Coaching can cover many different areas from sport to business and it is essential that you make yourself aware of coaching in general before you get involved in a single area. If you joined a sport in grade school you had a coach explain to you the rules and the best strategy to use to help win the game. In high school you had this same advantage, but once you reach the grown up world you may think you don’t have this advantage anymore. This is not always true, there are coaches out there to help you be the best you possibly and this also applies to the business world as well.

Over the years companies have realized that using coaches in the business world can make a big difference in their corporation. Coaches in the business world can really help, for example if you are an employee trying to get a head it can give you an advantage over other employees. If you are a supervisor who hires a coach for the employee you may be giving your company an advantage over other companies. Whichever way fits your needs it is a fact coaching can make an impact in the world of industry.

Just because an offer from a coach sounds good, in reality it may not be the right one for you; therefore you need to be sure and check out all the information given to you before accepting an offer. Don?t accept the first offer that come to you, check out several choices, compare, and then choose. You are searching for a coach that can offer you the most help in the areas of business that you are concerned with, along with someone with a good reputation of proving themselves as an excellent coach.

Accessing the web to look for a coach that would be right for you is probably the best way to find one. You are looking for a coach that makes you feel comfortable and relaxed; after all you do have to pay for their services. You cannot find a coach that will be perfect in every area, but you can come real close by searching online. Keep in mind that hiring a coach that comes as close to what you need, will benefit you the most.

When you have chosen a coach and they have started to work for you, they will be able to see things that you may have overlooked. Because of this you may have to make some changes that you don?t feel comfortable with or don?t really understand. This is why it is important for you to trust the coach and let them make some changes to improve your business. A great coach will show you what can be accomplished in the future, by making changes now; you may have choices you never knew existed before.

After you have gotten rid of some old habits and found newer better ones to use, you may find that you can accomplish anything you set out to do. Having a good coach will definitely help you to achieve this, even though it may seem hard at first letting another person tell you how to run your business.

Many employees seem to accomplish more if they have a coach assisting them along the way; this is one good reason for an employer to hire a coach. Sometimes the employer may want to hire a coach to help them advance their skills of management even further than they already have. Whatever the reason for hiring a coach, either for the employer or the employee, the company will benefit from the added contribution. If you are employed at a company that does not provide a coach, you can always hire your own to help you improve and advance your career.

After researching and finding the coach you feel is best for your company, you may want to use that same coach for yourself. This is why it may be a good idea to find one that is also qualified in the area of management. You can review a first hand evaluation of the coach?s ability, and know if he can improve your skills, helping you to accomplish your goals. Now that you are aware of the basics of coaching you can now proceed with ease into the are that most interests you.

As life coaching is gaining popularity, so is interest in becoming a life coach. Many people love the idea of working for themselves and being in a profession that helps others. If you are thinking about becoming a life coach, there are several factors you need to consider.

First, decide what type of life coach you want to become. The word “life” covers a lot of territory so life coaches tend to specialize in specific areas. These areas include career and finance, goal setting, relationships, weight loss/fitness and drugs and alcohol, just to name a few.

What is your passion and how do you want to inspire others to create success in their lives?
When thinking about what type of life coach you want to be, examine your career, education and life experience to find your current strengths.

Once you have an idea of what area you want to focus on, consider what a life coach does. This is tricky because there is no one definition or universal standard so several interpretations exist. You need to develop a format in which you will teach successful actions to your clients.

A qualified life coach can break down goals into manageable, easier to confront steps while showing the client effective techniques for completing them. Just knowing what and how is not enough because clients often get in their own way. The life coach will evaluate their progress and motivate them to implement a plan with consistent action to actually achieve desired results. Before you begin on this path, know that there is a difference between understanding what to do and being able to get someone to do it.

There are three essential elements involved in becoming a life coach and they are training, skills and education. When it comes to training, there are many life coaching academies that offer courses and some even offer accreditation. Many of these courses have actual and practical value. Please note that there is no federal or state agency that has an accreditation for life coaching and schools offering degrees are self-accredited.

If you are considering taking any of these courses first look into the costs involved. Often an inexpensive introductory course is offered only to get you started. Since costs can add up quickly, check into the length of time, the number of additional courses required and make sure to get referrals from other students. Another important point to check for first is whether or not the school provides adequate tools for practical application when working with clients. This will be very helpful for beginners in developing step-by-step methods for life coaching.

There are a few key skills that are absolutely essential. For starters, you need to be a good listener, a creative problem solver and have considerable knowledge of human behavior. You need to be able to set goals and develop plans of action to actualize them. Life coaching requires that you are organized and can keep meticulous attention to detail to monitor weekly results.

Patience and the ability to deal with frustration are critical. Clients don’t always do what they agree to do and getting people to suddenly give up destructive behavior patterns can be a real challenge. You need to know how to motivate and be creative in overcoming obstacles and objections. You have to really like and care about people. You must also be able to accept failure as not all clients will change. There are a few more skills involved but these are fundamental.

