Don’t be alarmed if you haven’t, I kind of made the term up for the sake of this post, so let me explain what I mean. Think of your life and work as a workout. Your daily schedule is your routine, your office is your gym, weights are your tasks, your boss is your instructor, and your results are your income. As most of us know, in order to grow our muscles, we have to lift weights. Heavy weights. It's a long process and there is no shortcut. We are all born with muscles, but in order to develop certain muscles, we must train them. It’s tough work that we cannot neglect if we want to improve our physique. Each day you have to go to the gym, work on different areas of the body, increase weights and repetitions, focus on proper form, factor in a healthy diet, and after a lot of dedication, you will see improvements and results. It’s the act of repetitive lifting, pushing ourselves, and putting strain on our muscles that we see the results of them growing.
The same goes for our life and work. We show up, do our tasks, follow instructions, create new ideas for growth, and do our best to execute those ideas to see ourselves grow and succeed in our roles. All while maintaining our relationships with family, friends, and co-workers. These are the everyday activities that you do, growing yourself, relationships and your business like you would a muscle which makes the business bigger and stronger.
Coaching on the other hand is not weightlifting. You can think of coaching as yoga for your personal growth and professional development. It's meant to strengthen your mental and emotional fitness. A slower-paced environment to go inward, but no less challenging. In fact, yoga can be much more challenging than weightlifting, especially if you have never done it before. Have you ever tried a restorative yoga class? The name says restorative, but it's work! Yoga puts you into unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable positions. You are told to sit with them, breathe through them, embrace the pain, work through it, and then release it. You leave the yoga class feeling refreshed, energized, motivated, empowered, and knowing exactly what areas need to be worked on more.
You don’t realize how much your body needs yoga until you start doing it. Once you start practicing you notice the benefits and how much better you feel, and how much it improves your everyday life. Little kinks start to work themselves out. You have more patience with yourself and others. You have more gratitude for things you usually take for granted and it feels good to understand this part of yourself.
Yoga does for the body what coaching does for your mindset, life, and business.
Yoga is designed to fine-tune your body, and respectively coaching is designed to fine-tune your personal and professional development. It’s your mental workout. Brain yoga if you will. Coaching guides you through a practice of evaluating yourself in different scenarios in order to recognize growth and clarity. It uncovers what you believe your limits are in order to make you realize that there actually are no limits with the right guidance and persistence. It stretches you and your business to the fullest capacity in order to locate pain points that need more attention. It pinpoints the areas of your life that need to be challenged or aligned. This is to ensure that the system as a whole is running and performing optimally.
Coaching benefits your life the same way yoga benefits your body. Coaching provides a confidential space for you to uncover your blind spots and guides you through a process to break through them. It’s a time to focus solely on yourself. Like in yoga, there is minimal equipment needed, but you have guidance and room to explore. Similarly, you might question yourself asking, why am I here? Why am I putting myself through this? I don't need this. I know how to run my business (lift weights) and with that alone, I have done well. I’ve been consistent and I can see the results of my hard work. Oftentimes, though, we plateau. Sometimes we lose direction or motivation. Maybe the direction you should be going in isn’t clear. This is exactly what coaching provides the framework for. It’s built to support you and provide clarity, direction, and empower confidence in your decision-making abilities. It’s challenging to say the least, but that is why you show up for it. To think differently. To gain a new perspective. To push yourself past your comfort zone and limits.
Just like our bodies, our brains need to be challenged in order to reach peak performance. We need to give as much attention to ourselves inward as we do outward. We need to exercise our minds. Our brains are constantly creating new experiences and making connections. The old saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is a complete myth! We are very capable of learning and growing, but it takes WORK (exercise) to get there.
That is exactly what coaching offers to individuals and groups. It is part of the process that is necessary to get you from where you are to where you want to be. Coaching provides the structure and safe space to take a deeper look into the parts that may be holding you back that you are unaware need attention. Coaching is there to support and encourage you to realize and reach your fullest potential so that you can show up to work and at home as your most fulfilled self. Please reach out if you’re ready to WORK (your brain) OUT. ;-)