About three years ago I reached a nadir in my life. Various events in my life and business had led me down a dark tunnel of despair. Eventually though the tears ran out and I realised that no one was going to rescue me. If I wanted to get myself out of my mental morass I had to do this myself.
Whilst not knowing quite what to do next I took the first step by meeting a friend’s husband who was a life coach. Feeling very small and insignificant I remember asking him: “I feel so lost. Can you help me? ”
Through our conversation together I began to discover what coaching was about. Curious and inspired by that initial experience I signed up to learn more at a free weekend offered by the Coaching Academy in London. This was a turning point for me as I knew by the first break on the Saturday that I had found my calling and that I had to become a coach.
During that weekend I did the Wheel of Life coaching exercise with Pam Lidford. For those that don’t know this exercise it is a brilliant way to assess where you are currently in all aspects of your life. It also serves as a tool to help to create clarity on what you need to focus on next to create change and move forward in your life.
I remember putting on the outer rim of the segment of the wheel I labelled "work", that I wanted to have my own thriving coaching practice. Well almost 3 years later and here I am here growing my own coaching business, having written two e-books and passionate about what I do for a living.
Reflecting back on my journey to become a coach I think that the scariest thing for me was doing my first coaching session with someone I didn’t know. The thing that I learnt in that first session was just to listen. I was so nervous and worried that I didn’t know the right question to ask, I figured that the best thing I could do whilst waiting for the right question to pop into my head was to just keep listening! That advice to myself still stands today- just listen.
I enjoyed my journey to becoming a coach as I personally learnt so much and was very motivated by the coaches running the accelerator and CPD days – Thank you to all of you!
To get through my coach training I broke down what I needed to do and created a timetable over 6/7 months to do this. Every week I allocated on average 2-3 hours per week to coaching, reading and listening to webinars. Breaking my large goal down into chunks and allocating specific times each week to do the training meant that I saw real progress on a monthly basis.
I use this same principle with other goals that I have in my life now. I work backwards from the end result that I want to achieve and work out what I need to do by when. Having a framework for actions and milestones along the way is a great way to track your progress.
Since qualifying as a personal performance and a small business coach with the Coaching Academy I have also become a trained coach for a programme called Best Year Yet.
I now work with individuals, small business leaders and teams to create transformational change to help them become masters at producing results in their lives and business. I am passionate about coaching and delivering the Best Year Yet programme as I know that it really works for people and makes a huge difference not only in their lives but in those around them. Certainly learning to be a coach and practising all that I now coach people on has transformed my life and helped me to create framework for generating the results that I want in my life.
On my journey to having my own coaching business the one thing that I have learned that has made the biggest difference to me is the power of having a clear vision of what I want to create. Having a vision or goal of where I am heading has helped me to keep moving forward.
So whether you are new to the idea of coaching, are training to become a coach or are already qualified to be a coach and want to start or grow your business, take time now to reflect on what it is that you want in the future. Take time to consider where you want to get to and why you want to get there.
Time spent creating a vision for your life and business is invaluable as it sets a marker in front of you that will pull you into your future. Remember to create a vision that inspires you – and make it big because this will help you to get round the obstacles that life will throw at you.
It would disingenuous for me to say that getting to where I am today has been easy all the way, but goodness me I am proof that having the courage to write down my vision, set goals and do the next thing on the path every day, works.
I always remember on that Coaching Academy weekend 3 years ago that someone said “people always overestimate what they can do in a year but underestimate what they can do in three years”. The key to achieving your goals is just starting.
If you would like to find out more about me or the ebooks I have written you can connect with me through The Coaching Academy linked in group.
The Coaching Academy was established in 1999, and is now the world's largest coaching school.
In that time we have trained over 14,000 people to become life coaches.
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