Category Archives: Lifestyle

Improve Your Lifestyle With A Coach

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LIFE COACHING

The impression of a coach standing in a tracksuit beside the rugby field watching a bunch of sweaty rugby players is one of the past. There is a new breed of coaches assisting people to achieve a more positive lifestyle and reaching their dreams.

What is Life Coaching:

Life coaching is a new profession. Life coaching started in the late 1990’s, and is now popular with people in all walks of life.

Life coaches act as a support base and listening post to assist you in achieving what it is you want out of life. Coaches do not tell what to do, they get you to question your present way of life and attitude to life. Based on your response, they help you set goals whilst providing tools, support and a structure to accomplish more.

A life coach can help you:

• Adapt to change.
• Reassess your lifestyle.
• Simplify your life.
• Reduce stress and have more fun.
• Institute a fitness or weight loss programme.
• Improve the quality of your personal and professional life.
• Live a more balanced life.

However, life coaches are not therapists. They don’t work on the past, or ‘issues’. Coaches believe that the client is a whole person and that everybody has the inner ability to produce, change and grow. Carl Rogers believed that individuals ‘are creators and artists of their lives’.

Life coaches therefore can’t help you:

• Manage depression.
• Overcome addiction.
• Deal with any sort of disorder.
• Come to terms with serious past issues like sexual abuse.

Therapy and Coaching:

A good way to view the foundational differences between therapy and coaching is to think of two cars driving along a sandy, wave washed shoreline.

One car hits a log and breaks an axle, sinking deep into the sand.

The other car swerves to keep from hitting the log, but in so doing sinks into the sand.

For the first car, the only hope is a tow truck and a week in the shop. It is broken and cannot go further. This is a therapy patient.

The second car merely needs a push, a little traction under its wheels, and it continues its race across the sand. This is the coaching patient.

How it works:

Coaching these days is done –

Face to face (Depending on distances).
Telephone.
Email.
Chat email.
Skype.

You will initially have an introductory session with your coach. At this meeting your blocks, goals and the platform for the course is agreed upon. After this, coaching is done over the phone or one of the other electronic means, once a week for half an hour. You may be asked to commit to a minimum number of sessions, after which you can continue for as long as you wish.

Finding a coach

To find a coach, visit the Coaches and Mentors of South Africa web site (COMENSA) at http://www.comensa.org.za.

Before choosing your coach, ask for a free introductory session to see if you click with your coach. Remember that you are looking for someone who asks the right questions, listens and has empathy. Avoid people who make unrealistic promises and ignore your own needs and feelings.

By Rob Lindegger

Plan Your Lifestyle, Then Business

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It is impossible to separate the lifestyle we lead from other areas of our lives. The jobs we do, the business we have, and where we live all affect the quality of life. I honestly believe that to build a successful business you have to envision the lifestyle you desire to have first. For example, it does not make sense for me to start a fishing business when I hate fish. Regardless of how much money I make, I will hate every second of the process. Wealth is not only measured in terms of money but the fullness of life we enjoy as a result.

Lifestyle design or lifestyle entrepreneurship is designing your business around the lifestyle you want. Lifestyle design is something that became important to me when I had my first child. I knew I did not want to spend hours working away from my children but at the same time I needed to provide for them. I was determined my children were not going to spend countless hours in daycare and as a result I negotiated with my boss to design my job in such a way where I can still spend quality time with my baby. Even though I did not have an official terminology for it then, I never based my decision on taking a job based on money alone. The job had to be flexible enough to grant me the lifestyle I desired.

Now fast forward fifteen years later, I treat my business with the same mindset. I was not afraid to do away with all the traditional norms of starting a business and building a business that will afford me the lifestyle I love. I have been truly blessed all through this process.

Planning a lifestyle business

Firstly – specific and measurable goals
If you throw a penny up, it will come down: One truth we cannot escape is that we will most likely end up in the direction we are heading. We cannot meet the goals we set for ourselves unless we aim for them. So if you want to design a business that accommodates your desired lifestyle, you have to become very specific. In other words, you need specific and measureable goals.

