Have you ever thought that you might need someone you can turn to when you are faced with challenges in your life?

Or do you need someone to bounce ideas off of, or to talk to at a time when you just need to get something off your chest?

Or perhaps you need a sympathetic soul who can lend you a hand when you are trying to climb that mountain called “life”?

Well, there is a profession out there called “Life Coach” that you just may want to look into.  I must confess that my knowledge of this profession is limited, or at least it was, before I conducted this interview.  I do know that this occupation has grown significantly in the past few years.  More and more people are becoming life coaches and more and more people are turning to life coaches to achieve their goals.

Through the far-reaching tentacles of the blogosphere, I have been able to meet and reach out to two wonderful women who are life coaches.  Nona Jordan currently has two websites including blogs at http://insighthealthcoaching.com and http://everydayyogini.com.  Jen Smith has a website and a blog at http://reachourdreams.com.  These two women have graciously agreed to answer a number of questions I posed to them on being a life coach.

(My interest in this interview was to gain knowledge.  I have never personally met Nona or Jen and have only gotten to know them through commenting on their blogs and vice versa.)

The Interview

Could you give us some background on yourself?  Maybe where you live and what led you to become a life coach?

Nona:

My name is Nona Jordan, and I live in Rome, Italy.  My husband’s career moves us every 2 – 3 years, so, when we met, I decided to pursue my long-time passion of Yoga and meditation and became a certified instructor through Kripalu.  Shortly after that, I had my daughter and everything was on hold.

During the transition to living in Italy, I became ill in large part due to stress.  I began to study how stress impacts the body and, how thoughts impact emotions, and how negative emotional energy gets “caught” in our bodies which results in physical pain and stress, which in turn, can lead to illness.  I then stumbled on the coach training of Martha Beck, Oprah’s life coach, and signed up.  The tools she uses so perfectly compliment the mind-body techniques that I use to decrease stress, that it was really a perfect fit- it felt like I had come home to what I was always meant to do in the world!

Jen:

My name is Jen and I live in the UK, in the Kent countryside near the coast. My husband and I moved here from London a few years ago.  I have always been interested in personal development since I can remember and did a Psychology degree, a Counseling certificate and worked in lots of ‘caring’ professions. The point when I realized coaching was what I wanted to do was through working for an international coaching company a few years ago, where my job was to coach people every day (as well as receiving coaching myself). This was an incredible experience and I realized the power of coaching to make a difference in people’s lives. I particularly like the forward looking, action focus of coaching (i.e. not just talking!) I decided to get accredited (which I did at the beginning of this year) and have since started coaching clients on a one to one basis.

How would you define a life coach?  I’m not looking for a dictionary definition but more what you feel is the definition of a life coach.

Nona:

A life coach is a trusted professional that can provide you with objective feedback to help you change your life in positive ways.  The style of coaching I employ uses a great deal of focused inquiry and thought-work, to rid clients of negative thoughts and beliefs that keep us tied to old, painful, patterns of behavior. In addition, as a mind-body coach, I also teach clients specific, scientifically-proven tools that help decrease stress, reduce pain, and ultimately, lead to greater happiness and enjoyment of life.

Jen:

Someone who can help you achieve the things you want to achieve in life, whether it’s how to deal with a certain situation i.e. being more confident, or help with achieving a specific goal. A life coach can help you gain clarity about who you are and where you want to go. A life coach doesn’t tell you what to do, or give you advice, but through listening and using coaching techniques helps you to realize what you already knew. We all get stuck sometimes, whether its how to move forward or deciding on a certain path or maybe letting go of regrets but having a coach helps to untangle where you are stuck and get clear.

Do you need any special training to become a life coach?

Nona:

There is no one standard for life coaching at this time.  I have chosen to complete a rigorous training and certification program with Martha Beck, plus, I also go to a coach myself (I firmly believe you must live it to give it!!).

Jen:

At present you don’t have to train to call yourself a life coach and I personally think there are probably a lot of great life coaches out there (who maybe never even call themselves that word) who do it naturally – just listening, helping and inspiring people they come into contact with. Saying that, as a profession obviously it is good to have some guidelines and there are moves towards accreditation and there a lot of great courses available to train to be a life coach.

What personality traits should a life coach possess?

Nona:

Compassion, honesty, a willingness to be wrong, the ability to lead, and an entrepreneurial spirit!

Jen:

An interest in people, helping others, positivity, patience and empathy. I think also being able to ‘get’ where people are, but also see what they really are capable of is a must.

I have thought recently that talking to a life coach may help me attain my goals.  How could I benefit by using a life coach?

