About Life Coaching
I am a LCI Certified Life Coach. I can help you find focus, identify your goals, track your progress, and stay motivated.
A Life Coach helps keep you on track - not just with your long-range goals, but with your monthly, weekly, and daily goals, in any area of interest, i.e. Job and Career, Personal Growth, Money and Finances, Self-Esteem, Personal Relationships, Health and Fitness, Personal Organization, and Quality of Life.
Life Coaching isn't by any means new but it is becoming more widely known and used. A professionally trained Life Coach knows how to guide you and stays with you, helping you get through obstacles that may arise while trying to reach your goals.
My job as a Life Coach is to act as mentor, a guide, and a motivator. I give objective feedback, encouragement, and support.
There are many benefits obtained from working with a Life Coach. #1. Having a trained professional focusing completely on you and what you want to achieve. #2. Having help identifing what you really want, in every area of life, and having help getting it. #3. Having help and assistance, not just now and then, but week after week. #4. Having help finding focus, creating the right attitude and the right actions, overcoming obstacles, tracking progress and staying motivated.
Life Coaching works because it is designed to fit your busy schedule. Once a week, by phone, a one-on-one conference- usually from 20 to 45 minutes is how the coaching takes place. In each phone conference you review your focus goals and action areas, receiving support and guidance in creating the right attitudes and motivation in whatever area you choose. In addition to the weekly phone conference communication by e-mail is available to get support throughout the week.
Every Life Coaching session is carefully structured to make the session easy and enjoyable. while at the same time guiding, step by step, toward the practical achievement of each goal.
You can sign up for a free Life Coach consulation. There is no cost and no obligation.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Goal Setting...as easy as 1-2-3!
Thanks to Dr. Shad Helmstetter for his Ten Rules to Goal Setting teaching.
I set a goal at my last blogging that I want to share with you. My goal is to post a weekly blog. I want to begin this use this time to talk about goal setting. Some, if not most goal-setting gurus will tell you that a goal is to be stated as if it has already happened. Take my goal for instance. If I followed the advice of those of that mindset my goal should be stated as follows: I post on my blog weekly. That is how I have been taught to set a goal. That is how I've always made goals...as if they already took or are taking place. Since becoming a life coach and following the program that Dr. Helmstetter put together I have changed my mind. That method would be more of an affirmation than a goal. There are ten rules to goal setting, according to Dr. Helmstetter, that I would like to share with you here.
Rule # 1. Goal setting is a skill.
Who would have thought? But this is GOOD news. Why? Because a skill is something we learn. Anyone can learn to set a goal. It's a skill to be learned, used and then mastered. Riding a bike, skating, learning to swing, driving a car; these are all skills that we needed to be taught before we could spend the necessary time practicing to become adept. The only difference between someone who knows how to set a goal and meet it and someone who doesn't is that they have been taught the proper way to set a goal.
Rule #2. Small goals are more important than big goals.
Big goals, dream goals were taught to be the ones you needed to set in order to have the motivation to obtain them. Little goals are needed in order to achieve the big ones. It's the small goals you set that matter the most. In fact, Dr. Helmstetter states that a long term goal which he defines as one year, is quite different than a dream goal. Dreams goals are important to have but in order to reach those big goals you must first master the skill of setting small ones. The goals you can reach this month, this week, this day are the ones that will get you to the star in the distance.
Rule #3. All goals MUST be written down.
A goal that is not written down is nothing more than a wish, a hope or a dream. The chances of reaching a goal that isn't written down, according to surveys, is somewhere between 3 and 5 percent. So if you don't write the goal down chances are you will never reach the goal because if it's not written down it is not really a goal in the first place. The moment you write a goal down your chances of reaching it suddenly shoot up to somewhere between 60 and 80 percent. Fewer than 3% of people set goals by writing them down. This certainly explains why there are so many people who go through life thinking they have never reached the horizons they could have, because without writing it down they didn't know what those horizons were. They had no roadmap to follow so they were, in effect, leaving it up to chance which means success falls by the wayside.
Rule #4. Written goals should begin with the word "to".
To loose 10 pounds in a healthy way is a well written goal. Another example could be To Spend More Time With My Children. Goals are percise targets, something that is difined and specific. A goal is something to aim at. When you begin a goal with the word "to" it makes it easier to define and write the goal. One of the reasons people have such a hard time making a goal is they don't know how to state it. When you start the goal with the word "to" it almost writes inself, it is almost automatic.
Rule #5. All goals must be dated.
