If ever there was a time when this was the conversation you and I were going to need to have, it's now.
For many of us, we're now at home—running families maybe, still thinking about what to make for dinner, teaching kids Year 7 maths—while continuing to build our coaching businesses.
You already know we can profoundly impact in a positive way the lives of people around us. We can help people build the mindsets needed for these times. Resilience. Tenacity. Of finding a way. Compassion. Of being this amazing problem solver and moving forward.
What you may not be so clear about is how to go forth and build a thriving home based coaching business.
So, I'm going to share my four steps with you. (On April 14 I'll tell you more about how to rock right now at The Coaching Institute's free three day summit, 'How to Create A Thriving Home-Based Coaching Business'.)
Step one: Inventory of my mind and how am I showing up.
For me to thrive in these times as a coach is to take an inventory of myself and reflect how have I trained my mind to this moment, how have I trained myself for this moment. It's making a conscious choice that whatever, however, you're handling it now, there's going to be more adversity in the future.
Life is built on adversity coupled with moments of relief. I'm going to train my mind so in the face of adversity I find the stepping stones through it. That I grow through it. Be my best.
Step two: Being structured as a coach
I have a structure to my day that involves work productivity, health, fitness, connecting with people, reflecting on how I'm doing and play—however that might look!
With that structure in place, there's a daily sense of progress, so I'm mindful of not being in reaction mode. I was—but I gave myself the first five days of feeling less control and not certain within myself, then it was okay, reset.
I'm calling on rituals I know have helped me in the past and guided me forward, things I can rely on to give me a pathway to navigate through uncertainty around me so I can feel a sense of certainty within.
Step three: Going inside the structure
It’s one thing to say I have a great habit of meditation, for example, but it's another to be present within the moment. I want to be as present as I can be in a connection with someone and mindful if they're spiralling a little bit not to say, 'Knock it off.'
It's to hear them, then remind them of what we do have, so every single moment in this third dimension I'm being mindful of how I'm showing up in that moment and what actions I'm choosing.
Step four: Who am I allowing into my world?
I ask, who am I allowing into my sphere and who am I allowing to touch my thoughts or my life or touch my heart? Who am I allowing within my boundaries?
I have to trust them to not be overly reactive or panicked or out of control with their thoughts in a way that's not productive and they don't want to hear anything else. That has meant not distancing myself really from anyone because pretty well everyone in my life is looking at this in a very similar way.
Okay. That to me is how I'm being a thriving coach in these times. If you're one too, check out a Facebook group we've started at The Coaching Institute called Coach Your Neighbour. Coaches all around the world have volunteered to coach someone who needs it for free, because they're relating to this idea that beyond the fear or panic there is so much we can connect with and affect.
By thriving I mean serving and contributing and making a difference. That to me is fulfilment, and that's thriving.