COACHING FOR YOU

Hello, I'm Michelle Green, and I'd love to share a story with you. Picture this: I'm standing on the beach in Egypt, watching snorkelers explore the ocean. Suddenly, it hits me—I'm gazing at this vast expanse of water, realising just how limitless we are. Excitement surges within me as I turn to my teenage daughter beside me and say to her, "you are boundless” She is focused on becoming a commercial lawyer and is currently studying for her GCSEs. The journey has been filled with its fair share of challenges.

Today's young people (teenagers and young adults) face a different set of challenges than we did, and it's not just social media platforms; COVID reshaped the way students learned and engaged. The constant connectivity through social media and entertainment apps created a whirlwind of distractions that decreased focus. This constant stimulation has led to procrastination and high concentrating on studies.

Reflecting on my own academic journey, I remember the challenges of navigating distractions and maintaining focus. It often felt like a battle against procrastination, with important tasks slipping through the cracks as less urgent ones took precedence, coupled with the pressure to excel academically. What I needed was to set goals, build self-awareness, identify personal distractions, and develop strategies to conquer them. This would have helped me manage my time and break down tasks into manageable chunks to stay on track.

Through my work with hundreds of you people, I've come to realise that their struggles often echo one another’s. Speak with friends or neighbours who have children, and they reveal similar stories and complaints: lack of concentration, distractions from social media and entertainment apps, and the constant urge to have their phones nearby at all times, fearing they might miss out.

COACHING HELPS

In my coaching sessions, one of the first topics I address is how we spend our time. I often pose a hypothetical scenario: imagine if you had a debit card that tracked where you invested your time each day—what would it reveal? I typically find that from Monday to Friday, most young people likely have around six available hours each day, they are using their debit card to tap into the same habits each day(I said available time not free time). Totalling 25 hours, equivalent to one full day.

This is where my expertise comes in, to raise awareness when a young person is constantly lamenting about their lack of time. I encourage them to examine where exactly their time is going.

Did you know a whopping 45% of our time is spent repeating daily tasks? Promising ourselves we'll do better tomorrow, then beating ourselves up when those plans fall apart.

Coaching helps develop the 20/20 acuity vision we would all like to have; in coaching terms, it's developing short and long-term plans for the future. Coaching offers individuals a fresh perspective, to step out of their heads and gain clarity on the future and their goals and aspirations.

Just like the snorkeler who has a desire to explore the vast ocean to discover opportunities and unknown species never seen before, coaching offers a similar journey of discovery to personal growth. It's an opportunity to unearth untapped potential and navigate uncharted territories to personal growth.