FreelanceCoach Blog

The essence of life coaching lies in healing you from the inside so that you can focus on specific areas of your life better. These areas could vary from your relationships to your work and career and from your family life to personal development and health.

There are certain points in our life where we feel that we are unable to identify our goals or where we feel helpless in a particular situation. There are times when we give up on our dreams and then there are times when poor health makes us loose our direction in life. We all go through such situation and sometimes we can deal with it and at other times we cannot. It is those situations that we are unable to deal with is where life coaching comes into practice. 

There are 7 aspects that life coaching focuses on and helps us to thus strengthen ourselves in each of these aspects. They are:

1)      Focus: This is the primary aspect. With the help of life coaching you can learn to focus on your goals, objectives, or situations. It will help you not only set time out for each priority in your life but also assist you in taking them head-on.

2)      Direction:  Once you have the focus, you need the right direction. Without a direction, you will be unable to reach your objectives. Life coaching will help you to create plans and strategies to be followed and thus achieve your objectives.

3)      Stress and Energy: One of the major reasons for lack of focus or direction in life is lack of energy, which rises from the high amount of stress. Life coaching is a process by which you will learn to reduce your stress and harness your positive energy.

4)      Confidence: Lack of confidence is one of the greatest issues that people of different ages are facing today. It is important to have self belief and confidence and this is exactly what you will learn through life coaching.

5)      Positivity: It is very easy to move from a positive frame of mind to negative and negativity surrounds all of us whether at work or home.  Life coaching enables understanding and accepting the positivity in us and around us as this will play an important role in your success.

6)      Balance in life: When nothing is working well, we lose our balance in life. Through this type of coaching, you can not only regain your balance but also move forth towards a brighter future.

7)      Growth and Success: Growth and success are inter-related but there are times when growth doesn’t bring success. This happens when you are stuck in a specific mindset. Changing the mindset keeping in mind future success and focusing your mind towards exploring new ideas and possibilities is what life coaching preaches.

Warm regards,

FreelanceCoach Team

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“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” - Norman Vincent Peale

This is what self-esteem is all about but more often than not, we suffer from lack of self-esteem and that is where all our woes in life begin. It all begins in the mind and it remains in the mind for as long as we want and this does more bad than good.

Low self-esteem grows like a creeper within your mind and normally arises from anxiety, depression, psychosis, phobia, delusional thinking, and even disability or an illness. Lack of self-esteem can lead to occurrence of several issues right from stagnant career growth to losing interest in life and relationships.

Is there a way to grow self-esteem or improve it?

Ways to Improve Self Esteem

The best way to improve your self-esteem is by always feeling good about your own self. Yes! It sounds difficult but you need to give it a try! When you try, wonderful things can happen and this is the valuable lesson that is imparted through life coaching.

Life coaching focuses on what is called confidence coaching. It is a step by step process where you will learn the following:

• To feel comfortable while facing or tackling new challenges at work or in life
• Learn to be at ease in a social environment like an event or a communion
• Feel excited when new opportunities knock your door
• Every accomplishment will translate into a greater sense of achievement
• Confidently go about implementing your creative ideas and innovative thinking
• To respect others and be respected in return
• To be completely sure of what you really want and how you can achieve it

These are some of the benefits that you will enjoy through life coaching.  The question still remains: how can you improve your self-esteem and achieve the above?

It is fairly simple! Start with a positive mental attitude!

Positive attitude can kill any negative thoughts. Positive attitude can make you appreciate your own self and help you to bask in sunshine. Positive attitude is something that you need to practice as Rome was not built in a day! You need to keep telling yourself that you are no lesser than anyone. When you start believing in yourself, a positive mental attitude will take shape. When your mind is positive and proactive, your body will follow suit. Miracles do happen; you just need to keep the faith!

Warm regards,

FreelanceCoach Team

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"The most important thing that I learned through life coaching was how my lack of self-confidence was taking away the glow from my life and hampering personal self-development” Sally Newton.

There are many more people like Sally who are facing their demons day in and day out. There are many Sally’s for whom living with their demons is the only choice and there are some who have succumbed to their demons. The demons are nothing more than the manifestations of your own personality that hampers proper personal self-development.

