Monday, February 28, 2005

Days of Our Lives…

I am going to share with you the story of one of my clients and her coaching. You’ll actually be on the journey as I coach her and we’ll see where she goes and how she progresses. Be sure to come back often or you’ll miss the story!

The Set Up:

At the end of a keynote speech I did for a medical association, Gayle came up to me and told me how much the talk had impacted her and that she might like to hire me to coach her. I gave her my business card and told her my assistant would contact her to set up a ten-minute phone chat so we could speak and confirm that coaching was a fit for her.

She agreed. My assistant set this call up for 2 days after the conference. I called Gayle and we spoke about what was going well in her life and the areas that she wanted to improve. These included her medical practice which she was struggling to make money in due to managed care and her desire to practice alternative medicine and her being fed up with paperwork and not enough time to fully be with her patients. She also talked about her love of the patients. The other area she wanted to work on was to find a way to spend more time with her husband. She was newly married, deeply in love, yet felt she didn’t spend enough time with her husband and the time they did spend together she felt distracted by her thoughts of her business.

We agreed coaching was a great fit for her and decided to work together for a minimum of eight months, as I have an 8 month coaching program to create work and life focus. We decided to have our first session a week later, so I could have her fill out some forms and paperwork to help me know her better, prior to our first coaching session.

My assistant contacted her to get her eight months of coaching sessions scheduled and she sent her some forms to fill out and return. These forms help me to see client goals, understand more about the background of the client and learn about what is working in the client’s life and work and what is not quite right yet, from the client’s vantage point.

I reviewed the forms today and her first session is tomorrow. What I have found prior to our first telephone coaching session is that Gayle comes from a close-knit family and has 2 younger brothers and an older sister. Her Mom passed away 5 years ago and her Dad has dementia, yet is still able to live on his own, with a full-time caregiver. She feels great love for all her family and is very close to her Dad and visits him often and takes him to her home on many weekends.

Gayle grew up in a wealthy family and always wanted to be a doctor. She loved medical school and worked hard studying throughout high school and her college years, and made no time for friends or boyfriends. She later worked in the local hospital and the hours were late, the pay was poor and she made the decision to go into private practice.

She located the “ideal” building to rent office space and was fortunate that the practice filled quickly and easily. Before managed care hit her business hard, these past 5 years or so, she loved her work, her patients and was very excited about her life and work. Once her business became mostly managed care and Medicare, she found the paperwork a drag, the reimbursement system making it a struggle to pay her office staff, and the time spent caring for patients way down.

Over the past 5 years she has studied in 3 countries learning many alternative types of medicine and healing and feels she wasn’t to blend this in her practice and also wants to figure out how to make money so she can stay in the business doing the work she loves.

While on vacation to Africa on a photo-safari, she met a man who lived only 30 miles from her home in Maryland. They enjoyed the safari and each other for 13 days and when they returned home, he moved in with her within a week. He sold his home and married her within 3 months time. He was 12 years older than her and had retired as he sold his medical practice to a large health care system a year before the safari and now did consulting to pharmaceutical companies. According to Gayle, they had a “story-book” marriage and she was in love with him and wanted to spend more of her time with him and he felt the exact same way. He did give her advise about her business, which she welcomed. They shared many hobbies, traveled together and loved to be together.

It is time, later today for her first coaching session… come back tomorrow and I’ll share that with you!



Terri Levine, founder and CEO,

http://www.coachinstitute.com
http://www.terrilevine.com

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Becoming A Life Coach

When people go through a high quality program to be a Life Coach, they acquire the skills needed to work with the public. Then, they coach their clients and are able to develop long-term relationships with clients creating a highly supportive, safe space for the total transformation where clients get coaching in a step-by-step process to transform their entire lives, re-examining career choices, cleaning up relationship issues, and creating time for the most important things in life.

Graduates of acclaimed Life Coaching Programs routinely have great success helping people with life issues that could not be relieved prior to coaching.

When self talk changes, everything changes. People often use low self-esteem, bad relationships, and negative childhood experiences as ways to cover up feelings. Once the self-talk improves, all manner of emotions and power begin to re-awaken. Clients move forward on the mental, emotional and spiritual levels and report clearer thinking, more balanced emotions, deeper spiritual connection and great freedom and happiness with life.

