eNEWSLETTER
February 2007
Our Mission Statement:
"Providing a range of innovative professional services, empowering our clients to positively address issues affecting their lives."
Welcome to the February edition of Clayfield Counselling Services e-newsletter. Well, we’re almost through February already! How are you going with those New Year resolutions? We’ve noticed quite a few people calling lately and asking us about life coaching. Some people are having trouble implementing changes into their life; others are working hard to achieve their goals but lack support and encouragement from friends and family.
Just as a personal fitness trainer can be a valuable tool to assist in achieving fitness goals, a life coach can make the difference between a person achieving their life goals or not. So what exactly does a life coach do and why would you want one?
The importance of goals
Goals give you something to strive for and they act as signposts in life to help you gauge your achievements. People who set goals are less likely to become stuck in a certain comfort zone. Goals help you continue to mature and learn. Goals are also great for your self esteem. Every time you achieve a goal, no matter how small, it is an opportunity to congratulate yourself on a job well done. You’ll believe in yourself more with each success and when a challenge comes along, you’ll be more likely to say, “I can do that!”
What stops us from achieving the goals we set?
According to Grant Brecht in his book Sorting Out Goals, some of the barriers to achieving our goals are:
- Failure to set goals
- Never learnt how to
- Tried and Failed
- Low Self-esteem
- Life will have no spontaneity
- We simply don’t want to
- Other people’s goals
- Comfort zone
- Poor Planning
- Unrealistic goals
- Expecting others to achieve your goals for you
- Other people try to obstruct us
Importance of being flexible
No matter how good we are at making plans and setting goals, life often doesn’t do what we expect. Due to life’s unpredictability, flexibility is a very important factor in goal setting if you desire to continue to experience equilibrium and sound mental health. Remember that goals are always in your control and if they don’t suit your needs any longer, don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board for a bit of an overhaul. Be willing to adapt and go with the flow.
What a life coach can do for you
A life coach is a person whose job it is to assist you to identify and achieve your goals. This means that they will ask you questions and take note of your answers. They will have a completely honest relationship with you and will require you to be completely honest with them (and yourself). You'll have access to tools which will help you to pinpoint what is important to you and articulate your goals. The life coach won't tell you what to do but simply support you in your choices.
The difference between a counsellor and a life coach is that a counsellor will look at your past experiences as well as your current ones, whereas a life coach is focussed mainly on the present and future. Many life coaches are not trained counsellors and if you choose to see a life coach who doesn’t have a degree in counselling you need to be careful that your coach doesn’t bite off more than they are qualified to chew! One of the great things about seeing a life coach through CCS is that you can be assured the life coach is also a qualified counsellor. This means that you can choose to focus on life coaching but if along the way you discover that something from your past is affecting your present, your CCS life coach can help you deal with it without having to refer you to someone more qualified.
If you think you’d like to hire a life coach or you’d like more information about life coaching, give us a call on (07) 3862 6622.
We look forward to helping you be all that you want to be in 2007.
Some Interesting Links
Office hours are from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. After hours and Saturday appointments are available on request.
Until next time then...
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
- Epictetus