Coaching is about helping you figure out the extent to which you are living the life that you really want to live – and what you can do about it. For any positive change to occur, first there has to be a degree of self-awareness – some sense who you are and how you are perceived by others. This is not as easy as it sounds, however, as it’s impossible to jump outside of our own head to feel sure our self-perception is actually accurate. That’s where a coaching conversation can help.
When you describe to me how your life is going for you, I can probably help you see other perspectives that may be hidden to you. In other words, I can help you increase your own self-awareness. Once you have a different insight into why things might not be going the way you want them to, then you can start challenging yourself to make some changes to help yourself.
It’s never about trying to totally change, rather it’s about accepting that, to a great extent, who you are is exactly how you will stay, but with a heightened level of self-awareness, you can pick your battles and then challenge how you think and respond in certain situations. What makes sense is to play to your strengths, values and interests and design a life that matches them as much as possible. However, given that you can’t control absolutely everything all of the time, you need to be armed with enough self-awareness to know when to modify your style and behaviour so things go as well for you and those you care about as often as possible.