The Benefits of Coaching

The Benefits of Coaching

life-coaching

The Benefits of Coaching.

You need to know what the benefits of coaching are and will be when you work with me in our coaching sessions.  But also the benefits of coaching need to be seen as an investment in YOU and that you deserve to have this invest – and these are the reasons why.

  • Increase your self – confidence
  • Gives you more motivation
  • Makes you more self – awareness and understanding
  • Gives you more clarity in making decisions, choices and judging situations
  • Allows you to have a more fulfilling life/work balance
  • Allows you to work on expanding your horizons
  • Supports you in lessening your stress
  • Gives you better skills for better communication skills
  • Supports you gaining better relationships
  • Supports you gain better health and well-being routines eg diet, exercise.
  • You feel supported and not alone as you work to achieve your goals
  • It gives you time to reflect on what is important to you and who you really aspire to be.

 

 

When you work with a coach – working as a coach in the way that I do with SLJ Coaching & Training Associates – you can focus on what is really important to you and start to look to shape your life to be more in line with your values. Working with me will provide you an effective structure to support you moving forward in significant areas of your life, including career, your business, personal growth, relationships, family, friends, health, education, work, spirituality, fun and recreation, and your physical environment.

Benefits-of-Life-Coaching

When you work with me as a coach – I support and encourage you to be and take responsibility for the results you generate, ultimately you as everyone is responsible for your own life and the results they get.

 

When we work in this way and take responsibility for your own life, we have power and influence over it. We can then appreciate our own influence in situations and that we can choose between different possibilities.

 

When you work with me in this way it works, coaching works, because you are making the commitment to invest in yourself, with focused support to help you find clarity, self confidence and the motivation to continue and overcome barriers. Often we don`t really take the time to work out where we are going, what our lives are about, and what our values and goals are.http://www.dreamstime.com/-image23159248

If you do not know what you are doing, or want to go, you are unable to focus or have ineffective habits that you are not fully aware of and that will hold us back.

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Very often, we unconsciously or consciously resist change, because its easier and more comfortable to stay the way you are, even if it not what you truly want.

Working with me as a Coach helps you to overcome these barriers and make the changes you want, to step out of your comfort zone and test the waters of the stretch zone in a supportive and safe environment.

 

I empower and aspire you in my coaching for you to find your passion, your purpose and fulfil your full potential in your life and all the avenues of your life.

 

Sharon Jardine

Coach & Mentor

New Year New You New Start – Financial Literacy

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New Year New You New Start – Financial Literacy

Financial Literacy – for me has become the greates learning curve both on a personal and a professional / business level.  When I was in paid work as an employee all I wanted to do was earn more, get higher up the career ladder , get recognition for all that hard work that I was doing and get rewarded with something to show for it all.

When redundancy came around I found out how quickly 20 + years was actually worth in £ cash – and it was not that good – and despite all the years of working so hard and not being finanically rewarded for those extra hours, stress and dedication – my redundancy pay came down to purely length of service and payments made only on ratio of how  Redundancy payment calculations are constructed – so this taught me a great and very powerful lesson I am determined never to repeat again – Know your worth and know what you are working for and why.

But this is not just about money as such – this New Year New You New Start part is around understanding Financial Literacy – in that I want to introduce you to the term and for you to ask the question – because believe me it will run across your personal and definitely into your business life – are you Financially Literate – do you understand money, your attitude to it and how you relate to money.  If you do great x if you do not – then this is the final area but a vastly important area to get to grips with in this new year new you new start for 2014.

How hard do you work ? – do you work for money or do you make your money work for you?

Ok – so why should I want to be more financially literate – doh why not?  I am not doing it for the money I hear you say – ok then here is a fact.

a. You will never be able to afford me as your coach – fact – I am a business and you pay me by the hour – I am not free.  

b. You will never run a successful business and probably work exceptionally hard to earn money that you never hold on to and end up ultimately working too hard for too little money and never have the work / life balance you ever wanted in your life, owe out money all over the place and end up stressing over money all the time and ultimately always chasing money as you will never have enough. Your business will never be financially in a position for you to be able to leave it ie take holiday or take a break and you will always be in debt moving from crisis to crisis and financial worry to financial worry.

