The Purpose of Transformational Coaching

Developing Your Resourcefulness, Resilience, Robustness and Creativity

Transformation brings you to life, and when you’re in that space, you can get more done, be more effective and bounce back from setbacks with more grace and less worry.

We’re taught that our psychology is a complex.  A many faceted beast that requires techniques to tame it and bring it under our control.  That we need to impose will power over it if we want to do anything meaningful in our lives.

At the opposite end of the spectrum we’re also told that sometimes there’s little we can do about our psychology and we just need to ‘manage’ our way through life.

Getting more done, earning more, taking control of your life.  Bigger, faster, better, more.  Higher performance, less stress, better results.  These are the promises of the self-help industry.  Money, career, romance, health.  You can find a book, course or coach to help you with any aspect of life you desire to improve.

For me, it’s the same but different.

A problem can’t be solved by the same kind of thinking that created it ~ Albert Einstein

Or put simply, a problem can’t be solved in the source of the thinking that created the problem in the first place.

Which brings us to coaching.

The basic premise of coaching is they can help you get more out of you than you can on your own.  Coaches help you see your blind spots and help you implement strategies to move past them.

People hire coaches for different reasons, but mainly they want to do or create something new but are having trouble doing it.

From where I sit, coaching can be broken down into three levels.

Coaching to Perform

I finished playing Rugby a few years back.  Without fail there were two things we always practiced.  Scrums and lineouts.  The idea is that as a forward pack we would get better and better at performing these skills, so we could own this area of the game.  The problem with this, is that most of the game is played in the open, where situations happen where a solution can’t be pre-prepared.

Coaching for Performance is essentially that.  Get better at a skill; interviews, public speaking, swimming or even an aspect of your job, which is good if that’s what you need, but doesn’t address what happens for a large part of your day-to-day experience.

If instead of a skill you are seeking to improve an area of life, then the next level of coaching addresses that.

Coaching for Life

Life coaching is probably the most widespread form of coaching.  Your life is typically segregated into areas that can be focused and improved upon.  You then work with the coach on that area, whether it be job, money, relationships, health, or whatever part of your life that you feel needs improvement.

Life coaching certainly has its place, but what do you do when you find the strategies and techniques don’t work for you?  What do you do when you still find yourself searching for answers, that one nugget of information that will change everything?

And what if you just wanted to experience a deeper feeling for life?

Then you go to the next level.

Coaching for Transformation

Transformation happens within, then you see a different world outside.

We may be complex, but there is a beauty, simplicity and purity of the human psyche, that once seen, unlocks all sorts of creativity, resourcefulness and resilience, that until it happens is hidden from view.  Put simply, understanding the logic of the psyche allows us to come alive in ways unimagined in other levels of coaching.

And when we come to life in this way, there is a new way of being in the world, of navigating through life that seems unexplainable to an outsider.  We are naturally creative, resourceful and resilient.  And when we set ourselves a task, we bring an enthusiasm and aliveness to it.  And when that happens. We start to have a better sense of what to do, who can help, and how to ask.

Transformative coaching is not context specific.  It doesn’t give you more to do or think.  It wakes you up to who you are and, in the process, subtracts misunderstanding of who you are not and what you think you may or may not be capable of.

Living from a New Understanding

All my work is done from this understanding whether its writing, Coaching or Project Management.  It has permeated each area of my life and continues to do so.  Each insight I have gives me less to think about and allows me to do more with less fuss.

And the best part of it all?  We each have the same ability to see it, and more for ourselves.

If you want to dive deeper into this conversation, find out more of who you are and experience more of life while pushing forward with life, then here’s how I can help.