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If
you’ve gotten this far, you know, searched the web and arrived at our site, you’re probably not
completely against the notion that you can be personally
supported by a personal
coach, lifestyle, or
business coach. But
you might still wonder: "Hey, instead of getting
individual coaching, why can’t I apply a lot of
the same techniques of change coaching that you do, to
myself?"
Good question. The answer is, you
can, much of the time. At Feroce, we have great
faith in individuality. Some of us have even self-“coached”
ourselves, in certain areas or at certain times in our lives.
But in general, money spent on motivational seminars,
training programs, self-help books, and business books
is not money well-spent. And change without
support and accountability simply takes much longer.
As Dave Buck, the CEO of Coachville, puts it, "How many
times have you attended a training program and left with
BIG ideas and insights that were going to change your
world, only to find that three weeks later nothing has
changed? You would have the same long term impact
on your life by going to a good play or a movie."
Individual Coaching
Brings Learning to Life
Buck goes on: "Imagine instead the
trainer that is also a certified coach. Rather
than train and dash, he is qualified to stay involved in
your life to support the implementation and integration
of what you have learned. He can understand the
details of your personal situation as well as your
strengths and weaknesses and create a personalized
approach that really works.
"Imagine the manager who is a certified
coach. After she sends you off to the training
program she coaches you day by day to put the best of
what you learned into practice. When you get frustrated
and fall back on old habits, she can get to the source
of the problem by expanding your awareness of feeling
and limiting thoughts. Then she helps you redesign your
environments so that your new way of working is
sustainable."
This is precisely why many thought leaders are adding
individual life coaching
or executive coaching to training and self-improvement
programs for their employees.
Individual Coaching Sees More
Clearly
Most of
the time, you will also not have the objectivity and
perspective required to see yourself clearly -- as
clearly as someone can see you from the outside.
In a moment, we’ll explain why the power of commitment
between two people is another reason coaching is so much
more effective.
 How do we see things that clients -- and
their friends and family -- cannot? You could read our Testimonials (success
stories) and the turning points clients reached in recent
coaching conversations for one answer. You
could read about Why Coaching Works
for some more.
Or you could ask yourself a
question: for what your individual or business goals are today, how well
have you coached yourself thus far? What do you do
to effect change in your life? Is it formal and
rigorous? How are you held accountable? Have you had any
breakthroughs, and if so, how long did they
take?
The
Limitations of Self-Help Books For example, try this exercise: how many of
the following types of books have you purchased: self-help,
how-to business, counseling, career planning,
leadership, management, spirituality, personal growth
and development, health, wealth-acquisition? Take a stab
at it; write down your estimate.
Okay, and of
those, how many have you (1) read in their entirety (2)
taken notes on (3) read more than once (4) done the
exercises in (5) and applied the exercises and advice to
your life in a meaningful way? How many of the
take-aways from these books has made it into your daily
planner or calendar?
If you got to number 5 at all, it’s
unlikely you identified more than one book. Books are
priceless indeed, but books about advice suffer from the
same ailment that a book about how to play football
would suffer from: while you’re reading a book, no one
insists on your progress, you can make excuses and
procrastinate, and sooner or later you can just quit
without having gotten anywhere. Because books (from
$12.95 to $35 individually) don’t have built-in
accountability, follow-up, reminders, exhortation,
assignments and goals, or the force of two human wills,
they often do little more than take a dozen hours to
read and only a day or two to forget forever.
Books have been around forever. They are an
integral part of self-understanding, and even preparing
the ground for change. (Just look at our
Recommended Books.) But
remember, elite achievers have always used trainers,
advisors, and coaches under some name or another. It’s
also possible to learn a language by yourself, but if
you’ve ever tried it, you probably have some idea how
challenging it would be to do something even more
difficult, like bringing to yourself all the benefits of
coaching without the aid of another.
The
Power of Commitment to Create Change So why does
the power of commitment make such a big
difference? The commitment between coaches draws its
power from the same social contract of which Rousseau
spoke; from the public promise that gives marriage its
greater strength and longevity; from the same sense of
duty and follow-through that makes us show up in the
morning to meet our personal fitness trainers; and even
from the informal “promises” we implicitly make when we
tell another person about our New Year’s resolutions. To
speak is to bind, and the client of life or
career coaching is someone
ready for the life stage of accepting discipline and
commitment in his or her best interests.
Wondering what to talk about with your coach?
Read Change Coaching,
or What to Talk About When You Talk to Your Coach.
Related Individual Coaching Articles:
How Do Clients
Benefit from Life and Personal Coaching? Success stories - changes your life
could also take
Recent coaching
conversations -
epiphanies reached by clients
How Feroce Coaching
Stacks Up: Rates for Coaching Packages.
Women: check
out a life coach
for a woman
The
Financial Side of Coaching: Why Coaching Makes
Economic Sense<
What Does a Good Coach
Do? The Life and Mind Coach
The Difference
Between Coaching and Counseling
Parent Coaching More on
What a Life Coach Does
Parent
Coach
Contact us about your own individual
coaching. Let's set up a free consultation.
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