Your Life Coach and You

1. Your Life Coach and You ‘Bunmi Aina, Director, KTP September 12 2012

2. Who are the KTP Life Coaches? • KTP’s volunteer Life Coaches are professionals on- and off-campus who look like you • They come together individually and collectively to support Black and Latino students in their quest for a degree from Gallaudet • They are accomplished professionals who know how to navigate the system and can share important knowledge to help you navigate the system on campus

3. So .. What is a Life Coach? • A life coach is someone who can assist you with your personal development, especially in the area of setting and achieving specific goals. • The life coach may: • share advice • offer guidance • help you make plans, and • hold you accountable for taking action.

4. Telling You More • A life coach is someone who works with healthypeople who want to improve their lives in specific ways, such as deepening their self-understanding, for example. They deal with stress management, time management, goal setting and other key areas of change to help you lead a more balanced life

5. And More • Your life coach is someone who can promote a healthy, positive, and enabling process that develops your capacity to solve today’s business and personal problems. Your life coach will touch your spirit and rekindling what deeply matters to you.

6. And Still More • Your life coach is someone who wants to help you feel more satisfied, be more engaged with life, find more meaning, have higher hopes, and probably even laugh and smile more, regardless of [your] circumstances. He or she focuses on you. He or she works with you to: • Increase your well-being and your levels of accomplishments • Connect with your dreams and goals • Develop and hold on to an optimistic perspective • Savor your life right now in your pursuit of happiness

7. What Your Life Coach Is NOT • Your life coach is not any of these things: • Financial planner • Bank • Attorney • Doctor • Minister • Psychologist • Counselor • Therapist

8. What Your Life Coach Is NOT • Your life coach will not become your friend. The role of your life coach is to develop a warm and nurturing relationship with you that will allow your life coach to remain objective.

9. Letting You in on a Secret • One of the secrets of highly successful people is that most of them use a coach to help them get to where they want to be in life and business • A life coach can help you identify goals and can motivate you to make those goals a reality for your future

10. Characteristics of Effective Life Coaches • Committed to your success • Desire to become the best life coach they can be • Excellent listening skills • Avoid talking more than you • Totally trustworthy • Encouraging, motivational and inspiring • Respects other people • Empathetic

11. Characteristics of Effective Life Coaches • Effective communicator • Communicates in a non-judgmental manner • Analytical skills • Flexible and courageous • Builds rapport • Controls their personal biases • Controls their desire to advice, “own” and control

12. Benefits of Life Coaching • Setting Goals • Clarity • Action • Motivation • Support • Overcoming Challenges • Life Balance • Consulting • Confidentiality

13. Benefits of Life Coaching 1 • Setting Goals. One of the primary focuses of a life coach is that of helping to set and reach goals. A life coach can use questioning to isolate what is most important to you and once your goals are isolated, then the life coach can help you to come up with a workable plan that can be put into action

14. Benefits of Life Coaching 2 • Clarity. A life coach can help you clarify your present condition and your future directions

15. Benefits of Life Coaching 3 • Action. Action is what creates success in life. The reason why many intelligent and knowledgeable people do not experience the level of success that they desire is because they are slow to act on or apply the knowledge that they have. A life coach can help you to make decisions much more quickly and reduce harmful delays and provide better quality action

16. Benefits of Life Coaching 4 • Motivation. The world’s top experts use life coaches or consultants because they will feel psychologically more accountable if they know another person is observing their progress. For example, actors, models, and bodybuilders have personal trainers who make sure they are keeping up on their program to reach their intended goals. This is a powerful motivating force for them • In the same way, life coaches motivate you towards your goals, and they make you accountable for maintaining your program and sticking to it

17. Benefits of Life Coaching 5 • Support. A life coach will listen to your story without evaluating, criticizing, judging, or offering solutions. They will lend their support for you through the toughest of times as well as the best of times

18. Benefits of Life Coaching 6 • Overcoming Challenges. We all face challenges in our lives that we must overcome for us to achieve success. A life coach can help you brainstorm for possible solutions to complex challenges that you need to deal with

19. Benefits of Life Coaching 7 • Life Balance. A life coach can work with you to improve the ratio of work versus play in your life to achieve an optimal balanced ratio of both which will lead to reduced stress levels and a better quality of life

20. Benefits of Life Coaching 8 • Consulting. Most life coaches specialize in some aspect of expertise such as business management, social work, counseling, communication, self-advocacy, health and fitness, or stress management. The knowledge that they possess can be invaluable to you if you require the use of such skills

21. Benefits of Life Coaching 9 • Confidentiality. Although life coaching is not therapy or counseling, what is discussed between you and your life coach is strictly confidential.

22. So .. What Next? • Do you want a life coach? • If you do, you will meet our life coaches on October 3 during the KTP Welcome Dinner and Celebration at Peikoff Alumni House (Ole Jim) • You will get to choose your own life coach

23. QUESTIONS?