Phew that was alot …………… but do you get a picture forming here.

I am not going to talk to you in this blog about making money – NO – I want you to look at your understanding of your Attitude you have to money, about money, how it relates to you, how you see money and how you relate to money – that is about understanding what Financial Literacy is all about – for me and its here that I learnt huge valuable lessons over the past few years.

So lets start by asking the questions…..

What is your attitude to Money ?  What were you told about money growing up?  How was money referred to in your home by your parents, family and so forth – even your community?

Do you have patterns of money in your family, with you now ?  ie are you in debt?  how often do you get into debt?  what is your attitude to debt?

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When I use the word RICH – what image jumps out to you – these are the areas that I start to work on with you when we do our coaching sessions – working through this area allows you to understand how you manage money, see money, feel money, images of money, and your attitude to money – as they all relate to success – and not always around wealth and financial success.

Money is only one area we work on – success is not money alone but it may well be one area that you work on to ensure you have greater opportunity to get to the successful outcome or goal that you want.  It has a part to play whether we like it or not it is part of the overall equation.

I will relate this to me and give you an example –

Took redundancy 2011 – at that time was in debt, mortgage, credit cards and loans – decided Redundancy would last about 2 years and I could take time out to get well after heart operation and might decide to get back into part time work later on.  All my life I have been told – work hard get educated and get more money – well did all that and we still had a good wage but not vast wealth that I would have liked.  I often said then – my job is my vocation money is not necessarily the main reason I work – well how right I was about that especially when it came to my company looking after me after all those years of extended loyality.  When it came to it,  all my worth was calculated in complete years that had worked for the company and nothing more – not the success that I had brought to that company, not the time putting in when did not get paid or get time back, nothing but years calculated to the least amount of money that they could pay me as possible – I was only ever referred to as a number – faceless and emotionless and purely fiancially driven. I totally understand it – but it taught me a valuable lesson in worth, value and my interpretation of where I put my value of me higher than the company put their value of me – plus despite being vocational / educational and working for development community etc it was still a business and businesses look at The Bottom Line – cost.

Less that 12 months later – still had credit cards, still had loans and needed to get into work asap – nothing financially had changed including how we spent as a couple with 2 people working on 2 good salaries.  Reality check arrived and it was big – then decided after a crap attempt working for `friends` and being screwed over and going for a job in a large major supermarket chain for minimum wage and at last minute turning it down – to take leap of faith and started up SLJ Training – realised very quickly not the right environment for Training etc – so went back and retrained and learnt all I could around Coaching and Business Development. Took previous skills as a Senior Manager in Council and turned all those skills into business directed skills for Coaching and Business Coaching – plus add on qualified counsellor, managed staff and teams and budgets for 20 + years into skills I could harness in SLJ Coaching & Training Associates.  But the biggest part of all the learning (and this was someone who has been in the education and educational / learning world for all my adult life ) was to learn about my attitude to money, what it meant to me, how I related to it and how it managed me in so many cases and not often in a positive way.

And rightly so you are saying – AND SO WHAT………..

What I did in the meantime was – read and learn, listen and talk to people who understood the business world and success – what I needed to do was also change – change  me and change my attitude to money, how I earnt it, what I did with it and what I needed it for.

My ultimate goal (I have a few but start with this one) is to own a Villa in Turkey to be able to retire there or have a retirement home outside of UK in the sun – I want to do this by around 55 but as Mike retires from his salary job 58 will go for then – that gives me 10 years (11 actually) to do it in. Plus Retire from `working` life (not sure I ever will but ultimate goal.

This does not happen on fresh air – but I also have 2 teenage kids to school, head off to college, university and clothe, feed and sort as well in the meantime – basically without an income this will not happen.

In changing my mind set around Money and getting better and better at it – I am now making changes – I am no longer spending and I am looking at my spending patterns and how and what we need , we have little or no personal debt, credit cards are paid off, mortgage for house has been dealt with, we save at a higher level than ever before – I am more savvy with money and what I do for money and what includes how to go about making money. This in little over 2 years and even more so over the past 12 – 18 months.

