How to Use SELF-COACHING to Propel You to the Next Level

"Every next level of your life will demand a different you.”

- Leonardo DiCaprio -

I have always believed that it is important to have what I call, ‘a bag of tricks’ - a variety of tools and resources - to help us grow personally and professionally. Self-coaching is one of many avenues that can guide our individual growth and development.  

It is important to note that self-coaching is not intended as a replacement for the experience of working one-on-one with a professional coach. Instead, it is meant to:

• Enhance the coaching process for active clients
• Be a resource after a coaching engagement ends

However, for those who do not have the opportunity to work directly with a coach, it provides a structured and ongoing approach to managing your professional growth and development.

 

This article is about the importance of integrating self-coaching tools into your bag of tricks.  However, before explaining why, it is necessary to first define what self-coaching is. I was surprised at how many definitions there were. Therefore, for the purposes of this post, I took pieces from a few of them to compose our working definition.

SELF-COACHING is…

“Taking personal responsibility for our lives by tapping into our inner wisdom, setting goals and working to achieve them; using various tools (bag of tricks) to help us manage priorities and cope emotionally.”

Why is self-coaching important for us to practice?

• As you can see, the definition contains powerful words and phrases such as personal responsibility, inner wisdom, setting goals and working to achieving them, managing priorities, coping emotionally – all qualities that promote self-efficacy.  
• It involves introspection – continuously checking your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to ensure that you’re showing up with integrity.
• One of the unspoken responsibilities that come with being an adult is that of role-modeling. Self - coaching helps us to set healthy boundaries and standards so we can be better role models.
• Knowing how to self-coach is a transferable skill that stays with a person no matter where he/she goes.

Benefits of self-coaching

The benefits of self-coaching are many. The following are just a few.

• Greater awareness of your strengths and capabilities
• Increase self-confidence as you become more self-aware
• Improve your problem-solving abilities as self-coaching may become an automatic response to challenges
• Bring awareness to self-limiting thoughts and habits that may be holding you back 

At Discover A New Future, our goal is to share practical self-coach strategies and skills that you can integrate into your everyday live.  The Messages in a Tin series is a self-coaching tool that has inspirational quotes and challenging questions to help you  to cope and look inward as you navigate your hectic life. The following is a sample of the Discover A New Future Message in a Tin note.

To see these and others in the series, visit www.discoveranewfutureshop.com.

On a final note, self-coaching is a lifelong learning process that helps you to stay connected to who you are because as Leonardo DiCaprio once said,"Every next level of your life will demand a different you.”