Nona:

Coaching can help you gain clarity around your vector, dissolve any limiting beliefs that are holding you back, and create a structure of accountability so you get where you want to go.  Coaching is a great choice for goal achievement!

Jen:

Talking to a Life Coach can help you to attain your goals, as it is action orientated. Each session you will have work to do to move forward with whatever it is you are working on. Part of my job is cheering you on and helping you to remove blocks to what you want to achieve but also by being accountable to me for what you have agreed to do. I help you to make sure your goals are achieved.

If you could give some advice to another person who is thinking of becoming a life coach what would you tell them?

Nona:

Find a coach training program that you really, really resonate with.  Evaluate whether you are ready to be a business owner, because that takes a fair amount of time, and, make sure you are ready to tackle your own stuff, because to help others, it’s important to be (and stay) emotionally clean yourself.

Jen:

Do your research, talk to people who have trained to be life coaches and find out if it’s for you. I looked at lots of different options including becoming a psychologist, counselor and psychotherapist. In the end Life Coaching was the approach that has most fitted with my approach to life and felt right for me. Also look into the different types of courses and how they work, some include coaching practice (which I’d recommend particularly if you haven’t coached before) and some are distance learning.

Is being a life coach your full-time occupation or is this a part-time career?

Nona:

I have a small child and my husband and I have obligations to his work – this is my career, however, I work part-time to accommodate the other parts of my life.

Jen:

Part time. I work 4 days a week in another role and am a Life Coach the rest of the time.

I met you through your website and your blog.  Did you start the blog to advertise your occupation or for some other reason?  Have you enjoyed blogging?  If so, what about blogging do you find enjoyable?  If not, what don’t you like about blogging?

Nona:

I began blogging almost three years ago, on my Yoga blog, Everyday Yogini.  It felt very natural for me, when I began my coaching practice, to create another blog for that.  Not only to connect with clients and promote the business, but, I love to write, and, I love the personal connection with readers.  The best part is when someone comes to me and says, “That post that you wrote really changed my perspective.  Thank you!”  That is simply the best feeling.

Jen:

I needed a website for my coaching and through researching how to set a site up, stumbled across the blogging world, which I absolutely have fallen in love with! I enjoy writing and being creative and passing on some of my knowledge and hopefully making a difference in that way, as well as advertising my Life Coaching services. One thing I particularly enjoy about blogging is meeting amazing people online.

This interview has been very enlightening and educational for me. Hopefully it was the same for you.  I really want to thank both Nona and Jen for their candid responses to the questions.  If you have more questions about life coaching you can reach out to them at their websites.  You can also follow them, as I do, on Twitter.

If you have thought about turning to a life coach to help you through your life’s challenges, hopefully you now have a little more insight into how a life coach can help you become your best…

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If you read my bio, you can clearly see that I spend the majority of my life at work sitting in a cubicle.  On average we’re talking about a good 10 hours per day.  You could probably call me an “expert” when it comes to cube-sitting.  So, instead of treating my cubicle like a prison cell, I tend to look at it as my home away from home.  In fact, based on the time I spend in it, I probably should call it my home.

I’ve always been pretty organized and have prided myself on my organizational skills.  In fact, I need to be.  So I’ve made a conscious effort to treat my cube with the same respect that I treat my home.  Here are some of the steps that I have taken to make my “work home” as inspiring and livable as possible.

1. Keep it clean!

I don’t know about you but I NEED to have a clean workspace.  Go visit a co-worker who has a hell-hole of a workspace and, chances are, that person is unorganized, disinterested, and probably miserable.  So what I do is every Friday I clean off my desk with a cleaning agent and clear out my keyboard with a cleaning duster of compressed air.  Staying on top of it is the key and I’ve found that once a week works well for me.

2. Get a comfortable chair and keyboard.

Ergonomics, or the applied science of equipment design, has become extremely important in the workplace.  Chances are your company will invest in an ergonomic reclining office chair for you if you ask for one.  They would much rather spring for a new chair than pay disability for lower back pain symptoms and having to hire a temp to do your job at the same time.  The same goes for a new keyboard.  Your company will go out of their way to purchase you a new keyboard in lieu of paying for disability for a worker who develops carpal tunnel syndrome.

3. Surround yourself with words to live by.

If you don’t have a corkboard or a whiteboard buy one!  On the corkboard in my cube are the “Four Agreements” written about by Don Miguel Ruiz that I highlighted in a 4-part series that began with this post (shameless plug).  They are the following:

• Be Impeccable With Your Word.
• Don’t Take Anything Personally.
• Don’t Make Assumptions.
• Always do your best.