As a Life Coaching student, you should get training in all aspects of being a Life Coach. Training should cover: discussion, in depth, of how to do an initial consultation, what to do in each session over an eight month curriculum/process you will use with clients, how to listen deeply, and what recommendations to give in different situations. You will also learn how to help people make changes on the inside so they can stop sabotaging themselves. We use processes that are field tested in the field of brain research to help people change at this deepest level- that creates permanent changes. In addition, your individual mentor will also be your own Life Coach, so you will go through the eight-month program yourself. Using an eight-month program model with your clients facilitates slow and lasting changes, provides you with a strong, stable income, and offers both client and coach satisfaction.

Life coaching graduates offer this to family and friends, while others use it to begin a private practice. Still others adapt it to complement their existing work in health care, personal training, chiropractics, massage, therapy, and many others.

Life Coaching Graduates work as:

Life Coaching Internet experts
*Authors
*Trainers
*Speakers
*Teachers
Working with:

Mental health personnel
*Naturopaths
*Chiropractors, etc

Consultants
*Weight loss
*Health/wellness
*Physical fitness
*Nutrition

Career
*Life purpose/mission
*Entrepreneurial
*Spiritual
*Parenting
*Relationships
*Sales
*People wanting to retire
*Adjusting to being single
*Divorced, widowed
*Attracting a life partner
*Increasing prosperity
*Empty nesters( kids leaving for college)
*Re-energizing marriages
*Caring for elderly loved ones
*Teens


Terri Levine, founder and CEO, http://www.coachinstitute.com

http://www.comprehensivecoachingu.com

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Your Life

Is Your Life About Work or About Living?

Most people don’t take time to relax. As a society we suffer with feeling tired or not being able to sleep, missing meals and working through lunchtime, and missing out on important social and family events.

The annual Vacation Deprivation survey in 2004, reported that workers lose three days of vacation time by not using it. This number is up from two days in 2003. The survey also said that when workers are on vacation, they think about work and most check their e-mail or office voice mail while away.

Not taking the time to relax can cause medical diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure, and many stress-related illnesses. Studies also show those who don’t take vacations, may have also shorter your life span.

Do you really want your life to be about work? Do you want to miss out on your life because you working or thinking about work?

Plan a vacation where you can unwind, have quiet and eat healthy and give up caffeine and other habits. Listen to music, watch the waves, and quiet your body and your mind! Life is short and maybe over in another second… enjoy it NOW!

Terri Levine, author of “Work Yourself Happy” and “Coaching For An Extraordinary Life”

http://www.terrilevine.com

Monday, February 21, 2005

Monday Morning

Are Your Monday Morning Dreads Likely to Kill You?

Many people dread Monday’s because it means going back to work they don’t enjoy and feeling the stress of their jobs.

If you keep going along in a job you don’t enjoy and thinking this is what life is about, then wake up. Here are some facts that might get your attention: there are 20% more heart attacks on Mondays than any other day and blood pressure readings on Mondays are higher than any other time as well.

Work-related stress can actually kill you!

If your job is causing you stress, it is interfering with your joy each day, the way you interact with friends and family and certainly causing you more illness as it stress weakens the immune system.

Here are some ways to decrease work related stress that might save your life, too!

1. Take breaks during the workday. Get up and take a walk or get some water or just sit and breathe.

2. At the end of the day, imagine your work and office all tied up in a box… then imagine it is sealed up. Now, imagine a beautiful box with your friends, family, hobbies, and other non-work related activities. Open that box and focus on that box only.

3. On your way home, listen to some music or motivation tapes that continue to remove you from thinking about work.

4. When you get home, take a walk or engage in a physical activity that allows you to quiet your mind and shift your focus to winding down.

5. Laugh more. Find time during the day to allow mishaps to become less serious. Look for the humor in life and smile and laugh more.

6. Finally, get a new career if you can’t reduce your stress. If your job stress is going to kill you or is taking away from you experiencing joy each day and we have only a certain amount of days on planet Earth, why choose to be stressed and unhappy?

