We often think the word coach only pertains to the world of sports, but hockey players are not the only ones who need guidance.
Sometimes everyday people need coaching through life. This where a life coach comes in. Life comes with more complications and hardships than any sport and without some coaching, it can be difficult to overcome them. Life coach Nicke Paddock, said it is about working with clients that are ready to move forward past a life issue.
“It’s about identifying current life issues, moving forward and then keeping them accountable,” Paddock said. “We work in a partnership together to keep moving forward.”
There is a common misconception that life coaching is all about motivational talks and self-help books. In reality, it does not offer a quick fix, but rather tools and approaches that are used to overcome barriers that restrict the client from living their life fully.
“It’s really just a non-judgemental space to ask thought-provoking questions that you will identify your solutions yourself,” Paddock said. “In the end it’s shocking how many people have an aha moment just from a couple of sessions.”
Paddock said if people are still dealing with past traumas or something that they are not ready to move forward from, then counselling might be the better route. She adds that this is because counselling focuses on the impact of past traumas while life coaching focuses on the future.
People come to life coaches with an array of problems. Paddock said some of these issues include difficulty dealing with a co-worker, getting over an ex-partner and dealing with body issues.
In order to help clients overcome their present issues, Paddock said life coaches do not give advice but ask open ended questions. She adds that most people know in their gut what needs to be done but they sometimes just need to hear it out loud.
Some of these questions include “what exactly bothers you? Why do you think you feel like that when this person says that? Where do you feel that anxiety in your body when that person says that thing or that certain situation happens?”
“They identify it so that they know moving forward that when they feel that in the certain part of their body, that anxiety or anger or whatever feeling it may be, then they at least have an identifier and they can be like ‘okay this is what I’m feeling and this is what I need to do based off of my actionable goals that were identified,’” Paddock said.
Paddock said limiting beliefs are often what debilitate people from moving forward. She explains the concept as beliefs that they made up in their head or were told by someone that are stopping them from moving forward. She adds that these are the most difficult to get through on your own because most of the time you don’t know where it came from.
For those who are looking to change something in their life but are not sure how, Paddock said people can ask themselves what does my life look life without that issue?
