The question of work & life balance has been on the table for years. We want to work less and live more, but we don’t really do anything about it, so we complain about it a lot and keep going with the routine.
Somehow, though, the topic is now becoming more important than ever, with a twist. While the topic used to be a question of working less to enjoy life more (as we just said), pandemic developments and the closure of frontiers everywhere across the globe have pushed people to rethink the notion of “life”, with new lights being shed on the definition of what really matters.
Some have started to give a lot more importance to family. Others miss the possibilities of traveling and discovering the world. And countless people are now wondering how to use Visio conference and home-working tools to fully redesign the way they are working and living altogether.
Having said that, if the question of work and life balance has never been more important, what strikes us is also the increasing need for structuration and self-reflection that we – humble business coaches and life coaches – witness around us.
Entrepreneurs are tired of working so much to scale and rocket their businesses and want to enjoy their lives more. Yet, most never do anything to think big picture and strategic thinking instead of routine and painful emergency control.
Corporate executives want to see better days ahead, yet only a minority start positioning themselves as the new leaders in their organizations and industries. As for the entrepreneur’s example, they stick with what they know and ignore the opportunities they could have access to if only they started thinking differently.
And, more generally, people hope to find ways to rethink their life and make the most of it, without however doing much to regain control and make things happen in a way that makes sense to them.
Think about it though. What would it take for you to start thinking about building your own business karma for a change, or your personal life karma? What if adopting a different mindset made a huge difference and a massive impact on your work and personal life? What if deciding to coach yourself got you to your next, next, next level?
As business coaches, executive coaches, and life coaches, we know how powerful one’s decision of coaching themselves can be (there’s a reason why Impactified is all about the “Coach Yourself & Thrive” moto) so we’ve decided to give you some food for thought – 5 reasons, in fact – as to why you should coach yourself sooner than later.
Coach Yourself: definition
Before we dig into the reasons, it seems important to explain what we mean by “coach yourself” though.
If you’ve looked around, you’ve probably seen that, at Impactified, we provide coaching through two main channels: coaching services, and self-coaching modules you can use without a coach.
Shameless plug, by the way.
Now, beyond the fact that both options are about giving our clients access to coaching, the big idea here is to say that the starting point is always for a client to want and make the decision to coach themselves.
If they don’t want to challenge themselves and create a change in their life, then there can be no evolution and no coaching. But, if they decide to act for themselves, then a new range of opportunities appear.
To that extent, “coach yourself” means that while there are tons of opportunities out there, the decision to act is on YOU.
A rather direct and provocative coach would summarize the “Coach Yourself” expression by saying that you need to pull your own fingers out, really. But we’re the polite type and we don’t want to be too aggressive here, so we’ll simply say that coaching yourself is all about (i) deciding to act for yourself, and (ii) sticking with that decision to make things happen.
Making the decision to coach yourself to get your own life and projects to their next levels can be a matter of relying on a coach to challenge your thoughts and boost your thinking.
It can also be a matter of deciding to take things into your own hand, in which case you’ll have to open your mind and learn new concepts by yourself, whether by reading books (and applying the insights!) or by relying on self-coaching modules designed to give you access to the ideas and tools you’ll need to challenge yourself.
Either way, coaching yourself is a matter of deciding to create a change, and to make that change happen. And there are 5 good reasons to start doing that NOW.
5 reasons to start coaching yourself
- Start thinking outside of your own box (for good)
- Stop complaining & regain control over your personal life
- Stop struggling & empower your entrepreneurial journey
- Turn your corporate job into your dream job
- Write a build a future that matches your dreams
Coach yourself to start thinking outside of your own box
From a pure ‘benefits’ angle, coaching yourself is a very efficient way to bring a different perspective into your life. Different perspectives, even.
Like it or not, but people think with a very limited viewpoint – their own viewpoint. They don’t just think in a box, they think in their own box, with their own perceptions, their own biases, their own blind spots, and their own limiting beliefs.
Our perceptions are essential, but they are also very limited and depend on who we are, so they are not sufficient to give us a big picture of whatever surrounds us.
That’s because we are who we are, and that creates a bias that influences everything we hear, see and think – and I’m not even talking about the blinding impact of blind spots on our internal thinking process.
Limiting beliefs are another factor that seriously constrains the size of the box we’re in because unlike the empowering beliefs that drive us and boost us, they make us think that the possible is impossible and that we can’t dream as big as we should.
Sounds silly? I agree!
Still, think about it for a minute, when was the last time you managed NOT to do something that was important to you, just because you were tired, didn’t get the guts to try, or thought that the thing was impossible or unworthy anyway?
