How are you?

If I asked you that question whilst you were at work, what would you say? The most common response I hear, and the most common responses other coaches I speak with say they hear is BUSY.

I feel burned out. I’ve got no time. I’ve got too much to do. I’m stressed. I can’t cope. I’m exhausted.

This is ubiquitous, across every role, in every department, in every organisation. Everyone is maxed out.

You do have a choice. Coaching is dedicated time to step out, to reflect, to nurture yourself, to identify and resolve issues. Moreover, a coach provides supported reflection, a companion on your journey that can help you to discover alternative pathways. Through coaching it is possible to identify what is important to you, where your time should be focussed, to develop plans and actions to help you break the busy cycle.

But as coaches begin to unpack this, in almost every case clients start to realize that their perception and reality are at odds. Almost every aspect of your life is changing due to innovation and technology and progress. You are being bombarded by messages and notifications vying for your attention and your time. You are constantly switching context, which is tiring. You live in a 24×7 society and there is no escape, no downtime, no respite. The cornerstones of society, socialising, health and wellbeing, government and law, the economy, education, religion, are all changing. These are challenging times and you can easily be drawn into being constantly “online” and feeling like you have no time.

Time to reflect, to explore, to resolve your issues is one of the crucial aspects of your life that is being squeezed out. Time to stop and think, without interruption, is at a minimum. You’ve got to the point where you are losing the skills to nurture yourself with dedicated personal time and space. Feeling busy becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because you feel busy.

An image of a woman who has numerous things vying for her time and she is just too busy

How can coaching help?

Coaching can help with prioritization and time management, work-life balance, goal-setting, stress management, self-awareness. But perhaps one of the most significant areas that coaching can help with is perspective. It can be exceptionally challenging to objectively view your time when you perceive yourself to be too busy. Coaching can help challenge these perceptions, enabling you to view situations from different perspectives. This can lead to insights and changes in how you approach your workload and time.

Could coaching help you to be less busy and regain control of your time? Or are you too busy to even try?

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