Step one is for clients to become “The World’s Leading Experts on Themselves.” They engage in the accelerated self-discovery process with their life coach that is unique to life coaching and is so valuable to all clients. Through this self-discovery process, clients discover their passions, priorities, values, talents and self imposed obstacles that have been hidden within them.

Step two is for clients to discover and define their coachable goals in detail. Clients and their life coach together take the newly discovered information about themselves to custom build their coachable goals to suit them on their agenda. They create their coachable goals to fulfill their passions and priorities, follow their values, maximize their talents and to avoid as many of their self imposed obstacles as they can. Now they know exactly what their new life and work destinations really are. They can begin their purposeful life journey to achieve their fully defined coachable goals. This way they cease their aimless wanderings without such clear goals.

Step three is for the clients to achieve their newly defined coachable goals. Clients and their life coach work as a highly focused team to discover and change the conditions around the client to allow the completion of their goals. For example, if a client wants to become an excellent web site development salesperson by actually talking with prospective clients personally, the client will find the places where he or she can meet and engage in focused conversations about web sites under relaxed and enjoyable conditions. And as a further example, if this same client wants to avoid dealing with paperwork, he or she can engage an assistant to handle all contracting and other paperwork matters.

The life coaching process is far more free form than structured. Step one: self-discovery really never stops in life coaching, because there is so much to discover. Step two, defining goals also continues, because as people complete their goals they seek new ones, and as they continue self-discovery, they alter their goals accordingly. Step three also occurs more often than expected due to adding new goals. Most often clients add new goals before they complete their initial coachable goals. One of the unrecognized and most valuable features of life coaching is that clients can easily achieve all coachable goals with their one life coach when all of the right life coaching conditions are met. In fact, we have found that over 81% of our clients add multiple new goals as they progress in coaching, because they realize how well life coaching really works.

Yet, mothers deserve much more. Why? Because they practice the most amazing profession in the world that has very unique and demanding requirements that are difficult to learn and master and are too often overlooked. Hopefully by exposing the true characteristics and demands of motherhood, readers will gain more appreciation and more respect for mothers.

Motherhood is the most important profession in the world.

Mothers control the development and growth of almost all children in the world, who eventually mature into adults. Mothers are entrusted, and are almost totally responsible for the health, care, training, morals, security, emotional strengths, attitudes, social understanding discipline, and learning success of their children. The relationships children and even adults have with their mothers shape who they become as adults. The results of the efforts of mothers are universal, extremely powerful, everlasting, and extremely important to every person on the globe.

Motherhood is a very difficult and diverse profession.

Mothers are required to possess the knowledge, practice the skills, and perform the duties of so many different life functions that it would be impossible to list them all. Here are but a few. Mothers must successfully perform as nurses, cooks, nutritionists, teachers, trainers, educators, coaches, therapists, disciplinarians, financial advisors, protectors, cleaning specialists, transportation specialists, sports enthusiasts, clothing and appearance specialists, peacemakers, mediators, and spiritual advisors. Wow!

Mothers are given little, if any, prior formal training.

Mothers must learn ON THE JOB a vast majority of the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to perform the important functions of motherhood. I know of no colleges or schools that trains or teaches mothers. Other professions like attorneys, medical doctors, and dentists, must attend anywhere from six-to-ten years of additional education after high school to be qualified to begin their profession. Yet, mothers are required to be fully knowledgeable of all motherhood requirements and operate at almost full speed from the first day of motherhood, with very little, if any, training.

Motherhood is a non-income producing profession.

Mothers rarely, if ever, receive monetary income from their motherhood efforts. Mothers are rarely paid to change diapers, prepare meals, train their children, etc. In the past, their husbands, who were expected to generate enough income to pay for their needs, most often supported mothers. Unfortunately today, there appears to be an increasing trend of expecting mothers to continue performing their full time motherhood professional duties and also work at income-producing jobs to generate money.

