Watching my granddaughter’s softball games (or any of my gkids playing sports) is awesome fun. Seeing the amazing amount of enthusiasm and effort they put into it – PLUS, how did she learn that whole pitch routine and get her body to stretch and perform like that?
It’s a basic answer – she needed a coach to teach her HOW to do things, get her revved up to do them, and guide her in how to think and perform throughout a season of play.
Of course, there had to be music at the games. I absolutely loved hearing John Fogerty’s baseball song – the one you can’t escape hearing everywhere at these games….and the chorus lines…
Oh, put me in, Coach – I’m ready to play — to-day;
Put me in, Coach – I’m ready to play — to-day;
I dare you to pull it up on your phone right now, click on it and NOT bounce along with him getting charged up, ready to PLAY! You just can’t resist.
OK, I know we are all a bit further down the road than this in our activities and the goals and plans that are priority for us as adults. But we still have a need that is the same as my granddaughter’s.
What if you could increase your chances of following through with something you planned to do by 95%, or if you reduced the likelihood that you’ll quit down to a measly 5%?
Yep – we need a coach. Not just learning the how-to and techniques and systems, but accountability is a huge reason coaching works.
As I have been working with a group through the Life Story course, we have been examining our goals and steps to be taken in that project – but our discussion brought us to affirm the coaching and accountability statement above.
And not just in the photobook world but also in the health and wellness area as well as in the restoring of relationships.
People usually struggle in the initial stages of change when they’re accountable only to themselves. As a result, people lack consistency and follow-through.
Margaret Moore, in her Coaching Psychology Manual, said it well: Coaches help their clients explore progress as part of the accountability aspect of coaching, which provides empowering insights and structure to support people during the behavior change journey, resulting in greater efficacy and consistency towards a desired outcome.
Coaches are built-in accountability buddies who….
- care about your pursuits as much as you do
- prepare you to take action
- help you measure progress
- hugely increase your likelihood of achieving your goals
- help activate and sustain your determination
- keep you actively managing, improving, and taking ownership of transformative change
In a study reported in Maternal & Child Nutrition titled “Transformative Lifestyle Change” (for postpartum weight loss), it was demonstrated that in order to overcome the initial barriers to weight loss, the women needed “energizing interaction” with a care provider, which “depended on individualized, concrete, specific and useful information, and an emotional bond through joint commitment, trust and accountability.”
That description pretty much sums up my picture of what coaching is all about. In the study, the women who went through a series of action-oriented phases in their model were successful in weight loss, in contrast with the women who did not progress through those phases.
So why am I so focused on coaching? It’s the core piece of the online business I am launching — Journey Well: Heart, Body & Soul.
These 3 areas are common to us all, can erupt as problems for us all, and I have been privileged to have experience in some key parts relevant to each area. When I was led to this path, the Lord gave me inspiration in Deuteronomy 6:5 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
You see, as we focus on loving Him, it involves our heart, soul and bodily strength. That means we need those parts to be in good condition and focused on whatever He is focused upon. My passion is to help guide folks when those areas break down or need help.
Heart – having witnessed so many get excited about their photos and related personal stories, it has broken my heart when they do not follow through with preserving and sharing them in a meaningful way – especially telling our own Life Story through photos and stories. Wouldn’t you love to have your great-grandmother’s Life Story written and illustrated by her?
Soul – in my experience, people don’t care much about learning how to deal with conflict until they are in the middle of it – as in a broken relationship or a destructive dispute. Offering helpful guidance and application of mediation training and skills has blessed me as I witnessed so many relationships being restored and disputes resolved.
Body (or strength) – while some folks are interested in preventive health, consequences of not doing so seem distant. And often we mask health issues with “band-aid” solutions. It usually takes recognizing a breakdown or major drop in health to bring people to action. And when you don’t have good health, it affects everything!
As the launch of Journey Well: Heart, Body & Soul goes forward, you will see an email inviting you to a more in-depth look at each of these 3 distinct areas of transformation and what coaching opportunities are available. Because we are complex and multifaceted beings, our lives are a uniquely designed tapestry of experience. But when you bring healing to one area of your life, it automatically begins to spill over and improve all the rest!
Just to illustrate – one of the people doing their Life Story photobook in my course was stirred by a need for childhood information to contact a sister with whom there had been no contact for over 6 years. Yes, they were estranged. It was a wonderful interaction that brought them back into touch and relationship – the timing was just right, along with some discussion of the value of family at this stage in their lives. Of course, having the good health at this time to be able to move through her days and undertake the work on her photobook was important as well.
You can go from just surviving to thriving – stay tuned for the invitation email – and I will be ready for you to start singing “Put me in, Coach….I’m ready to PLAY – TODAY” along with me!
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