You’d be surprised how often I look at these agreements during a typical workday.  What they do for me is give me a constant reminder of how I should conduct myself, not only in the workplace, but in my personal life as well.  I consider these four agreements “best practice” rules in my life.

4. Prominently feature inspirational quotes about life.

I get a lot out of inspirational life quotes and I actually print them out and attach them to my computer monitor. Some of them are seen below.

“The Truly Educated Never Graduate.”

“Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them.  You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.”

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

“As you think so you feel.”

“When the power of love overrules the love of power, we will experience peace.”

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” (Socrates)

“The opposite of war isn’t peace.  It’s creation.” (Marc Cohen from the Broadway musical “Rent”)

5. Display your weekly tasks prominently.

Each Monday morning I make a list of tasks I want to accomplish in the upcoming week. This is where I need to use my organizational skills. At the same time, I try to prioritize them so I can at least get the more important tasks completed first even if I can’t complete them all.  Once again I print them out and pin them up on my well-utilized “corkboard”.

6. Display your yearly goals prominently.

At my place of employment, our year-end bonus is based on the completion of our yearly goals.  So, you can imagine that it is a priority of mine to complete all of them and to have them VERY visible in my cubicle.  So what I actually do is take the list that my boss and I have come up with for yearly goals and I shrink down that list with our copier to a size that is still readable and can fit directly below my computer monitor.  I just use a piece of tape to attach it.  I don’t even have to look left or right to see my yearly goals.  They are always in my view when looking at my computer screen and this gives me the visibility of the goals that I want and it also lets me focus on them throughout the year.  You’d be surprised how often I glance at that list and how well I can keep up with the list as the year goes on. As you can see, I need to focus on my organizational skills or I won’t get these tasks completed.

7. Buy some cool stuff for the cubicle.

There are now so many cool cubicle accessories like wall clips, mesh grid systems, hanging files, coat hooks, hanging shelves, and desk organizers.  They even sell, to my surprise, a flat panel monitor cubicle hanger.  The list of innovative cubicle accessories is limitless. One of the smartest and most reasonable investments I made for my own office was a single cup coffee maker. The one that I purchased was the Black & Decker Brew ‘N Go. Every morning I start out my day at work with a freshly brewed cup of Joe using my favorite Starbucks coffee. You could opt for a K cup version but I prefer a drip coffee maker. It saves me a lot of money by not visiting a coffee house each morning and the coffee is as fresh as you can get. I’ve used it now for over a year and it works perfectly every morning.

8. A pic says a thousand words.

How many times have you gone into a co-workers cube and see dozens of pictures of their kids but you never see a picture of their spouse?  This is a pet peeve of mine so I try to make up for others and include pictures of all of my loved ones.  Also collect pictures from places you have visited, especially while on a business trip.  It will remind you of where you went and it may help you appreciate the fact that your company paid for that trip.

9. Collect artifacts and display them.

I also collect small works of art from anywhere I have visited and try to display them in my cube.  This will help brighten up the dull grey walls with some color and bring back some fun memories at the same time.  I have a co-worker who has a collection of small turtles in her office.  Other workers know about her turtle collection and pick up small ceramic turtles for her on their vacations or work trips.  Speaking of turtles, I had a professor in college who also collected turtles and I asked him why.  He said that he used the turtle as a symbol for his life.  He said that a turtle needs to stick his neck out to get ahead.  He learned early in life he had to take risks to grow personally and professionally.

10. Soothing Sounds.

I need sound during the day while I am working in my cube.  The sounds I tend to listen to are the sounds from streaming sports talk radio.  Others tend to gravitate toward soothing classical or contemporary music,

either from their Ipod, streaming radio, or CDs that they brought in from home.  In fact, the most innovative sound that I have seen utilized by someone in a cube is by a co-worker.  He bought a small aquarium with 2 fish and a pump.  He finds the hum and gurgling from the pump to be a soothing effect on his psyche throughout the day.  Even watching the fish swimming in the tank adds a visual effect that adds a positive, pleasing facet to his cube life.

Keeping my “work home” in order is a priority of mine.  With the proper environment, what some might consider a “jail cell”, could become cubicle bliss.

If you have any other practical suggestions for cubicle design and accessories or tips to realize cubicle bliss please leave a comment.

Disclaimer: There are a number of affiliate links in this article. If you click on them and buy the items I will receive a small commission.