The time and energy demands on mothers diminish with time.

As the youngest child grows up, the time demands, energy demands, mental involvement, and personal contact demands by mothers with their children will shrink. Being a mother to young babies is almost a 24 hours, seven days a week profession. Think of the relief mothers feel when their youngest baby finally sleeps through the night for the first time, without awakening for feeding or to have a diaper changed. However, the job requirements of motherhood are greatly reduced, as their youngest child goes off to school. Time and energy demands on mothers diminish even more as their youngest child continues to grow and attend even more out of the house activities. Eventually, mothers will be faced with an empty nest as the purposes of their motherhood depart.

Mothers feel frustrated in their quest for a new profession.

Mothers frequently feel stymied when they seek new careers. They feel inadequate because they have been out of the work force for so long, or because they feel they have less education than they think is necessary, or because they are older than other potential entry level workers, or because finding and applying for jobs and can be a daunting and confusing process. Unfortunately, the normal Human Resources culture of the corporate world and the owners of small business don’t always treat empty nest mothers as a valuable source of productive workers.

Mothers bring exceptional skills and experience to the workplace.

Mothers are far more qualified and far more valuable producers than they, or the business world realizes. The skills, experience, knowledge, sense of responsibility, wisdom, patience, leadership, organizational capabilities, resourcefulness, human relationship capabilities, and other real life skills that mothers developed over the years of motherhood are extremely valuable to people who recognize their true worth. Mothers, and especially empty nest mothers have proven to be excellent employees, excellent business owners (After all, they have in essence been running a business as a mother) and excellent independent contractors, because of the incredible experiences and responsibilities they bring to the work force.

I really appreciate the many pointed and even humorous comments, because they reflect the terrible position the life coaching profession has gotten itself into. For example: ReadingBetweenTheLines exposed the hypocrisy of the “Master Coach University.” Doug Wilson discussed how coaching certifications do not make a better coach. Lori describes how coaches manipulate and create fear, after using 3 coaches, but then admitted she liked coaches “who do not judge.” Then Dogged Optimist asked “I’m confused. Aren’t all these coaching functions part of the role of friends and famiy?” Shay Kostabi’s response was on target, “Life Coaches have the ability to offer an objective point of view, completely detached from personal opinions stemmed from the emotional connections and past history that Friend and Family may have!” but it got lost in all of the noise.

We have been trying to educate people about the facts about life coaching and assisting people to connect with their best matched coach for over 10 years. We enjoy doing this, but it has become more difficult to wade through all of the negativity and misunderstandings about life coaching that has been building up over the years. I am Not a life coach, I do Not train life coaches, and I feel the life coaching industry is a mess, even though we actively participate in the same industry.  These comments have been priceless to me, because they explain a lot of negative reactions to a life coaching, but they also confirm there continues to be some superb and dedicated life coaches out there.

Being coached is not right for everyone. Just like being taught Russian is not for everyone. But, we have found that those people who want to take control of their lives by taking responsibility for their actions, and seek help doing so will achieve remarkable goals that generate very valuable benefits.

Bottom line; life coaching works extremely well when done right, for the right people, and by the right coach. But, we have a hard and difficult journey ahead to clearly educate others to the real ingredients of coaching, the real purposes of being coached, and the valuable rewards of being coached.

A journey without a destination is nothing more than an aimless wandering. The life coaching process is a completion game. By having a “Coachable Goal” clients will embark on their most meaningful and most incredible journey of their lives. Both clients and their coaches have a target to strive for. Clients and their coaches will know and savor the successful completion of their coaching.

