Why I Became a Coach

Two and a half years ago I didn’t even know coaching existed. I had recently graduated from college and returned from serving a mission for my church and I needed to choose a career. My B.S. is in sociology, which is so broad it doesn’t easily funnel people into any given career. I signed up for aptitude testing for career guidance at the prestigious Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation. The results were very helpful, but they indicated I could be successful in a handful of different careers: counseling, marketing, business, administration, writing, artistic expression of creativity. Coaching is the ultimate fit.

In August of 2006 I went to an educational workshop taught by a life coach named Dr. Gourgious and was convinced I needed to go into that line of work. He explained coaching like this: “Imagine the quality of someone’s life could be measured on a number line going from -10 to +10. People in the negatives are not functioning well and need to see a therapist. However, some people are at a +3 or +4 and are doing okay, but would like to improve some aspect of their life, such as a relationship, their self-image, their attitude, or how successful they are. I help those people get to +10.”

Within eight months I had graduated from a life coaching school called The School of the Work of Byron Katie and had my first client.  At school, we were given tools and questions to ask clients that would help them get to a +10.

What a concept! I love helping people who are entrenched in old habits, who are mulling around at a +3 or +4 and who want to go to +10. Others I help are already at a +7, but want to take things to the next level and go to a +10. I’ve received comments from clients who are small business owners on improving time management and they’ve said things like, “this has changed my life, thank you.” That is extremely rewarding for me to hear.