A life coach should love education in order to stay informed of current advances and trends. The areas that require consistent study are psychology, goal setting, motivation, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, human behavior, habits of successful people, sleep patterns, relationships, business principles, principles of success, career development, drugs, alcohol, leadership, sales and more. A life coach is a relentless student of these subjects.

Life coaching is a proactive approach to resolving obstacles in an individual’s life and it requires a clear picture of not only why and how, but also of step-by-step implementation and the ability to resolve blocks and setbacks as they come up. You’ll need to combine these factors into a working platform to assist your clients in reaching their goals.

Finally, when you are ready to start life coaching, how are you going to get clients? The idea of working for yourself and helping people may sound great, and it is but it comes with its difficulties. You are not going to simply get business cards made then start filling your appointment book. Schools offering great careers as life-coaches will only be able to give you limited assistance in getting clients. After you spend your time and money either with a life coaching school or developing your own style of life coaching it will be up to you to get clients. You are one hundred percent responsible for your income and success.

You should enjoy networking and self-promoting. You can build a clientele through friends, networking groups, placing ads, professional relationships, and whatever other creative ways you can think of. As you get clients and earn a reputation, your business will grow through referrals. All this takes time, so be prepared.

As you are developing your business, you will have to overcome the obstacle of people questioning what a life coach does. Be prepared by asking yourself why someone would pay you to advise him or her and have a good answer. The answer you develop to that question will be the foundation for your success.

After considering all of these factors, if you decide to become a life coach you will be entering a dynamic field. Being able to actually help people create the life changes they want is a highly rewarding and exciting career. You’ll be helping others gain success while creating your own!

Activities – such as sports, creative projects, reading, work, TV, meditation – can be a wonderful way to relax, express yourself, or connect to yourself. Or they can be an addiction. How can you know the difference?

* Angie would surf the channels whenever she felt stressed or alone.

* Karen would lose herself in a book when things felt overwhelming.

* Keith would retreat and meditate when his wife wanted to talk.

* Patty’s work schedule left her little time at home.

* Carl spent more time in the garage fixing things than with his family.

* Patrick’s love of running was interfering with his family time.

Whether or not an activity is an addiction depends upon your INTENT.

* When the intent of an activity is to avoid the pain of aloneness and loneliness, it is an addiction.

* When the intent of an activity is to avoid the pain of rejection or the fear of domination, it is an addiction.

* When the intent of an activity is to put off doing something you don’t really want to do but need to do, it is an addiction.

Whenever an activity is used as a way to avoid something – painful feelings, difficult or boring tasks – it becomes an addiction. It’s really no different than using substances such alcohol, drugs, or food to avoid painful feelings or challenging tasks. The problem with using addictions to avoid painful feelings is that the feelings don’t actually go away. They are just numbed for the moment but are silently eroding one’s sense of self. We can get away with it only for so long before it shows up in some way – illness, divorce, depression, and so on. And avoiding tasks means that the tasks pile up, eventually causing the very stress we want to avoid. Our society is filled with ways to avoid. Yet it is avoidance that leads to the very feelings we are striving to avoid!

When the intent of an activity is to take loving care of yourself by providing yourself with fun, creativity and expression, relaxation, personal growth, spiritual growth, physical health and well-being, then it is a loving action rather than an addiction. It all depends on your INTENT.

Next time you want to participate in your favorite activity, you might want to notice your intent. Do you want to relax and watch TV or are you avoiding some difficult feeling or task? Do you find yourself scheduling more work than you can really handle to avoid dealing with aloneness, loneliness, or conflict with a mate, or are you really loving your work and feeling fulfilled by it? Are you exercising to support your health or to avoid feelings?

Once you become aware of using an activity to avoid, here’s what you can do about it:

1. Welcome the feeling you are trying so hard to avoid. Pay attention to the feeling – fear, loneliness, aloneness, agitation, boredom, anxiety.

2. Make a decision to learn what YOU might be doing to cause this feeling rather than continuing to avoid it.

3. Explore what you might be doing to cause this feeling. How are you not taking care of yourself that is causing your painful feeling? Are you procrastinating, judging yourself, or not standing up for yourself in conflict? How are you avoiding responsibility for your own well-being? Are you allowing yourself to be a victim, waiting for someone else to make you feel better?

4. Once you understand what you are doing to cause your distress, then you need to ask “What would be the loving action for myself?” You are asking this question of your highest self, or of your spiritual guidance if you are connected with a source of guidance. If you open to learning about what is loving, ideas will pop into your mind.

5. Now you need to take the loving action on your own behalf – complete a task, stand up for yourself and speak your truth with someone, and so on.

6. Re-evaluate how you are feeling. Are you feeling more peaceful and more powerful? You will feel more peaceful if you have taken the loving action. If you are not feeling better, don’t just turn back to your addictions. Look for another loving action until you find what really makes you feel safe on a deep level, not just the temporary pacification of an addiction.

