Coaching is an accompaniment to expand your awareness through the achievement of a goal.
A coaching process is one of those milestones in life where you remember a before and after of your process, why? Because your way of seeing the world changes, the way you relate to yourself and others is different. It is like the training you follow to run a marathon, the focus is on reaching the goal (the objective), but it is in the process where the changes really occur:
1) new habits development
2) managing your mental and emotional state to keep you steadily training
3) strategy designing to combine your daily life with training, etc.
It is a new way of being and doing. The date of the marathon comes and goes, the benefits of training remain internalized in your body, mind and being.
It sounds simple and as such, an accompaniment is discarded with “I’m sure I can do it by myself”; The days, months, maybe years go by and you still haven’t achieved what you want, even more, maybe you don’t even dare to try it and you go back to investigate What is coaching? What is coaching for? And to consider … “What if I hired a coach?”
How to choose a coach?
It is important to investigate if the coach has had professional training and preferably that she is member of a recognized coaching association, such as the ICF (International Coach Federation).
Joining an association implies that the coach is committed to following a code of ethics and that it responds to this association for how it carries out its practice.
Passing this initial filter, it is very important to have a meeting or call where you can experience if there is “chemistry” with your potential coach, if his or her style inspires you confidence and his/her way of communicating makes sense to you. This is extremely important for the accompaniment to be successful. In turn, an experienced coach will be attentive to finding this same synchrony with you. (You may be interested in the following link: What is a Coach?)
What is the duration of a coaching process?
This will depend on many factors: the objective you have in mind, the coach’s experience and methodology, the commitment you are willing to make, etc. A personal coaching process can take a few sessions or can take months, in reality you decide how much you want to delve into yourself.
In my own experience, you can go through various coaching processes throughout your life and from each one you will get something different and valuable for your personal and professional growth.
Coaching process = Trip to an exotic place
In conclusion, deciding to do a coaching process is like your first trip to a foreign and exotic country where you do not speak the language. It excites you, but you are not sure if you will enjoy or make the most of the trip. Just by deciding to do it you already find yourself pushing your limits, leaving your comfort zone; once you start it, you feel extremely present, paying full attention to the landscapes, people, environments, customs, you find yourself learning new things and experiencing with all your senses in alert mode; your being makes new connections integrating all the learning it is absorbing and once the trip is over, back home, it leaves you inspired and dreaming of the next one.