Why Coaching

We have developed high pain tolerances, learned to persevere, to delay gratification, and out-endure most. If you’re like me, your profession and professional life may have become your identity. You are a doctor, a lawyer, an executive. And there often comes a time, which many of us are in – mid-career, mid-life, mid-relationship (married or divorced), middle-parenting and perhaps caring for aging parents, where something gives. Maybe it’s your physical health (the body has a way of letting us know), or your sanity, your piece (or peace) of mind, as Boston referenced. And when we look at the statistics, they’re sobering: we are dying younger, and we’re not living very happily. In the United States life expectancy has declined for three years in a row and we rank 19th in happiness according to the United Nations World Happiness Report, relatively void of some of the key drivers of happiness such as community, trust and sense of security.

How can we appreciate, reconcile and optimize what got us here, with what we want and to get us there? We have to think, to feel (that other f-word) and most importantly to respond and behave differently. What does it take? Changing behavior demands we understand the root causes of our thoughts and feelings paired with learning new skill. The good news is that as accomplished professionals, we are masterful at learning – it’s what in part led to our being successful after all. And, we understand coaching – many of us still have a coach, even if just for a golf swing. Coaches were and are trusted advisors, confidantes, even mentors or friends. Why not take this familiar paradigm and apply it to what matters most – our physical health, our emotional well-being, and our future.

Self-care and self-improvement are not selfish. We work way too hard not to love the lives we have been blessed with, and to live them in a way where our thoughts, feelings and behaviors are attuned, attached and attended to – with the same degree of precision with which we attend to our jobs and to others. Let’s not become another statistic. What got us here won’t in fact get us there. Working harder is not a sustainable option. As we say in the emergency department: Time is muscle: brain and heart. Let the time be now for you and yours.