So you have decided to hire a life coach, but how do you pick the perfect one? Someone who won’t let you get away with your “stuff” but won’t confuse, anger or do nothing for you.
 

Here Are Ways to Recognize a Good Life Coach…

When they…

• Custom fit the sessions for you and your issues.

• Have overcome many of their own issues.

• Are both a consultant/adviser and a coach. This will save you a lot of money, time, and in the long run, get you better results.

Life coaching can help people get where they want to go faster. It can guide them in finding their passion, eradicating their creative “stuck,” and help create greater peace and joy in people’s lives. I know many coaches who do extraordinary work every day. And then…there are the coaches that haven’t found their dream job yet.

 

Here’s Some Signs of a Bad Life Coach…

When they...

• Don’t teach, coach, advise, provide guidance, or give you any insights.

• Get easily distracted during your sessions.

• Feel sorry for you or are condescending.

Life and business coaching is rewarding work. It’s not for everyone, but when it’s a fit I can’t think of a better job. My colleagues and the best in the business agree.
 

The Best Thing About Being a Coach is…

“The ability to engage with others in meaningful conversations about critically important topics is the best thing about being a life coach.  I feel honored and privileged to do this important work.  I get a tremendous sense of accomplishment and gratification from seeing my clients' create environments with greater authenticity, trust, transparency and alignment.  Environments where everyone is in the right role, doing the right work, using the right strengths accomplishing the right results.”
 
Katharine Halpin
CEO & Executive Coach
Phoenix, AZ 85012
HalpinCompany.com
 
 

I get calls all the time from people thinking about becoming either a life or business coach. It’s rewarding, life-changing work. What could be better than helping people be their best selves? Like any profession, it must suit a person’s personality. Here is some straight talk about what to consider before becoming a coach.   
 

The Worst Thing About Being a Coach is…

“The risk of isolation.  Working 90 percent on the telephone in my home office can be lonely.  I love the freedom to take a walk during the day and dress comfortably but I miss the water-cooler conversation.”
 
Katharine Halpin
CEO & Executive Coach
Phoenix, AZ 85012
HalpinCompany.com

Life coaches, like all good coaches whatever the discipline, usually have a gift for bringing out the best in their people. This can mean providing encouragement, new strategies and techniques, and on occasion, providing a dose of tough love. The rewards are better performances in all aspects of life, including family, business, personal and spiritual. When you’re ready to get clear, change things up for the better and commit to a better life hiring a personal coach is worth it.
 

Life Coaching is Definitely Worth it When We…

• Are ready to hear what others might have been afraid to say -- the good, the bad, the ultimate truth toward our happiness.

Just recently, a client of mine and I agreed to end her individual coaching sessions. She just couldn’t get into it. There is a right time for everything and sometimes spending the money and time on something you are not ready for, is a waste.
 
Life Coaching is not Worth it AT ALL When you…

• Don’t want to hear things that take you out of your comfort zone.

• Want to keep blaming everyone and everything else for your current jam.

• Are adamant to be right instead of being happier.

The bigger the company, the bigger the range of personalities within it. It usually doesn’t take long to spot the ‘people pleaser.’ They can keep a company running or they can be an instrumental part of its demise. 
 

The Worst Time to Hire a People Pleaser…

When your company…

1  Has a hard time complimenting and showing appreciation to your employees.

2  Needs to fill a leadership position.

5  Is growing so quickly and everyone needs to make some decisions.

4  Hasn’t set up policies and procedures to follow.

One way to feel lighter, free, more optimistic and charged once again with purpose is to forgive yourself. Is there something that you’ve done or not done that you have been holding onto? If it’s time to let go of the past so you and your loved ones can proceed with a brighter future, consider these reasons for forgiving yourself today.
 

The other day I caught myself being defensive about adding color on my website. What would make me go off like that? Any time I'm that adamant, I know there is some hidden treasure I can learn from it.

Here's Some of the Advantages of Being Defensive at Work...

We can...

• Avoid changing our mindset or behaviors.
• Pretend it makes us a strong leader.
• Hide our doubts and the fear of losing control.
• Take full advantage of using excuses.
• Camouflage our oversensitivity.
• Keep ourselves busy constantly defending our position.

