Individuals every day set goals for their personal and business lives, however many people fail every day to reach these goals. In order to reach their goals individuals are searching for ways to succeed. life coaching programs have been created to assist individuals with their quest for self-improvement.

To start working with a life coach, your first step will be to interview as many life coaches you can find in order to find a good fit between yourself and the coach. Then the life coach will take over and interview you to determine what your current status is and where you want to go in life and with your goals. The life coach will usually create a road map for you, the client, to follow and have regular sessions to make sure you are on the path to success at all times.

The actual tools and methods that your life coach will employ while assisting you towards your goals will vary upon your needs. If you need daily check in and assurance that you are making progress towards your goals, your life coach should be able to provide that support. When working with a life coach the absolute minimum amount of time you will need to spend in sessions will vary upon your desired completion date and requirements for support.

Life coaching is designed to increase the self-awareness of an individual. During life coaching you will work analytically and methodically to discover things about yourself that you never though of before. After you discover what you are truly capable of, you will find that you have a newfound energy inside yourself and your will discover that reaching your goals will be easy.

Usually life coaches will create a logical plan to help you work toward completing your goals. Your life coach should also communicate with you on a regular basis to make sure that you are on the path to success. Keep the lines of communication open with your life coach by communicating your thoughts and concerns with them. Do not hide anything from your life coach, your coach is not a person who will judge your life, they want you to succeed and communication is the best method available to both your coach and you.

Whatever your reasons for seeking a persona coach, your overall desire is to change your life. life coaching is a very effective method of creating change in a persons thoughts and actions quickly. You become accountable to an impartial third party for everything related to the goals you set for yourself. While all the work is really done by yourself, a life coach is a friend, a confident, and a partner in your journey.

The word coaching comes from the word stagecoach which involved moving people from one place to another. That is exactly what coaching is. You decide to move from one place to another and you have a coach there to help you. It seems simple, but it is extremely powerful and it has the potential to change your life for the better.

Do you feel stuck in a rut? Do you want more out of life? Coaching is ideal to get you out of that ‘rut.’ It helps you focus on what you want out of life, and then create a plan to help you move toward that. Coaching is about the future. It will focus on your growth and development as you are moving toward achieving your goals.

It can also involve working with successful people who want to improve further. The support and challenge of a coach can help someone on this journey.

Interest in coaching is growing rapidly and it is becoming increasingly popular. More and more people and organisations recognise its value. Coaching has become particularly relevant in our fast- moving world where there is a struggle to balance work, social life, health and finances.

One of the great things about coaching is that you, as a client, use it for whatever area of life is important to you. Some people seek coaching for support in making a career change, building confidence, reducing stress, or achieving a better work-life balance. Coaching can be used for whatever is important to you at a particular time.

Work is one of the commonly complained of sources of stress. Dealing with impossible deadlines, annoying co-workers, overbearing bosses. It all can become overwhelming. And the stress you get from work, you carry with you to home, family, and social settings. If you don’t have an effective stress management system, stress from work can dominate and destroy other areas of your life.

If stress is not handled, it can basically wear down your body. Some of the health problems that stress can cause are headaches, sleep problems, excessive weight gain or loss, and digestion problems in the short run. Over time, is stress is not managed properly, major health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke can occur. These are just your physical problems. Stress can cause, or make worse, emotional problems like depression, lack of concentration, interference with relationships, and loss of self-esteem.

You can find dozens and hundreds of “stress management programs” that will give you “10 tips for handling stress at work.” Or you can buy a calendar of affirmations, to make you “feel better” while the stress at work is crushing you. But you know that the sheer volume and weight of the stress you experience at work is not going to be managed by doing neck rolls and deep breathing at your desk, or by looking at a picture of flower with a cutesy saying hanging on your wall. Stress at work needs a stress management system that is as tough, and as big, to fight back and defeat that stress.

There are many excellent stress management systems available. Your company may even offer in-house seminars and classes on stress management. However, one of the biggest problems with most management systems is that they are usually built around one single concept or tool. There are systems built on meditation, time management, goal setting, improving interpersonal relationships, and cognitive reorientation. All of these are great tools. And all of them work, to reduce some stress.