A “Coachable Goal” is a future place you want to be that requires you to grow and improve as a person to achieve it. Virtually anything worth achieving in life will fit this definition. The future place factor means that clients will take action to reach a future destination. The greatest way for people to grow and improve as people is to attain their own self-discovery. Through the special and remarkable life coaching process, clients will gain self-discovery in the most complete and fastest way possible. Some examples of “Coachable Goals” achieved over the years by coaching clients are:
• Discover and obtain their ideal income positions, so they can “Go To Play Every Day and call it work”
• Become far more successful and productive business owners.
• Become far more successful and productive leaders and managers.
• Create “Life Balance” where they enjoy and thrive in all there of their lives simultaneously and without guilt.
• Convert your ADD into the blessing it really is.

Most people feel that achieving a “Coachable Goal” is too good to be true. This is understandable, because if they had used any other human improvement process to achieve these goals, they most likely failed. And until the life coaching process appeared on the scene in about 1991, there were no easy or effective ways to accomplish such “Coachable Goals.” The life coaching process was specifically designed by Thomas Leonard to assist people to unravel the mysteries of themselves. Through life coaching, clients will become “The World’s Leading Experts On Themselves.” When they do they will gain the ultimate in self-discovery, and will then be in real control of their lives, to actually accomplish their “Coachable Goals.”

Having “Coachable Goals” sets the stage for the entire life coaching process to produce very practical and very valuable results. Thus, clients will be able to easily and effectively apply the new things they discovered about themselves towards completing their “Coachable Goals.” And by definition, the achievement of any “Coachable Goal” will generate incredible benefits to coaching clients.

In the hands of your life coach, with the “Gift” you will see the reflection of the wonders and riches within you. Life coaches with the natural “Gift of Coaching” are also very stable and grounded people. They avoid practicing any politics to promote their own agendas or causes. Coaches with the Gift thrill at helping others achieve their goals by recognizing and reaching their true potentials. They genuinely celebrate the successes and victories of their clients, just as much as their clients do.

People with the “Gift of Coaching” make you feel really good about talking about you and they listen intently and actually hear what you say and don’t say. You become and feel like the star in their presence. Coaches with the “Gift” easily and continuously develop the very special life coach-client relationship that is so critical to successful life coaching. This is not easy to achieve without the “Gift.” They clearly communicate the truth without any guilt or other emotional attachments. You feel more confident and less confused after encountering people with the “Gift,” not just for a few minutes afterwards, but also over and over for considerable time thereafter.

Do you want to be an excellent leader – then consider this: Used loosely, the term “team player” could mean anything. You’ve heard the good old “C’mon now, be a team player…” line, right? The fact is that the potential for abuse of this concept is huge. Work / responsibilities can be given to employees, under the guise of “being a team player” – whether that responsibility is within the employees realm of “normal” job responsibility or not. It really doesn’t matter….he’s your boss (or manager or team leader or???) – do you want to keep your job or not? For a company to misuse what could be a terrific business practice, which allows employees to shine, both individually and as a group is – in the words of Disney’s Captain Hook, “BAD FORM!” If you want to build a team, efficiently and effectively, then DON”T make this mistake.

What are the hallmarks that companies and potential employees can look for in each other, regarding working in teams? Employers can look for a stellar track record of cooperation, collaboration, communication, responsibility and accountability. Is the potential employee a good listener, do they share ideas easily and are they outstanding problem solvers? Employees – looking to find your dream career – can look for some of the same things in a company. How are teams utilized and what types of projects have teams accomplished in the past in this company? How many points of accountability are there – are there checks and balances within the leadership? And how does this company accommodate each team’s and each individual’s needs (within the team), how do they address idea’s/concern’s, get problem solving accomplished and get to the teams goals – as fluently and smoothly as possible?

Done right, teams of people – “team players” that work together as a whole are great.  Both teams and employees can learn a lot from each other, they can show potential for advancement in their respective work arena’s and together they usually accomplish great things – by bringing together each person’s own expertise.

Clients will open up to their life coach to reveal their inner passions, priorities, values, etc. only when they feel their life coaches are genuinely and totally focused on them. Clients also want to feel very safe and secure to know that their life coach will hold everything they discuss very confidential. Clients need to know that their life coach will totally support them and not harm them when they exposes possible vulnerabilities by revealing their inner selves. Clients will want to know that their life coach will be very honest and open by reflecting the complete truth without withholding or altering what is really there.

