I’ve just been adding a few appointments to the diary for next week and I was thinking that as it’s Thursday that we’re nearing the end of the week. It was then that I noticed that actually Thursday is the middle of the week (Monday to Sunday) and there is still almost half a week left of this one. It strikes me that perhaps time is the only thing we treat in this way… for example there are not many people who get half way through a drink and think that they are nearing the end of it!

It’s so easy for us to slip into the trap of living from our free time to our next free time (for most, weekend to weekend) that we forget about the moment. Work occupies so much of our lives and for the vast majority of people, there is no excitement or will to be working. I feel privileged to be doing something that I love, to the point that it no longer feels like work. So for most, there are 5 days of 7 spent dealing (and accumulating stress) with something that enables us to have 2 days that we can call our own. To me it seems as though this is a really sorry state of affairs and one that can be really helped by a shift in attitude.

I’m always banging on about how we need dreams and goals in our lives to make sense and meaning out of the work that we do and I guess that’s one way to help us to remain present and focused during the times we spend at work.  If you find yourself in this space of living from precious weekend to precious weekend, with the inconvenience of work in between then the chances are that you do not have personal goals in place to be working towards. It becomes too easy to be tired when you get home and even bring work home to the point where you have neither the time nor energy to do anything in your free time. I suppose this is what is called the daily grind!

In the absence of finding what you love to do for a living, then find what you love to do in your spare time and use your living to fund and facilitate that. I often have clients who tell me that they are in a place that they wouldn’t describe as being depressed, but they are feeling unhappy about their lives. In the vast majority of these cases, simply plugging them back into their personal goals in life, transforms how they are feeling and they are able to move forward in all aspects of their lives.

If you are living your life from weekend to weekend or day-off to day-off, then make sure you have some personal goals in place that will help you to keep upbeat and positive in the stressful times you may be experiencing.

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Technorati Tags: being, dreams, excitement, focus, free time, goal, Goals, love, meaning, personal goals, present, shift, sorry state of affairs, spare time, thinking, weekend, work

There are many questions that get asked about coaching and it’s about time I looked at these in this blog. Probably the most frequently asked is what is coaching, or what is life coaching? Most people have some idea about counselling and so it is useful to look at the differences between the two when considering the answer to this question.

So what is the difference between life coaching and counselling? Primarily the difference is in the focus - counselling looks at and analyses the past and past behaviours, whereas coaching mainly focuses on the present and future goals and dreams.

In coaching the process is led by the client or coachee - the coach is required to keep their own thoughts, ideas and opinions out of the equation. I like to see it as a process of awareness and responsibility - by this I mean that the coachee will reach a new awareness of their behaviour or some aspect of their character and then will take responsibility for this new awareness and if desired, will make changes to their thoughts and behaviours to bring about change in their lives.

It is very much like having a conversation with a very close friend, but without the advice, judgement or attachment to any implications or outcomes. For me, coaching was a wonderful, uplifting, challenging and at times a hard process. I am more confident, I think much more clearly, I have more energy and motivation and much higher self-esteem. So for all the challenge and difficulty, coaching continues to prove itself as a method to help me improve and strive for personal excellence. Yes I still receive coaching as well as giving it! It keeps me on my toes and I recognise that coaching is a skill I will continuously develop and improve.

If you’ve had coaching, then it’d be great to hear your comments - please feel free to share your experiences by leaving a comment in this post.

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Technorati Tags: Coaching, Counselling, future, past, present