But stress at work is not limited to just time stress or just poorly-defined goals stress or just other people stress. Stress at work is ALL of these! So you need a comprehensive stress management system, to handle all of the stresses you are hit with at work.

By having a system to manage stress properly, you can avoid most – maybe all – of the health problems listed above. And probably just as important, by handling the stress at work, you become the “go to” guy at work. Your ability to remain calm and cool during periods of extreme stress, and your reputation for being the person who can handle goals and crises, will get you noticed as a leader. By being able to focus on the job instead of constantly being distracted by having to handle your reaction – and the reactions of people you work with – you will get more done, in less time. You will have more time for your family and friends. You should be promoted and get more raises. By managing stress at work, you can reduce the things that cause stress at work.

According to the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ (A.C.T.U.) 1997 survey, fifty per cent of workers had suffered some form of stress at work in a 12-month period. The statistics in care professions were even higher, with the Department of Education and Training in Western Australia reporting in its 2002 Attitudes To Teaching Survey that seventy per cent of teachers identified workplace stress as a cause for concern in their teaching positions.

Stress in the workplace is becoming a major concern for employers, managers and government agencies, owing to the Occupational Health and Safety legislations requiring employers to practice ‘duty of care’ by providing employees with safe working environments which also cover the psychological wellbeing of their staff.

One of the costs, for employers, of work place stress is absenteeism, with the A.C.T.U. reporting that owing to stress, nearly fifty per cent of employees surveyed had taken time off work. Other negative effects were reductions in productivity, reduced profits, accidents, high rates of sickness, increased workers’ compensation claims and high staff turnover, requiring recruiting and training of replacement staff.

While a certain amount of stress is needed to motivate individuals into action, prolonged stress can have a huge impact on overall health. More than two-thirds of visits to doctors’ surgeries are for stress-related illnesses. Stress has been linked to headaches, backaches, insomnia, anger, cramps, elevated blood pressure, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and lowered resistance to infection. For women, stress is a key factor in hormonal imbalances resulting in menstrual irregularities, PMS, fibroids, endometriosis and fertility problems. Stress can also be a factor in the development of almost all disease states including cancer and heart disease.

Each profession has its own unique factors that may cause stress; below are some causes of stress that cross many professions:

· Increased workload

· Organizational changes

· Lack of recognition

· High demands

· Lack of support

· Personal and family issues

· Poor work organization

· Lack of training

· Long or difficult hours

· Inadequate staff numbers and resources

· Poor management communication

· Lack of control or input

So what can be done to effectively manage workplace stress?

Organizations can:

· Educate their employees to recognise the signs of stress.

· Where possible, give their employees the chance to be involved in decisions and actions that affect their jobs.

· Improve employer-employee communications.

· Provide employees with opportunities to socialise together.

· Be understanding of employees’ personal and family responsibilities.

· Ensure employee workloads suit their capabilities and resources (provide more training and resources if not).

· Provide support (internally or externally) for employees who have complex stress issues.

Employees can reduce their overall stress by:

· Regularly exercising, as this releases ‘happy hormones’.

· Eating a healthy diet, as stress depletes vital nutrients.

· Getting adequate rest.

· Using tea and lunch breaks to read, listen to a relaxation CD or have a five-minute power-nap.

· If appropriate, playing relaxing music at work and burning aromatherapy oils.

· Being more organized. Get up earlier to have more time.

· Delegating responsibility where possible. Say no!

· Taking time out to laugh by telling someone a joke. Start a laughter group: by standing in a circle and all forcing a big laugh, it will soon become real!

· Avoiding caffeine and sugar. Although this may provide an instant lift it later depletes the body of energy and nutrients.

· Taking time to do things that bring enjoyment and pleasure.

· Making the work environment pleasurable. Have relaxing sounds in the form of music or a water fountain. Have enjoyable smells by burning candles or aromatherapy oils. Hang beautiful pictures or posters on the walls; have photos or flowers on the desk.

· Taking care of their overall health and wellbeing by practising good self-care.

· Keep a journal that monitors dates and times of stress to detect re-occurring patterns and to help you discover changes you may need to make.

