I have had a life coach for around ten months now. Although I have been itching to write about it for some time now, I wanted to wait until I had a clear picture of the benefits. I needed to see changes and improvements in my business and how I approach things, and I feel like now is the right time to provide some insights.
What is life coaching?
Before I go into my experiences I think it’s important to explain what life coaching is, especially as lot of people get it wrong. You see, it’s not exactly coaching.
If you imagine a life coach like a sports coach, giving their team advice and instructions on what to do, you have got the wrong idea. Life coaches aren’t supposed to give you advice per se. They help you to help yourself.
People tend to do things without a real structure behind it.
A coach can help you to structure your road to success to guide through the best route. It’s like when you visit a new city and you hire people to show you around.
A life coach helps you to achieve what you want faster and helps you to get where you want to be. All you need is the right tools. For example, if you are a racing driver but you have a rubbish car, you won’t reach your full potential. But, if your coach gives you the perfect car to drive, and you are a good driver, you will win the race.
My experience of life coaching
I have been working with Antonio Esponito of The Thinking Mind. We initially got in contact via LinkedIn because he needed some help with copywriting. It was during our chat about me doing some work for him that I realised he might be able to help me.
When you work for yourself, everything can get a bit overwhelming. You can easily get stuck in a rut and feel overwhelmed by the obstacles that are thrown in your path. Sometimes you just need someone to help you get a little perspective, and to push you in the right direction.
After talking to Antonio, I realised he was the perfect person to help me in the next stage of my journey. His enthusiasm and passion for what he does immediately made an impact on me. So we started some coaching sessions, and here’s what happened.
Every session I usually talk about the things that are stopping me from where I want to be, and we figure out ways to overcome these roadblocks. Often, you think you have done all you can in order to achieve something, and when it doesn’t happen you assume it’s not possible or you are incapable.
When someone forces you to think harder, it’s surprising how many ideas and things you come up with to achieve your goals, that you may not have come up with on your own.
Antonio is not an expert in my job but he doesn’t need to be. I come up with my own solutions through conversations we have. Sometimes we just need to be pushed to think outside of our normal way of thinking.
Antonio has helped me set achievable goals that can be measured. These goals might have been floating around in my head beforehand, but for some reason I never wrote them down or came up with any sort of plan to achieve them. Life coaching helps give you a structure and teaches you how to set goals, and work towards achieving them in a productive way.
Sometimes I go into a session thinking I don’t have much to work on that week, and then after the session I’m like thank god I did that, look at all the things I have to do now.
It’s Antonio’s personality that really wins you over. He’s exactly how I would imagine a life coach should be. He’s inspiring, ridiculously driven, and most importantly, he doesn’t take any crap.
He doesn’t want to work with people who aren’t ready to make changes in their life, because they will get nothing out of coaching.
You need to be ready to face your demons, challenge yourself and take action. If you don’t take action you will never reach your goals.
Antonio is very pro-active and knows how to encourage people like me (who can occasionally procrastinate and put certain things off) to break down barriers.
If you don’t take action you will never reach your goals.
One of the themes we have talked about in our coaching sessions is fear. Fear is what stops a lot of people from being the best person they can be. As humans we’re programmed to fear danger, it’s just that the danger these days has changed.
We’re not having to escape from sabre-toothed tigers, we’re having to deal with work stress and tasks that we see as risky or scary.
After working with Antonio, I have realised that some of the things I put off for so long, or didn’t think I could do, weren’t so scary or hard after all.
It’s only been nine months, and I’m honestly amazed at what we have achieved. Thanks Antonio for all your help. Who knows what I might be able to achieve in 2017.
What’s changed?
Here’s just a few ways that life coaching has changed my business (and me!) so far:
- Increase in clients
- Increase in revenue
- Taken business to the next level
- New approach to setting goals
- Able to do tasks I never thought I could do or put off for ages
- I’m now planning for the future, and thinking about what I really want to get out of life, not just focusing on the here and now
- How to picture what achieving my hopes and dreams might be life
- Helped me to realise what things are really important to me
- Helped me to grow my brand and sell myself
- Generally more driven and determined to reach my goals
- Discovered how to take action and overcome barriers
Think life coaching might be beneficial for you? Contact Antonio now.