Stress related complaints account for 75% to 90% of all physician visits and are were almost all illnesses come from. You DO have a choice. Why not “Work Yourself Happy”?

Terri Levine, best selling author of Work Yourself Happy, Coaching for An Extraordinary Life, Stop Managing, Start Coaching and Create Your Ideal Body
http://www.terrilevine.com

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Work Yourself Happy

Want To Work Yourself Happy?

It is no accident you are reading this – you want something more from life and work and want to give back and serve others. Coaching might be what you are looking for!

At The Coaching Institute, we teach you techniques to improve your own life AND to teach those techniques to others to launch a successful career as a personal life coach, working either full-time or part-time for extra income.

Our Professional Training Program teaches life-changing coaching theories for a variety of coaching niches. Students enroll for personal interest, for their own future wellbeing and career happiness, and to assist family and friends to have happier lives and more fulfilling careers. Others are interested in working professionally in this booming and rewarding field doing work they love while serving the world.

If you’re looking to create a total breakthrough in the quality of your life… The Coaching Institute is it!

Our students are highly motivated, passionate adults with a strong desire to help others as well as evolve in their own personal growth. Our students are trained in all aspects of being a Life Coach.

The bonus of this profession is you choose where and when to work. Some work from a home office, coaching by phone. Others choose to share office space with other professionals such as: chiropractors, personal trainers, therapists, or even gyms, day spas, yoga studios. Corporations enthusiastically invite graduates to be guest lecturers, paying them up to $1,000 to speak.

You are trained to earn $100-$150 or more per hour. Full time, you can earn up to $100,000 + Annually.

Call now for your free coaching e-book: toll free: 877-401-6165 and visit us at http://www.CoachInstitute.com.

Terri Levine, CEO, The Coaching Institute, http://www.coachinstitute.com
Bestselling author of Work Yourself Happy, Stop Managing, Start Coaching, Coaching For An Extraordinary Life and more!

Friday, February 18, 2005

Coaching

Coaching to Live a YOUR Full Potential

Life coaching is dedicated to helping people live life at their fullest potential. This means setting goals and achieving them with ease. We work with individuals as well as organizations to achieve work and life goals.

It is an exciting and fulfilling profession that pays well and lets you get paid what you are worth. Instead of working in a J-O-B and hoping the company will keep you, not go out of business, not merge or hoping to eventually do a job you like better or eventually have less of a commute or to eventually be able to make decisions, you can take your current life and work talents and skills and be a life coach.

We are looking for life coaches to enter this booming profession, which is the number one home based business to start and the fastest growing home based business in the US.

If you are a positive person who is self-motivated and is ready to work in the career of their dreams, contact us TODAY. We need more life coaches NOW. 877-401-6165 or info@coachinstitute.com.

Terri Levine, CEO, The Coaching Institute, http://www.coachinstitute.com
Bestselling author of Work Yourself Happy, Stop Managing, Start Coaching, Coaching For An Extraordinary Life and more!

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

New Solutions

Coaching Creates New Solutions to Make Life Less Stressful

One of the things that coaching does is to help people stop dwelling on problems and move towards solutions. Rather than constantly thinking about the problem and analyzing it, coaching teaches how to be a solution-based thinker.

My life coaching clients learn to look at each challenging life and work event and to use this process:

1. Be clear on what they do and do not want
2. Find the gap or the area that is not quite right yet
3. View the problem or situation as a thing or experience but not WHO they are
4. Have a list of strategies that have worked with them in the past to cope and also a new list we co-create
5. On a daily basis look for positive aspects and growth in this situation
6. Focus on one goal or issue or concern at a time
7. Each day note their accomplishments and progress

So, what happens is people stop looking at what is wrong or broken and start trying on solutions to find what works best. Together we build a huge resource list so they are not alone on their journey.

This system works so well, clients report they never thought life could be so easy! Isn’t that why we have life coaching.