You will find your addictions fading away as you learn to take loving care of yourself.

I’LL START TOMORROW (WELL, MAYBE THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW)

Are you one of those people who seem very comfortable with self-defeating acts in the moment? But later, when the moment has passed, do you hate yourself for behaving that way? Do you know anyone (including yourself) who indulges a passion for desserts no matter what the cost? Do you wonder why his or her (or your?) sense of regret doesn’t lead to different eating choices the next time? Do you (or anyone you know) distract yourself from important tasks such as schoolwork or a job by partying, watching TV, daydreaming, and so on, and then justify it to yourself or others? It may feel great at the time, but the remorse that inevitably follows is like that killer hangover that also fails to motivate constructive changes. When you promise yourself to do better the next time as you do when you say “I’ll start my diet next week” and you still fail to follow through you’re left with a strong sense of betrayal, remorse, and guilt for having failed . . . yet again.

ARE YOUR FANTASIES A SUBSTITUTE FOR REAL SATISFACTION?

Are your fantasies the major source of your happiness? Think about your weight fantasies, your relationship fantasies, your sex fantasies, your fantasies about power, parenting, money, and success. If you want to make your fantasies become realities, you need to change. Pick your dream. Go ahead. Is it a dream of being powerful, admired, creative, great in bed, wealthy, the world’s best parent? We all have dreams nothing wrong with that and nothing too surprising either. What is surprising is how often these dreams remain out of reach to us despite our great desire to achieve them and despite knowing that our happiness depends on fulfilling them.

LOVE, SEX, AND ROMANCE, OR WHY YOU CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION

Remember your fantasies about acquiring great sexual power, appeal, and success like movie stars? Remember your dreams of great everlasting love from the protagonists of romance novels? As adults, if these fantasies don’t become transformed into realistic life satisfactions, it’s a sign of serious underlying conflicts. Does that mean that perfect beauty and/or a buff physique are necessary for happiness? No. We all probably know people who are average in looks but very powerful in sex appeal. And there are those who are well endowed with looks but are inept at romance and love. The important question is, how and why do we fall short, and why is it so difficult to change?

Here are some common signs of underlying trouble. You’re great at seducing someone, but run the other way as soon as he or she falls in love with you. You lose interest in sex with a willing, attractive, and sexy partner, yet there was no such problem in the beginning of the relationships. You need pornography, or fantasies with someone else, or fantasies of your partner having sex with someone else, in order to get aroused. You need a good fight with your spouse as a prelude to sex. If you notice that any of these issues apply to you, you’ll soon learn what’s behind these patterns, and how to use that information to overcome them.

SEXUAL AFFAIRS, OR NEVER GETTING TOO INVOLVED WITH ONE PERSON

What do you think motivates someone to have affairs when it can be so completely detrimental to one’s well being? You may say that the person who is engaging in the affair feels excited, or is having a great adventure, but in fact the behavior is usually truly self-destructive. The chapter “Why Can’t I Fall in Love or Stay in Love” will explain why so many people have affairs instead of serious long-term relationships.

ANOTHER BAD RELATIONSHIP, OR WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN?

For many of us, it’s hard to understand the motivation of people who complain about partners who mistreat them but don’t stand up for themselves and/or leave. You yourself may notice that you have an ability to attract a desirable partner, but then become critical of him or her.
Why, you wonder, do you (or others) choose partners with qualities that seem so mismatched with your (their) own? What do you make of the shy person married to a domineering person? Ever wonder how you’d be affected if you needed to have everything in its place but were married to a disorganized slob? Why make that choice in the first place?

As you read on and start recognizing a few simple principles, you’ll find that it’s becoming much easier to figure out the choices you and others make.

WHEN SUCCESS AND MONEY ELUDE YOU, OR I COULDA BEEN A CONTENDER

Failure to achieve success, to make their ambitions come true, is a major source of distress for a lot of people. Does career or school success elude you completely, or do you undermine yourself after you achieve success at work or school?

Perhaps you dropped out of school even though you wanted to be someone? Maybe you’re a perennial student who’s afraid to graduate into the real work world? Or maybe you can’t reach your professional goals despite having talent to spare and opportunities waiting? So what’s the problem? Is it possible that your problems with success revolve around money? Many people habitually lose money when investing, even though they have years of experience in the market and have read everything on the subject. Do you have similar problems with money and success?

Have you ever noticed that after accomplishing academic, career, or financial goals, some people become increasingly anxious or depressed? Have you ever seen someone avoid taking credit for the successful outcome of a big project while attributing the success to others or to simple “good luck”? Do you find it ironic that the happiness normally associated with personal achievement is replaced by worry, unhappiness, or excessive modesty? Sometimes problems with success and money are really about the following two issues, best summed up as: Why Am I Such a Wimp? And I’m a Worthless Nobody. Let’s tackle the Wimp issue first.