Such an easy task yet so difficult to do. To date the goal commits us to follow through and that can be a little in intimating, but guess what? The date can always be changed. When I learned that, it was very liberating. I don't look at goal setting in quite the same way. It is also important to make the date specific. Not just the month you want to accomplish the goal but the day. Example: To loose ten pounds. March 31, 2009. If you don't date it...IT'S NOT A GOAL.
Rule #6. Goals should be written to be changed if necessary.
Don't worry if you have to change the goal or the date. Life happens. The people who wrote the rule years ago, the rule that states you can't change the goal, didn't take into consideration the human nature factor. Here's what happens to a lot of folks. They set a goal and the date rolls around and they don't meet that goal, but they really, really want to reach the goal, so once again they set the goal. The average person who sets a goal and doesn't reach it after three tries quits. THEY QUIT. It's human nature. They fail because they think the deadline is the key, when it's actually the objective that counts. There are goals that must be reached by a certain date but we're not talking about those. You can probably think of several things that you wouldn't have if you had to had them the first time you tried. So go easy on yourself. " Your goals are written statements of the choices you are making in your life". What a profound statement made by Dr. Shad Helmstetter. If you want to reach your goals you need to set them with tolerance. People who track and adjust their goals are the people who reach them.
I set a goal at my last blogging that I want to share with you. My goal is to post a weekly blog. I want to begin this use this time to talk about goal setting. Some, if not most goal-setting gurus will tell you that a goal is to be stated as if it has already happened. Take my goal for instance. If I followed the advice of those of that mindset my goal should be stated as follows: I post on my blog weekly. That is how I have been taught to set a goal. That is how I've always made goals...as if they already took or are taking place. Since becoming a life coach and following the program that Dr. Helmstetter put together I have changed my mind. That method would be more of an affirmation than a goal. There are ten rules to goal setting, according to Dr. Helmstetter, that I would like to share with you here.
Rule # 1. Goal setting is a skill.
Who would have thought? But this is GOOD news. Why? Because a skill is something we learn. Anyone can learn to set a goal. It's a skill to be learned, used and then mastered. Riding a bike, skating, learning to swing, driving a car; these are all skills that we needed to be taught before we could spend the necessary time practicing to become adept. The only difference between someone who knows how to set a goal and meet it and someone who doesn't is that they have been taught the proper way to set a goal.
Rule #2. Small goals are more important than big goals.
Big goals, dream goals were taught to be the ones you needed to set in order to have the motivation to obtain them. Little goals are needed in order to achieve the big ones. It's the small goals you set that matter the most. In fact, Dr. Helmstetter states that a long term goal which he defines as one year, is quite different than a dream goal. Dreams goals are important to have but in order to reach those big goals you must first master the skill of setting small ones. The goals you can reach this month, this week, this day are the ones that will get you to the star in the distance.
Rule #3. All goals MUST be written down.
A goal that is not written down is nothing more than a wish, a hope or a dream. The chances of reaching a goal that isn't written down, according to surveys, is somewhere between 3 and 5 percent. So if you don't write the goal down chances are you will never reach the goal because if it's not written down it is not really a goal in the first place. The moment you write a goal down your chances of reaching it suddenly shoot up to somewhere between 60 and 80 percent. Fewer than 3% of people set goals by writing them down. This certainly explains why there are so many people who go through life thinking they have never reached the horizons they could have, because without writing it down they didn't know what those horizons were. They had no roadmap to follow so they were, in effect, leaving it up to chance which means success falls by the wayside.
Rule #4. Written goals should begin with the word "to".
To loose 10 pounds in a healthy way is a well written goal. Another example could be To Spend More Time With My Children. Goals are percise targets, something that is difined and specific. A goal is something to aim at. When you begin a goal with the word "to" it makes it easier to define and write the goal. One of the reasons people have such a hard time making a goal is they don't know how to state it. When you start the goal with the word "to" it almost writes inself, it is almost automatic.
Rule #5. All goals must be dated.
Such an easy task yet so difficult to do. To date the goal commits us to follow through and that can be a little in intimating, but guess what? The date can always be changed. When I learned that, it was very liberating. I don't look at goal setting in quite the same way. It is also important to make the date specific. Not just the month you want to accomplish the goal but the day. Example: To loose ten pounds. March 31, 2009. If you don't date it...IT'S NOT A GOAL.
Rule #6. Goals should be written to be changed if necessary.