Terri Levine, bestselling author of Work Yourself Happy and Stop Managing, Start Coaching, among other titles
http://www.terrilevine.com
http://www.coachinstitute.com

Saturday, February 12, 2005

SkaSYNC

Many of you are aware of the health challenges I have had during the last several years. This included 9 months of a constant sinus infection with high fever that never responded to conventional nor alternative forms of treatment. I also lost my voice from the infections and for over 28 days lost the ability to speak completely. I went through 2 sinus surgeries in 30 days and the second one gave me the ability to speak again and did get rid of the infection. However, I never was healthy. I was fatigued, had nose pain and ear pain and many occasions where it was painful to speak and my voice often was a whisper.

During this time, each day I felt dragged down and no matter what I tried or did, I was in pain.

I tried everything... you name the healer, the medical treatment, the "woo-woo" treatment and I did them all.

I finally decided that this was something I had to live with and gave up trying new treatments.

In October of 2004 I was introduced to a technique that my human mind could not comprehend and frankly I thought was pretty silly. In November of 2004 one of my clients tried this technique for his fear of heights and his constant back pain and stress. Within 3 weeks, he had NO fear of heights, was pain free and relaxed. He looked calm and he told me he was the most relaxed and joyfully he had been in his entire life. That got my attention.

I investigated the technique myself in December of 2004 and was VERY skeptical and even felt ridiculous trying this out, but decided I'd humor myself. I told almost no one about this, as I knew people would laugh.

I had my first visit on December 20 and three short weeks later I had absolutely no more sinus pain, no pressure, a full, strong, clear voice, and super high energy. I also felt more ease and more relaxed.

I had gone to my sinus surgeon for a check up in October and she told me there was so much scar tissue that it might be YEARS till I felt healthy. When I returned for my January visit she said, "I don't know what you are doing but this is A MIRACLE". She reported there was no more scar tissue and my sinuses were "normal" and it looked like I had not had any surgery.

Well, I am a believer. It is now February 11, 2005 and I write this to you feeling fully healthy, very happy and delighted to share my story.

Here is a bit about the technique and I am begging them to find a way to bring this to my readers and clients, so stay tuned!

First the theory:

We are responsible for our own health. All of us experience life circumstances that give us negative stories and programming. We are formed by these negative thoughts. The negative thoughts might be so deep we aren't even aware of them and they block us from having true health.

Stress, anger, depression, etc. not only effect our emotions, they effect our physical health.

Outside solutions only get into our eyes or ears but don't get deep enough to restore vitality and zest.


The Details:

Dr. J. Lechner developed a process called SkaSYNC which is a method for emotional self-management. It coordinates the hemispheres of the brain and allows for amazing positive changes.

This means that we can use a simple technique, no complicated technology, and no doctors or therapists and attain superior results. SkaSYNC uses a technique called Resonance Psychology. This is based on four principles:

1. We all have an inner knowledge which not only know our problems, it knows our solutions and this can allow for self-healing.
2. When inner knowledge is taxed, stress and physical problems arise as the solutions are blocked off.
3. If problems show up, the Inner Consciousness can be activated creatively.
4. If Inner Consciousness is given solutions that resonate it can decide which ones are right.

So, conflict, illness, stress, etc. can be handled without third parties. When the inner knowing gets in touch with solutions it can solve the problems.

Instead of using visual or acoustic messages, the SkaSYNC PHON headsets provide positive affirmations, harmonizing music and sounds of nature which are inaudible.

As your inner consciousness hears the messages it connects to solutions. This "extra-sensory" transmission of consciousness is carried out by scalar wave technology. Each individual and their uniqueness is appreciated by this process. The process uses individual solutions and through the SkaSYNC headsets or PHON, they become harmonized and energized far beyond what words, sounds or music can do.

The methodology is based on increasing your feelings of well-being, which increases your stress resistance and leads to better personal management. Both hemispheres of the brain are coordinated and process the stimulations.

Users report, clear thinking, experiencing ease and feeling good.

As I listened through the PHON I heard nothing but after a few minutes I felt different. My energy flow was different and I did feel more harmonized between my mind, body and soul. I felt an inner peace or inner harmony.


SkaSYNC has been used to balance learning difficulties, concentration problems and hyperactivity in children, too. Those who have experienced a traumatic event also notice a difference in a few weeks.