WHY AM I SUCH A WIMP, OR A LACK OF ASSERTIVENESS AND POWER

Think of the word “power.” What comes to mind? Is it a picture of an influential person who realizes his or her goals, leads organizations, garners respect, and gains admiration? Why is it that for some people, personal power seems to fail them at every turn of their lives? A lack of personal power doesn’t just show up at work or at home, it rears its head in the most unexpected places, too.

When you’re susceptible to sales people who want you to buy products that you don’t really want and definitely don’t need, your lack of personal power is showing. When you can’t turn down requests for money, or conversely, you say no to any and all requests and suggestions oops, it’s your lack of personal power again. How do you explain people who always act self-sacrificing and can’t help but put others’ needs first? Yes, you’ve got it, it’s that pesky lack of personal power. Now let’s go on and see about this “worthless nobody.”

WHY AM I A WORTHLESS NOBODY?

Many people are plagued by negative behaviors and thoughts that affect their ability to be liked and to feel good about themselves. Does this sound familiar you can’t accept a compliment, and you’re unable to let yourself be the center of attention? Then there are people who criticize themselves excessively. Ever encountered thoughts like this in yourself? “I’m a baby.” (For “baby” you can substitute words like “no good,” “lazy,” “stupid,” and a whole host of others.) Once you have the word in your head, is it hard to get it out of your head? If so, you can consider yourself to be a member of the “Worthless Nobody Club.” Not one you probably want to be a member of, and one that we’ll deal with in greater detail later. When we do, you may find ways to resign your membership from the club and move on.

ARE YOUR LITTLE ANGELS LITTLE DEVILS IN DISGUISE?

Anyone who has raised children knows how often you can be blindsided by their unexpected behaviors, behaviors that provoke you and are difficult for you to deal with. Some of these exasperating actions are normal parts of a child’s early development, like acting cooperatively, then immediately afterward refusing to do what you want, or like getting very close to you, only to reject you one minute later for the other parent, and like turning to you for comfort, love, and advice, then ignoring you.

If you are overly sensitive to any of these behaviors, and react by acting hurt or threatened, it will cause your children to behave in more extreme and more provoking ways. Chapter 16, “I’ve Become My Mother/Father and My Child Is a Pain,” addresses the question, Why do some of these patterns become increasingly rigid and unyielding as some children get older (especially during adolescence)? Why does this happen no matter how frustrated, angry, pleading, or cajoling you become, no matter how many rewards you promise? You find yourself wondering “What’s gotten into them?” as if they’ve become possessed by the devil, or as if one of the plagues sent down on the Pharaoh was visited upon you instead.

The key to overcoming these problems is to understand which one of your behaviors (hidden from your awareness) is responsible for the behavior that you can’t stand in your child. This book will help you identify which of your words and your deeds are responsible, and then will show you how to use this information to help them get on track.

THE NEW SEE FOOD DIET, OR EATING EVERYTHING YOU SEE

Everyone who has had a weight problem at some time in his or her life can appreciate how difficult it can be to keep under control. In spite of the abundance of diets that prevail, a large number of people continue to overeat and hate themselves for it. If this is the case, then clearly there must be some hidden self-defeating motivations that are responsible for the compulsive habit of overeating in spite of “best intentions.” In the chapter “Why Am I Fat and Why Can’t I Lose Weight?” I’ll describe the six underlying reasons for this. If this is one of your own problems, reading on will help you discover which motive applies to you.

WHY CAN’T YOU GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER, OR SO YOU THINK YOU LEFT HOME?

Why does behavior we hate that originates in childhood continue far into adult life when we’re not even living with our family? If we’re no long under the influence of our parents or our siblings, why are we still controlled by the self-defeating beliefs that have their roots with them? Later in this book, I’ll show you a chart called “How You Create New Moral Codes to Live By” and you’ll understand how you create new moral codes for yourself. The codes or rules are all based on experiences you had while dealing with your parents’ and/or your siblings’ flaws.

In the quest towards achieving success and accomplishment in our lives, a systematic plan of action is needed. Without a plan even the greatest of efforts will be ineffective, eventually degenerating into frustration and wasted time. A guided plan allows one to utilize his/her talents and competencies to the fullest, by focusing them in a coordinated and strategic manner upon a specific outcome. The power of concentrated effort should never be underestimated. A strategy that one should immulate from the world of sports, is that in competition one should always seek to “play his/her game”. One should never be forced into the position of trying to be successful by operating under conditions strategically benificial to the opposing team. In other words, in seeking to achieve success in today’s competitive environment, a professional should design an action plan around his/her personal strengths and competencies. Play to your strengths and not to your weakness.

There is always more than one way to the mountain top; a striving professional should ensure that the path he/she chooses, is the one which utilizes his/her talents and skill sets to the fullest.

