I hope I don’t sound like a Scientist or a Doctor of Psychology.. No, I am just a coach whose passion is helping my clients move forward and set personal and professional goals that will give them the life they really want.
Let’s talk about Oprah. Oprah Winfrey has attributed some of her success to her life coach, Martha Beck. Because of that, she has become a major advocate for life coaching. Over the last 25 years, she\’s presented a multitude of life coaches to her fans and highly suggests her viewers use a life coach to succeed.
I read Martha Becc’s article entitled “How to Deal With Major Life Changes.” She talked about the transition phases a human being undergoes through what she called “Human Metamorphosis.” Understanding this process is the best way to minimize trauma.
Phase 1: Dissolving. Dissolving is the scariest part. It is because we aren’t taught to expect it. Coaching helps you to become aware of this stage. It is the stage where we feel losing everyone and everything.
Phase 2: Imaging. Imaging is the phase when your mind’s eye starts seeing images of the life you are about to create. This event is when the part of you that knows your destiny, the imago, will begin giving you instructions on how to reorganize the remnants of your old life.
Phase 3: Re-forming. Reforming is when you’ll feel motivated to do real, physical things to build a new life, and then you’ll fail repeatedly.
Phase 4: Flying. Flying is like crawling out of your cocoon and waiting for your crumpled, soggy wings to dry and expand. Phase 4 is the payoff, the time when your new identity is fully formed and able to fly.
After reading Martha’s article, I realized that I also had to transition from a 30-year career in employment to my new entrepreneurial coaching career. The process was complicated. A year later, after learning from the teachers and professional coaches of the John Maxwell Team, I arrived at the “Flying Phase”—the stage, according to the article, when I felt like I was getting out of the cocoon and embracing my new life—a happier and fulfilled life.
I believe that Oprah has gone through these stages as well. She grew up in extreme poverty and also endured years of sexual and physical abuse. Oprah was raped for the first time at age nine by her 19-year-old cousin, writes Oscar Bamwebaze Bamuhigire in his book “The Healing Power of Self Love.”
Oprah also transitioned with the help of her life coach, Martha Beck. Coaching helps people increase self-awareness and embrace accountability and responsibility for their lives, whether it’s for life, career, goals, business, or leadership. Coaching works!
Here are some of the benefits of coaching for an individual:
- improvement in individual’s performance, targets, and goals
- increased openness to personal learning and development
- increased ability to identify solutions to specific work-related issues
- greater ownership and responsibility
- development of self-awareness
- improvement of specific skills or behavior
- greater clarity in roles and objectives
- the opportunity to correct behavior/performance difficulties
Actress, Producer, and Entrepreneur Reese Witherspoon said, “ But with the right kind of coaching and determination, you can accomplish anything, and the biggest accomplishment that I feel I got from the film was overcoming that fear.”
