Life Coaching Blog

3 Simple and Loving Behaviors

by Dr. Jackie Black

Honor and respect your partner's feelings as if they are your own!

Feelings are the barometer of our outside existential lives. Feelings let us know how things are going for us inside ourselves. They are not good or bad; helpful or not helpful; constructive or not so constructive. Feelings exist because they do, in and of themselves.

We cannot choose to change, modify, not feel, or otherwise positively or negatively impact or affect our feelings. The only choices we have are directly related to our behavior.

Feelings are as normal as hunger and fatigue. When we dismiss, diminish, ridicule, criticize, mock, belittle, disparage or demean anyone's feelings we are acting in the most disrespectful and unloving way.

When your Honey expresses a feeling, consider hearing the feeling as a sacred offering. Be curious and compassionate.

Remember: It is not your job to fix anything. She or he is not broken. Don't get distracted by the content of the event. It isn't necessary to offer insights, suggestions, give answers or otherwise provide brilliant advice or express profound guidance.

Here are 3 Simple and Loving Behaviors to remember and use:

Listen with your heart.
Tell your partner that he or she matters to you and that his or her feelings are important to you.
Ask if there is anything you can do or say right now that would be helpful.

Believe that your presence and your caring go a long way to soothe hurt and upset hearts.

Take a deep breath. Remind yourself to stay in the moment with the
feeling(s). Trust that the 3 Simple and Loving Behaviors are enough!

Try it and let me know how it goes! Remember, only YOU can make it happen!

Dr. Jackie Black is a mentor coach and trainer for Coach Training Alliance and author of the Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Couples. See below...

Coaching Couples
The Home Study Course

Are you ready to help people make sustainable changes in their most important and precious relationship?

Dr. Jackie Black is the expert host for this edition of The Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Couples. Learn the art and science of helping your clients create a thriving, committed relationship. Learn more...

The Myth of Exercise

by Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS

One of your coaching clients commits to losing weight once and for all. He decides to start going to the gym. No problem there, right? On the surface, it makes perfect sense. But what if I were to tell you that exercise is fairly useless for weight loss?

Now before you accuse me of heresy, let me explain. There's no doubt that exercise is one of the best things in the world you can do for your health. It improves mood--in some studies as well as antidepressants--and it's great for your heart. Recent research shows that it even helps you grow new brain cells. And people who exercise on a regular basis have lower risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

But weight loss? Not so much. Does that seem contrary to everything you've heard? Of course it does but don't shoot the messenger.

Here's the Truth
The exercise/ weight-loss equation is way more complicated than we've been led to believe. Let's start with calories. Most people overestimate calories burned during exercise (by a long shot) just as they typically underestimate daily calorie consumption (ditto!) You can wipe that out with one medium meal at McDonalds--heck, you can wipe it out with a one big "low-fat" muffin from Starbucks!

Then there's the appetite factor. Exercise makes people hungry and people often compensate for exercise by eating more. I've seen people at the gym scarf down "energy" drinks that contain the calorie equivalent of two days worth of workouts.

Interestingly, the research is very clear that it's next to impossible to keep weight off unless you exercise regularly. But using exercise alone as a weight-loss strategy is--forgive the bad pun--an exercise in futility.

Jonny Bowden is a nutrition specialist and expert on weight loss and fitness. He is a best selling author, including The Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Weight Loss. On Sept 2nd, Dr. Bowden is training and licensing a limited number of qualified coaches in his Diet Boot Camp System™. See below...

Weight Loss Coaching
Licensing Workshop

Dr. Jonny Bowden is personally training and licensing his trademarked Diet Boot Camp System™ to a limited number of qualified coaches.

Because this highly successful weight loss system is based on his exclusive mind/body connection training—a blend of nutrition, fitness and psychology—only experienced, trained coaches are able to deliver this unique program.

Beginning September 2nd, Dr. Bowden will work directly with just 14 participants who will receive the knowledge, skills and tools to confidently deliver a three-dimensional weight loss system focusing on diet, thoughts, and emotion.

Become an Authorized Coach of Jonny Bowden's Diet Boot Camp System™ and empower your clients with a healthy lifestyle!

Learn more...

Weight Loss Coaching
Home Study Guide

Nationally recognized expert and award-winning author on weight loss and nutrition, Dr. Jonny Bowden shares the secrets in The Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Weight Loss.

Includes a comprehensive 131-page manual and more than 3 hours of audio tutorials. Learn the art and science of what works and what doesn't and how to be a hero to your clients. Learn more...

Back to School

Will Craig

The kids are back in school. Are you?

