Unlike therapy, life coaching is not focused on reprocessing past experiences or discovering why you have the challenges you do. Life coaching looks at the present moment, as Eckhart Tolle would say, “The Now”. And where you want to go. Coaching is about achieving tangible/measurable results. We’re less likely to focus on the why but more on the what, when, and how?

Life coaching is about helping *you* to take greater responsibility for the results you get in your life. One of my mentors was fond of pointing out, “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.” It’s not so much about figuring out the right thing to do, it’s about changing habits, experimenting with your choices, and seeing what gets the best results. It is a powerful thing recognizing that you have an expanded amount of choices in your life. We do and say so many things on autopilot. But by getting a little more conscious and embracing your free will, you can make amazing positive changes.

It all starts by being open to possibilities. By being open to the possibility that  how things have been can be otherwise. Being open to the possibility that you have what it takes to change your world.

Actually, I conducted a little experiment on myself many years ago. My life took a new turn in 2000 when I was laid off from my outside sales manager position a few weeks before my first son was born. Being a single mom, I decided to take over my therapist father’s insurance billing duties to earn some extra money. I needed to get claims in on a regular time schedule in order for my father to get paid. What I noticed was that I would get increasingly depressed, anxious, and sick feeling as the due date approached. By the time I took action, I was irritable and agitated. Upon task completion (some of you are saying, “What’s that?”), I felt relief. I almost felt ecstatic, in fact. Celebration time!

I had never been able to do any project with a slow and steady pace or before what I perceived to be The Last Minute. (It really sucks when you misunderestimate when the last minute actually is! We have a term for that in my business; it’s called being totally screwed!) My brain seems to need the added (ADHDed?) adrenaline of The Last Minute to muster the focus to get going. But the idea of conducting research on myself was a compelling carrot. This is what I did…

I made the conscious decision to start the insurance billing well before what I perceived to be The Last Minute and see what would happen. That’s it! Curiousity won out over procrastination. You won’t believe what happened. Well, first, you won’t believe that I actually got the billing done early! Here’s the strange part: I *still* got anxious at the last minute. And even though the project was complete, I did *not* feel relieved. Why? Perhaps because I hadn’t exerted all that fight or flight energy to get the task done? Beer always tastes better after a day of hard work. I did not have a day of hard work from which to enjoy relief.

In conclusion, I have learned to be skeptical of my interpretations of how I think I feel. That’s one thing. The relationship between my anxiety level and waiting for The Last Minute to get something done is more complex than I had thought. Another finding from my carefully designed personal research is that the anxiety did diminish with each repetition of Getting an Early Start.

Can I tell you something kind of sad, though? It is not nearly as fun to get things done ahead of schedule. There just isn’t much juice there. Yes, it is boring!

So I have decided to consciously choose how I want it to be. I can opt for the juice and brain sparkle of  The Last Minute. Or I can opt for the peace of Getting an Early Start. I have even been known to create an artificial deadline (this works well for taxes) so that I both get the juice and ensure prompt results. The most important conclusion I have made is that I don’t have to feel bad about myself to be productive. Feeling bad is an add-on and unnecessary. I love my way of being. I love that I get to have this sparkly brain. I am not going to beat myself up for waiting for The Last Minute anymore, and neither should you! (Unless you are my client and we are talking about sending my payment.)

Here’s wishing you a productive day of self-adoration! You sparkly person, you. And whatever way you choose to be, remember to celebrate your successes!