Here’s what I want you to know about yourself.
No matter what tough thing you’re currently going through…
No matter how challenging…
How confusing…
No matter if you have a massive hot flash in the middle of an important meeting and you’re feeling completely humiliated…
You’ve got this.
That’s because you have the potential solution, approach or mindset shift already within you.
Sometimes – well, often — it can be hard to hear the voice of wisdom within you. Because there’s so much noise surrounding us.
Maybe that noise that’s interfering with our inner voice of wisdom comes from the way we were raised or something that happened to us when we were younger.
Or, our inner wisdom can be hard to hear compared to the volume of other people’s expectations and what they want us to do.
But don’t worry. Your inner voice is always there, and it won’t ever give up trying to talk to you.
All you need to do is make space for your voice, get quiet, and listen.
This is where the role of an effective professional coach comes into play.
How an Effective Life Coach Creates a Safe Space for Self-Discovery
A good coach creates a safe and sacred space for you to have conversations about what’s going on in your life — a place to honor and celebrate what’s going well… and a time to talk about where you’re feeling stuck or confused about what to do next.
Working with a coach is especially effective because a good coach isn’t like your mother or best friend or partner – who will no doubt have strong opinions about what you should do during a career transition or big life change like becoming an empty nester.
Good coaches offer a judgment-free space for you to talk about decisions you’re facing – or your dreams and goals – with someone who doesn’t have a vested interest in the outcome.
An effective coach will also keep the conversation focused on what matters most to you, as well as the positive change you seek to create in your life.
A good coach will practice active listening.
What does this mean? Professional coaches are literally trained to be good listeners, and to analyze what you’re saying to spot patterns or other information to help bring your inner desires and wisdom front and center.
As part of this process, we reflect back what we’re hearing you say, which can help you achieve a new perspective, a breakthrough, and/or greater awareness about your goals and dreams – and the challenges or obstacles that are standing in the way of your progress.
Effective coaches have also been trained to ask powerful life coaching questions — this is important because it directs the conversation in a way that leads to greater self-discovery, clarity, possibility, or deepened awareness for the client.
Lastly, a good coach is all about accountability – in the most compassionate and supportive of ways.
As a partner in your growth, the coach co-designs practical steps tailored to help you achieve your goals while deepening self-awareness.
With compassionate accountability, I follow up with clients on their progress, help celebrate their wins and accomplishments, use powerful questions to explore obstacles without judgment, and help them develop strategies as needed to support their continued success.
By creating a safe yet accountability-focused space, I help each client uncover limiting patterns and beliefs so they can claim new possibilities.
Want a little taste of what personal coaching with me is like?
Let’s start with a powerful question…
The Power of Reflection and Powerful Questions
First, I want you to think about an area of your life that you’d like to focus on for this mini-coaching session.
Need some ideas?
I’ve got you! Some of the most common areas that people find themselves wanting to work on are:
- Relationships… as well as the end of relationships, such as divorce
- Physical health and wellbeing
- Navigating midlife and other transitions
- Career: wanting to grow and advance… or pivot and do something else
- Financial abundance and prosperity
- Finding joy and a sense of play in life
- Sense of purpose or spiritual life
Take a moment to take a deep breath, get grounded, and reflect on this area of your life you want to improve or expand.
Now, let’s explore some potential questions to unpack. I’ll give you some choices here — choose one… or choose as many as you like!
Powerful Questions That Can Lead to Insights
Our potential questions for this mini-coaching session include:
If you knew everything would work out for the better, what’s one thing you would do differently in this area of your life? If you had to choose one small and realistic change or action step to take today, what would it be?
What's one small and realistic change you could make this week that would support this change you want to make in this area of your life?
What obstacle or obstacles stand in the way of making progress in this area of your life right now? Choose one of those obstacles. What small and realistic action can you take to mitigate or eliminate that obstacle in your life?
Try This Coaching Exercise for Yourself
If we were in a session together, I’d be asking these questions, listening intently to your response, asking follow up questions, and reflecting back what I was hearing.
However, since we’re not working in real time here, I’d like you to journal your answers to these questions.
I know, I know. Asking someone to bust out pen and paper in the era of smartphones and Notes apps might seem ridiculously old-fashioned, but hear me out. There’s still power in the pen (or pencil as the case may be)!
Research has shown that taking notes the traditional way — with pen and paper or even stylus and tablet — is still the best way to learn. It’s literally better for your brain. Need some proof? Check out this article in Scientific American and Psychology Today.
Bottom line, if you want to fast-track clarity and awareness around your goals (and obstacles), write it out.
Here’s the fun part… if you’re still reading this, and you advance to the next step of our virtual mini-coaching session, let me know what you found out about this goal or dream you have for your life.
What question did you choose?
And what came up for you during your journaling?
What small step or action item did you come up with to support growth in this are of your life? Let me know by connecting with me over on Instagram at @monica.metz. I’d love to hear from you!