Don't worry if you have to change the goal or the date. Life happens. The people who wrote the rule years ago, the rule that states you can't change the goal, didn't take into consideration the human nature factor. Here's what happens to a lot of folks. They set a goal and the date rolls around and they don't meet that goal, but they really, really want to reach the goal, so once again they set the goal. The average person who sets a goal and doesn't reach it after three tries quits. THEY QUIT. It's human nature. They fail because they think the deadline is the key, when it's actually the objective that counts. There are goals that must be reached by a certain date but we're not talking about those. You can probably think of several things that you wouldn't have if you had to had them the first time you tried. So go easy on yourself. " Your goals are written statements of the choices you are making in your life". What a profound statement made by Dr. Shad Helmstetter. If you want to reach your goals you need to set them with tolerance. People who track and adjust their goals are the people who reach them.
Well that certainly gives us something to chew on. Dr. Helmstetter is well versed in this paticular subject. I will post the remaining goal setting rules in the next few days.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Into Goal Setting
Since my last post I have been reviewing everything I have learned about goals and goal setting since becoming a Life Coach. The program that I use has specific steps to follow when setting and tracking goals. Tracking goals is one of the essential componets of the process of achieving your goals.
In the 1940's and 50's, when goal setting first became popular, there wasn't a lot of studies done to back up the goal setting process. In fact, most of what was written was just someone's opinion of what they thought to be good ideas when setting goals. Dr. Shad Helmstetter, along with many others, have since done studies and now know what makes a goal a goal, how to set and track a goal and the principles that make a good goal. As I lay out the format that I use, if it seems contradictory to what you have heard before about goal setting, please keep an open mind and see if what you read here doesn't make sense before tossing it out because it isn't the way you've been taught to set goals.
One of the most basic myths believed about setting goals is that a goal should be written in stone, set in concrete... NEVER TO BE CHANGED. Not true! A goal is a guide, it can and does change along the way due to unforseen circumstances. However, we should allow for those life-bumps, because they do indeed come, as we journey along our path to the goal set before us. At different times in our life there will be things that come up unexpectantly that will hinder our process and that's okay...that's life happening to us and around us. We've all heard the saying that "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." Planning and setting goals is a part of life, not life itself. To set and achieve one's goal is very fulfilling, a feat to be celebrated but not to the extent that it robs us of the joys and spontanious times that will present themselves to us.
Well, I feel better now, because I did purpose in my mind, at the last writing on this blog, to write in more detail about setting goals. I'm not sure why I feel better or even if it is a good thing that I feel better, but that's the nature of the mindset about setting goals....a mindset that I personally intend to change within myself, a mindset that I'm okay whether I'm setting a goal, tracking a goal or achieving a goal and I hope you join me in this journey.
So Much For Setting Goals
I just signed in after a busy holiday season, and read my last post. I FAILED! I set a goal to write about goal setting the last few weeks of 2008, AND I DIDN'T DO IT! What could this mean? Am I a failure? Should I just throw in the towel and forget all about this goal setting stuff...which I apparently know nothing about? Was this just an object lesson for all to see that a Life Coach who specializes in goal setting failed to meet the goal, but can pick up where she left off and go forward? I am not a failure because I failed to meet the goal...I won't throw in the towel because I do know how to set a goal and put into place the necessary tools in order to achieve the goal. And no, it wasn't an object lesson. It just happened. Life happened. The holidays happened and I neglected to follow through with the goal I set. Perhaps it was because I DIDN'T make it a priority. And if the truth be told, I didn't really set the goal. It was more of a thought, along with good intentions to write. A goal is like a living document, meant to live, breathe and move, which allows me, in fact, gives me permission to not only not meet the goal but to change it as change becomes necessay in order TO meet the goal.
I missed the last weeks in 2008 but so what? Now I have the motivation I need to write the goal down and dig out those tools to go along with the goal. Here's to 2009 and goals met.
I missed the last weeks in 2008 but so what? Now I have the motivation I need to write the goal down and dig out those tools to go along with the goal. Here's to 2009 and goals met.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
A New Year
This year is quickly coming to a close and the new year is looming on the horizon, growing bigger with each tick of the clock. Thinking of a new year often brings fear and trembling to many people. The New Year is often synonymous with new beginnings; a time to start again, with a clean slate. The fear and trembling comes from thinking of all the so called "new beginnings" as past failures instead of viewing them as stepping stones to success.
Setting goals is also synonymous with a new year. Setting goals is enough to give some folks a major anxiety attack. Perhaps, however, it is because they don't understand the best way to set goals, a way that alleviates the pressure. I am a life coach and I am here to help with goal setting. Over the next few weeks, the last few weeks of this year, I want to review the best way to set a goal, identify obstacles that may hinder reaching the goal and finding action steps to take to overcome those obstacles. A new year is approaching...let the goal setting begin!
Monday, November 3, 2008
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