11 What is coaching?
by Una Hearne.
Good news – You have the power to manage your life. YAY!
Bad news – It is your responsibility to manage your life and no one else’s. DOH!
How are you doing with this?
As we have evolved as a species, we have developed specialities. For example, early on, farmers, potters, builders, sailors and other professions emerged as the advantages of specialising in different bodies of knowledge became apparent. The whole community does better when the sum of all the knowledge and skill is more than one individual could contribute. Doctors, cleaners, lawyers, housekeepers, accountants, tailors, butchers, all invented their professions over time. As our species develops new needs in response to our changing world and our own progression, new professions appear – IT, therapy and marketing in more recent years.
Coaching is one of the professions which has emerged as a response to our increasingly complex modern world. With far more choices available to us in every area of life, decisions about what to do with our lives have become far more difficult. New levels of success have created new levels of stress and new types of stress. And a new strain of guilt – that we could possibly experience stress when we have so much! Managing a modern life well is not actually easy.
We need the time and space at various points in our lives to take a step back and think clearly about what really matters to us and what we really want, in order to find the right direction for ourselves to move forward.
It used to be so simple, find work, get married, have a family and try to survive as long as possible. Now, in a lot of countries, it’s all opportunity – what kind of work would you like? How long will you study for? Full time or part time? Why would you pick one career over another? Which is more secure? Which is more exciting? Do you want to have a family? What does family actually mean to you? What does the life you are creating day by day look like in five or ten years time?
Good coaching helps you to take the time out and creates the space for you to be able to think with clarity for yourself. You don’t need it all of your life but for periods of change it can make all the difference to your future. A good coach helps you to manage your life to your best advantage.
