How life coaching can help you as a teacher: 10 Real life examples
Now that you know what life coaching is and what it isn’t and how it’s different from therapy (hop over to the last blog post to get caught up) let’s chat about how it could help you as a teacher, right now.
Coaching can help you with the external stuff that’s easier to observe in your life and the internal stuff that’s kinda invisible.
Both are important to address so you make shifts that will last and so you don’t end up trying to solve the same issues over and over again.
How coaching can help you as a teacher.
Let’s assume you’re a teacher and a mom who wants to feel less drained at the end of the day. You enjoy your job, but with:
Planning
Correcting
Meetings
Extra help after school
Behavior plans
Progress reports
Teaching 2 new subjects
Switching classrooms
3 new EAL students
Your own kid’s after-school activities
Supper and food prep
Appointments
Cleaning and general house stuff…
It’s a lot.
Your brain is tired at the end of the day and your body is too.
You wish you had the energy to work out after school because you know it would probably energize you and make you feel better about yourself.
But, alas. You don’t love working out and the motivation is never there, which makes it hard.
If we were tackling this challenge in a life and mindset coaching relationship, we’d look at things from all angles:
What have you tried in the past that has worked? Not worked?
What are the constraints of your schedule? What time is actually available?
When would it work best to work out?
What do you want from your workouts?
What makes working out a challenge?
What makes it important to you that it keeps coming up?
Are there ways to move your body that you haven’t tried and may enjoy?
Is there someone in your life you know would also enjoy working out that you could buddy up with for support?
Do you have the proper equipment to do what you’d like to do?
Do you need new sneakers or workout clothes?
Are there any other obstacles that make it hard to work out - like the basement is a mess and that’s where your workout stuff is?
And we look at why this is important to you right now and mindset stuff (the stuff that happens on the inside) that may be going on:
What’s your history with working out? Has it always been a challenge?
Do you remember ever enjoying working out?
What kinds of things do you say to yourself about working out, or sticking with things that may be working against you?
Do you find yourself comparing to those around you, which is unmotivating?
Do you believe that you can find a way to move your body, that you love?
What would have to happen to make this all worth the effort?
Now, to be clear, a coaching session isn’t you being drilled with questions. That brings to mind some kind of police interrogation scene…Shivers.
What we do, is have a conversation and I’ll ask questions to help you think about things differently, and consider things from other angles. You’ll start to gain new insight into what is going on for you and what you want to do differently to make the changes you want to make.
Is it JUST the schedule? Or is it the fact that you feel like a failure because you never “stick with it” so why bother starting again?
Maybe you used to be in decent shape - but it’s harder to work out with this body. And comparing your current self to how your body used to be is pretty demotivating.
The question becomes, what makes this important now?
How will your life be different if you’re able to make these shifts in your thoughts and behavior?
What kind of action steps can be taken to help you get where you want to be and feel the way you want to feel?
As your coach and thought partner, we’ll figure it out together.
You start implementing small action steps, to move toward what you want, and having the accountability of a coach that you’ll be checking in with helps to keep you on track. But, maybe you’ve got the workout thing down.
What are some other ways working with a life and mindset coach could help you as a teacher?
2. Maybe you’re embarrassed with how cluttered your home office is and are completely overwhelmed when thinking about tackling it yourself.
It’s also impacting your productivity and efficiency with school stuff because you have to work from the couch.
3. Coaching can help with your confidence, helping you to recognize all the ways you are doing awesome work, as a mom, and a teacher - so you feel better in the roles that you hold, knowing you’re more than capable and are actually doing a great job (even when it doesn’t feel like it).
4. You procrastinate on marking (even though you end up with a huge pile that makes you want to vomit).
You’d love to find ways to make it easier to get through your marking so you could feel more on top of things.
5. If you’ve been waiting for things to slow down but you also know that they never do, coaching can give you the push you need to make some hard decisions about how you’re spending your time and how you want to be. It may not be the most comfortable thing (sorry) but if you don’t ever change anything, nothing’s going to change.
6. Guilt comes up a lot.
And coaching can help look at that guilt with a new lens. (It usually means you are on the right path, trying to do something for yourself, not that you’re making a huge mistake.)
7. If you find yourself saying “Yes” to things that you’d rather say “No” to, we can come up with ways to respond to these requests in a way that feels like you’re respecting yourself, but also being respectful to the other person.
8. Rediscover what you’re passionate about - other than teaching (even if it’s been so long that you can’t even remember what that is).
When you feel fulfilled and satisfied, it has a domino effect on the other areas of your life.
9. We can work on organization and time management strategies around planning and prepping, so you feel good about the boundaries around your time, what needs to be done, and what can wait so that you’re spending your time the way you intend to.
10. Coaching can help you to build new habits, like getting out into nature.
Becoming more aware of your surroundings when you’re out in the woods for example, improves mindfulness, boosts your mood, and helps you be more present.
As your coach and thinking partner, you have my undivided attention to help you figure out:
What questions you need to ask yourself to find the time you wish you had
Make the changes you’d like to make
Take the actions you know will help
Ultimately have the time, energy, and life you want and deserve
I know what it’s like to feel drained and burned out, but also not want to leave the profession.
And THAT is why I do this. To help other teachers who are still passionate about the job but have lost their way for one reason or another and who’d like a hand finding their way back to feeling more like themselves.
Do you have something you’d love some support with?
I offer free “Take Back Your Time” strategy sessions, a few days each month.
Book a time on my calendar and I’ll take care of the rest.