The question is how can you really instill self-development and enhance your personality? This is where life coaching comes to assistance. In order to identify how this type of coaching can help you, it is important to understand is what self-development really is.

Understanding Personal Self Development

Personal development relates to increasing self-awareness. When you are aware of your inner self and your strengths and weaknesses; you will be in a better position to command them. We are all a victim of our weaknesses and often our weakness overpowers our strengths. In such a situation life will always seem to roll downwards. There is nothing abnormal about this and most of us go through such a situation at least once in our life.

What life coaching does is that it teaches us to draw out our strength and harness it properly. This will ensure that our strengths overpower our weaknesses. When strengths are dominating, there will be an automatic increase in self-confidence. 

Ways of Achieving Personal Self Development

There are mainly 3 ways of achieving personal self-development through life coaching. They are:

Setting a Goal: Self-development starts with recognizing your true potential and how to judge your potential? This can be done only by testing your potential. To start with, life coaching will teach you to formulate a goal, aim at the goal, and achieve it. The goals initially will be smaller and achievable. As your keep achieving one goal after another, you will be able to judge your potential and understand your strengths. At the end of the day, you will be more self-confident and self-reliant!

Positive Outlook: Creating a positive outlook is easy but keeping it can be that difficult. Most often, a small defeat or stress can put a dent on our positive outlook. Where do we begin? Life coaching will help you to maintain constant positive outlook even when life seems to be moving in the wrong direction. Positive outlook plays an important role in controlling the mind and the more positive you are, the better equipped your mind will be to take on any challenge.

Evaluate your decisions: Last but not the least is evaluating your decisions. The process of evaluation will help you to determine where you went wrong or what needs to be improved. The process of life coaching process will help you to understand where and what you lack and how you can strengthen it so that overall personal self-development can take place.

Warm regards,

FreelanceCoach Team

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Several of the most common problems life coaches are called in to deal with have to do with energy.  Many people who feel like they are burning the candle at both ends just to get everything done are looking for ways to boost their energy so that they can get more done.  So how do you increase the amount of energy you have available?  Here are seven tips to help you out.

• Kick the caffeine habit.  It can be tempting to rely on stimulants like sugar and caffeine for energy, but this actually does just the opposite.  It may give you a very temporary boost, but you’ll just come crashing down later.  Instead of turning to sugar or caffeine, use the rest of these tips.
• Get moving.  A walk around the block will work wonders on your energy level.  Just like with money,  you have to spend some to make some.  Spending energy on taking a walk or doing some other type of exercise will boost your energy naturally rather than through the use of stimulants like caffeine or sugar.
• Eat a balanced diet.  A diet that is nutrient poor will not give you the energy you need.  There’s a good reason our bodies need healthy nutrients.  It’s to keep us going over the long term.  So the next time you’re thinking about grabbing some cookies or chips, trade it out with celery sticks or some other healthy alternative.
• Take a power nap.  Sometimes you just need a 15 or 20 minute rest in order to get your energy back.  Everyone has different sleep patterns, so some people may find it helpful to get up a little bit earlier in the morning and then take a power nap sometime during the day.  Just make sure that you don’t nap so long that it interrupts your natural sleep rhythms. 
• Drink plenty of water.  Dehydration robs your body of energy quickly, so it’s important to keep the water levels in your body up.  Weakness can actually be caused by dehydration, so keep a bottle of water handy at all times. 
• Stop skipping meals.  There is no meal you can afford to skip during the day.  Breakfast is the most important meal because it gets your metabolism going and gives you the energy you need to make it to lunch time.  However, you can’t afford to skip lunch either.  If you can’t step away from your work station for a full meal, opt for a few smaller meals or healthy snacks that you can take at your desk instead.
• Get stress under control.  Living under stress wreaks havoc on every system of your body.  It can rob you of the precious energy you need just to make it through the day.  Work with a life coach on stress management skills and get those difficult situations under control. 

If you’re still wondering how you’re going to get everything done, it’s probably time to hire a life coach.  There are coaches for every need, from stress management to career coaching.  They will get your life back on track and help you find the energy to do everything you want to do.  After all, the more energy you have, the more you’ll be able to get done.  You’ll become one of those people who always hears things like, “I don’t know how you do it all.” 

