What is Lifestyle coaching?
When certain happenings force you to look at your life, you may well come to the realization that it isn't the life you really want. Many of my clients share with me that they are working hard - often at a job they dislike - to support a lifestyle they don't even enjoy. Needless to say, the emotional toll is tremendous!
In our society we lean towards the mistaken concept: "If in doubt, go faster!" It doesn't work. We cannot eliminate stress from our lives, but we can become resilient to it. We can develop effective skills to manage it, even reversing the effects it has on our everyday lives.
Lifestyle coaching is about challenging your values. When compiling and analyzing all the data that goes into your life, certain patterns will become apparent. Some are unhealthy, and no longer effective. If so, the time has come to change directions. As your Lifestyle Coach, I will help you to establish new behavioral patterns. The first step is to define your values. By re-aligning your choices, you will be able to live life on purpose. This value-driven approach encourages you to set goals related first to "Self. Your second goal is to "We", involving your inner circle, usually made up of family and friends. The third is to "All", embracing social responsibility to your community and the world.
It is this unwavering sense of purpose that provides a key to the lifestyle you want, and all that comes with it. At our meetings, as your Lifestyle Coach I will hold you accountable for your choices. An establishment of reference points will enable us to build our foundation and, as we all know, a strong foundation is the key to any successful building project. Week by week, using new construction blocks, you will work on your building in all areas of your life. In effect, you will design your dream life in much the same way as you would design your dream home. When coaching a client, I ensure that the journey is fun, while the use of visual mind maps, mandalas and journaling brings an element of creativity to the process.
I encourage my clients to look at the effects of anger and compassion in their life. The adverse effects of unresolved anger, for example, often reflect badly on current significant relationships. Disassociation from a painful event is an important exercise I practice with my clients. Upon examining the event, as a third person, with compassion, the issue becomes no more than an experience - an experience to move past, and grow from.
Lifestyle coaching is all about Personal Growth. On your Life's Resume, it might show up somewhere between Education and Personal Interests. I truly believe we are on this Earth to grow and to experience - to become the best we can be - to live our life with purpose. As humans we can only make our Earth a better place if we conduct our lives with passion and determination. This is about setting goals, yet although it should be a fundamental life skill, studies show that only 3% of the population does so. To make positive changes in our lives we must start with "I", thus raising our level of awareness in the hopes that others will follow.
Albert Einstein had it right when he said: "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that they were created."
-- Daryl Sarkisian, 2007
