Achieving life balance through coaching (1)

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination” (Tommy Lasorda).

Several years ago, if anybody talked about coaching, the immediate thought and assumption would be that the person is talking about coaching in sports. This is because sports seemed for a long time the most visible sphere where the activities of a coach were known, seen or recognised. Today, coaching has taken on a widespread acceptance as a profession in other realms apart from sports, and is in fact practiced in practically every sphere of human endeavour.

Today, there are professional coaches operating in spheres related to business, commerce, corporate development, non-governmental organisations, families, religion, education, culture, government, finance, medicine, psychology, human sciences etc. And, like sports, professional coaching in all of these spheres is concerned with personal development, performance enhancement and improvement in one or more areas of specific interest and importance.

It is a well established fact that coaching as a profession has in the past few years grown significantly and become very prominent as a tool, system, process and structure to advance growth and development. In the corporate world in particular, coaching has become a must-have executive perk for top managers, corporate leaders and others with executive decision-making responsibilities.

And, beyond the exclusive suites of top corporate management, coaching has grown in importance, becoming a standard part of the corporate organisational tool kit. Specifically, in the corporate environment, coaching has been, and is being successfully utilised as a tool to help employees, managers, team leaders and supervisors to improve their performance. The focus is on personal development, skill development, emotional intelligence, capacity building and relationship management, among others.

This trend will surely continue and may in fact experience an upsurge, as more people have a greater understanding of the transformational effects of coaching. For example, experience and research indicate that highly motivated and personally inspired personnel at every level produce remarkably high performance results through coaching. The effect of coaching in this regard is especially manifested through better life balance and improved interpersonal relationships.

One of the most important areas currently being emphasised when considering the engagement of professional coaches is the facilitation of life balance. Life balance in this regard refers to the state of being personally satisfied and at peace with self, other people, your environment and various activities related to work, relationships and obligations. Life balance is all about being fully comfortable with a reasonable standard of being alive, efficient and effective, especially while contributing actively through different activities to diverse tasks, responsibilities, obligations and interests.

In the midst of many present day responsibilities and commitments that we all have to cope with, ensuring life balance is becoming even more challenging. Today, with lots of responsibilities, attractive options, several distractions, endless daily activities, urgent and less urgent demands and needs, there is the need to deliberately seek a good balance in daily living. No matter how strong, healthy, active, brilliant and energetic we may appear to be, the demand to multitask would always have a trade-off.

For many people, there is the desire to give more of themselves and do more by themselves, essentially because of their natural disposition, which makes them ‘nice’. But, quite often, being so nice and available to everyone and in every situation can be quite demanding and challenging – physically, emotionally, financially and socially. When people just don’t know how and when to say “No”, or draw the line, they become prone to abuse, burnouts, frustration and ineffectiveness. Coaching is a way out.

Some people are better at managing tasks and responsibilities, as well as effectively leveraging on time, people and resources than others. For some people, developing and deploying the essential skills of multitasking, time leveraging, resource management, task delegating etc., have proved to be a herculean task. For these people and even others, who may not be experiencing such daunting issues, coaching presents an excellent system and tool in helping to establish the basis, process and structure for having an excellent life balance.

Seeking coaching to assist in ensuring life balance is critical in today’s clime. It is all about learning to make the right choices, establishing clear boundaries, setting realistic goals and having correct expectations. We can all actually give more and do more, in giving back to people, systems, organisations, systems, society, family and relationships without any area suffering loss or deprivation. Coaching for life balance in this regard focuses on widening the range of perspectives and adding more choices.

A good coach would assist you to focus on just one thing – being effective. It is usually about being more concerned about the flow of the moment, by breaking your goals into tiny bits, so that you are in control of the moment and effectively control what you can at the present moment. Being effective in what you do now is more important than what will happen tomorrow. Coaching thus facilitates life balance by helping you to focus on yourself and the present. The results will usually take care of themselves. You can read more about the transformational power of coaching at www.ceedcoaching.com.

Emmanuel Imevbere