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Clarity of purpose is a great asset when setting out in any endeavor. We will begin by shining the spotlight on why you want to coach and how your own healing, growth, and inner peace are related to that of your clients. I read a book by a Buddhist monk who declared in his introduction, “I have no illusion or pretention that the purpose of my writing is anything other than the clarification of my own mind.” So it might be said that behind all of our coaching services, helpful to the others as they are and will be, is the quest for our own awakening, healing, and joy. And that is a noble intention! Many doctors, therapists, teachers, and healers are not aware of the connection between their own well-being and that of their clients. They believe that their purpose is to fix, guide, or save others, and their own awakening or healing is a separate issue. Nothing could be further from the truth. The roles of teacher and student are always intertwined; you cannot teach without learning, and you cannot learn without teaching. A Course in Miracles explains that the most fundamental purpose of any healer is the healing of his or her own mind. To project the function of healing onto the patient alone and overlook the function of healing the teacher is to miss the most crucial element of the teacher-student relationship. The Course goes on to explain, “When I am healed, I am not healed alone,” meaning that as you find and claim clarity and joy yourself, the gifts you gain are automatically extended to your clients. So now we acknowledge an underlying current of intention that will run behind all of our steps to being a brilliant coach: We see the purpose of coaching as our own awakening, as well as that of our clients. While this may at first sound selfish, it is an absolutely crucial purpose to recognize. Let us be honest about what we really seek in becoming coaches. Of course we want to help people. No one can succeed in any profession without the intention and practice of service. But, as Martin Buber declared, “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” There is always an internal, personal, spiritual purpose behind the obvious, external one. While the coaching adventure will bring your clients closer to their goals, it will also bring you closer to yours. To serve one without the other would be purposeless and doomed to failure. To claim both ensures success.
Exercise:
1. Why do I want to be a coach, independent of the purpose of helping others?
2. What areas of my life are calling for healing, clarity, or awakening?
3. How might I become a better coach by progressing on my own healing journey?
4. What is the relationship between my own growth and the growth of my clients?
5. What teachers, healers, or mentors do I know who are true to their own healing process?
6. How can I use their example to empower my own growth and practice?
Practice trying these statements (or ones like them that you formulate) on for size and see how they resonate with you. If they feel tentative, repeat them until you can feel the authority behind them:
I want to be a coach because I want to help myself.
I believe that coaching will contribute to my own healing, clarity, and awakening.
I would like to earn a living being a coach.
I would like to earn good money as a coach.
I would prefer to be a coach rather than do what I am currently doing.
(or)
I would prefer to include holistic coaching skills in my current work.
I believe coaching will advance me on my personal and spiritual path.
The happier and more peaceful I am,
The idea of coaching attracts me, How does it feel to make these statements?
I enter coaching because it serves me and everyone I touch.
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