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]]> http://totallyuniquelife.com/cubicle-bliss-10-steps-to-create-an-inspiring-workspace/feed/ 9 http://totallyuniquelife.com/she-left-home-bye-bye/ http://totallyuniquelife.com/she-left-home-bye-bye/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:50:44 +0000 Bob Bessette http://totallyuniquelife.co.cc/?p=95

“She, we gave her most of our lives.

Is leaving , sacrificed most of our lives.

Home, we gave her everything money could buy.”

(lyrics from She’s Leaving Home from Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles)

Talk about lifestyle changes.  I just joined the ranks of parents who have had to drop their child off at college for the first time.  It was tough, very tough…

You see, we have always been a unit; our family.  A team of four heading off on vacations or out to dinner or out to a show.  Heading off to college was always years away.  You know, those years way off in the future when we would have plenty of money to pay those tuition bills.  Yeah, right… Those years snuck up on us and grabbed us by the heartstrings before we were really prepared for it.  But are you ever prepared to say goodbye to a child, even if you are losing them to academic endeavors?

It was traumatic for me, to say the least.  Why was it so traumatic you say?

She was our first.

Our first born.  Our angel.  The first one we would see crawl, pull herself up to her feet, and take her first steps.  The first to put the letters together on the magnetic chalk board and sound out the words.  The first to stand on the corner with lunch box in hand, wearing the sweater Grandma crocheted for her, waiting for the first grade bus to take her away from the comfort and security of the only home she has ever known.

She was a joy to have around.

When you live with someone for so long I don’t think you have a true understanding of the effect that person has really had on your life.  Until she leaves.  My daughter loosened the family up.  She had crazy dances and dialects that our family and her friends got to see on a regular basis.  Basically she was fun…

We used to get to see her friends regularly.

Now that she is gone we don’t have the opportunity to see and talk with her friends who are also off to college for the first time.  You see, my daughter had really good taste in friends.  She was very particular in who her friends

were and very discerning in choosing them.  When you lose a child to college you’re also losing an extended family of her friends.

My youngest is heartbroken.

It’s not like they were best friends but my youngest child, who is four years younger, is heartbroken.  The big sister was the one who would drive her from place to place.  She was the one that my youngest would confide in when it came to personal matters.  It’s tough to see your kids hurting and even tougher when you are too…

I know that I have written this post as if my daughter was in the past but I know better.  What is in the past is our world as we knew it.  We know that my eldest will be back every few months for holidays and breaks.  It’s just that this is a transition that almost every parent goes through.  I understand that.  It just doesn’t make it any easier…

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(This is the 4th and final entry in a 4-part series of posts associated with the book “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom” by Don Miguel Ruiz.)

In my last post we looked into the 3rd agreement, “Don’t make assumptions“, which is discussed in the book entitled: “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom” by Don Miguel Ruiz. This book was introduced in my first post in this series. The book speaks to a code of conduct for attaining personal freedom and true happiness.

To revisit, Don Miguel Ruiz states the four agreements as:

• Be impeccable with your word
• Don’t take anything personally
• Don’t make assumptions
• Always do your best

In this post we are going to look more closely into the fourth agreement: “Always do your best”. In this book Ruiz elaborates on the fourth agreement with the following passage:

Your best is going to change from moment to moment. It will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

This agreement brings to mind the lyrics of a song called “Louder than Words” from the not-so-famous musical called “Tick Tick Boom” written by the late great Jonathan Larson, more known for writing the smash musical “Rent”. The lyrics are:

Why should we try to be our best

When we can just get by and still gain?

Maybe you have had these thoughts in your lifetime. Maybe while working at your current place of employment or a previous job? Well Ruiz would probably respond by saying that you will probably regret just getting by or maybe you will regret not giving your full effort. I think we all are probably guilty of cutting corners in our lives. But deep down we all probably regret cutting those corners instead of giving our all. The company I work for in my day job expects me to give my full effort and they pay me well to do so.  Have I always done so? No, probably not. But if I didn’t, it certainly would not feel right to me. It would bother me. I am guessing that it would also bother you and this is what Ruiz is alluding to in the passage above.

So, in conclusion, the four agreements are guidelines in life that, if we follow them religiously, could certainly transform our lives for the better.  What’s more important to me is that Don Miguel Ruiz certainly feels that your life could be transformed by following these straight-forward, common-sense rules.

After reading this book I printed out a copy of the four agreements on one page and posted them next to my desk at work.  I can honestly say that I refer to them often.  I also refer to them as “words to live by”.  I hope you will take Ruiz’s advice and heed these four agreements and make them work in your life.

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