Are you one of those who want to be right at all costs? Maybe you get your thrills from always having problems to deal with. Or perhaps you think all this woo-woo is nonsense? Then I don't need to tell you the benefits of ignoring your intuition, gut instincts or inner voice. You probably think this list is NORMAL and the way LIFE IS. I know -- I use to be you.

This blog is for those of you exploring other ways to live, like I did several years ago.

Here Are Some Benefits of Ignoring Your Intuition:

You...

Do you wake up in the morning feeling secure, confident and excited about all the good experiences the day will bring? Are you watching yourself become a better person every day? If so, you must be using your intuition.

Intuition is described as a knowing, a gut feeling, an inner voice, an awareness, a hunch, a gut instinct or a sense.

Here are Some of the Benefits of Using Your Intuition:

When we use our intuition...

• We don't need to make sacrifices to solve a problem.
• Stress, anger, and resentment disappear.
• Obstacles fade away and we get in the zone.

Obviously, working from home is not for everybody. With my business and career coaching clients, I listen to my intuition and often suggest they either find a new  job or change their thoughts and behaviors to create a better environment at the old job.

Here are some Disadvantages of Working from Home...

We can...

• No longer use our commuting time as our think time or time to wind down and relax.

• Have difficulty getting motivated without someone to impress.

• Overeat because no one's noticing.

• Work too little because of our flexible schedule.

We can set our own hours, get a massage in the middle of the afternoon and avoid the hovering boss. This much we know about working from home. But working from home has some subtle, not-so-obvious perks as well. Though small and even overlooked these advantages can influence our mental, physical and emotional health.

Here are Some Not-so-Obvious Benefits of Working from Home...

We can...

• Multi-task during boring conference calls.

• Provide companionship to our pets.

• Go shopping when we don't have to wait in lines.

• Forget what terms like office pod means.

When I started my own business years ago, I noticed quite a difference from working in an office environment and working from home. I was use to the hustle and bustle of a busy office with the phoning ringing off the hook, unproductive meetings and my team constantly wanting something or another.

Here is What I Think are Benefits of Working from Home...

We can...

• Save hours a day in commuting time.

• Relax. No one's looking over our shoulder, monitoring our every move.

• Eat healthier.

• Schedule dentist and doctor appointments easier.

A well-done website can convince potential customers that you are the one they want to do business with.  A confusing website will send customers looking elsewhere. Is your website outdated? Does it need some tweaking? Or does it need a complete overhaul?

Here's How to Use Your Website to Attract Clients...

• Realize people just scan copy to see if it's relevant. So make it easy with bullet points, numbers, and short paragraphs.
• Write and arrange copy so that the more important points are bigger, in color, bolder or in italics so that they stand out.

For me, it’s the website with lots of these!!!!!! After every!!! Sentence!!! Everyone has a website that they can’t click off fast enough. If they could have stomached staying, they may have connected with the perfect business partner or client. Are you losing clients because your website is driving people away with annoying features?

How to Use Your Website to Drive Away Potential Clients...

• Don't put any photos of you or your staff on your website.
• Make sure you have slow loading pages, more than 3 seconds.

The hCG diet is becoming so prevalent, medical professionals in day spas, naturopathic offices and clinics specializing in nothing but administering the diet are popping up as store fronts. Do you need a doctor’s supervision to follow the diet? It’s a personal choice.  There are some disadvantages of ditching the doctor and choosing to go it alone.

Here are Some Disadvantages of Doing the hCG Diet Without a Doctor...

• The most important factor is that other physical problems may be preventing weight loss or contributing to weight gain and need to be addressed before starting the hCG diet. I had two challenges that needed to be adjusted before I started losing weight on the hCG diet.

Everywhere I go I encounter women doing the hCG weight loss diet. It seems to be the latest diet craze, especially here in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area.

In one of my business group coaching sessions last week, four women admitted they were on the hCG diet but not using medical supervision. That got me thinking…why would they decide not to use a doctor?

Here are Some Advantages of Doing the hCG Diet Without a Doctor...

• The obvious and probably most important factor is cost. Some of my coaching clients have paid as much as $2,000 through a naturopathic doctor. I was lucky. I paid a small fraction of that with SanTanNaturalMedicine.com

We probably all catch ourselves at one time or another wanting to “be right” over choosing to be happy. The key is to be aware of it and realize we have a choice. We can either change our minds or remain adamant about “being right” and suffer the consequences.