The acronym A.I.D.E can be used as a tool for the striving professional, in the drafting of a personal action plan. A.I.D.E stands for: Analyze, Identify, Design and Evaluate. A professional should first analyze his/her situation. What are one’s professional aspirations and goals? What stage of his/her career is the professional currently in? What are the future prospects of current and prospective career paths? It is important to fully know the landscape before any journey can be undertaken. Before embarking upon the adventure of a lifetime one should take time to learn the terrain.

The next step in action planning is to identify those skill sets and core competencies one wishes to utilize. For example if a person possesses excellent analytical and mathematic skills one should seek opportunities which require these proficiencies, such as engineering or systems analyst. The identification stage involves much soul searching and should be undertaken in a deliberate and patient manner.

The design stage of the planning processes puts the “gears into the dream”. The design phase is the actual creation of one’s plan of action. During this period the professional determines the specific:
 Activities
 Time Frames
 Outcomes
 Methods
,that will be utilized in the action plan.

The final stage of the A.I.D.E process is the evaluation phase. During the evaluation phase the striving professional reviews and monitors the progress that has been made. This stage of the action plan is very important, for it allows for the rethinking of strategies and the ability to capitalize upon immediate opportunity.

The courage to boldly go, to undiscovered realms of your potential should be rewarded with that which your heart desires. Ensure success by effectively planning for it. Your plan will work, if you work your plan.

-Make it Happen!

“I can’t seem to discover why I’m on the planet.”

“What is my purpose here? I know there’s something I’m supposed to be doing, but I don’t know how to find out what it is.”

“I don’t seem to be passionate about anything.”

I’ve heard these complaints over and over from my clients.

Discovering our passion and purpose is vital to our joy and well-being. The problem is that many people have lost touch with any sense of their passion and purpose and have no idea how to access this information.

The blueprint for this information lies within our core Self, our essence, the true Self that is often buried during our early years. If our true Self was not seen and validated by our parents, teachers, or other caregivers, it is likely to have gone underground. The self many of know as our “self” is generally our wounded self, our ego, the self we created to get love and avoid pain. Our wounded self has within it all of our fears and false beliefs, and does not have access to what is true for us.

How, then, do we discover our passion and purpose if the blueprint for this information is long buried? The good news is that while it is buried, it is not lost. Anyone can reclaim this information if you are willing to do the inner work of healing your wounded self.

I’ve worked with thousands of clients who, as they practice the Inner Bonding process that I teach (see our FREE course at www.innerbonding.com), gradually heal their fears and false, limiting beliefs to the point where their true Self comes peeking out. This is the vital, alive aspect of ourselves, the aspect of us that just wants to joyfully express ourselves in the world. As you allow this aspect to emerge, you will gradually discover what truly brings you joy.

In our society, we tend to ignore our special talents and choose our careers according to what will give us a sense of security. Too often, however, what makes us feel safe does not fulfill us spiritually. For example, Roger worked for many years as an attorney, but he never enjoyed it. He made lots of money, yet when he consulted with me he was suffering from anxiety and depression. He had become an attorney because his father had been an attorney and wanted Roger to follow in his footsteps. Roger had gone along with what his father wanted for him because he didn’t know what else he wanted and now, in midlife, he was miserable. He yearned to discover his passion.

A few months after starting to practice Inner Bonding, Roger remembered that he had really wanted to be a teacher. He had never seriously considered teaching because he felt he couldn’t make enough money, but now he was willing to make far less money because he was so unhappy with his present work. Roger went back to school and got his teaching credential and is now a high school social studies teacher. The last time I spoke with him he was radiant! He loved working with adolescents, and he felt he was making a real contribution to their lives. For the first time ever, he felt alive and passionate about his life. His wife decided to take up some of the financial slack by doing something she had always wanted to do: design children’s clothing. She started her own mail-order business and is thrilled with it. Their marriage and family life is flourishing because both of them are happy and fulfilled within themselves.

Ricki came to see me because she was so unhappy working as a controller of a big import business. Yet she had no idea what else she wanted to do. It took about a year of practicing Inner Bonding before her true Self told her that she wanted to be a nutritionist. Ricki hadn’t wanted to hear her true Self because she didn’t want to go back to school. Finally she was so unhappy that she decided to listen. She is now back in school enjoying discovering her passion.

While it may not always be possible to change your work immediately to something you love, if you follow your passion, it will often lead you there. And even when you have to earn money in ways that do not express your soul, you can seek volunteer opportunities and hobbies to express who you are. Often these can lead to the work that you will eventually do.

Alfredo worked as a manager of a large supermarket. With his small savings, he decided to start pursuing a hobby that had always fascinated him – restoring old cars. He used all his extra money to buy his first old car and spent many blissful hours restoring it. He was so good at it, he was able to sell his restored cars for a lot of money. Eventually he was able to quit his job at the market and pursue his passion full time. Ultimately he started a project in a prison teaching inmates to restore cars. Alfredo now loves what he does and receives great satisfaction from helping others.

Your soul has a deep desire for you to express yourself in ways that brings you joy. It is your job to discover what that is and to bring it about.

