Coaching for progress

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Vincent Tuckwood, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

I had the pleasure of catching up with a coaching client earlier this week, and was thrilled to hear that the changes we’d worked on together have not only stuck, but in fact begun to accelerate her objectives.

Meg* reached out to me to talk through a number of things, but mainly how she was suffering from call reluctance in developing her business – she had loads of ideas for where she could find prospects, yet wasn’t acting upon them. As we discussed what her inaction looked and felt like, I began to understand that the issue wasn’t the ideas or the prospects, neither was it the knowledge of her products and how they may help.

This past few years, I’ve been focusing on how to make significant change happen for people in the moment rather than over an extended number of sessions, and this was the route Meg and I took.

1. Focus attention

First of all, we agreed that Meg would write down all her ideas for prospects, so that they weren’t sloshing around in either her conscious or sub-conscious mind. From a coaching perspective, this is doubly important, because it removes a red-herring of attention:

“if I’m thinking about these ideas, I must be doing something about them”

This is the illusion of action – thinking is NOT doing, though our brain likes to think it is!

2. Align energy

With this distraction removed, we could focus on reframing Meg’s view of her prospects. Knowing why Meg does things, and the situations where she feels powerful in action, we were able to shift the meaning she places upon those initial discussions. Now, she feels compelled to make the calls – why wouldn’t she? She’s going to be her best self when she does so!

3. Remove self-imposed barriers

The main barrier Meg faced in her call reluctance was her fear of failure and rejection

[because she’s the ONLY person who feels that! :) ]

so we spent some time strengthening her core, looking for other situations where this fear is either not present or minimized – it wasn’t hard, she’s a powerful woman! Using a centering technique, I was able to help Meg call upon those resources at will. As we worked through the practices she would adopt, I began to feel my own energy buzzing

[even pointing out the goosebumps to Meg!]

which is a sure sign that I was in my own happy place – a truly wonderful feeling!

Fast forward

The first thing I notice is that Meg seems taller; she’s completely within her centered self, radiating strength. It’s a wonderful thing to experience such change in a client. I hardly even need to ask if she’s making calls

[she is]

and I’m not surprised when she tells me she’s beginning to get people reaching out to her.

When it comes to coaching, such results are just humbling, and I’m reminded how honoured I am to be trusted to help. Meg and I will be looping back together in a month-or-so, and I’m already looking forward to hearing how her energy is punching through for all her new clients!

• name changed; my coaching work is strictly confidential
  (Originally published at theviewbeyond.com/blog )