There is much information to share!

Here are some resources to understand this deeper: www.skasys.com,
www.skaynch.de.

To begin I went through a SkaSYNC test which immediately showed the emotional problem and the best solutions for me. It evaluated the positive energies of the solution without me knowing a thing about it. I just laid calmly and peacefully on a table as the SkaSYNC test sent silent messages to me.

Well, here is the part that does make sense:)

When we get a cut our finger heals... the cells know how to recover. The cells know how to heal. All biological processes are controlled by our Inner Consciousness. This is what goes to work on healing our cut finger.

I think of SkaSYNC as opening up a dialogue with the Inner Consciousness to direct our healing on the inside.

For me, I feel healing has happened, health has been restored and I am healthier and happier and more productive in my personal and business life than EVER before.

I wrote a long testimonial to the center where I had this done and read about a dozen other such amazing stories...

Enough for now... more later...

So many have asked... if you might want to come to the Philadelphia, PA area (IF I can arrange this) and be treated for any negative program, phobia, fear, if you want to stop smoking, attract a mate, deal with a death, post-traumatic stress, trauma, physical or mental illness or you want to loose weight, be better at work or with your kids... you name it, SkaSYNC is something I want to bring to you, so email me and let me know to alert you IF I can arrange this.

Here to help YOU,

Terri Levine, CEO, The Coaching Institute
Terri@coachinginstruction.com
The Number One Place For Coach Training
Join our fr~ee Teleseminar:
"The Six Mistakes You Need to Avoid to Have
a Successful and Fulfilling Life Coaching Business"
http://www.coachinstitute.com/coachinginstituteorientation.htm
877-401-6165

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Busy Life

Why you don’t do what you say you will

We are all busy in our day to day lives… working, taking kids to events, church, community, taking care of our homes, care giving our parents and many other things, take our time each day.

As a Life Coach, I don’t believe people are lazy or don’t care about bettering themselves… I think they are too caught up in DOING vs. BEING.

When I coach one area of a person’s life… it could be health, money, business, parenting, relationship, or anything else… it has a ripple effect and all other areas of their life improves.

I don’t feel we can solely coach ourselves because we’ll be so busy, we’ll not make consistent, and priority time for this. If you don’t have a Life Coach, you are missing out on improving all areas of your life. Imagine, one day (and possible today) your life on Earth suddenly concludes… do you want to leave the planet without having done something valuable other than cooking, working, driving, cleaning, etc?

How do YOU intend to experience the rest of your life?

http://www.coachinstitute.com/coachinginstituteorientation.htm


Terri Levine, CEO, The Coaching Institute
http://www.coachinstitute.com

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

What is Life Coaching?

Life coaching helps you to:

* Figure out what to do with your life
* Find out what is stopping you from doing what you really want
* And has you move forward to take action and DO something about what you want in your life

A life coach helps you find the answers that are right for you. Think of us as personal trainers for your mind and spirit, your life and your career. With a life coach you find strategies to get more of what you want and less of what you don’t want.

Come to a life coaching orientation and find out more!

http://www.coachinstitute.com/coachinginstituteorientation.htm


Terri Levine, CEO, The Coaching Institute
http://www.coachinstitute.com

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Achieve YOUR Goals!

So many life-coaching clients want a slower lifestyle with more health, balance and free time. They have tried to reach goals before but got stopped. They have tried methods that didn’t meet their needs and didn’t fit for them and felt pressure to meet goals and let down when they failed.

When we start to work together they begin to see that making changes like these takes a commitment of a year or so and isn’t the quick fix they have tried before. They start to shift internally very deeply and to become more self-nurturing and self-loving. They find by allowing mistakes and errors and enjoying the humanness of these, actually feels good. The first step in achieving goals is loving yourself more and allowing mistakes.




Written by Terri Levine, MCC, PCC, MS, CCC-SLP, the Founder of Comprehensive Coaching – The Professional's Coach Training Program, a popular Master Certified personal and business Coach, sought after Public Speaker, and Author of bestsellers "Stop Managing, Start Coaching", "Work Yourself Happy", "Coaching for an Extraordinary Life" and "Create Your Ideal Body". She can be contacted via the web site http://www.terrilevine.com or by telephone: 215-699-4949.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Go After Your Dreams Now!