If you are interested in becoming a professional singer or even if you are just interested in taking singing lessons for fun it is likely that you may be interested in receiving some professional assistance. When looking for professional assistance many individuals come across something known as a singing voice lesson. Many individuals may already know what a singing voice lesson is; however, if you are new to the world of singing then you may not.

A signing voice lesson is technically just another term used to describe a singing lesson. Each day there are a large number of singing lessons that are given around the world. These singing lessons can occur in a school, in a home, or an offsite business location. While a singing lesson and a voice singing lesson are similar they do have a few differences.

Many traditional singing lessons focus on a wide variety of different things. Of course a person’s ability to sing is considered; however, that is not always all that is taken into consideration. Many traditional singing lessons focus on a person’s posture, body language, and their ability to sing. Singing lessons also tend to offer singing help on common music genres instead of just focusing on one.

A singing voice lesson may focus on other things besides a person’s voice; however, that tends to be the main focus. It is also common for many singing voice lessons to be tailored to a specific genre of music. There are many individuals who wish to learn how to sing in general, but others may be more focused on singing in a specific music genre. Rap music does not sound anything like country music; therefore, different singing approaches are often taken.

Individuals wishing to take a singing voice lesson have a number of options to choose from. There are many aspiring singers who prefer to work one-on-one with a music teacher or a voice coach. These lessons are often costly because they often require a large amount of time and travel. A cheaper way that many aspiring singers choose to have a singing voice lesson is by purchasing singing voice lesson music equipment.

Online and in retail stores across America there are a large number of singing resources. It is possible to purchasing a singing voice lesson DVD or CD. These items cost less than most face-to-face singing lessons. Aspiring singers are only required to pay for the singing voice lesson DVD or CD once, but they can use them over and over again. This is beneficial to a wide number of singers because usually more than one lesson needs to be taken to show improvement.

When looking to take a singing voice lesson individuals are encouraged to consider their financial resources and what they hope to get in return for taking a singing voice lesson. Individuals who are unable to pay for a one-on-one singing voice lesson are encouraged to considering purchasing a DVD or CD. These items are great resources for aspiring singers who are limited as to how much money they can put into their career.

The Seventh Biggest Mistake Having “Lone Ranger” Mentality.

If you think that the best way, or the only way for you to achieve your goals is to do it by yourself then you have Lone Ranger Mentality. Do you believe that reaching out to someone, and a professional someone for that matter, somehow indicates that you aren’t “something” enough? That it somehow means you’re incapable and not smart enough, strong enough or good enough?

Well let me assure you, the people who come to coaching are all of those things, extremely capable, smart, strong and a whole lot more. They choose coaching because they are ready to accelerate their personal or professional lives and work with a professional who will enable them to achieve their goals faster, easier and with better results than they could on their own.

A coach will facilitate your self discovery, the identification of your goals and the prioritization of those goals. Your coach will help you create your action plan as well as prepare for and overcome any challenges you encounter along the way.

Your coach will hold you accountable for taking consistent action toward the realization of your goals. Accountability is one of the greatest payoffs of coaching. It is so powerful because it can make all the difference in terms of you being a Goal Achiever instead of just a Goal Setter and someone who walks the walk instead of just talking the talk.

Think of your coach as your success partner, whose reason for being is to help you get what you want quicker, easier and with better results than you could on your own.

The Sixth Biggest Mistake Settling for Good Instead of Going for Great.

If you’re thinking your life is good and you’re relatively satisfied, congratulations! That did not happen on its own. You have obviously done some fabulous work.

You’ve already proven you’re the kind of person who proactively goes after what you want and you get it. So why would you settle for anything less than great? Why would you settle for living in black and white when you could be living in technicolour? Do you really want to play it safe and stay comfortable? Playing it safe and staying comfortable can take you no further than good.

Most of our clients are people who are already very successful. Now that they’ve personally experienced the power of coaching they tell us that they realize just how much less they were settling for, for themselves and their lives. They were settling for good when they could have been experiencing great.

These clients also tell us that coaching has dramatically increased the quality of their lives in all areas, from increased sales to enhanced relationships and from better health to increased productivity. They feel, many for the very first time, that they are fully and vibrantly alive.

So we challenge those of you who are settling. We challenge you to stop settling for good. We challenge you to go for GREAT and beyond with coaching.

The Fifth Biggest Mistake Believing that You Have to Work Harder in Order to Achieve Your Goals

Do you have dreams or desires that you’ve left unfulfilled because you can’t imagine bringing them to life without adding a lot more to your already jam packed schedule?
It may surprise you to know that coaching can enable you to be more, do more and have more by working smarter instead of harder.

Your coach will lead you through an efficient process. You’ll begin by getting crystal clear about what you do and do not want in your life. What’s great about that is that when you figure out the things in your life that you’re tolerating or doing just because you feel like you should you can create a lot of extra space in your schedule to tackle the things that are truly meaningful to you. Next, you will develop an action plan that details what it’s going to take, the what by when, for you to reach your goals. Finally, you will stay focused and on track by being accountable to your coach for taking consistent action and you will learn how to overcome any challenges that come up along the way.