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My learning around money is improving and improved vastly  – I know more and more about what I want money to do for me rather than previously working my ass off for money and still having nothing at end of month – rather than me just working for money – NOW money works for me.

I now know that for my Business to get better – for me to improve their and in my personal life I need to have assets not liabilities, I need to make money work for me not me killing myself working for money and I also need to be astute in what I do with my money – ultimately I can do more and give more and have a greater impact in my goals for my business and for me in starting up my business.

Thats the start of Financial Literacy – there are loads more but this is just a glimpse into what you do with me – not just dealing with light nice things but really delving in deep (not into your accounts – thats for you and your accountant) but about what you value money to be for your success or your journey towards success.  What it means to you?

So if you are ready for the New Year New You New Start and learning about Financial Literacy – then contact me further and lets journey together  – the more you understand yourself, your attitudes and what you want from life via personal goals and beyond the more you will be come successful in your business goals and life – goes without saying really as one is not separate from the other.

Money and Financial Literacy are not dirty words, but an area which is vast and getting a greater and better understanding of it and how you relate to it and work with it – can only make anything you do better – becoming Financially Literate is the ultimate part of the changes of New Year New You New Start for 2014.

Thank you for reading my musings over the past few weeks and I hope as we end January 2014 to hear from you, that you have enjoyed or gotten something from what I have been saying and might be interested in talking to me about being your coach for the future.

Best wishes and Keep in Touch

Sharon –

New Year New You New Start – Goal Setting

New Year New You New Start – Goal Setting

quotes-Les-Brown-goalsQuestion I am going to start off with on our 3rd blog session in January 2014 – Do you set goals ?  Do you write them down ?  Today you are – WHY? because people who write down their goals are more likely to actually ACHIEVE their goals, targets, dreams, ambitions, desires – what ever you want to call them – writing them down is the starting point.

 

Over the last few blogs I focused on YOU – getting you ready and in the right frame of mind to – CHANGE  – to make CHANGES – and be READY TO CHANGE.

Now we are focusing on GOAL SETTING – New Year, New You, New Start – is about making daily changes, putting in place good positive habits and SETTING GOALS.

Coaching or Mentoring for me is about this picture – I am your guide, your map reader to assist you in reading the road map that you need to set out,  to guide you and show you what is possible for you – in your personal life, career, employability, weight, personal development and of course your business.

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I will work with you to assist YOU to Determine WHAT you want and WHY you want it. I assist you to understand what is important, and what you need to do to achieve YOUR GOALS  by GOAL SETTING.

 

BUT

this is where it gets exciting, interesting and challenging at times as well.

 

 

 

dream goals plans

Now we begin to break down your Goals into steps, we design a plan , a plan of action and that is what I work with you on – this is where as your coach and mentor I do my job – working with you on transforming and making the transitions from having a dream into a reality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the value of goal setting – making them Specific, Measurable, Attainable/Achievable, Relevant & Realistic but most important of all as well Time Bound.

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This is now were YOU start to become SMART – and start taking the path or road map to achieving all your dreams and ambitions – in any or all avenues of your life.

 

Working with people – not clients or customers – but people – this is the most exciting part of my work – being with you and watching and working with you on your transformation and transition into achieving your goals.

 

Taking steps to make your goals happen is invaluable.

 

Make it happen today – take a pen or pencil, paper and start writing down what goals you want  or what you want in your life, personal or business – why do you want them.  What difference will it make to your life having them – write that down  also,   then write down  what difference to you or your life is there in not having them – once you start thinking in this way you start to see changes – New Year New You New Start.

 

Now you need to start looking at it from this point of view and telling yourself  – “I am going to achieve my goals, dreams and ambitions” and start with imagining or thinking that you have them already – what do you see, hear, feel – what does it look like for you – personal or business – if you had those goals already achieved, what difference would it make to your life.

Hold on to that image, hold onto those thoughts and now write down what you need to do to break the goal down further into steps – what steps do you need to take to get to that goal.