Wishing all the Best,

FreelanceCoach Team

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When most people set out to find a life coach, they have no idea where to start.  They may have a general idea that they need a coach to help them get back on track, but their idea stops there.  They have no idea that there are many different kinds of coaches.  But effective coaching is all about discovering what works, and the very first thing you’ve got to do in order to begin a successful journey with any coach is identify the type of coach you need.

First it’s helpful to understand some of the most common types of coaches, and this list is by no means exhaustive:

• Business coaches – perfect for small business owners or anyone who wants to succeed in the business world.
• Sales coaches – will help you get your sales numbers up or improve your sales team as a whole.
• Career coaches – for those who are on the search for a new career or need guidance in their current career.
• Wellness coaches – devise exercise and nutrition plan and helps you learn how to make healthier choices.
• Team coaches – develop teams and help them learn how to work together better.
• Life coaches – helpful in general aspects of life.

As you can see, there are different kinds of coaches for different kinds of challenges, and this list certainly doesn’t even cover all of them.  In order to determine what type of coach you need, just start by making a list of all the issues you need to work on.  Often you will begin to see a pattern emerge.  Perhaps all of your issues are job-related, or maybe you’re simply a business owner looking for a better way to motivate your team.  Whatever the reason you have for seeking a life coach, this is the place it comes into play.  If there are many issues that seem to be spread across all facets of life, a general life coach may be the right choice.  If so, you should look for someone with a wide range of experience working on various problems with clients. 

Another aspect of finding the right type of coach involves coaching style.  Just as no two people face exactly the same challenges, no two coaches are the same.  Within each type of coaching, you will find wide variances in style.  The best thing you can do to figure out which type of coaching style will work best for you is to screen several coaches whose services fall within the category of coach you are looking for.  Ask for a free discovery session with two or three coaches you think you might be able to work with and go from there.  After meeting with a couple of coaches, it will become clear what type of coaching style you need in order to find success.

Effective coaching always starts with the right type of coach—someone who is both qualified to help you work on the specific issues you are facing and also whose style meshes with your personality.  The right coach is out there; find yours now!

Wishing all the Best,

FreelanceCoach Team

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Often we feel that our life is stuck at a saturation point. Be it your career, health or relationship, it is usually difficult to perceive the small changes that happen on a daily basis. This is why I often perform a time travel back to my past.

No, I haven’t been luck to invent a time machine or stumble upon a magical lamp. This is a simple exercise that I strongly believe everyone should once in a while. Time travel in this context, is done by writing a letter from the past you to the present you.

Take a piece of paper, and imagine yourself to be the person you were 5 years ago. Write a letter, dividing it into 5 major sub-headings. Each of these sub-headings would focus on important areas of your life.

The first area should be your quality of life. What changes would you want to bring in your character and personality? What bad habits would you want to get rid of, and the good ones you wish to imbibe upon.

Young people do not focus much on being healthy, but they should. How healthy would you be in the next 5 years, on a scale of 10 where 10 is healthiest and 1 being not healthy at all?

The third and fourth areas can be interchangeable, considering the importance of each in your life. Some people value relationship or love over career while for others career comes first. Whichever sub-heading you wish to prefix before career and love, here are a list of questions that you can include in your letter:

For career; what are your reasons for choosing a particular profession, and do you see yourself content and successful after 5 years? What is your 5 year’s goal with respect to money, promotion and work-life balance?

Relationship is a tricky scenario as most people starts to mature and think of relationship differently with age. This should be a fun part to write on. State down what is your current view about relationship and love, are you the no-strings attached type or is it happily ever after for you since the first date. Is your present perception likely to stick even after 5 years? What changes you would, if you could bring in your future relationships?

After you are done with the letter, come back to the present and analyze whether you have lived up to your expectations. Note how your life has changed, which areas have improved and which needs working upon.

This simple exercise would give you an insight on how your life has changed over the past couple of years, and how you wish for it to change more during times to come.

By Alison Bourget

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The world and the lives of everyone in it are constantly in a state of flux and literally nothing is impervious to change.  With so much change going on around us on a daily basis, it might be easy to think that we humans would have become more accepting of it over time, but in fact the fear of change is something which huge numbers of people struggle with constantly throughout the course of their lives.  In many cases, that fear is so great that it effectively paralyzes individuals, leaving them unable to strive to be the best that they can or to achieve everything that they are capable of.  Instead of living their lives to the full and embracing new opportunities, they feel compelled to stick with what is familiar and what they perceive to be safe.