If you want to learn how to work smarter instead of harder, coaching is a wise investment of your time and money.

The Fourth Biggest Mistake Blaming external factors for what’s not working in your life and waiting for them to change so you can have the life you dream of.

Do you find yourself wishing other people were different; easier to get along with, more positive, more successful, trustworthy or kind? Or, do you find yourself thinking about how your life would be better if your circumstances were different if only you had a better job, more money, more time or more opportunity?

Are you telling yourself that these external factors are responsible for what’s not working in your life or for preventing you from having what you want?

It can be very tempting to get caught up in this paradigm. But the reality is that if you are looking for or waiting for something outside of yourself to change and give you what you want, you will be waiting, and frustrated, for a very long time.

The reason for this is that you do not have control over anything outside of you. What you do have, though, is total control over yourself. You have total control over your thoughts, your actions and your results.

It is a fact that your circumstances will change when you make a committed decision to do the things that will move you in the direction of what you want to experience in your life, and then do them. Hiring a coach is one of the smartest things you can do to ensure you take control and create the reality you want to experience.

The Third Biggest Mistake – Wasting your time and money on stuff that doesn’t get you the results you want and is not ultimately fulfilling.

Let’s face it; there are an infinite number of things that you can spend your hard earned money and valuable time on these days. When you know you want things to be different or better it’s easy for you to waste your time and your money in one of two ways.

The first one is spending your time and money collecting information that comes in the form of books, software, seminars, reports or programs. You are collecting information that you believe can help you get what you want.

Now don’t get the wrong idea here, information is a great thing. We are big believers in books and programs being critical tools in helping you get where you want to go, but we want to make something very clear here.

Information alone will not get you results. You cannot expect that your sales will automatically increase just because you read the Guru of Sales’ latest book and you can’t assume that your monthly expenses will automatically organize themselves just because you purchased the newest expenses tracking software. You will get fulfilling results only by taking consistent action toward achieving your goals based on what you’ve learned from the information you’ve collected.

The second way you may be wasting your time and money is by acquiring and participating in things that have nothing to do with, and even go against, you having what you really want.

Have you ever allowed a month to go by where you indulged every food craving you had and did not exercise regularly, even though your deepest desire is to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight and lifestyle? Have you ever gone out and bought an expensive gadget you don’t really need or can’t really afford when what you truly desire is to feel successful and experience financial freedom?

If this sounds like you then you know what it’s like to be running on the hamster wheel of short term gain, in the form of immediate gratification, leading you to long term pain because your life experiences don’t match up with what you really want?

It’s very important to realize that spending your time or money on things that give you immediate gratification but have nothing to do with your goals and values will always leave you feeling empty. Completely and totally empty and looking for the next quick fix.

Instead of wasting your time and money, why not invest in yourself in a way that will accelerate your personal and professional development? Working with a coach on an ongoing basis is the most time and cost effective investment you can make in yourself and your quality of life.

Your coach can teach you how to make the most of what you’ve got and how to do more with less. Your coach will hold you accountable for taking consistent purposeful action towards achieving your goals.

By working with a coach, you will get crystal clear on what you really want, why you want it and how to get it. Having clarity takes the guess work out of things. That way, you will be able to evaluate all future investment opportunities, and by that we mean any and all opportunities for you to spend your time or money, according to their ability to enable you to fulfill your purpose, your vision, your values and your goals.

The Second Biggest Mistake – Waiting for a “good” time to make a change or go after the things you really want in life.

Guess what, there is no good time. Life will always be busy. There will always be family and business obligations to attend to, errands to run, chores to do, TV programs to watch and people and projects that want your time, energy and money. Your life will always be busy and it will always get in the way of what you really want, if you let it.

Wondering what you can do about it? You can stop kidding yourself. Today. Stop kidding yourself that the perfect time is just around the corner or sometime off in the future. Instead, decide to join forces with a professional who can teach you how to make the most of every moment starting right now.

Your coach will hold you accountable while keeping you focused and on track to achieving your goals no matter what life throws at you.

The Biggest Mistake Telling yourself you can’t afford a coach.

The truth is that you can’t afford not to have one. Coaches are highly in demand these days because coaching has proven itself to be an extremely effective method for facilitating personal and professional development and fulfillment.

The word is out everywhere, it’s in the media, it’s in corporations and it’s in the community. The word is out that coaching makes sense and it really works. In studies that have been done on the impact of coaching, the results have consistently shown a return on investment of more than 100%.

Coaching clients from all walks and areas of life consistently report that it is the best money they ever spent because their investment in an ongoing coaching partnership enables them to achieve their goals. What’s even better is coaching enables them to achieve their goals quicker, easier and with better results. Now think about that for a moment. Think about what that means for you. Anything you want is available to you quicker, easier and with better results through the vehicle of coaching.

