As a wellness coach, you’ll probably be presented, by one of your existing or potential coaching clients, with a picture of a supermodel which is accompanied by: “I need to look like this in two weeks because I’m going to a tropical island. Can you help me?”
Although you’d love to help her or her, all your training in wellness, nutrition and fitness will be screaming at you that this goal is not achievable in the short space of time that you’ve been given. It is achievable but you’ll need a bit more time to help make this happen. So how do you get out of a situation like this? Well, when assessing your coaching clients’ goals make sure that they are S.M.A.R.T.
Specific goals are the only way to go for coaching
In order for goals to be achievable, they must be specific. So, to take the example of the coaching client who wants to look like a supermodel ASAP, try and get specifics about what she or he likes about the particular supermodel’s body. Do they like the fact that the model has rock-hard abs? Or do they admire the model’s super-sculpted shoulders? Once you know this, you’ll be better able to advise your client if her timeframe is realistic.
If your goals aren’t measurable you’re wasting your time
You need to be able to know how much time it will take to accomplish your coaching client’s goals. The most important thing is that you’re realistic. So, the client mentioned above’s goals of looking like a supermodel might be unrealistic as they are not measurable given the timeframe that you’ve been given. In the words of Duncan Haughey, you need to know if your goals are obtainable and you also need to know when you’ve achieved your goal.
Goals need to be attainable
In other words, your goal must be realistic. So, if you want to lose weight – but you’re, for example, a well-endowed lady – don’t use Kate Moss as your role model for an ideal goal weight. You’ll never be able to attain this goal unless you resort to surgery or extremely unhealthy eating practices, such as starvation.
Your goals must be relevant to what you want to achieve
If you don’t want to look like a supermodel, but you still want to lose weight and be healthy, that’s OK! This goal might be relevant to someone – but not to you. Also if you don’t feel that your goals are personally relevant, you won’t have the mental drive to achieve them. As Viktor Frankl said:
“What a man actually needs is not a tensionless state, but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.”
Goals must have a set start and end time
If you say to yourself that you’re going to lose weight ‘one day’, you’ll never do it as you won’t be putting yourself under pressure. You won’t be pushing yourself to achieve what you want to. If you say to yourself that you’re going to start on a healthy eating plan on such and such a date, you’ll feel motivated and ready to start.
Our favourite life coaching tools
The Wheel of Life
Step 1
Draw a circle and divide it into seven pieces.
Step 2
Label each section of the pie using the following labels:
– Business and career
– Finances
– Health
– Family and friends
– Romance
– Fun and recreation
– Physical environment
Step 3
Ask your client to give themselves a 1 – 10 rating in each of these categories, with 1 being dissatisfied and 10 being extremely happy.
Step 4
Put a dot in each of the pieces that corresponds to the rating that the client gives themselves. (A 1 will be close to the centre with a ten being almost at the outside of the circle.)
Step 5
Join the dots to show your client if their lives are a ‘wonky’ circle and which areas they need to work on.
4 Steps to using the G.R.O.W. model
The G.R.O.W model consists of a number of questions that you need to ask your client to help them start to think positively and begin to realise their goals.
G.R.O.W stands for:
- G – Goals
- R – Reality
- O – Option
- W – Will
Being a life coach in an incredibly rewarding career as you get to nurture people and see them grow. Trifocus Fitness Academy’s Life Coaching Certification is the perfect way for you to enter this field as it’s accredited with COMENSA. If you feel that you’ve got what it takes to become a wellness coach, and help people towards achieving their goals, you DEFINITELY need to sign up for Trifocus Fitness Academy’s accredited Life Coaching Certification today! Register now!