Do you want a better life? More friends, more health, more balance, more love, more wealth, more connection, more joy or anything else? Do you have dreams, hopes and a vision? Have you always felt there was more in life and you could serve the world in better ways and had a unique gift to share with others?

How about where you want to live and who you want to spend your time with… what is your dream there? What would fulfill your dreams? If your vision is felt clearly, you can manifest what you desire fast.

Think about having a career of your dreams… what are you doing? What are you wearing, who are you talking to and what does it feeeeeeeeeeel like? Many, many people (including me!) have manifested our dream jobs once we could feeeeeeeeeeeel them.


Terri Levine, author of the Bestseller, Work Yourself Happy and Life Coach

http://www.terrilevine.com

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Coaching vrs Advising

What is the Difference Between Coaching and Advising and Does it Matter?

"Don't take advice from anyone who isn't successful
where you want to be successful." ~ Joe Vitale

Coaching involves working with people who usually, but not always, already have some degree of success but are "stuck" and want to move forward and don't know how. There is, in coach-speak, a "gap" between where they are right now and where they want to be, and this may involve their professional career or their personal life, or both. This may also be on a larger corporate scale or on a small individual level.

Coaching is a co-creative process. Coaches assist clients to accomplish their life goals and dreams and discover and fulfill their purpose in life in a process that involves the client 100%. So, regardless of whether the issue is career related or personal, a Coach will help you find out what it is you really want out of life and "coach" you to achieve it. Coaching is always about YOU. Coaches are non-judgmental and do not provide therapy or tell you what you should do next. You hire a Coach to assist you to design the life you want - not the life thrust upon you by circumstances or parental influence. If you want more of the same, that is somebody else's ideas, you hire a consultant.

Coaches also assist career professionals who have forgotten how to "have a life" and no longer have work/life balance. With the increase in company downsizing and added pressures applied to many career executives, more and more of these stressed out individuals hire coaches to help them ease into a new career or start their own business, or just cope with what they are currently doing with more ease and joy. And they do all this without advising.

Advising is something that consultants do, and in asking a Consultant for advice, you are asking for answers and solutions and action steps you should take to reach a certain result. A coach helps you find the answers to your issues yourself, and in so doing, you learn more about what is really important to you in life, and you become more responsible and more aware on more levels. If you are tired of being told what to do and of living your life according to other people's rules, desires, wishes, and expectations and want to be successful and happy and fulfilled on YOUR terms, in a way that is perfect for you, then you hire a Coach.

The Difference At A Glance

Coaching
Coaches use a process of powerful questions that taps into the client's own "inner wisdom". They don't provide the answers for you or tell you what to do.


Advising
You ask for and receive answers and solutions, given from the consultant's perspective - their "wisdom". You are expected to follow the advice and often left to motivate yourself to move forwards

Coaching
Coaches stay with you while you implement your action plan and remind you about all the other important aspects of your plan that you'd otherwise forget and ignore, such as life/work balance, staying on track, reminding you of other choices you can make, helping you through obstacles, and generally, keeping you focused and accountable.

Advising
Consultants deliver their report/action plan, then their job is done. It is up to you to implement it, follow through and remain self-motivated.

Coaching
The Coach will help you do it YOUR way.

Advising
If you hire a Consultant for their answers, the idea is that you do it THEIR way; after all, that's what you are paying them for.

Coaching
A coach will assist you to achieve your goals, but looks at it from YOUR perspective and assists you in a way that is your way. Coaches care what is important to you, what resonates for you, what is comfortable for you, what brings you joy, what sends you to sleep, and so on...

Advising
A consultant isn't interested whether something is boring to you, or difficult, or doesn't suit your personality, or doesn't matter to you, or what brings you immense joy and satisfaction… that is not part of what they need or want to know. When you ask a consultant for advice, you are getting an answer based on their experience and their personal outlook and their view of your situation from their perspective.

