Do Different to Be Different: The Promise of Life Coaching
Posted on January 17, 2015 by Jessica Minah, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Life coach Jessica Minah explains how life coaching helps shift clients into a new way of being.
Why coaching?
That’s a great question.
There are certainly a lot of places to look for insight out there. Retreat centers beckon with great programming and Deepak and Eckhart’s latest work can be downloaded in minutes. There are yoga classes, meditation centers, spiritual pilgrimages, traditional talk therapy—coaching certainly doesn’t have the final word on finding yourself!
Coaching, however, sets itself apart from other self-discovery activities in its approach to insight. On its own, insight is not very useful. Maybe you’ve gone on a retreat or read a book and had a sudden flash of self-awareness. You might have thought that this epiphany was really going to change things for you. But once you got home or finished the book, you struggled to put your insight into action. Your connection with that moment was lost, almost like it never even occurred.
Insight alone does not build the skills necessary for true change; but actually doing and being in a different way, does. In order to approach things differently you might need to, for example, be more discerning or less judgmental. These are skills that you would develop through the practices and exercises assigned to you during your unique coaching program. In this way, the insights become embodied through action. The goal is to practice doing until it really becomes a way of being.
One of my jobs as your coach is to listen for the insights you have as a result of doing and to help deepen your experience of them. This might include asking you to appreciate where change is happening and to draw connections between unexpected things. I may push you a little harder or point out where you’re holding back. My role is to pay attention to your whole experience—not just the present moment, but the big picture, too. This way, if your perspective narrows, I can help you expand your awareness.
Doing and being are messy business. We sweat. We Cry. We lose our breath. Muscles—real and figurative—are built. Sometimes it’s exhilarating and joyful; other times it’s excruciating and awkward. But ultimately, doing and being lead to a life in which you are more fully present.
Coaching isn’t the best fit for everyone. Not everyone is ready to take action or fully reveal themselves in the quest for change. But if you’re tired of having insights without seeing any changes, coaching might be the next step for you.
