ABOUT ANN KELLY - MEDIA MENTIONS
Cork Now – January 04
I’m sure we’ve all heard the expression ‘sure h wouldn’t tell his left hand what his right hand was doing’. In fact, I heard of an elderly lady the other day who was changing her car. She bought the new car in the same colour as the old one in case the neighbours would notice and think she had come into money!
There was a time in Ireland when, if you were successful or doing well, you played it down. You definitely never told anyone how you did it. It was a BIG SECRET!
We all know someone whom we admire. Have you ever wondered how they do what they do? Are you curious but don’t dare to ask?
What’s interesting about life coaching is that now people have the opportunity to access the wisdom from coaches with diverse backgrounds, who walk their own talk and are trained to help you do likewise.
Life coaching is becoming better known ain Ireland. It’s big in the US and growing fast in the UK and many European countries, because it works.
It makes sense, when you think of it. People run out to book a session with a golf and tennis coach to perfect their game, so why not work on perfecting you life?
The higher up in the corporate chain you are, the more likely you are to have a coach. For example Bill Clinton and Tony Blair have had their own coaches. It’s the smart thing to do if you want to handle yourself well or to improve your life in any way.
Human Resource Departments constantly use life coaches to help bring out the best in their management and staff. Why? Because the return on investment is 60% higher from training followed by coaching than it is from training alone.
Wouldn’t it be nice to invest in yourself and get a 60% return?
It’s comforting to know that if you are dissatisfied in some way with your life there’s a professional body of coaches who can help you. People who use coaches have found that they handle themselves much better and they progress more quickly. Usually, they get more than they wanted when they came to the coach in the first place.
Often coaches meet face to-face. However, for those who prefer more flexibility and do not wish to travel, there are a number of coaches who work individually, or in groups over the telephone.
As a result, life coaching is universal and, of course, email can come into play as an additional form of communication and feed back.
Fees vary from coach to coach, but they are usually based on a monthly fee, depending on the level of involvement.
Most life coaching agreements last from 3-12 months and there are a number of specialized products or programmes, which may be introduced.
While a good old chin wag with your friends over a cup of tea or G&T may be great for the soul, sometimes ‘friendly advice’ is not necessarily the best advice you can get as it may be loaded with too much subjectivity, ulterior motives or just short term solution to a situation.
There are a number of coaches who hone in on more personal issues such as moving on in a relationship, identifying and changing career path, managing a new life with young children or following retirement, for example.
Ann Kelly of Your World Your Way points out that people who appear to ‘have it all’ can be harbouring deep feeling s of discontent that need to be addressed if anything is to change.
“Ask yourself some powerful questions. Are you hiding your ambitions behind a secure job, a surviving business, a safe relationship, a never never land where you fantasise and become the ‘someday’ person? Are you where you thought you would be at this stage of your life? Are you satisfied and fulfilled?”
“ There are no limits to what you can achieve when you want to. You won’t serve anyone by playing small or being poor. Your life is a result of the choices you make and if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.”
Life coaching works without getting bogged down in the past. It’s for forward-looking people who want to restructure their lives. It doesn’t provide all the answers but certainly asks the questions, which probe deeper responses than you could imagine.
Coaching is about confidence building and working together to unearth what a client really wants and then developing a strategy on how to get it.
Powerful stuff indeed. Certainly food for thought for the new year.
|
