Quite meaningless. I am sure I am more than this! There must be a talent that I have besides telling my children about the TV show plot and they have to asked me to "Shhh.... mummy! we want to hear what they say." Besides telling them I was right and they were wrong and got everyone upset.
There was obviously a void in my life, filling them with shopping and TV didn't help either; Being married to a traditional man none better. For men or women reading this, if you have not read Man from Mars and Women from Venus by John Gray, advisable to do so. If you have no time to read, let me share one very important tip here, just listen to your wife talk for 10 minutes without trying to provide solution, just listen attentively. Why? Because we need to express ourselves after a whole day of nagging the children to do this and to do that and being ignored; because this is how to release our energy, negatives and the positives. More positives will follow if you listen and empathise. Very simple but I know it is challenging to do after a hard day's work. 10 minutes only......you choose. Another very useful insight is when your relationship is not working, your life is not working, agree? Workplace and home is not mutually exclusive. You can't help bringing your emotional baggage from workplace to home and vice versa. So building your relationship is an invaluable life skill.
Think about this, understand that women gave up their great paying jobs when they begin to procreate,or when they are going through menopausal experiences or when they have no one to guide them with parenting skills for 21st century kids, feeling unappreciated, unfulfilled, not listened to, not valued nor respected. The least we could do is give them a safe space to have self expression. Only for those who feel this way, listening to them is invaluable to their sense of well being.
The idea of being a coach is to first put myself in the environment that serves me and continue to be supported and encouraged by like-minded people. It is easy to get back to our 'same old same old' pattern and get into a rut. It is not easy to give up watching HBO and to attend seminars that last till 12am or later than that, you know who I am talking about.....those who attend self development courses will know what I mean. They last for a few days, there must be reasons for this.
One day, my husband came back early and said he lost his job, I gave him a hug and said, "Welcome home". I often felt that he was lost in his world with a demanding job and probably lost himself in the concrete jungle too. That was my opinion. I think I am not far from the truth especially for those who love their pay and hate their job. These days when I share this comment with people, they can't help but agree with me. We had three teenagers to support and bills to pay. Life skills gave me that edge to stand up move forward with courage and action. There is always something to learn about yourself when you fall into the pit, you learn to get up. Of course, there were many days and nites where we played the blame game and spiral down until we were awaken through self development courses and coaching; we began to look from inside out. "The Universe always give you what you need". So profound for me when I attended the Differworld self development course and saw that flipchart on the wall. Yes, I dug into my savings and paid for as many self development courses as they came to me. Doors kept opening up and I chose to walk in, I see warts and I found more of me, gems that were unpolished! Scary? definitely very scary! Because you do things differently, you have to get out of your comfort zone. You either choose to walk with light even though you are uncertain where it might lead you and learn to trust or you continue falling into the bottomless pit! Dark, familiar, comfortable and cost nothing except your identity. When you are tired and have enough of playing the blame game, new possibilites becomes reality i.e. when you begin to break your old pattern and allow new gurus to teach you a thing or two. Let go of the 'old you' and experience the 'new you'.
I am cutting my story short unless you put a comment that you want to hear more of what happened after my husband lost his job.
Take actions to move forward. Setting goals, taking actions sounds simple, the process is not. We all have 'blind spots'. a Life Coach or a Personal Coach shows you your blind spots, encourage, support and empower you through this journey to work together with you and walk alongside to turn that into your new possibilities. Only those who have been coached in a coaching series of at least six sessions can truly say "I know what is Life Coaching." Coaching shortens your learning curve.
Give you bonus years.
This is what a Life Coach does, we get you out with dignity and support you through the scary and heart-wrenching journey to first have clarity of what you really want and create a vision of where you want to go.
If you are one of those who plateau in your growth, Life Coaching is about moving you forward to the next level. Achieving great things that you know is there, for some reason in a stuck state.
What is a Life coach about?
A Life Coach is someone who has gone through a course on Coaching. For a coach to first learn, he or she must be open to doing things differently. This is the beginning of building awareness of yourself as a Coach. The beginning of a journey of self discovery. The beginning of knowing yourself from inside out. The next best journey is taking the courage to uncondition yourself, recondition yourself and relearn what resonates with your heart. All these with the knowledge of gaining competencies of a Coach. The invaluable thing is, of course being coached by an experienced Coach! It sounds simple but not easy. It's definitely transformational and worth every minute and every cent. You get to know who you are and who you become. Dont you think this is worth it?
You can choose to be certified and that means you go through a list of criteria for you to be certified. More information can be found in www.resultscoaches.com.
You could also use the skills to apply in your workplace and at home using coaching conversations. Being supported in a community and sharing more tools helps you evolve. We need an environment that serves us to stay focus and connected with sharing insights. As you become familiar with the generic coaching skills, you can easily use it in all areas of your life. It has a ripple effect within the family, work-place and the community. For anything to change, it begin with you.
Life skills are crucial for parents and teachers to relearn a new way of developing confidence in their own lives and impacting their students as well as children's. Children unconsciously emulate us. Can you imagine the impact, when you get it, they get it. This I feel is self-leadership.
