Do You Need a Compelling Reason to Pursue Coaching?

23 April 2022

Do you need a compelling reason to pursue coaching? Well, there must something that makes you want to do it. It may be because (a) you are seeking to be coached (if you have issues and need to work on them with someone), or (b) you want to learn how to coach and help others.

Whatever the reason, firstly you have to understand what ‘coaching’ means. In broad terms, to coach means to help someone unlock his potential by raising his self-awareness and changing the mental frame from disempowering to empowering frame.

I started my coaching journey with Corporate Coach Academy in the midst of Covid in mid-2020. Well, the desire to learn did not just emerge from nowhere. The uncertainties and challenges during Covid have accelerated my long-awaited move to take up coaching for the reasons I mentioned above.

I’ve always wondered what coaching is all about. Now I know.

As a legal practitioner, I am used to providing solutions to issues and problems. Understandably therefore, in my early days of coaching lessons it was quite tough trying to get use to the kinds of questions that a coach should only make and to the idea that a coach should focus on the person rather than the issues.

Coaching is a powerful tool. With proper strategies, through coaching we can uproot our own belief system that no longer serve us or is holding us back from reaching our goals or life purpose, or to help others achieve their self-awareness and remove self-limiting belief.

Sometimes it takes a triggering event that forces us to look deep within ourself and let burning questions like, “Am I doing enough?”, “Why am I feeling stuck?”, “Am I feeling fulfilled?”, “Is there something more that I can do?”, “What can I do to serve others?” push us to want to do something more or different. But will we actually take action?

Often what is holding us back from achieving our highest potential or life goal is our own belief system or disempowering thoughts. What’s stopping us from changing or taking action that will bring us closer to our goal? Fear and comfort. We fear failure and rejection. We are too comfortable in our own current comfort zone. Coaching is therefore worth pursuing if you are looking to change or improve your life, or to help other people who are in need of help and support.

Looking back 6 months ago and now, I have liberated myself from many self-limiting and disempowering beliefs. What I thought was not so possible, I have managed to break through them (and still in the process of more breakthroughs). Getting connected to great mentor coaches is also one of the most valuable part of the coaching journey. All these were possible due to one little step that I’ve taken – embarking on the coaching journey. Hence, do not underestimate the simple yet powerful question “What is the one little step that you can take” in order to push yourself forward and to be better.

I can’t think of any other more compelling reason (to pursue coaching) than the benefits highlighted above. A crisis like the pandemic should not dampen our spirits in achieving our life purpose. We can still achieve much more by continuing to build knowledge and skills in areas that are new or unknown to us, including coaching. If you have the desire to thrive and build a better version of yourself, why wait and what’s stopping you?

(This Article was published in the New Straits Times (Klassifieds) on 24 February 2021)