Thread:This is more of a lesson on setting goals (1)

As a professional life coach I am pleased to see other folks out there working to guide young men and women towards their goals, you are to be commended.

However, the title of the article suggests that it contains information that will allow an individual to become their own life coach when it in fact is a lesson on why setting goals is important and the process of setting goals. While these are great lessons that many people can benefit from, it might make one think that life coaching is simply teaching others how to set goals, which of course it isn't. Setting goals is only one step in the entire process of coaching, and it certainly isn't the first one.

I fear that by implying the article will give the reader the ability to be their own life coach may, in the long run, do more harm than good. For example, how about the individual who knows they need help setting and achieving goals because they have tried to do it many times in the past and weren't successful. The person reads the title and thinks "Great! I don't need help from a coach or a therapist; these lessons will do everything a coach would do for me." The young man or woman goes through the lessons with great excitement and anticipation of what their future holds for them because they are coaching themselves through the process of setting goals. Even if they do finish the lessons, which isn't likely because these types of people tend to require individual attention, the chance of them making a permanent change in their behavior isn't very likely due to the fact that they haven't addressed the underlying behavior that had been getting in the way of their success. A month or so down the road the individual, after failing to make a sustainable change in their behavior, has abandoned their goals setting and is left with the belief that they must not be capable of setting goals. At this point their flame of motivation is barely flickering and it's likely that their self-esteem has been diminished as well. Add to that the feeling of having the rug pulled from under their feet because they were led to believe that the lessons were the same as seeing a life coach and now they have come to the conclusion that life coaching won't help, effective stripping away a possible resource that offers great potential for success.

If the reader’s desired outcome at the onset of this lesson is to learn how to document your goals, then it will suit your needs. However, if you like many people, who struggle with setting and achieving goals, hope to change the behavior that stands in the way of setting and achieving goals you would be better served by finding a professional life coach to assist you. Life coaching, just like any other process, can only be successful when done from start to finish. You can't win a race if you start at the midway point and quit before the finish line, so how can you coach yourself if you skip the preliminary steps and don't do the follow-up work to make the change sustainable for a life time.