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“A year from now you may wish you had started today” – Karen Lamb
We all have goals, right? Some goals we work hard for, adjust, learn and achieve. Some goals are serendipitous (by chance, such as an event led you there), some are coddiwomple (to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination, you kinda know where you want to go), and some are more of a dream (I want this thing, but have no idea how to get there). Any goal that moves you in forward direction is worth having! A specific and meaningful goal is a goal that creates a journey that defines where you want to be and when.
I could have really used a coach in my own life, especially in my early adulthood. I was a serendipitous, coddiwomple dreamer. A coach would have saved me so much time, money and resources. I spent a good deal of my late teens and early 20s floundering around trying to figure this “life” thing out. I think it’s called “adulting” now. I didn’t graduate from high school, I didn’t even graduate from middle school- trauma, abuse, moving……a lot. I finished eighth grade, half of ninth grade and I didn’t try much after that. Later, I did get my GED. I didn’t know anything when I left home at sixteen. When I was about twenty-two I received, in the mail, a campus catalog with a postcard attached, I filled it out and sent it in. I had no idea what to take in school; my math level was low but my reading and writing were high. I chose computer programming, because…..well, it was the “in” thing I guess, and that’s exactly where someone with poor math skills should be (cue eye roll). I lived 25 miles from campus and relied on others to get me to class, another un-stellar move. Needless to say, it was a perfect storm to an unrealistic, un-achievable goal. That was one of many areas I could have used a coach. Relationships, finances, parenting, self-discovery, self-care……the list could go on and the stories would never end. Coaching could have helped me build realistic and specific goals; it wouldn’t have taken me so long to find my way!
Coaching is a relationship built in pursuit of your goals! A coach helps you take your big, serendipitous, coddiwomple dream and turn it into a specific, meaningful, achievable goal. Although a coach is not a miracle worker and you still have to work at it, your goals becomes a manageable vision of your best idea. Here are a few ways coaching works:
- Help in setting clear and specific goals. Your coach will help you determine what’s really important to you and help you stay focused on that.
- Identify blocks. Your coach will help you figure out what is keeping you from achieving your goal, and they may point out things you may not be able to see that may be holding you back.
- Being accountable. Coaches keep you on track and moving forward. They will be honest with you and hold you accountable for follow through.
- Focus. Your coach will help you identify strengths that assist you in areas that could use some strengthening.
- A coach can help you get from a to b faster than you could on your own, by helping you differentiate priorities.
- Feel happier. Because coaches help you identify and align your values to create a positive outcome on personal or professional fulfillment.
Maybe some people are focused and motivated and maybe they are born with the ability to obtain their goals, but I believe most successful people will admit that they have had great “coaches” in their life; positive role models, action oriented friends, teams of people that inspired them in some motivating way along their own journey. You deserve that same positive motivation……. we all do!
Amanda Nelson Rice, Coaching Academy Coordinator