UTNE Reader discussion #4 from Jan.Feb. 1999 magazine, "Team Me" by Lynette Lamb This article was a discussion of what a personal coach can do to help you in your personal life. The author describes a personal coach as someone who "is a combination of mentor, friend, therapist, and cheerleader. A professional coaching journal describes a coach like this, "Coaching is an ongoing relationship which focuses on the clients' taking action toward the realization of their visions, goals, or desires. The author has benefitted from hiring a personal coach to help motivate herself to set and accomplish goals in life. Her coach broke her life down into eight components: career, money, friends and family, health, romance, personal growth, physical environment, and fun and recreation. Each of these categories was then analyzed in-depth to determine which aspects of her life she was satisfied with. For those which she was unsatisfied with, the coach helped to determine a plan in which to fulfill each category. To pay someone to do this seems to me quite unnecessary, but this type of mentorship is becoming more and more popular. There are many coach training facilities around the country now, and with it businesses based solely on professional coaching are sprouting up as well. I feel that the reason people search out a coach is that they either don't have the means to be able to take time out in life to look and see where they are at or they are just oblivious to setting goals. I'm sure many people go through life day by day without ever setting time aside to make goals in various realms of their life. People who hire coaches do so for a variety of reasons, but I would guess they probably feel like they need a direction to follow and are unable to come up with that direction on their own. If you are a person who is driven and focused, I then believe that there is no need to spend money on a regular basis to have someone give you "coaching" advice. This seems to me like it will become an alternative to going to a licensed therapist. People perhaps shy away from going to a therapist because they feel that something is wrong with them by going there. A coach may be able to do the same type of therapy without that feeling. These are all just opinions. I guess you would have to go by the old adage, "Don't knock it until you try it."

-- Anonymous, June 16, 1999

Answers

Hi Brian: You have some neat, clearly expressed points in this comment. The one question that I have for you centers around the "coaching journal" you refered to. Could you identify it for me? It appears that you are really aware of the extra complications that many of us put on our lives! What can we do or be encouraged to do to avoid that? Best Wishes! John

-- Anonymous, July 06, 1999