What blocks or barriers are there as obstacles that might stop you getting there – and then how are you going to over come them – what are you going to put in place to remove those blocks, barriers or obstacles.

See what you are doing!  – slowly but surely you are setting out your ACTION PLAN in how to achieve your goals.

Most importantly of all – put dates to those actions, when are you going to start it and when are you going to do it – and of course when you need it finished or completed by – setting dates and even times to it – make it real – make them SMART.

Don`t use ambiguous words – give it all full details – the more details the better – an example = I want to lose weight – by end of year, well losing a kilo is still losing weight but you want to lost 10 kilos – so define it.  I want to lose 10 kilos in weight and I want to lose 2 kilos each month, 1/2 kilo each week for the next 5 months or 20 weeks.

Another example: I want to  make money – ok so you make £10 this week or this month – you still made money – or you can give it details :-

I want to change from having a 4 figure or 5 figure yearly salary  and want to have a 6 figure yearly salary – ok so how you going to do that? My question would be next – what do you need to change or do to make that happen – do you need to learn new skills, better use of your money, your time, do you need to change jobs, do another job –  what additional knowlege, skills, and abilities do you need to acquire to achieve your goal and how will you acquire them.

See whats happening here ! You are defining and refining your action plan – being specific – follow this and you will soon find that goals you have had become achievable.

Thats the coaching / mentor role to work with you on Goal Setting – Making an Action Plan to achieving those Goals – getting you to keep to the action points and ultimately working with you to get to where you want to go and achieving your goals.

smart-goals

 

So start now – get Goal Setting and enjoy your New Year, New You and New Start to 2014.  Make it count.

 

 

 

New Year New You New Start

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Keeping Motivated after the first flush of the New Year is often a difficult one – and by this time normally many people are already getting disheartened, discouraged or have fallen off the wagon on their New Year Resolutions.

But – we are not on about New Year Resolutions – I do not work with people on resolutions but on Goals – setting them, keeping to them and making them a stepping stone in your life plan for success in what ever are that might be.  These are not sheer ideas or fantasy that you might have of `one day` achieving – these are goals and a series or set of goals that you are and you will over the course of this year achieve and once achieve set further ones to move towards your ultimate long term life goals for the future.

New Year New You New Start – so what are you going to do to keep motivated – what goals have you set already – as I stated in last blog – keep them SMART – keep it all simple – have big dreams for what you want – no problem there – dream as big as you want.

But what are your stepping stones to achieve that Dream – these are where, I believe, your goal setting comes in – and this is where it often goes wrong or pear shaped for people – they set goals that are unachievable, get disheartened, feeds into a negative mind set they already have of themselves and they fail – so give up and do nothing more about it – how many gyms are full of people sweating and groaning on the first week of January, sales of gym clothes, exercise dvds go up and you see people running and so forth every where – BUT by this date and mid January onwards = the memberships notice a decline in people attending, sales go down or return to normal and by end of January 80% of those signed up 1st January are no longer attending.  WHY ????? Because people throw themselves in, expecting MIRACLES to occur – weight to drop off them and because their is not INSTANT results – give up WHY? Because instead of doing it sensibly and steady and doing it at a pace that is achieveable LONG TERM  to change their lifestyles and their goal is too big too soon and ultimately set themselves up to fail.

AND HOW OFTEN HAVE WE ALL DONE THAT – hands up from me – But not any more – thats why Goal setting is important and HOW  you see what goal setting is about as well – thats the most important step – and thats what will keep you motivated even when you want to stop and give up.

But in this New Year New You New Start – what keeps you motivated – be realistic and be honest – if its money then make your goals money orientated ones – break them down, write them out and put them on your wall, on the fridge, on your bathroom mirror – prioritise what is the most important thing or goal you want to achieve and work on that one.

