Life Who Needs It? By Christina Stathopoulos, ACCC


when March arrives—after weeks of dark, cold weather, the return to our busy work days, and the occasional post-blizzard shoveling day—we are suddenly faced with the stark reality that not much has changed. We are the same. Our circumstances are the same. And once the energy of “New Year, New You” wears off, we are back into our usual habits.


W What we don’t normally acknowledge is that our ideas about


big changes, getting healthier, switching jobs or stepping into our greatness this year, may all be great—but they are also ideas that are coming from our feelings. When our feelings change, so will our goals. Some of you may be protesting this in your brain by thinking, “I accomplish my goals and I kick butt doing it.” Let’s not knock your goal-achieving techniques or criticize what normally works for you, but let’s take a deeper look in order to go further.


What would you accomplish this year if your performance


weren’t up to just you? This is a reasonable question to ask be- cause we sabotage ourselves by objecting to the stuff we said we wanted. We want a salary increase, but we sabotage it by believ- ing this puts us against others in our company or in our field. We promise we will finally write that book, but we save it for later because we just aren’t in the right mood or feel it will never get published. We are ready to open our hearts and fall in love, but we are annoyed by online dating or we make ourselves available to people who are not ready to share that kind of future with us.


We are ruthlessly two-faced when it comes to achieving our goals and dreams. How crazy is that?! We become so used to our “internal crazy” that we can no longer discern how crazy we are. Most of us actually need someone in it with us; someone to call out the sabotaging parts of the crazy and call forth the powerful and useful parts. Someone whose job it is to set yourself up to win and call out when you are setting yourself up to fail.


16 Essential Living Maine ~ March/April 2017


elcome to March: a month just far off enough from those New Year’s Resolutions to forget they were even made! January can be a time full of anticipation, and


A life coach partners with clients in a thought-provoking pro- cess to inspire them to reach their maximum potential, personally and professionally. In plain terms, they work with clients to help them get everything they want in life. Although there are many coaching practices that focus solely in one area such as career, wellness or finances, some coaches intentionally identify them- selves as a Life and Leadership Coach because it helps people become a leader in all areas of their lives. As such, these coaches may help you work on area-specific projects, but their coaching always reverts back to the "big picture," the complete and whole life you want for yourself.


So ask yourself this question again and think a little deeper this time. What would you accomplish this year if your performance


weren’t up to just you? Would you write your book? Get promot- ed? Start your own business?


Getting back to the root of your goals and actually creating something requires courage, confronting the part of you that gave it up and A TON of practice. A powerful, trained, devoted coach will listen to all of your feelings and help you figure out which of them you want to hold onto and which goals you will dedicate yourself to achieving this year. Life coaches will connect you, over and over, to the tender and wonderful possibility of it all coming true! Why is this important? Because on our own, we forget why we started and in truth, it is most comfortable staying put and do- ing nothing.


So you’re ready for more. You know your work/life balance


is wacky. You have an exciting new opportunity at stake. There is a gap that exists in skills, confidence, or resources to get you that thing you want. How do you know that a coach is the right person to work with?


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