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Whether you are a high school student, college student, parent or older person, these myths apply in any situation:

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Myth #1: Working with a coach means something is wrong with me.

 

TRUTH: Coaching is designed to give you tools that grow you.

 

The highest performing professional athletes or business executives all work with coaches – why not you? If you really wish to be at the top of your game, you need to have an outside perspective to help get you there, and coaching does precisely that: get you where you want to go. Coaching is not counseling; it`s not about sharing your deepest fears or emotions while trying to diagnose a problem. Coaching is focused on helping you create more positive, sustainable actions in your life, focusing on the unique person as opposed to focusing on the problem.

 

Myth #2: Life/academic coaching is going to be a lot more work, and I don`t have the time.

 

TRUTH: All of your coaching is centered on the academic work you already have (if you are in school/studying) or integrated directly in your life.

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I know! Life is busy! We all have busy schedules and this program will require you to invest some energy to learn new concepts. However, the work involved is not reading a dozen additional books or writing more papers (I hope you do love reading though). The real work is approaching differently the work you already have. For instance, you might find that the session on motivation inspires you to address root causes of procrastination. Applying these concepts so you can work more efficiently will actually free more of your time and energy to pursue deep interest in other passions or activities.

 

Myth #3: A coach is going to be a spy for my parents and is just going to get me to do what my parents want me to do (for teens under 18).

 

TRUTH: A coach will help communication. If you want your coach to hold something confidentially, you have that client privilege.

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A good coach rarely tells you directly what to do. The magic of coaching is that the client and coach design the action steps after each session together. You get to choose how you use the concepts in your life. For example, if you want to work on organization and you decide to start using a paper planner but then you realized in the week that you kept forgetting to look at it and so you decided to use the planner on your phone with set reminders. You would then tell your coach how you corrected something that was not working and figured out an even better plan that helped you to follow through. Or if you hadn`t figured out a solution, you would meet with your coach the following week and discuss how the paper planner wasn't working and ideas of how you could make it work for next time. You will always get to decide your action steps and tweak them with the help of your coach. So, you will decide what you want to do, not your parents or your coach.

 

Note: If there is something you do not want your parents to know, your Certified Life Coach will not share it with them except in the rare instance that it is information about something that may harm you or others. Academic Life Coaches are trained to help you get where you want to go and to help your parents understand the best way they can support you. You get an opportunity to let your parents know the best way to interact with you in a way that benefits you both. The result is that you and your parents get more of what you both want: a peaceful, strong relationship.

 

Myth #4: Others will know that I have a Coach.

 

TRUTH: A coach will hold your coach-client relationship confidentially.

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Most people don’t care if others know they are working with a coach. But if you do care and prefer to keep this working relationship to yourself, your coach will respect your privacy. As outlined in the professional ethics of a Certified Life Coach, confidentiality is a central part of the client-coach relationship. Unless you have granted express permission, a coach will never share with others your identity as a client or any of the information you have divulged in the sessions. You, however, are free to tell anyone that you are working with such an awesome coach in such an awesome program!

 

Working with a coach is one of the best investments you can make of your time, energy, and resources. By far the best way to learn about coaching is to experience it.