In the Beginning ---On Purpose
Posted on May 28, 2011 by Teri-E Belf, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
My coaching begins with learning your life purpose. Purpose sources visions, goals, choices and actions. Four examples how clients used their purpose.
In the Beginning – - -On Purpose
by Teri-E Belf, M.A., C.A.G.S., M.C.C.
Coaching can be greatly enhanced by guiding clients to learn life purpose at the beginning of the coaching process. My definition of life purpose is, “doing things that leave you feeling truly fulfilled and satisfied.” Hidden within everyone is a life purpose, from the unemployed French horn player, to the Texas oil tycoon, to the confused, college graduate, to the 78 years old widowed gentleman. Prior to the beginning of the coaching process, few clients know their purpose in words; some have a vague physical sense of it. Most clients appear oblivious to the existence of purpose. Coaching can help people uncover their life purpose and make choices to live purposefully. Incorporating life purpose into our coaching practices magnifies the results we achieve with clients.
Offer Life Purpose in the First Meeting
I start coaching with a two hour life purpose meeting so clients can practice using their purpose throughout our coaching program. When we become stuck, immobilized by lack of options, or frozen by a myriad of choices, we can use purpose to guide us into clarity and focused action. Making purposeful choices helps preserve our client’s uniqueness and special contribution. You can use purpose to choose experiences congruent with your highest good. Therefore, knowing purpose insures greater consistency of success, well-being and learning.In my first meeting with a new client life, we craft the life purpose statement, regardless of the reasons why clients enter into the coaching relationship. Most of my 100+ individual clients sought coaching to help them become clear in some area of their life. By using life purpose as a clarifying tool, clients’ become unstuck more quickly, and cultivate the habit of authentically navigating life experiences. We all need tools to help us weather uncertain economic, social, and environmental times—tools that empower us to sustain and uplift.
Purpose is the Context for Life Design
I feel passionate that every client know his/her own life purpose. My purpose, for example, is to inspire and guide people to take steps toward their dreams. I need not be there when clients obtain their dreams, I guide clients to know their dreams, and support them to access their inspiration to take steps. That is how I purposefully coach.
Life Purpose Sources Visions, Goals, Choices and Actions
Once we know our purpose we can use it as a context for goals, choices and actions. It is a bell weather, a barometer, a signpost to knowing what brings fulfillment and satisfaction. When goals and choices are congruent with purpose, we feel the universe is aligned with what we want. Synchronicities appear and lead us forward. That is not to say there won’t be challenges. Life may not change at all, however, the experience feels different when we are on purpose.
Once you have your purpose, use it!
Example 1. A client had difficulty when visiting family. He complained, “My family gets to me and it takes a long time to become myself again.” He reconnected with his life purpose to quickly remind him who he truly is.
Example 2. Another client had trouble communicating anger to her boyfriend. One of the words on her purpose statement was confidently. She repeated her purpose silently to herself before stating her views and discovered that she could confidently express her feelings.
Example 3. A client, faced with the dilemma whether to accept a prestigious consulting position, reviewed her purpose to see if this opportunity would be for her highest good. She realized the position, although tempting from many angles, would not have brought her the creativity and satisfaction she needed to live on purpose.
Some of the most extraordinary results I have obtained with clients arise after they know their life purpose. So, I start at the beginning- – -on purpose!
