“Should a, would a, could a” seems to hit each of us during our lifetime. Sometimes more often that we’d like. We are creatures of habit, and we like to stay in our “comfort zone”; that place where things are predictable and certain even if they aren’t exactly perfect. However, as Joe White, President and Founder of Get Life Coaching explains, “Life sometimes kicks us out of that comfort zone and we find out that we are not as happy, not as fulfilled or as content as we thought we were.”
Sometimes it happens when we hit those significant milestone points in our life. Sometimes it happens when we realize that our job is not fulfilling anymore, or worse yet, as many have experienced in the past decade, we lose our job. Sometimes it is the result of a major life altering event like White’s near death experience, that cause us to re-examine our desires, goals and priorities. Whatever tipping point thrusts us out of our comfort zone and to the brink of transition, it is at this moment that people seek answers. White explains that most people want “the problem” solved – they want the discomfort and pain to go away. This often leads to seeking a life coach.
As a life coach for the past fifteen years, and helping over 14,000 people discover empowering insights about their lives and their behavior, Joe White has learned a lot and has shared a wide range of issues that have brought clients to him for help. “I don’t think it’s my job to solve their problem”, explains White. “I work instead to understand the root cause of their problem, to find the underlying behaviors that have brought them to this point in their life. Then, I work with them to empower them to develop new patterns of behavior that will not only improve their current situation, but prevent it from reoccurring.” We all develop learned patterns of behavior for dealing with any and all circumstances encountered in life. In White’s programs, clients discover the “core patterns” of behavior. Then, through this new found awareness, his clients are able to see their lives from a different perspective. This insight is empowering and enabling, but it is not the end.
For people to truly change their behavior, first it has to be more uncomfortable to continue behaving in the same way than it is uncomfortable to change. And as already stated, change is discomforting. But, as White explains, “When people begin working toward a desired goal instead of just reacting to negative circumstances, their whole persona changes. They become passionate, determined, and relentless.” This is often referenced in sports when a coach asks the team if they are playing to not loose or are they striving to win, because the behaviors associated with either effort are very different. White enables his clients to get on a path where they are striving to win.
In order for his clients to develop a “Can Do” attitude and feel completely empowered and capable of achieving the goals they now desire, White has developed a number of powerful experiential activities that dramatically bring people to this realization. Incorporating such techniques as walking on a path of broken glass shards or through a bed of 12,000 degree burning coals, not only heightens his clients’ awareness of their full capabilities and potential as a result of their sustained focus on achieving what they want, but it is a dramatic metaphor for working through the difficult times in life that seem so unbearable and are so distracting.
Chinese philosopher and poet, Lao Tzu, said, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” By helping his clients to understand the root cause behaviors and the core behavioral patterns in their lives, and then giving them tools and experiences so that they are empowered to be the masters of their own life outcomes, White develops behaviors in his clients that can support them for a lifetime. “I don’t think people truly benefit by coming to a 2 or 3 day program to hear a lot of information presented only to leave with a notebook full of notes and a head full of concepts and principles to then try to apply at home. I want them to understand and then learn that they can do what they need to do to change their lives on their own.”
If you want to learn more about Joe White and Get Life Coaching go to: http://www.getlifecoaching.com/team-glc/joe-white.