The idea that there is safety in trying to avoid or resist change is of course a myth, because not only is it bound to happen anyway,  but the very act of putting up resistance or failing to accept it simply leaves people feeling unprepared and out of control.  In burying their heads in the sand and failing to face up to the reality of situations, their fears escalate and the situations themselves are often allowed to worsen.  Not only this though, but when life presents them with wonderful new opportunities that they feel unable to grasp, they are left feeling filled with regret at their unfulfilled potential.      

We only have to think about some of life’s most stressful events such as marriage, divorce, moving house, changing jobs and bereavement to realize that the reason they typically feel so traumatic is because, alongside raising other sometimes disturbing feelings, they all involve change and adjustment.  Out of these changes, however, good things and great happiness and success often come and people are allowed to learn and develop.  In order for these things to happen, however, requires that change is managed in a positive and constructive way, and this is where various types of online coaching can help people to move forwards.

Online coaching comes in many different forms, including life coaching, health coaching and various types of business coaching, including executive, leadership and sales coaching.  Carried out in a secure online environment using e-mail or voice and video technologies such as Skype, online coaching provides an effective and convenient way for those who typically struggle with accepting and welcoming change into their lives to manage it successfully and in such a way that they are able to meet their life’s goals and objectives.  Whether your business or personal relationships, your career, your home or financial situation or your health are being affected by change, online coaching provides you with the help of an expert in that particular area of life to guide you through.  With the aid of a road map which fully allows you to take control of your own life, and the support and encouragement of an online coach, you too can move past the fear to embrace a brighter future.

Anda Tudor, Life Coach                                           September 16, 2011

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Human nature is such that most people have a huge tendency to either underestimate or undervalue their natural skills and talents, as well as their learned abilities.  In the course of our careers and our personal relationships, not to mention in the course of our lives in general, however, every single one of us builds daily on our own unique knowledge and experience, and not only is this immensely useful to ourselves as individuals, but also to other people.  Although we might assume that what we have learnt is common knowledge and thus of little value to others, in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

The person who has worked his or her way up through the ranks to become a top leader or executive is somebody who has a unique perspective on the challenges to be met along every step of the way.  In the course of his or her rise to success, this individual will have used a good deal of trial and error to get the right results, and this is experience which could be used to save others endless hours of wasted time and effort.  They will have identified shortcuts too, which again could be employed by others to similar good effect.  Just as importantly though, someone who has been through the experience themselves will understand the feelings and emotions involved in the process, as well as all of the practical concerns and issues, making them an ideal candidate for helping others through executive or leadership coaching.

In a completely different area of life, meanwhile, a person who has struggled with but overcome health-related issues such as those related to diet or exercise will also have learned many extremely valuable lessons along the way.  From the vast amounts of often conflicting information and advice which is available, they will have been through the process of sorting out what works from what doesn’t and come up with usable strategies which could equally well be employed by others.  Once again, with the relevant training and qualification to act as an online coach, such a person could be in a position to offer invaluable support and guidance through health coaching services, while at the same time developing their own coaching business as a self-employed individual.  Those with backgrounds in the healthcare industry too can easily use their knowledge and skills in the health coaching arena.

Life coaching, which typically focuses on helping others to achieve their full potential across a whole variety of aspects of life, is a form of online coaching which many people find highly appealing, not least because the very process of coaching others contributes to their own personal development.  While many countries currently do not regulate the provision of life coaching services, anyone who is considering becoming a life coach is strongly advised to acquire relevant training and qualifications to secure their professional credibility and reputation.

Remember, your experience could be extremely valuable to others and it could form the basis of a profitable online coaching business. 

Anda Tudor, Life Coach                                        August 18, 2011

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Although some people just seem to be born procrastinators, every single one of us is guilty at one time or another of putting things off until a later date.  Sadly though, it’s not just the unpleasant concerns that we keep moving down our to-do lists, but even the things which could genuinely bring us joy and happiness.  How many times, for example, have you heard people talk about how they will write that book, start that business or get serious with that diet “one day”, only for that day never to arrive?

