We can be our own Coach!

 The other day, a long-standing Client shared that he felt tempted to book a session with me and then felt reassured by a surge of confidence which he was able to absorb and initiated action in the situation. For me, this signified notable growth in his ability to dig-into the resources gained in the preceding months of coached conversations. In his words, “…feeling confident about applying new ways of doing and thinking…”

What stayed with me were the words ‘I imagined how our conversation will go and accordingly…’ This to me is the deepest endorsement of the efficacy of a Coaching intervention and the intrinsic accountability-led piece in the Coaching process. It gets communicated in many different ways and in personalised expressions from Clients—all pointing towards this transformative belief that the resource is within us to work with, in the face of the challenges life throws at us.

I've heard similar expressions, in different nuances—“I like this new approach to find solutions hopeful and refreshing…”, essentially meaning I feel hopeful that I can apply myself and work my way out of challenges. Or when a Client said, “Nothing seems to unsettle me these days…!”—I hear these as leaps of faith in capability, enhanced clarity around life situations, knowledge of inner strength & of the values that are at the core of it and the optimism derived from this resource of inner knowing.

This also means that my role in this Client’s life is growing redundant or requires less frequent intervention. Perhaps not so lucrative for business but very fundamental to Why we Coach!

What is also true is what preceded this Transformation – the many months of committed, engaged, time-consuming, invested, wholehearted enquiry-led sessions. Also many sessions that were tough, slow to trust, non-revealing, challenging and not so rewarding on some days.

So this is the Truth: only once we have been coached and have traversed the transformative process from hopelessness to optimism, dependency to self reliance, from the habit of externalizing to feeling empowered & owning our truth, will we know that many-a-time in our life we can be our own Coach.

And this Truth that we all can intuitively adopt a coaching approach to build a life that is adaptable, meaningful and empowered is the inner credential we carry as self-Coaches.