I’m Max, a professional life coach. I have been fortunate enough to work with some of the top performing business people, athletes and artists in the country. This blog post serves as a short meditation on my work.
I have often been asked how life coaching differs from therapy. In my estimation, generally speaking, a coach tends to focus on helping their client create future based outcomes, whereas a therapist tends to be focused on freeing their client from the past.
Part of my philosophy when it comes to coaching is that forgiving the past is actually critical to living a fulfilling existence as a lack of forgiveness can actually skew our perspective of reality, which will then affect our future. However, I also believe that freedom comes not only from forgiveness, but also from creating a meaningful and compelling vision for our futures.
The benefits of coaching, from my perspective, are obvious. Now, of course I’m biassed. But I had it explained to me by a mentor of mine when I first began in performance coaching like this: the difference between elite athletes on any given day can be down to a one percent difference. The difference between leaders competing for the same position on any given day can be down to A one percent difference. The difference between two actors competing for the same role in a film can be down to a one percent difference. And they all have coaches!
And I looked around at my life at the time as a teenager about to enter adulthood, fancying myself as ambitious, without a coach. And the difference between me and my heroes wasn’t one percent, it was more like ninety nine point five percent. And for me, coaching became a must have, not a nice to have.
From what I have observed, coaching will generally fall under the following two categories.
Transactional Coaching Vs Transformational Life Coaching
Transactional Coaching
Transactional life coaching focuses on traditional goal setting. The coaching
relationship serves as a safe space of accountability for clients to communicate and
take steps toward their goals – a narrowing of focus. While there can some value in this approach, results
gained can often be short lived, as once the coaching-client relationship ends, the
accountability a client previously felt is no longer in place, creating an
unsustainable dependency on the coaching relationship.
Transformational Coaching
Transformational coaching is the more effective method, by focusing on my client’s ways of being, and aligning their behavioural, cognitive and emotional patterns to this outcome . As an example, if a client states that the reason they have come to a life coaching session is they are a chronic procrastinator – rather than setting goals that the I then hold the client to, I will attempt to help the client
understand what is currently showing up in theIr ways of being that is causing
procrastination. It may be that the client is disconnected with their vision for life, or
that their vision is not inspiring them enough, leading to ineffective action. Another example,
it may be that the client is unconsciously afraid of overachieving as it may cause
judgement from immediate family members. And in this way, by unrooting the core cause of the procrastination ensures the symptoms don’t return after the coaching relationship has ended.
My Coaching Philosophy – What You Can Expect In Our First Session
Often, the first session in my coaching relationship with clients is grounded in what I call
“the source of motivation”.
In other words, what outcome are you seeking, and most importantly, why? I will often open with this because it allows me to understand my client’s motivations. But more critically, with a powerful enough source of motivation, the behavioural alignment to achieve an outcome can become effortless.
For example, if a client comes to me and says that they want to start their own business,
and for that business to create 7 figures a year of revenue, my first session with them
will be getting my client in touch with the source of their motivation to do this. “Why do
you want to start your own business?” and the reason I ask this is because if one’s
source of motivation is strong enough, it will be able to hold strong against the resistance, challenges and inevitable setbacks of building their business.
For some, the answer may be to buy a particular type of house, car or watch. For others it may be to provide a better life for their family. For others, it may be the thrill of the challenge. And by spending our first session finding a deeply meaningful source of motivation, this will lay the foundation for an excellent coaching relationship.
Something to consider for those who have ever struggled with motivation reading this: in my experience as a coach, the highest quality sources of motivation are usually grounded in a vision that goes beyond meeting our own individual needs.
My invitation to those who have now read this article:
Step one: think of a goal you want to achieve.
Step two: ask yourself, what is the source of my motivation?
If your answers to this question is meaningful enough to you, it’s only a matter of time.
Conclusion
I have spent over a decade coaching in various arenas. And I have been fortunate enough to witness significant transformations in front of my eyes. From forgiveness between fathers and their sons all the way to brilliant business breakthroughs from some of the top performing business people in Australia.
And all the results my clients have achieved have always come from a powerful source of motivation.
If any of this resonated with you, I’d encourage you to reach out and have a complimentary 30 minute conversation with me here.
Max. Life Coach
