What is coaching?
March 5, 2025
What is coaching?
Do you know the answer to that question? I think most people don’t. But we are all pretty familiar with sports coaches. What do they do? Well, they lead, guide, teach, and most importantly, they see each player’s potential, help the player see it too, and then help them to reach it. In high school I had a volleyball coach that was continually encouraging me. He would even take me aside to affirm why I was on the team and what the other coaches saw in me. That meant the world to me as I passed through all the struggles that came in the season. It also gave me the drive to keep growing and improving. Being a life or health coach has many similarities.
Life and health coaching always start with some form of this question: ‘what do you want?’ This is always the starting point and the driver for everything that happens in the coaching relationship. It’s never about what I, the coach, think you should work on. Coaching is very much about you and your hopes. Once we both are clear on your desires and your underlying motivations, we move on to create measurable, definable goals. Goals that are possible during the time frame of the coaching program and goals that help you get where you want to be.
As the coaching sessions continue, we move forward towards your goals. Each week we check in with what is going well and what you struggled with. These check ins allow for adjustments, guidance, support, and accountability. Coaching with me is very holistic and I bring in some new information each week that may bring new things to light, or expand your view of yourself. This is important because we are complex people, and so many areas of our lives are intertwined. We also have patterns that tend to be consistent across many areas of our lives. As they said so many times in my coaching training, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.”
That is the very reason I became both a life coach and a health coach. We don’t have to stay in the health realm or the life realm. I am certified in both areas. You may begin coaching with a certain idea of what you want to work through (or maybe not and that is great too:). But as the sessions continue, maybe things change for you, or maybe something else comes up. A huge benefit of coaching is that it is 1-on-1. It is personal, and individually tailored to you, your life, and your hopes.
A huge part of my job as a coach is listening. Listening allows me to pick up on things you are saying that you might not even realize. Maybe it’s patterns, maybe it’s self talk, maybe it’s your thoughts. For example, one of my clients gained clarity as we discovered a pattern of hers together. She would start off really gung ho about every new thing she was interested in, give it all she had until she wore herself out, and give up before reaching the goal. She had never realized before that she was following that pattern in most areas of her life. When things come up, then we are able to talk through them and find out what you want to do moving forward. Again, things are guided by what you are wanting and needing.
Along with listening, support is always part of coaching. Trust me, I truly care about you and your goals. No matter what you are working towards. You might find many people in your life that don’t understand why you are doing what you’re doing or what is important about it. They may not care when you succeed in something that is a big deal to you. But I promise to. And I am just about as happy as you when you make progress. We will celebrate every win, big and small. I am very invested in what you are doing and helping you be successful in a way that works for you and is sustainable.
Accountability is another important piece. When we fall on our own, there is no one to pick us up. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” Coaching not only allows for someone to help pick you up when you fall, but also someone to help keep you on track, and even give you a push in the right direction when you are needing one. Any path to change is full of ups and downs. Some weeks will be easy, and some more of a struggle. But knowing someone is walking the journey with you can be huge. Accountability can be the difference between knowing what we need to do and actually doing it.
On your end as moms, a super important part of coaching is the commitment to make time and space for growth and healing (and sometimes just breathing). As a mom, I understand completely how we can just keep going, meeting everyone’s needs and forgetting about our own. This leaves us empty, and sometimes even cracked and unable to even fill our own pitcher, much less fill up other cups. The act of setting aside time can be an act of faith. Continuing to push forward ends up not being good for anyone.
A couple years ago I was at an all time low. God had asked me to do a task that felt impossible and brought daily challenges and heartaches. I didn’t want to do it and felt like Jacob wrestling with God. My husband was also gone for months that year because of a family emergency. It all felt like too much and I was completely broken. I am confident that God has worked in me to help me keep going and keep fighting for joy. But he also worked through some very special women. They came alongside me, encouraged me, and helped me stay motivated for the continuous battle. They ‘coached’ me back to where I needed to be and helped me remember the things I could be doing that would help me greatly.
As a Christian life and health coach, I will never take for granted that true healing and growth comes from God. Jeremiah 30:17 says: “I will restore you to health and heal your wounds.” But just like God helped me with other women, he can help you through coaching as well. The process is designed for me walk your journey along with you and God.
As coaching is a relationship, it’s important that the relationship is a good fit. With this in mind, for any mom possibly wanting to start a coaching program with me, the first session is free. It’s called a discovery session and the goal is to find out what you are wanting, what is in your way, and if we are a good fit. There is so much value in this process and you can find a lot of clarity from this session. Moving forward afterwards is completely your choice. Coaching is a process that works when you are ready for it to work.
Are you blooming and flourishing as a mom? If you are, I’m so happy for you. What a great place to be! But if you are not, don’t be afraid to reach out to a friend, a mentor, a coach. You don’t need to just keep running on empty. It’s time to repair your pitcher so you can once again pour out in the way your family needs. Flourishing is not selfish—it benefits everyone around you. It also frees you up to be living more like God designed you to live.
The action step for today is to spend a little time pondering the question, “Am I flourishing?”
If the answer is yes, make yourself a list of all the reasons you feel like you are flourishing.
If the answer is no, answer this next question: “What would I be feeling/thinking/doing if I was flourishing?
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
