” We know what we are but know not what we may be. “
William Shakespeare
Everyone has ideas that want to develop, challenges that want to overcome. Everyone wants to better understand the ¨why¨ of their actions, emotions and thoughts, to explore their full human potential.
But how can this be done when naturally people have developed resistance to change? When the fear of the unknown has grown strong? When you live in a world where uncertainty is becoming the new normal? When you have been impacted by your past experiences? When you may have grown limiting beliefs based on the values that your family has shared and the rules that the society has marked? When you didn´t have the chance to shape yourself freely as the person you are and you want to be?
This is where the call to action intervenes. This is where professional coaching can make the difference. And by personal experience, it works. People need to be listened to, they need to voice out their thoughts and to reflect on them in order to realize what they already know but they don´t know that they know. When the ¨why¨ makes sense and the ¨what¨ that needs to be done is clear, the human potential is unleashed. The true, real version of what each one wants to be, can be achieved. This is the beauty of professional coaching. It helps you achieve it.
What is coaching?
ICF defines coaching as partnering with the clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaching is a client-driven process. The coach’s responsibility is to:
- Discover, clarify and align with what the client wants to achieve
- Encourage client self-discovery
- Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies
- Hold the client responsible and accountable
The coaching process helps clients improve their outlook on work and life, while improving their leadership skills and unlocking their potential.
” Coaching is unlocking a person´s potential to maximize their growth.“
John Whitmore
Coaching challenges you, it inspires, helps you enrich your strengths, makes you be aware of your values and even rethink them. Leads you to the source of the challenge and guides you through all the process of awareness, exploration, discovery, actioning and accountability. Coaching is life changing for the best.
Coaching and positive psychology to advance the human potential
oaching has significantly developed based on positive psychology. Coaching and psychology seem to be the perfect fit.
Positive psychology is a scientific approach to studying human thoughts, feelings, and behavior, with a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses, building the good in life instead of repairing the bad, and taking the lives of average people up to “great” instead of focusing solely on moving those who are struggling up to “normal”. (Peterson, 2008).
Positive psychology focuses on the positive events and influences in life, such as: positive experiences (happiness, joy, inspiration), positive states and traits (gratitude, resilience, compassion), positive institutions (applying positive principles within entire organizations and institutions). Its greatest potential is that is teaching us the power of shifting one´s perspective.
Coaching is supporting the people in the process of moving forward, ignoring the problems by focusing on what can be achieved, letting go the past by looking for possibilities, for the future growth. It never looks on the past failures but rather on the future opportunities.
Coaching is succeeding this great achievement by following 5 powerful steps:
1. Creating space
People normally tend to stay in the problem at a very superficial level, like a mouse in the wheel, paddling and paddling without getting anywhere. Actually, sometimes is not even the real problem. You take an excuse and use it as problem, and you do it either as a protective shield or because you are unable to get to the real problem. Professional coaching is supporting you to explore deeper on that problem. To get the awareness to understand if that´s in fact the problem or to provoke you to name the real issue. It guides you so you can understand where we are by moving you from the problem to the cause.
2. Determining focus
Most of the times you don´t know what we really want to achieve. You don´t know where we want to go. You speak and you speak, and you get trapped in your own thoughts and feelings without a clear direction.
Professional coaching is helping you to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After providing clarity it guides you to express a real focus. Work on priorities. One challenge at the time.
3. Uncovering the gap
Once our focus is determined, you need to explore it, to go deeper and deeper. To get a better understanding of what it means to you, why is important to you, to know how you can benefit from it, to see its impact in your life. Professional coaching is the key here. Is the tool that provides this understanding, is the torch that enlightens the way.
4. Discovering the learning
As the gap is uncovered, is becoming clearer and clearer for you what was holding you back to achieve our goal before. We may discover some limiting beliefs that kept you apart from that better future that you desire. You may understand how your previous actions served you, or not and what needs to be adjusted from here on.
Professional coaching help you discover the better you. The fascinating you that seemed not existing before but was so much desired.
5. Determine accountable actions
We are all afraid of change. Even when the focus is clear and the solution is clear, there may still be something that pulls you back. The ¨call to action¨ is challenging. The commitment is scary.
Professional coaching is meant to make this ¨call to action¨ more tangible and structured. It makes you see the way of keeping yourself accountable for it.
So, coaching can advance the future potential as it focused on the future possibilities and not on the past´s mistakes. As it engages you in the process of your self-exploration and understanding. As it makes you explore different perspectives. As it makes you see the way out of the trap and guides you towards seeing your possibilities and potential. And once that happens the mission is accomplished.