In his best-selling book entitled The Road Less Travelled, psychiatrist M Scott Peck devotes one of his chapters to the subject of delaying gratification, which he describes as “a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with.”  He then goes on to explain that although most people learn this process by the time they reach adolescence, for reasons unknown, some individuals barely develop the ability to delay gratification by the age of 15 or 16.  Despite the fact that these people may be of higher-than-average intelligence, their procrastination causes them to perform at less than optimal levels, not just during their school years, but in many cases throughout their entire lives.

Although in certain situations it can be quite easy to see why procrastination occurs, in others the reasons aren’t nearly so obvious.  Putting off opening a credit card statement or opening it but then delaying in calling the credit card company when you realize that you can’t afford to make the payment, for example, typically happens because of fear.  Even putting off the more difficult jobs at work and dealing with the easier ones first can come out of the fear of getting it wrong or not doing well enough.  In all of these examples though, the very act of delaying only stores up even greater problems for the future.

Even in the case of those activities which could potentially bring us joy and success, such as starting a business or writing a book, fear can often be an important factor which contributes to procrastination.  Surprisingly though, it is not just failure that people commonly fear, but success too.  In some cases, there is the feeling deep within the individual that he or she doesn’t deserve to succeed, whereas in others the fear has more to do with the consequences of success and how it might affect their lives and their relationships.  In failing to rise to the challenge, however, those who put off their dreams, sometimes indefinitely, deprive themselves of the opportunity to meet their full potential in life.

The development of skills and strategies to overcome procrastination is something that many of those who choose online coaching are keen to address.  Whether the problem manifests itself in a career sense, a health sense or across all areas of life, executive coaching, business coaching and leadership coaching, health coaching and life coaching respectively can help to equip those who are apt to procrastinate with the tools to move forward confidently and with determination.  With online coaching being such a convenient option, there isn’t even any need to procrastinate in signing up!

Anda Tudor, Life Coach                                                           August 17, 2011

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We all are facing at a certain moment a change in our environment. Can be a happy situation, from getting married, promoted, moving to your first house, or difficult, like losing someone close, breaking up with your partner, changing the city due to your work duties and losing the contact with all your friends, all these can be very challenging and cause you trouble if you don’t manage the change.

I recently moved to a new apartment and I was excited for this, the apartment is bigger, brighter, close to a park, just like I wanted and still after the move I was stressed. There were many things to handle, to organize and it looked like the transition phase will take longer than expected. Where is this going to be over? When can I enjoy my apartment as I was imagining?

My old routine with going to the gym and doing other activities was all of the sudden changed. The main focus became the apartment entirely as I wanted to finish it as soon as possible but still I wasn’t happy. I realized that I had to change something. I analyzed the situation and these are the steps I took:

1. Establish realistically when the current transition can end.

Tip: In my case, one week was enough. For other cases, can be month. See what works for you and your situation and note this timeline. If in time you need to adjust the timeline as you see that the transition may end sooner, do so. In case of a happy event you want to keep the happy situation as long as possible. It is normal and very understandable to feel this way; the ending of the transition period in this case means only the smooth, complete inclusion of this happy event into your life.

2. Continue with my routine. How much time do you need for your routine activities like, going to the gym, playing sports, watching movies, etc?

Tip: Restarting your routine activities will bring you back your stability. Clarify how much time an activity can take and how many times per week you want to do them.

3. Make a plan for the week. Incorporate the things you “need” to do, like in my case to work on the apartment, and also the things/activities you want to do, like have fun, meeting your friends, attending specific events, etc.

Tip: Once you start making the plan for the week you will see that it is easy to expand it to the whole month. This will give you clarity and confidence that you are in control of the situation and joy knowing that you are things/activities that you like coming up.

4. What else can I do to keep myself happy and positive?

Tip: Discover what activities are important for your happiness. Is it going to a park, going out for a movie or meeting with your friends? Would you like to meet new people? Put everything on a piece of paper and take action. Establish how can you do all these, when is the best time to do it and put them on your weekly plan from point 3.

5. Check at the end of the week the progress made. See what you would like to improve. Congratulate yourself for the progress!

To Your Happiness!

Anda Tudor, Life Coach                                                                                              July 12, 2011                                                                         

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