For instance, rather than saying, “I want to lose weight” say “I want to lose 10 pounds in 3 months”. Having specific and measurable goals can translate in any area of life. If your lifestyle goal is to spend your winters somewhere warm then you need to incorporate that preference in your business. You will need to think of a way to structure your business where:

  • You make enough money to afford the lifestyle
  • Your business is mobile/ flexible enough where leaving your permanent residence for a whole season will not disrupt cash flow.

If you do not take your preferences into consideration, what ends up happening is you grow a business you learn to hate and you find yourself stuck in a hamsters wheel. Planning a lifestyle business is less complicated than people make it.

Secondly, identify what you need to know and learn
In the case of losing 10 pounds in 3 months, you would need to know how to lose 10 pounds in 3 months. When you have clear specific goals, then knowing what you need to know will come quite easy.

Thirdly, write some actionable steps you can take to get started
Once you know what you need to know, you need to write some actionable steps on how to gather the information you need. To lose 10 pounds in 3 months, you can do the following:

  • Buy a book on how to loose 10pounds in 3 months and do it yourself
  • Research online for some practical steps on losing 10 pounds in 3 months
  • Hire a personal trainer
  • Join a gym

Your actionable steps should be written in such a way where it takes you one step further than you are today. You do not need to know how to get to the end line but each action should lead you to the next one which eventually takes you to the end line. For instance if you were totally clueless, you can hire a personal trainer to take you through the process. When you hire an expert, you get the advantage of having someone help you to the finish line faster than you can do on your own.

We often have a mental picture of what we will like to achieve. But until we write down our goals and create a system for measuring our progress we are likely not to take action.

Lastly, ask yourself, “Am I willing to pay the price?
This is a hard question: I hear men talk about wanting a close family, but they aren’t willing to place their family ahead of their career or hobbies. Someone says they want to advance in their career, but they aren’t willing to gain the education necessary. Achieving success at anything requires a certain level of sacrifice. Some people may want to attain the level, but they aren’t willing to invest what is required to get there. At some point you will have to determine if you are ready to make the required sacrifice.

After you figure out what is required of you, you need to ask yourself if you are willing to pay the price. Do not start unless you honestly answer this question or you will never finish. Don’t answer this question too quickly but spend some time wrestling with this question and be truthful to yourself. If you do decide to pay the price, share your goal with someone who can keep you accountable.

To achieve anything in life, you need to do things differently. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time.

Delightful Fitness Aids for a Healthy Lifestyle

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The well-known English novelist Dorothy ‘Dodie’ Gladys Smith had shared her views on a stimulating bath. And this is what she had to say: “Father says hot water can be as stimulating as an alcoholic drink and though I never come by one… I can well believe it.” Indeed, she was right since bathing in hot water is amazingly refreshing for both the mind and body.

The elite among the Romans of yore used to spend hours in sauna baths and thus regale in their pastime. Medically it has been proved that bathing in mild hot water opens up the pores of the skin which in turn is extremely good for health. On this score, it is worthwhile to note that many natural hot springs have therapeutic values in them.

Incidentally, one need not go in search of such hot springs. Today, the delights of hot springs could be had at the backyard of one’s home. These are marketed globally by different companies dealing in health and fitness systems. Price tag-wise, these hot tubs are not essentially meant solely for the rich and expensive. There are models that are affordable for everyone to begin the journey to relaxation.

They come in various dimensions and each hot tub is spacious enough for five to seven persons to squat and share those delightful moments. These tubs, depending on the model, have systems of jets through which the water splashes on the body to render an invigorating experience of water massage.

These branded hot tubs are the fruits of a self-made person named Keith who had a penchant for good things in life and designed the first prototype in 1978. Interestingly, the makers of these hot tubs have kept human ergonomics comfort in view while designing and manufacturing as such the curved contoured seats fit the human body perfectly. The water jets are positioned at appropriate spots in a hot tub.

The companies that market these products have numerous other systems that are domestically manufactured as well as imported to maintain healthy body and mind. They come in two versions – Elevation series and Integrity series. According to the users, the Elevation version is for an immersive exercise experience.

It has integrated consoles and attachable TVs, iPod, video to watch choicest programmes while exercising or a music system to listen to favourite inspirational tunes. It has a programmed trainer that charts out different exercises alongside the results from it. In the Integrity series, the bike is reported to be aesthetic in design with facilities for iPod and TV controls for a melodious experience.