.

I am starting a new Career Management Course curriculum this spring, so that I may continue to enhance the services I offer to my clients and patients.

Blessings on your Healing Journey,

THE SELF :

Importantly, the self is at the center of the leadership model, responsible for initiating and integrating all the above processes and bringing them into a coherent whole. CCL notes that it is important to be grounded, or anchored, as a leader in order to act responsibly regardless of the political winds that are blowing in the organization or society at large.

Here the questions are:

• Is the manager taking care of himself or herself?
• Does he or she recognize the importance of doing so as a way of staying anchored and maintaining his or her well-being?
• Does he or she view his or her own well-being as a contributor to his or her effectiveness?
  

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING:

Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covey, and Robert Quinn have written much in the past several years about the importance of adult health and well-being. At the same time corporations have recognized the high cost of prolonged stress on employees, and many have taken practical steps such as providing on-site gyms, training courses on health-related topics, and actual health facilities. Yet with all the information and resources available, it is widely recognized that many executives work long hours under stressful conditions with little or no attention paid to their own health and well-being. This is another area where coaches can add value to an executive or manager and quite possibly help them improve aspects of their performance in the process. Attention often can be profitably focused on four aspects of health and well-being: the physical, the emotional, the mental, and the spiritual.

Asking a manager to rate him or herself on these aspects of health (scale of 1 = poor to 10 = excellent) often can become the basis for a conversation about these issues. Many managers intuitively recognize the importance of these aspects of health but may not consciously focus on them or recognize them as potential contributors to their overall effectiveness. A discussion of the manager's ratings may indicate areas where he or she would like to spend additional effort.

Covey (1995) argues that these areas are related, and improvements in one area can lead to improvements in others, for example, a manager who makes improvements in his or her physical health may feel better mentally and emotionally. Following is a list of signs of well-being in the four areas.

SIGNS OF PHYSICAL WELL-BEING

• Regular exercise
• Healthy diet
• Adequate sleep (generally 7-8 hours per night)
• Good health
• Regular check ups
• A feeling of energy, vitality, alertness
• Avoidance of excessive alcohol, tobacco, food
• Freedom from prolonged stress

SIGNS OF EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

• Using emotions to inform one's behaviors (e.g., when feeling angry, recognizing the emotion, checking to see what is causing the anger and possibly using that information to inform subsequent behaviors, choices, or actions).
• Feeling emotions in proportion to events - not becoming overly emotional on the one hand nor unable to feel emotions on the other.
• Ability to feel connected to others
• Ability to form and sustain friendships
• Ability to commit oneself to a course of action and carry out commitment
• Ability to make and keep promises
• Ability to avoid pettiness
• Ability to help others, for example, mentor, coach, teach, advise, and so forth.
• Ability to care about others
• Emotional insight into what makes one happy, sad, angry
• Lack of preoccupation with worry, anxiety
• Ability to be generous in thought or deed

SIGNS OF MENTAL WELL-BEING

• Feeling mentally stimulated by the work or mission
• Being able to concentrate, screen out distractions
• Ability to sustain work efforts over a requisite period of time
• Ability to resolve problems without excessive worry
• Ability to take an organized approach
• A desire to learn
• Ability to focus on big picture without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail

SIGNS OF SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING

• Ability to laugh at oneself
• Taking time to reflect on one's direction and purpose as a way of gaining perspective
• A sense of gratefulness
• Appreciation for what one has versus worrying over what one doesn't have
• Appreciation for a force or power that is greater than oneself and that provides meaning to what one does
• Ability to trust other people and processes
• A sense of integrity, truthfulness
• Freedom from cynicism

In coaching a manager about issues of well-being, Wingard (1998) cautions coaches not to collude with the "client's perfectionism by striving for "balance" as a static state rather than ability to thrive in the midst of disequilibrium" (p. 258). A more helpful strategy may be simply to bring these aspects of health into focus and let clients know that you are able to provide help and support on these issues as well as those more directly related to the business.

 

(Extracts from R.J. Leider, 1994, "Life Skills")

The model of change and growth used in Life Skills is based on observations and studies of highly effective people.

Life skills focuses on four "learnings":

1. How to deal with change
2. How to discover purpose
3. How to create a personal vision
4. How to balance daily priorities and tradeoffs.

1. DEAL WITH CHANGE

All of us, to varying extents, are limited by our fears - of criticism, of rejection, of betrayal, of failure, of success. We lack trust in ourselves. We often doubt our own good judgment in the face of contrary opinions from others. Also, we often lack the trust in others that is necessary to create a high-performing team or organization. Fear is choice. We can "rescript" ourselves to reduce fear and embrace change.

2. DISCOVER PURPOSE

Discovering a sense of purpose is crucial to making a difference in our work and our lives. Self-knowledge, however, does not come easy. Some people, manage to travel quite happily through life without ever knowing themselves. Whether because of luck, or good intuitive timing, they do very well. However, even those people, to their dismay, wake up at some point asking, "Who am I?", "Why am I here?", "Where am I going?". The best leadership today is based on fostering a guiding purpose in others and clarifying the organization's purpose.

3. CREATE A PERSONAL VISION

A clear vision sets in motion the factors and forces to create the future. A familiar example is the athlete whose performance is limited by an invisible barrier, as the four minute mile once was. With a clear vision that breaks through previous limits, the athlete reprograms the belief system and consequently achieves superior performance. This power of creating a vision is critical to individuals and organizations today.

4. TRACK DAILY PRIORITIES

Life skills helps you develop a solid growth plan that accommodates change, yet endures. You assemble a base of information about yourself in a logically organized, summarized plan, for ready referral whenever you need it.

Your Life Growth Plan, when used consistently, will have a profound and lasting impact. The art of self-leadership can be learned like any other skill.

THE PRINCIPLES

The principles aren't subtle or complex, but they cover the core aspects of growth and self management. The principles are as follows:

Time
You must understand your real priorities and tradeoffs or you risk wasting your most valuable currency - time.

Values
The quality and depth of your self-worth is a key indicator; you must be clear about your values because they reveal who you really are.

Vitality
Living with vitality is the bottom line; vitality comes from integrity and integrity comes from one simple act: keeping the promises you make to yourself.

Purpose
Living and working from a clear sense of purpose creates enduring meaning and satisfaction.

Career
To be fulfilled in your work, it is crucial to connect talents with interests and passions in an environment that fits your values.

Spirituality
Living from a clear sense of purpose requires making consistent contact with a power greater than yourself.

Health
The key to health is doing little things consistently; life energy is built or destroyed by many individual actions that become your pattern.

Talents
Recognize your talents to discover if you are fully using them. You become energized when your talents and work align.

Relationships
Establish relationship and support systems that can carry you through the various transitions of work/life.

Money
Decide by which criteria you want to measure success.

Change, though often a struggle, can be an opportunity to grow, to strengthen vision, and to enhance performance. If you understand and apply the Life Skills principles, you can experience changes as growth.

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