We live in a knowledge-powered economy and if we're not continually upgrading our capabilities we become obsolete. The good news is the educational choices we make at 18 don't need to be hard and fast choices we're stuck with for a lifetime.

You can choose to look at lifelong learning as the homework assignment that never goes away. Or, you can choose to look at it as an essential strategy for living long and living well.

I'm not suggesting you must go to college to gain the necessary knowledge. What college did do for me was make me recognize that organized learning, whether in traditional schools or through condensed courses and teleclasses, would significantly shorten my learning curve.

"Don't let your schooling interfere with your education."
- Mark Twain

Had I to do it all over again I might choose a succession of bite-sized learning opportunities in the specific areas of my interest (recognizing those change over time). Short-term, condensed educational programs have become more available and recognized as an efficient way to gain specific expertise in less time without spending your life's savings on a long program.

Learning does not take place in a box we call a classroom or in a hotel conference room. We learn more, we learn better, and we learn faster by doing and being actively involved. How are you upgrading your knowledge and abilities?

Will Craig is President of Coach Training Alliance and holds a Masters Degree in Education and Human Development. He is co-author of the #1 best-selling coaching home study course, the Coach Training Accelerator.

Fall School Schedule

AUG 27, SEPT 9 and SEPT 17 Certified Coach Program Earn your coaching certification in just 6-months with no travel or lodging expenses. Additional program start dates available.

The Graduate School of Coaching offers advanced courses and high level programs. Check out the opportunities to excel in building a rewarding and fulfilling coaching practice...

SEPT 2 Weight Loss Coaching System Become an Authorized Coach of Dr. Jonny Bowden's Diet Boot Camp System™. Empower your clients (and yourself) to look fitter, feel happier, and be more productive.

SEPT 8 Emotional Intelligence Licensing Workshop Join Dr. Laura Belsten, MCC and become licensed to use the most comprehensive EI assessment on the market today.

OCT 8 New Life Story™ Coach Training and Licensing of Dr. David Krueger's complete, turnkey system for coaching clients to the life they've always wanted while increasing the length of your coaching engagements.

* Throughout the fall you are also invite to attend—without charge—any of the Becoming a Coach orientation calls. Learn the inside scoop on what coaching is really like. Have your questions answered and observe a real coaching session.

The Secret Language of Money

CTA Mentor Coach and Dean of Curriculum, David Krueger, M.D. has just come out with a powerful new book called The Secret Language of Money. It's a feature publication of McGraw Hill and has garnered the attention of some pretty powerful professionals (see testimonials below).

In the new book Dave shows you how to uncover secrets about why you do the things you do with money--secrets you're probably keeping from yourself. Even better - he shows you what you can do about it.

The Secret Language of Money is a brilliant blend of cutting-edge science and real-world application. It gives you a guided tour to the subconscious meanings you give money, the conflicted ways your brain deals with money, the reasons you may be making the same money mistakes over and over--and most importantly, how you can change all that.

It's also loaded with fascinating and illuminating stories from Dave's two decades as a Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst, and the recent decade as an Executive Mentor Coach.

I always think very carefully before recommending a book because I know your time is valuable and I don't want to see you waste a moment of it. This book is too valuable, too much fun, just plain too good not to tell you about!

The Secret Language of Money may turn out to be the most important book you'll read all year.

Yours in coaching,

Will Craig

Founder and President

Coach Training Alliance



P.S. For a download of the first chapter, and to sign up for "An Evening With the Author" specifically for CTA friends and associates, go to www.TheSecretLanguageofMoney.com/Evening

How to Cultivate Raving Fans Who Crave Your Coaching

Every now and then I come upon a must-have resource for coaches...

I'm so certain of the importance of this workshop -- How to Cultivate Raving Fans Who Crave Your Coaching -- that I'll soon be adding it as the perfect follow-on to CTA training.

Rhonda Hess, my co-author for the Coach Training Accelerator™ and designer of the CTA Certified Coach Program, teaches the Raving Fans workshop. I can think of no one better to light the path to business success for coaches.

In this six week workshop, beginning August 18, you'll come away with:

The best niche market for you.
The secret to positioning yourself as the essential go-to service for your ideal clients.
Your own client-winning "HUB" Statement.
A suite of core offers to attract a steady stream of raving fans.

Every coach needs this solid foundation and focus to have a financially rewarding and soul satisfying coaching business. If you haven't landed on a niche market that brings you a constant flow clients yet, Raving Fans will change your life.

Hurry! It starts on August 18. Learn more now!

Will Craig