Think deeper. What blocked you, if not yourself?
Hmm.
Long story short? It’s in your head, and those who decide to look in different directions, talk to people with a different prism on life and accept to be challenged by others tend to have a much broader perspective than those who don’t.
Beyond thinking outside the box, the point is to figure out what your own box is, and to start thinking outside of that very specific box.
The potential is huge, because depending on your expectations and wanted results, deciding to coach yourself will give you many ways to develop your own thinking and skills.
Stop complaining & regain control over your personal life
Now, it goes without saying, but there are lots of ways to get yourself challenged: think books and materials of all sorts, think circles and communities, and of course, think coaching and self-coaching courses.
In fact, for those who managed to create a difference for themselves, the feeling is usually that deciding to coach themselves was the best way ever to gain (or regain) control over their own, personal life.
That makes sense because being challenged by new ideas typically brings new perspectives and opens your eyes to plenty of things – that’s the whole point.
Even better? They also tend to dramatically change your mindsets, and that typically happens when your own limiting beliefs are busted.
In the end, new perspectives create new mindsets, and both work to complement each other. A new perspective gives you a new way to see things and think, while a new mindset gives you a different way to decide, act and behave.
For instance…
Would you like an example? Okay, done!
A fundamental principle when it comes to life coaching and business coaching is that of taking responsibility (and there’s a good reason for that).
Except that there is a trap, because taking responsibility is not what people think.
Typically, people see the idea of taking responsibility for whatever happens as a matter of guilt and fault. So, when you ask them what responsibility they take into a given situation, they naturally respond that whatever happened wasn’t their fault, so there is no responsibility to take.
Rings a bell, doesn’t it?
Yes, it does ring a bell. But does it make any sense?
Nope. Makes no sense.
Why? Because the concept of taking responsibility is not about looking for fault. Or guilt.
It is all about realizing that while some things are out of our control and don’t deserve our energy, some other things can be influenced by our actions and should therefore be what we focus on.
Here is another example – think about your tyrannic boss (or mother-in-law, if the boss example doesn’t apply).
If I know that the boss will ultimately decide in a way that makes no sense because he is stuck with blinders, then I can either whine and complain …
Or I can choose to focus on what I can control and influence.
Instead of saying that work sucks and whining about it, I can decide to accept that the boss is the way he is, and I can choose to either focus on another project, or decide to make a compelling case that my method is the best to whoever is close to the boss and has the ability to convince him that my method should be applied.
And if nothing works? Well, then I can’t control the way that company works but I can still control where I work, so I can make my own decisions freely and stop being frustrated.
And you know what? This is precisely what coaching yourself is about. Decision to act, decision to move ahead, you name it, but decision to decide for sure.
By coaching myself and learning self-development tricks and methods, I can get rid of most frustrations out there and focus my energy on things that make sense to me, instead of permanently being the victim who complains about having no control over my environment.
Realizing that absolutely changed my life at a time where I was stuck in a heavy institution where nothing moved (except backward), and my mindset changed for the better as a result of that. The same will happen to you, the only thing you have to do is coach yourself, take responsibility, and decide to act.
Long story short: to get your mindset to its next level, coach yourself, and if you need a push to make that happen, our life coaches will make a difference in your life.
Stop struggling & empower your entrepreneurial journey
Now, hang on a minute, I’m not done with you! Coaching yourself gives you a way to regain control over your life, but there’s more: it’s also a great way to regain control over your business life.
As far as your business life is concerned, there are two dimensions to take into account: the first relates to entrepreneurial journeys and getting your own business to its next level, the other relates to your professional life as an employee or corporate executive.
But first, let’s regain control over your entrepreneurial life, uh?
Being an entrepreneur is a challenge of everyday, and we – at Impactified – have developed a real expertise when it comes to coaching entrepreneurs on a daily basis.
Beyond the shameless plug, the point here is to say that coaching yourself is a great way to boost your business, because it gives you a way to learn new entrepreneurship skills whilst putting every chance on your side to become an entrepreneur who succeeds.
If you consider that most entrepreneurs keep doing the same, typical, silly mistakes and that those mistakes kill their earning potential (more on that next), then why wouldn’t you coach yourself to get to the next level?
Look, it’s simple! Entrepreneurs keep working INTO their business instead of looking at the big picture and planning their development, so they keep doing fire control and emergency management.
What’s the result? Well, simple! They have no time for private life matters, they feel frustrated because the business is only trouble, they feel frustrated because the money isn’t worth the time invested, bla bla bla… and it’s totally on them!