Clients will be able to completely discover themselves to become “The World’s Leading Experts On Themselves” when their life coaches totally focus on them, with complete support without any barriers to unleash the powers and wonders within them.

Career coaches assist their clients to discover and define their “ideal income positions” that allow them to love what they do, do what they love and produce excellent results with the least amount of effort. The client-career coach team then finds those positions that match the conditions of the client’s the ideal income position. And finally they apply to be hired into their best matching jobs.

Businesses have determined they only want to hire new employees into jobs that create the best-fit matches for both the employees and the business. Businesses cannot afford to take a chance on hiring new employees who might NOT be a good match. So most businesses normally avoid hiring anyone, unless they create a good enough match for the job. Yet, few job seekers actually know the jobs where they would really create a great match. So they apply to multiple jobs, hoping something works. They use the “Trial and Error” method of job selection and job application. Hiring managers have to struggle through all of these “Trial and Error” job seekers to hopefully find a gem in the rough that might become a good fit. This takes time money and energy, with low returns. In fact, history has shown that only about 5% of all job openings are filled through the resume process because this process is so cluttered, so massive, so confusing and so overwhelming for hiring managers, that they work very hard to avoid using this resume process.

More and more hiring managers and recruiters have discovered that the best way to separate the job seekers who will create best matching most successful employees from the Trial and Error tire kickers is whether they have been coached for the job position. They focus only on applicants who have their own career coach. By only considering coached applicants they can turn hiring into such a very smooth and effective process it can almost be fun. I will not be surprised that being coached may become a standard prerequisite for job applicants in the near future.

Do you go on interview after interview and never get a job offer? Do you listen to Uncle Henry when he says “Writer? You can ‘t make any money being a writer – get a real job.” Do you know what your goal is but can’t ever seem to get there & don’t know why? Here are some ideas to help you NOT miss signs that may be stopping your own progress.
1.    Focused finish! Think of it this way…can you drive 12 cars at once? Probably not – not well anyway! Say “no” to other’s demands on your time, ignore naysayers & set yourself a schedule. Stay focused, be clear and stay on track.
2.    Pit Stop! Every race car needs a pit crew – they change tires, check engines, etc. – they keep the driver on course during the race. What would happen if the driver pulled into the pit with a flat tire, the oil light blinking & his engine on fire and said “No worries – mates, I’m going to win!” Listen – know when to ask for help, its ok, we all need it. Engaging a life coach at the right time could get you across that finish line faster!
3.    Ever seen car race like the Daytona 500? How many of these guys are easing around the track at 10 miles an hour thinking “Gee – I really hope I win, you know – I’d kind of like to win…” NO!! They speed, they cut each other off…I mean, these guys aren’t kidding around – why? Because they don’t second-guess themselves – they know they can win! Your mindset is a huge part of the success puzzle – yes, it’s that simple.

So…first – Focus and plan to finish strongly & on your terms. Next – Ask for help from the right life coach for you. The right life coach for you can help you to be leader of the pack in your field rather than back of the pack. Then, you and your life coach will work as a team to make sure all of your coachable goals are completed to suit you. Your goals are waiting, now GO! GO! GO!

Any Goldman client who still trusts Goldman after Greg Smith’s exposure deserves the pain he or she will experience by continuing to be “muppet” victims of the Goldman Sachs culture of insider theft. I bet clients of Bernie Madhoff would loved to have seen such clear insight into Madhoff’s theft in time to withdraw their initial investments before the house of cards imploded. In truth, real integrity wins in the end. It will here as well. Congratulations to Greg Smith for having the integrity to recognize the absence of it at Goldman, and for choosing integrity and high values over the temporary monetary gains and power spoils of corruption