Welcome to the first newsletter from The Future Starts Now - aimed at accelerating your personal development through Personal Coaching and Meridian Therapy. Each month the newsletter brings you features and information about Personal Coaching and Meridian Therapy, along with quotes and stories to inspire you in your own personal development. You can subscribe automatically to future issues, unsubscribe at any time or send feedback and requests for features.
The Dating Game
A guide to getting the most out of free Sample Sessions and finding the right coach for you.
Finding the right coach for you is nearly as important as finding the right partner - and actually the decision process is much the same! All coaches offer free Sample Sessions - so make use of these and treat them like going on a date. Here's my guide to getting maximum value from free Sample Sessions.
1. Arrange Sample Sessions with more than one coach. As with finding a partner, you need enough experiences of different coaches to give yourself something to compare. And if you don't like any of the coaches you talk to - keep looking!
2. Prepare a wishlist for your perfect coach. Although ultimately you may be looking for the "magic", it still pays to be clear about the rational criteria you are looking for in a coach before the session. Are there particular areas you want coaching on that you want to ensure this coach is able to deal with? Do you have particular preferences for gender, age or religious outlook?
3. Make sure the session includes coaching. Some coaches use the Sample Session to talk generally about you, your life and your coaching goals. This doesn't give you any experience of how this coach does coaching - essential if you want to evaluate a coach. Pick a real issue you are stuck on to be coached on. You should be looking to see whether the coach can (a) tune in quickly to what's important to you and (b) begin to move you towards positive action. At the end of the session, you should at least feel more positive about the issue and ideally be ready to make some small action towards solving it.
4. Notice whether your interpersonal styles match. If you're someone who likes to deal with things in a very business like and focussed way, a coach with a light or humorous style could be very irritating and make you feel that they aren't taking you seriously. But if you like to deal with issues with humour and lightness, then a coach who works without much humour could end up making your coaching experience seem dour and heavy. Neither style is right or wrong - but you need to find coach with a style that works for you.
5. After the session, focus on how you feel. Did you "click"? Were you on the same wavelength? Were you comfortable talking about personal matters? Did this person accept you as you are without judgement? Do you feel more positive than when you started? Imagine talking to this person every week for a few months - does that prospect seem exciting? If you aren't feeling more positive and closer to action about your issue and if you aren't looking forward to talking again, this probably isn't the coach for you, no matter what their qualifications or experience.
6. Don't feel obliged to sign up just because you had a free session. Free Sample Sessions are standard business practice for coaches. Good coaches should be as concerned that they are the right coach for you as you are. It's perfectly OK to say you want time to think and that you will contact them again once you've decided.
Follow these guidelines and you can begin experiencing the benefits of coaching with confidence and excitement.
EFT banishes interview nerves
A close friend had a job interview recently and although he had prepared thoroughly he still had those inevitable "butterflies in the stomach". He was concerned that his nervousness would impair his performance, even though he knew he was qualified for the job.
We spent about 20 minutes doing EFT, starting by getting his immediate feeling of nervousness down ("Even though I feel nervous...").
Once his nerves were down to a low level we then used EFT to install a positive choice - a state of mind that he wanted to be in during the interview. He chose: "Even though I might be nervous, I choose to feel confident and think clearly during the interview".
After a couple of rounds of EFT including this choice he said his confidence level was about 9 out of 10. He said he didn't want to push that up to a 10 as he didn't want to appear over-confident!
After the interview he reported feeling confident throughout and had felt he had given an impression of himself that reflected his technical abilities. Two days later he was told he had successfully passed the interview.
To find out more about
EFT and the range of emotions that EFT can help with, look at the EFT section of my website, or follow
the link from "Gary's
corner"
below.
Learn EFT Now!
You can start using
EFT for yourself right now by downloading my
EFT QuickStart manual (311k).
Changing the world, one starfish at a time
Do you, like so many people, have great intentions and would really like to make a difference in the world - but just feel overwhelmed and powerless to really change anything? If so, the following story is for you:
A man went for a walk along a beach and noticed that the beach was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed up on the shore and were dying in the sun. In the distance he could see a young woman picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean, one at a time. When he got closer to her the man said "You're wasting your time. There are thousands of starfish here. You can't possibly make any difference". The woman reached down, picked up another starfish, threw it back into the water and said "I made a difference to that one".
The starfish is
the symbol of the Coaches Training Institute, reflecting how this
story lies at the core of their philosophy.
Gary's Corner
Gary Craig, the originator of EFT, maintains an excellent website (www.emofree.com) packed with real case histories. Each month I select one case history that really shows the power and range of EFT.
This month:
A wonderful testimonial directly from an EFT self-help user who used EFT to reduce his test anxiety and improve his test scores.
