How to get back on track?  You aren’t unwell, there is nothing mental to diagnose, but you clearly need help to redirect your path.  You don’t want to wear out your friends’ ears, and perhaps none of them fits the role you need now.  A good coach may be in order.  Your powerful, passionate, purpose is something that emerges from within.  Are you blind to it?  Too distracted by other life issues to see the direction signs?

A well-matched coaching mentor will patiently partner with you in self-discovery, help you feel better, improve your circumstances, and live in a more aligned way.  Ideally your coach will help you to define manageable steps toward manifestation of goals, new ways of being, shifts in understanding, self-acceptance, and nurturing. Imagine envisioning your dreams and expressing your unique tone in the world, whatever that energetic may be!  Big ambitions or creative expressions, your coach is your subtle cheerleader helping you to court your magnificence out of hiding by inspiring your way forward.

The pandemic provided nearly everyone in the world some unexpected introspection time.  Some floundered, some flourished, some sought help, and many others became coaches.

Do you have the coaching calling?  Right before the pandemic sentenced us to homebound living I was cast into an unexpected divorce.  It was a tough period, and yet such a gift to have unbounded time to get a grip on my life, how I got to such a challenging juncture, how to recover, and plans to manifest a fresh life based on the wisdom gained through the sieve.  Fortunately for me, my daughter is trained as a therapist, is a naturally gifted sage and my best friend. Careful not to lean on her too much she responded as a coach/friend, and without giving me advice, she has always said just the right things to support me in helping myself!

At this juncture, as I am ready to re-engage my coaching career, which I put on hold to focus on developing myself as a top-notch realtor, I ran across what is possibly the finest resource available for coaching self or other, informally, or professionally.  The book is The Coach’s Way, by Eric Maisel, PhD.  The subtitle, The Art and Practice of Powerful Coaching in Any Field, defines the work as art, a big differentiator from therapy.  Maisel, author of over fifty books, is known as the coach’s coach, is a retired psychotherapist who consults, teaches, and speaks worldwide.

Having twice come within weeks of starting masters degree programs that led to a psychotherapy practice that I opted out of at the last minute, Eric Maisel clarifies for me the subconscious reason that I knew psychotherapy wasn’t for me.  Psychotherapist’s role is to “diagnose and treat mental disorders,” scientifically define and categorize the patients with a specific malady.  This paradigm is about creating a label rather than creatively assisting people through life’s normal challenges.  Maisel articulates that coaches’ primary role is to help clients a little bit and I’d say to help themselves.  It is an artful interactive process that suits me well, as it is “more modest and more honest,” as Maisel says.

Most of us could use the assistance of a coach in the ordinary challenges of life.  Think of it, we commonly use coaches in athletics to hone our skills and refine our capacities, why not in the many other aspects of a fulfilled life?  Your effective coach will make reality-based suggestions that fit with your life, and getting guidance increases the probability of getting there!

If you are inclined to coach yourself, are considering becoming a coach, or want to expand your capacity as the coach you are, then I highly recommend studying Eric Maisel’s book, The Coach’s Way.  It is effectively a workbook filled with wisdom and practices that will surely open many doors for any sponge-like reader.