First Life Coach Consultation
I tried a new thing today: a life coaching session. I considered it once before, years ago. The person offering their services on Craigslist was a man who ended up cancelling our session stating that we reschedule. He never contacted me again. After a few days passed, I remember thinking, I wonder if he needed a life coach. Perhaps he did. Who knows. Moving on…
Pre-session: After arranging the day and time for the 45-minute session via email, I opted for a phone call instead of a video meeting. (Zooming and meeting on Teams is a work norm for so many of us now; my eyes and brain need visual breaks.) In the confirmation email there was an article with an explanation requesting I read it to be clear on the differences between therapy and life coaching. I also received a separate email with a set of 4 questions -“session prep questions”, for which I was asked to send the answers to before our talk.
The call: We started on time, exchanging greetings. Then we briefly reviewed the article’s take-aways in regard to what life coaching is and is not. Based on the session prep questions we discussed my goals for the session, which had slightly changed from the answers provided 2 weeks before. Like the professional she is, Dr. Lina Richardson smoothly shifted to work on these related, but new session goals. She asked me thought provoking questions and helped me orally process the 3 action steps I need to take to reach an ultimate business goal. The productive session helped me prepare through April 2021! Dr. L. R. guided our time in a manner that left me feeling heard. She is a good listener who summarized the points I was making clearly and concisely. I never felt rushed; the chance taken was a valuable experience. Little risk with major gains!
Highlights: The most valuable parts of the life coaching process or exercises for me were a) verbally processing my 3 action steps revealed a challenge with one, which allowed me to think and replace it with a goal-oriented task aligned with the desired outcome and b) being asked about accountability for each step.
At the conclusion of the session we had developed a plan for tomorrow, next week, November, December and January, with accountability check points using the S.M.A.R.T. goals technique. Success!
If you are looking to create an action plan, establish purpose, brainstorm goals, figure out mental blocks that are stopping you from taking action to shape your future and the life you want, participating in a life coaching session may be of interest and use to you.
Mood: A Beautiful Day — India.Arie
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Learn more: https://www.drlinarichardson.com/