Sometimes trying to implement change (even for the better) can itself cause stress and prevent a person remaining motivated. In this case it’s important to get support for your stress from a counsellor, doctor, naturopath, friend, peer or life coach who specializes in stress issues.

The benefits of a systematic and joint approach to reducing work stress are:

· Increased productivity

· Decrease in absenteeism

· Improved morale

· Decrease in workers’ compensation claims

· Reduction in workplace accidents

The most important benefit in reducing workplace stress is that it will promote a pleasant work environment for all.

With life coaching becoming “the” career choice in this millennium, many of you are seeking the right choice for training and certification. Hopefully this article will answer some of your questions.

There are many fine life coach schools, academies and institutes. Some are accredited and some not. Should the school’s accreditation make a difference to you? In my opinion, no.

Because there are no universal standards for the life coaching profession, there are no universal standards for schools. Also, because well-paid coaches generally work in a niche, those niches are such that they are developed by the coach independently of any training they might receive.

What makes the issue of accreditation particularly confusing is marketing. Accreditation is being used as a marketing tool in some cases, not as a barometer of their success. Many coaching schools are accredited only because a group of colleagues got together and decided to form a group and accredit their associates’ schools. How do you know whether this is the case for a school you are interested in? You really don’t know and generally can’t find out.

Many schools use accreditation as a marketing ploy to draw you in and charge exhorbitant rates. If you just want to spend more money, go ahead. Price really has little to do with the effectiveness of the materials. Mid-range schools generally work harder to please students and offer as good or better training in many cases, because students get more one-on-one time with instructors.

How important is a school’s accreditation? Let’s put it into realistic perspective. What is most important to a prospective coaching client is, can this coach help me? Most clients look to see whether a coach has had formal coach training, but not into the background of the school. And the truth is, clients don’t care whether the school you attended, is accredited. It just doesn’t come up. Clients will decide to use your services if they like you, feel a connection, and experience benefits from their sample session with you. That’s pretty much it.

Peer Resources (http://www.peer.ca/coachingschools.html), recognized world leader in coach training resources states “accreditation” in the coaching field at present has a number of troubling aspects, including its lack of wide-spread acceptance, conflicts of interests between reviewers and some rated schools, minimal reporting of results, and questionable or vague criteria. While accreditation typically means the school has been reviewed by an external source, it does not necessarily mean that “non-accredited schools” provide less value or poorer quality programs.”

Since coaching is a distinct and relatively new profession, and no universal standards exist, many new schools have come into existence. To build a fence around the training opportunities and the income derived from it, some schools formed organizations to accredit only their schools of choice and make it nearly impossible for a newer school to become accredited. They will mandate applicant schools to show evidence of ten or more years of professional success, before they even consider them for accreditation. Then, they apply personal biases for accrediting schools, so unless a school fits within their philosophies, they aren’t eligible or will not be approved.

So how does the potential coaching student make a sound choice? Here are some ways:

Read student testimonials

Verify the school’s philosophies allign with yours

Contact the school and see if they are prompt with replies to your questions

Look for a school in your desired niche – Here is an example:

Let’s say you are a Christian and prefer training that agrees with your faith. It will be important to select a Christian (bible-based) certification course. Admittedly this niche offers a few options for training. Some are accredited and some not. But this should not matter, because there is no governing body to decide whose course is best. The Christian schools who show accreditation from established secular accrediting bodies, are actually less likely to have substantive biblical content, because secular groups frequently subscribe to new age philosophies and may influence course content and materials.

Through my research and contact with various institutions, there was only one Christian coaching school which impressed me. That is the Professional Christian Counseling and Coaching Academy. (www.pccca.org). PCCCA offers training and certification for Christian Life Coaches and Christian Counselors.

I found they stand on their principles of faith, maintain the integrity of their programs and consistently strive for excellence. What is more, they offer one-to-one training with practicing coaches, serving as coach training instructors. Any coaching school’s success relies on what they bring to the table with their skills, integrity, response-time, reasonable fees and knowledge. Add that to superb training and you have an unbeatable combination. While PCCCA has Christian School Accreditation, they do not have secular coaching school accreditation.

I recommend that potential students not be persuaded by gimicky advertising, high fees and accreditation. Look for the best school for you. Period.