Again too often I hear and have worked with people who set goals or talk about goals that are huge in size – and then get very quickly overwhelmed – where to start, what to do first and then go – this is too much and stop . You might have heard the saying – you can only eat an elephant 1 bit at a time – what it means (rightly so ha hahaha ) is that any problem or issue that is that big,  needs to be broken down into smaller achievable chunks and devoured in that way instead – after all attempting to consume anything or achieve anything that big is definitely too much at any one sitting – but break it down and you will be surprised how much you can do paced correctly and done in priority order.

Thats the key – setting goals to keep you motivated – setting goals on a monthly basis – break your year down into goals for each month – decide what you want from 2014 and then month by month, week by week or even day by day how you can do it – now that way you can achieve it and you will even surprise yourself how QUICKLY you will achieve it as you will have the motivation to complete the whole year and complete and achieve your bigger year goal as well.  WIN WIN and we like win win scenarios.

Put this to any objective, goal, dream, ambition – the results are the same – BUT you have to want it to be able to achieve it as well – get yourself sorted as well – following on from last blog re being honest with yourself – if not honest then you are already on rocky ground for succeeding or achieving your goals short, medium or long term are irrelevant.

An example – if you say to me – I want to be wealthy – ok put a figure on it – you say £50,000 a year I want to earn – ok I say how do you think you are going to earn this – you reply do not know but thats what I want to earn.

Ok – so here is the honesty – I have no problem in saying to anyone if you want big wage package or business turn over in that bracket – what skills have you got to be able to do that – if you do not have those skills then go out and get them, go back to college, go back and learn them, work every hour you need to to be able to have those skills to either get a job that pays you that wage OR get a business that you make successful to give you that as a return for yourself each year – so have goals but also know how you are going to set about achieving those goals as well and set realistic timelines for them as well.

Another example – wanting to lose weight – to be healthy – so you want to lose 2 stone – having a goal that by end of February that you will lose 2 stone might be a bit unrealistic – tonnes reasons why not good for you or sustainable as a lifestyle change for good.  So set goals for each month target weight loss – so that within the year you will have lost the 2 stone, changed your eating and lifestyle and exercise habits so that you do not put the weight right back on again.  Makes sense – marathon instead of sprint.

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  I have decided in this New Year New You New Start – to make some quite big life changes both personally and in business and they are scary – but as this motivational slide and quote states – one thing I do not want to have in my life is REGRET.

I do not want to live my life, with `but if` or ` I should have done that` or `well it was not the right time` etc and the list goes on – when is the right time? is there ever one? NO you have to want to do it and I want to do it and I am going to do it and I know I will.

 What have you got to lose ? and how much have you got to GAIN – thats the question that I often ask – stop focusing on what happened in the past, your present and your future is all that is important – the past can only give you ideas of what not to do again or what mistakes to not keep repeating.  Taking these steps to focusing on yourself, making changes daily and sustaining those changes are what will influence your future – how you act NOW at this present moment is all important and vital on how successful you want to be – in either personal or professional or business life – its your choice to make.

Be honest with yourself – if you want to be successful – you will because your want, desire and your need for it will over ride your excuses for not being successful – because YOU WANT it – you work with coaches and others because you need the skills of others to assist you getting there – but over all you have to WANT it.

My advice to anyone working with me when I am coaching them is often this in the very start – if you do not know how you`tick` how you operate, what motivates you, what drives you, and you are not ok with feedback on this all (not counselling or therapy ) but feedback on patterns of behaviour, patterns of thinking, patterns of negative ways of being – or working on those to correct them – then coaching with me is not for you – if you are not honestly ready to be honest with yourself to make changes in your life to become successful in what ever area you want, if you are not ready to make changes – then you are not ready for me, for success and ultimately achieving your ultimate goal.

What keeps me motivated? Knowing that I am making changes in my life that will ultimately make me, my family and my business more successful keeps me motivated.  Knowing that any sacrifices I make now are ones that will give me long term goals that my kids will benefit – but also keeping me motivated is how much I want and love to work with people and making enough money to give me more and more financial freedom to be able to do this.  That keeps me motivated.

Find out what motivates you – keep it always in mind when setting goals and make sure that you recognise that and then take action and Do it. No excuses No Regrets.

New year new you new start – get the foundations right and get into action.

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Stay motivated stay on track 🙂