Share your gratitude

At a suggestsion of a fellow ICA member I have decided to include a place for gratitude here on my blogsite. Here I would like to share some of my gratitude and would also like to hear about any place or reason for gratitude that you may have in your life. Kind of a bit of ‘chicken soup for the soul’, chocolate would probably suit me better as an analogy.

Today my gratitude extends to the opportunities that lay out there for me. I want this gratitude to help enthuse me to seize them, to face the challenges they may give me and the opportunities to learn.

It is easy to be thankful for the many obvious things in our life – health, families, friends, a place to live – so much of this we take for granted in our day to day lives. I consider what specifically can I be grateful for in each of these areas?? If I can think of a more unique aspect, perhaps the way my son or daughters gave me a big hug today or the way my husband laughed at my jokes, rubbed my feet, my friend gave me fresh grapes from their vineyard, the people at my work were happy today,  I can still touch my toes. This gives me a fresher sense of gratitude and more of a taste for my life.  It also opens my eyes to be more observant and ‘live’.

I hope that you can ‘trust’ me to share your gratitude for whatever reason you would like!

So…what is coaching?

“Coaching” as a word is being used a lot these days to describe training or teaching. In the true essence of the word this is not coaching. The true essence of what a coach does is to enable an individual to define their goals and choose their own path to achieve them.  All top athletes have a coach. What is it that sports coaches do?  They get the people they work with to achieve their personal best and maximize their potential. A personal coach can work with you to be the best that you can be in your life. Life or personal coaching in fact can assist you to create a better balance in your life, in any area, be it health, career, relationships, finance and the pursuit of a happy, fulfilling life.  A coach works to support you to give clear direction to your life through the gentle art of questioning and listening. A coach works with you to find out what really makes you the person you are and build goals that are true to you.  The best thing a coach can do is listen.  How great is it to be just listened to and to talk about yourself! Don’t you often just wish your partner, friends, family or work colleagues would just listen! We walk around getting angry because people just don’t want to listen, don’t understand or don’t have the time. Coaching can support you – to be listened to – not just by the coach but by those that are important to you. How often do you feel something else is running your life? The needs of work, family, friends and other demands can leave little opportunity to listen to your own needs. Coaching is empowering because it makes you aware that you are in the drivers seat of your life and you can decide where you want to go. Maybe you don’t even know where you want to go …. yet! Maybe you never even thought about it. How often do you stop and think of what you really want to do with your life, what would you really love to do? Where are you in your life? What are you doing? What did you dream about when you were younger…..? Where did those dreams go? What would it be like to wake up and feel happy every day? Do you like that person that looks back at you in the mirror? How balanced is your life? Are some parts really great and other parts you would  rather not talk about?  To bring better balance to your life there is quite likely something that you need to change.  The biggest enemy to change is habit! How hard is it to change a habit?  Ask anyone who has tried to quit smoking and they will most likely tell you – very hard. Coaching supports you through change so you are clear about your direction and its’ importance to you.  Change can involve the way you think about things, the way you ask for things or the way you create  boundaries for yourself or others. Change could simply be looking at life a little differently. You may just want to stop doing those things that you don’t want to do or be able to ask for help when you need it. The great thing about being a personal coach is seeing people ‘come alive’; helping them see possibilities that they didn’t believe were real for them. Seeing them when they go ‘wow’ when they make some discovery about themselves. Seeing them on the journey to living the life of their dreams.  What would you like to change about your life? Become healthier? Change career? Have more fun in your life? Make more money? Run your own business …..your way? Or, just feel better about yourself?  With a personal coach you don’t have to go it alone. A coach can understand you and support you to be the most amazing, powerful person you can be. Is that someone you want to be?