If you are still unsure consider this, it’s not enough for you to say you want things to be different. Just wanting something doesn’t make it so. You must make a decision and then take purposeful action toward what you want. When you put your money where your mouth is and invest in a coaching program you demonstrate your commitment to achieving the thing that you want and at the same time you cut yourself off from any possibility other than total success.

In this article I write about how we can become content with life by learning to like ourselves and by appreciating what we have in life. There are far too many people who are comparing their lives to that of their friends and neighbours, and who then think that they are not good enough. This can make them become jealous and even depressed.

I have to admit that I was like the people I am describing above. I was not happy with the car I drove, or at the company where I worked, or at how much money I earned per year and even with the girlfriend I had. My friends seemed to drive much better cars, worked for much better employers, earned far more per year than I did and had much better looking girlfriends, sorry Claire!

I have since managed to change my attitude to life and am now very happy with what I have in life. I now look at the bigger picture and instead of concentrating my thoughts at people who I feel are better off than me, I watch the news from around the world and hear about people who are far less fortunate than I am. I certainly now feel that I am actually very lucky compared to most people who live on this planet.

I also did not really like myself, I wanted to be taller, stronger, a better communicator (I had a stutter), and a lot fitter than I was (I was quite fat). I have since accepted that there are various things that I can not change, such as my height and have therefore accepted that I am shorter than the average male. I have also thought about the positive aspects of being short, more leg room on a plane etc. Other aspects of my life at which I was not happy with, but felt I could change or improve, I have worked very hard on, and am now at a weight I am happy with and have overcome the stuttering speech impediment.

I now like myself and if other people choose not to, that is fine by me, I have enough people who do. In any case it is what I think that counts, therefore if they think I am an idiot, thats fine, because I believe I am not.

I now have an opinion that what car I drive or how much money I earn is not important. For me, health and happiness are the two most important things in life and these are things which money can not buy.

I have decided that stressing or worrying about a situation does not help me to succeed, it just makes things a whole lot worse and more difficult. I now think to myself, that all I can do in life is to try my best and if I do that I can be proud of myself.

I used to be very hard on myself, my own worst critic. I am now a lot easier on myself, I have realised that I will make mistakes and always try to learn from the experiences. My body and brain are temples and I need to be nice to them. Hopefully if I am they will reward me with my continued health.

I am now far happier than I have ever been and am determined not to slip back into my old ways of depression and negative thinking.

I hope this article helps you in your quest for a better life.

This article describes how your life is what you make of it. If you are willing to work hard to reach your ambitions and goals, there is no reason why should not attain them. In my opinion far too many people try to take short cuts or are too willing to expect free hand outs from other people or have the credit card attitude of buy now, pay later. I hope you enjoy the read.

One of my best friends whose name is Chris turned seventeen around a month before I did. For his birthday his father bought him a very nice and sporty looking car. Chris was very pleased and showed his new present to all his mates including myself. He was unable to take us out for a spin as he had yet to learn to drive. I thought what a great gift it had been and returned home to tell my parents.

I now had it in my head, that I also wanted a car for my birthday. Chris only lived a few doors away from my house and my parents looked out of the window to view his new car. I stated to them that I would love a car for my seventeenth and my parents started to laugh and replied with, I bet you would.

Despite this negative comment, I really believed they were only joking and was convinced that they would not let me down. My birthday arrived and I opened all of their gifts. The main present they had bought me was a pair of trainers. I have to admit they were a quality pair of trainers, however I wondered where they had hidden the car. The car was not hidden, it had not been bought.

An ungrateful young man went to bed, not best pleased. I then started to take driving lessons and on the second attempt managed to pass the driving test. I came home to inform my parents of the good news. My dad congratulated me and seemed proud of my achievement. I stated that I was also very happy, however in reality, what was the point if I had no car to drive. My father did not reply to this comment.

A couple of months later my eighteenth birthday was now approaching. My father told me that because this was quite a big birthday, he was planning to spend a bit more money on my presents this year. He asked me if I had any idea of what I would like. For the second year in a row, I replied that I would love a car. Yet again he laughed and stated that he had said a bit more, not hundreds.

I really believed that because it was in his words, a big birthday, and because I was now legally able to drive, that he would buy me a car. Guess what, he didn’t. Yet again I was not impressed.

I waited a couple of months and then tried the head on approach. I spoke to my parents and told them that I needed a car, they agreed. My dad stated that if I wanted a car, I should go and buy one. I replied that I had no money, and he stated that I should start to save up then.

I started to save and had to sacrifice many things. Eventually I bought a car. It was not exactly sporty but it was my pride and joy. I washed the car every weekend and am sure that I loved it ten times more than Chris loved his car, because I had earned it.

Whenever I want to achieve something in life, I am aware that I have to work very hard and am very grateful to the lesson my parents taught me, even though at the time it seemed harsh and cruel.