Here are the disadvantages of “being right”…

• We waste time judging, insulting, and complaining, which depletes our energy.
• We work extremely hard trying to prove we are right.
• We feel like a failure and have a need to punish ourselves when we are wrong.

For a good portion of my life, I have put a lot of effort into my inner work. And still at times I want to “be right” far more than I want to “be happy.” I notice this, anytime I take a side, become insistent, or find myself complaining.

Here are some of the Benefits of “Being Right”…

• It keeps us striving to be perfect and building our reputation.
• We are admired by others who also want to “be right” -- until we make a mistake.
• We need not waste our time trying to understand others’ opinions.

Before you charge ahead and start your business, consider the stumbling blocks first. Your business success depends on how well you adjust and resolve these disadvantages.

Here are Some of the Many Disadvantages of Being Small Business Owner...

• You can’t blame the boss.
• Things constantly change, especially with this economy.
• You’ll have to learn to like marketing and sales, whether you supervise or do it yourself.
• To be successful, you must make and follow a budget.
• You have to make lots of decisions quickly all of the time.

I just heard recently that the Arizona Small Business Association (located in Phoenix and Tucson) added 700 members in a little over six months. Wow!  Either ASBA has a really effective marketing plan, or there are lots of people sick of job insecurity. Maybe people are lost and just don’t know what else to do but start their own business. Or what I like to believe, lots of people are finally going for their dream jobs.

Here are Some of the Many Advantages of Being an Entrepreneur:

• No one can fire or lay you off.

Do most of your work days run smoothly? Do you feel you are lucky in business? Either your business is happily thriving in this economy or you’re excited to reinvent your business because of it. You must be following your intuition.

Intuition has been defined as a knowing. Other people describe it as a gut instinct or a sense they get. Business owners operating from their intuition notice that their productivity is up, their stress down and that their dreams are coming true.

Here Are Some Other Signs You ARE Operating Your Business Using Your Intuition:

If you find yourself…

Are you one of those business owners who do everything the hard way? Maybe your bottom line is decreasing but you are reluctant to change.

Our intuition can be defined as a gut instinct, a sense or a knowing. Intuition can fix any business problem, eliminate stress and difficult situations, increase productivity, give us the ability to achieve our dreams and most of all, make the process enjoyable.

Here Are Some Other Signs You Are NOT Operating Your Business Using Your Intuition or Gut Instincts:

If you find yourself…

• Spending your day solving one PROBLEM after another.

What’s so great about releasing the fear? Every aspect of our entire life would improve tenfold. First, we could hear our intuition or gut instincts so that it could guide us in the decisions we make every minute of the day. When that happens, we could find the perfect job. We could see our relationships with significant others, our children, our clients and ourselves turnaround. By releasing the fear, we could have what everyone wants: we could be HAPPY.

Here are Some Signs We’re Releasing Fear…

When we find ourselves…

• Not taking SIDES

What's so bad about being afraid? Lots! Worry, doubt, and fear causes us to act in ways that get us in terrible situations. Fear causes illness, financial problems and conflict with others.  Fear lowers our self-esteem, and most of all, causes us to remain unhappy.

Here are Signs we Might be in Fear...

When we...

• Are STRESSED, UPSET, ANGRY or RESENTFUL.
• Want to CONTROL the situation.
• Want to PROVE something.
• Find ourselves confronting a lot of OBSTACLES.
• OBSESS. Replaying a situation over and over and thinking about how it could have been avoided, what will happen because of it, what needs to change to fix it and who's to blame.

As you probably read in my last post (if not, go to 5 Advantages of Blaming first), there are lots of advantages to laying the blame for our current economic collapse on everyone and everything from banks to people with bad credit to government to the neighbor's dog.  But stop to consider - there are two sides to everything, and where there are advantages there are also disadvantages.  Let's explore the downside to pointing an accusing finger at just about anyone we can think of...

Here are some disadvantages of blaming:

• It camouflages our real problem, our personal relationship with money

It's easy to get caught up in the day to day drama of the current American economy and start pointing the finger. For instance, we could place blame the media for inciting so much fear, or we could blame the banks and other financial institutions for making so many bad credit loans.  We could blame the bleeding-heart liberal democrats, or the ultra-conservative republicans, or whatever part of the federal government we are angry with!  Better yet, we could blame the President for single handedly causing everything in every market everywhere in the world to collapse.