Coaching
A coach will change direction with you when you want/need to change direction. Unless your 'change' is really a disastrous move, your Coach will not 'judge' or make you do something different.

Advising
There is not the flexibility here that you have with a Coach. You do it the way the Consultant says. A simple change of direction is a whole new ball game.


Coaching
Coaches take a broader view of all issues affecting your career/life and incorporate strategies in a holistic sense.

Advising
Consultants are only concerned with the situation you contracted them to deal with. Anything outside that is not in the equation.

In some respects, Coaching is a form of consulting, in that Coaches assist you to solve problems, reach goals, design action plans, and create the desired results. However, unlike Consultants, Coaches also help you move away from the things that don't work in your life, toward things that are more in line with who you really are and what you really want. Life transitions are easier to navigate when worked through with a coach compared to trying to do it on your own. Typically, these types of assistance are not provided with consulting.

If you have no idea what you want to do, all you know is you are not happy right "now", a Coach will help you identify that which truly fulfills you, and establish your "goals", and encourage you to set even better goals that will stretch your boundaries, yet still be in line with who you are and what you want. Then they will help you reach those goals in a way that resonates with you. You will focus with more clarity and obtain results more easily and quickly - all without being told what to do. Your Coach will expect more from you than you would do on "your own", and will provide you with the support to see your dreams turned into reality.

But don't expect a Coach to advise you, although there are Coaches who are also Consultants and will blend the two processes in your favor, with the preference being that you still march to your own drum. When you receive a consultant's advice, you march to the beat of their drum. The question then becomes one of "whose drum would you rather march to?"

Any expert "advice" you receive might be professionally accurate and workable, but might not be something you can work with easily and comfortably - it may not resonate with who you are. It may be very sound advice, and if followed, may achieve the desired outcome, but there are other ways to reach the same "destination" that are more in line with who you are and what you are comfortable doing.

Coaches deliver the goods over a period of months - they don't just hand you a report and go away. When you hire a Coach, even though you won't be told what to do, you will take more successful action more quickly, you will stop putting up with whatever has been holding you back or putting you down, and you will get more of what you want in life. Even though a Coach won't advise you, they can show you new possibilities or options you had not thought of, however, they won't make up your mind for you - you make up your own mind. Obviously, when receiving advice from a consultant, you don't need to make up your mind - the consultant makes up his mind for you, which is fine for some people.

A Coach will offer feedback and examine areas of weakness in your plans and goals and assist to look for opportunities for improvement. Some may even offer suggestions to help your own creative process, but the choices and ultimate decision making is always yours. They use a process of powerful questioning to help you uncover your own answers and solutions, and in the end, what you will have accomplished is in line with your desires and goals - not what somebody else thinks is "the way it should be done."

So, in a nutshell, advising entails telling you what to do and you doing it. Coaching supports and facilitates YOU choosing what is right for you in a way that assists you to achieve your goals. With advice, you do it somebody else's way; with coaching, you do it your way.

As Frank Tyger said, "The trouble with advice is that you cannot tell if it is good or bad until you've taken it."

Coaches won't put you in that precarious position. They will listen fully to you, give feedback and ask you to dig deeper. You will uncover possibilities and your Coach may give you some more to 'consider'. Your Coach will encourage you to explore the options but will never give you the answers - because your coach is not you - and making the choices, finding the solutions, etc. comes from you.

Finally, does it matter? It does if you honor yourself and respect your right to make your own choices and do those things that resonate with who you are. There is more than one way to dance a fling and when it comes to the crunch, our own steps are always the most enjoyable and easiest to 'dance'. A coach will never tell you what steps to do and you always remain the choreographer of your own dance. Rumba, anyone?



Written by Terri Levine, MCC, PCC, MS, CCC-SLP, the Founder of Comprehensive Coaching – The Professional's Coach Training Program, a popular Master Certified personal and business Coach, sought after Public Speaker, and Author of bestsellers "Stop Managing, Start Coaching", "Work Yourself Happy", "Coaching for an Extraordinary Life" and "Create Your Ideal Body". She can be contacted via the web site http://www.terrilevine.com or by telephone: 215-699-4949.