But wait, though. There is more!
Mindsets are always underestimated and should also be brought into the discussion!
For the entrepreneurs who struggle, organization is usually a weak point, automation is usually rather inexistant, leadership is seen as optional while visions, missions, values and brand DNA are often left to the side because they don’t pay the bills immediately.
Yet, there are tons to do if you want to get your business to work for you rather than the other way around, starting with making a SWOT Analysis to know precisely where you stand, working on your mindset to see things from a different angle, setting some goals and priorities to get things back into focus, and following on those goals and priorities to get results.
I’m not even mentioning things like building automation so your business can work a lot more without you, and working on your ideal client to sharpen your marketing approach, so forth, and so on…
If what I’m saying rings a bell, then you more than anyone should think about doing something for yourself!
We have you covered with a FREE video module that covers the typical mistakes that kill an entrepreneur’s earning potential (you really have no excuse, go for it!). And support is also available through our Impactified business coaches or through our digital self-coaching modules designed for entrepreneurs.
It all depends on your needs and means, really, but beyond the material aspects, my point here is to make you realize that coaching yourself for business is, as I keep saying, a question of deciding to do something for yourself and your business. It’s totally on you, so just do something about it!
6 ways to coach yourself as a business owner
If you are wondering where to start, here is a list of six things you can start doing now to coach yourself and regain control over your business and entrepreneurial journey:
- Start with assessing where you stand: is your business working for you?
- Decide whether your workload matches your dream life expectations
- Start working ON your business for good
- Look at your business from a SWOT angle
- Think about the typical mistakes entrepreneurs make: ringing any bell?
- Define if your business organization is serving you: what can you change?
Turn your corporate job into your dream job
The second dimension to look at when speaking of coaching yourself to get back control over the business part of your life relates to your busy executive routine.
There, the challenges can be somehow similar, let’s say if your target is to get more time for yourself and work less.
Still, there can be a lot to do if your goal is to climb the ladder one way or another.
Coaching yourself will definitely be a question of taking responsibility and focusing on things you can influence, which is where your imagination becomes the only limit.
For instance, you could work on developing your organizational leadership in managing corporate teams (instead of just relying on the authority you don’t have anyway, right?).
You could decide what goals you want to set for yourself and for your team, instead of complaining that the goals given by the boss are way too vague and mean nothing. That would also give you a way to define what counts as a priority and what doesn’t, by the way (just saying).
You could also look into a particular conflict and, instead of being stubborn, decide to listen and adapt so both parties can come out of the issue with a win-win solution.
As with the previous parts, therefore, the stake, if you want to regain control over your executive career and life, is to stop being the victim nobody understands, to decide to do something for yourself, and to act upon your decision so it goes a lot further than wishful thinking.
And no, I won’t ask if that makes sense because you know it does…
4 ways to coach yourself as a corporate executive
- Start with assessing where you stand: is your career working for you?
- Decide whether your workload matches your dream life expectations
- Wonder if your career path going where you want it to go?
- Decide what’s missing in your professional life: what can you do about it?
Coach yourself to write your future (and build it!)
If you’ve read the article so far, you’ve probably noticed that the various points I’ve been making all have something in common: coaching yourself gives you a major opportunity to write your future and build it so that it becomes what you have in mind, provided of course that you decide to do something for yourself first.
Sounds B.S? Maybe, but what other solutions have you managed to leverage so far, that give you some control back on your life while giving you a chance to turn your personal life and professional life into something that matches YOUR expectations and serves YOUR needs?
In fact, give it a try and start right now. Look back on the past few months:
- Is your private life looking the way you want it to look?
- Is your business working for you, or do you keep making insane hours that leave you no time to live your life?
- Is your corporate career looking the way it should?
Next, think about your personal goals:
- Have you defined any?
- How are you doing as far as these goals are concerned?
- What do you mean you don’t have any goals to play with?
Wrapping up: Coaching yourself is all about deciding to make a difference for yourself
To wrap things up, the key point in this article is that coaching yourself is all about deciding to make a difference for yourself to stop being a victim who only complains about how unfair their environment is.
And if you are not willing to do that, then your next step will probably be to realize (and acknowledge if you can) that you are willingly deciding not to do anything for yourself. And then move on.
That difference can be made with the support of a coach, it goes without saying, but you can also make a lot happen just on your own, by working on yourself, on your life goals, and on the way your business life serves your life goals using the self-coaching tools we are putting at your disposal.
The next step is yours to define, keep us posted!
