Merry Christmas from Darren

Saturday, December 20, 2008 13:22
Posted in category Uncategorized

Hi

I wanted to take an opportunity to wish you and your family a great Christmas and New Year. The Christmas break is an ideal time to reflect on how 2008 has been for you and what changes you would like to make in 2009.

I have something very exciting that I will be offering you during January so please stay tuned.
 
I still have a small number of complementary slots available in January (it starts to get very busy for me this time of the year). If you are not an existing My Life Coach client and wish to book a complementary session you can do so at: http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/html/life_coaching_my_life_coach_no.html .

As a reminder, the list of coaching areas I cover can be viewed at:

http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/html/life_coach_menu.html

Thank you for your interest in My Life Coach and I look forward to contacting you in the New Year.

Darren Cockburn
My Life Coach

P.S. If there is somebody that you know who could benefit from my services, I would appreciate it if you could forward my details to them. The high level of referrals I receive helps me keep my coaching rates affordable. Thank you.

web: http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk
email: darren@my-life-coach.co.uk
skype: my-life-coach
tel: +44 (0) 7806 779029

I have found a great new resource - check it out!

Sunday, November 30, 2008 19:31
Posted in category Uncategorized

I was doing some work on some of my e-courses today and stumbled across an excellent site via a Google Search. It is called videojug and it is a little like youtube in that it is full of videos. However, many of the topics cover personal development areas such as prepping for an interview, stress management, health, confidence and lots of other subjects. Some of the videos are also quite amusing. Also, the quality of the videos (display and content) seems high compared with many other sites.

Take a look - if you spot anything useful please let me know and I can share it through the blog.

The site is: http://www.videojug.com/

In the meantime, if you are not an existing My Life Coach client and you would like to explore your career or life direction with me please book a complementary by following this link: http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/html/life_coaching_my_life_coach_no.html .

Also, if you would like to chat through any concerns or challenges via email feel free to drop me a note at darren@my-life-coach.co.uk .
Darren Cockburn
My Life Coach

P.S. If there is somebody that you know who could benefit from my services, I would appreciate it if you could forward my details to them. The high level of referrals I receive helps me keep my coaching rates affordable. Thank you.

darren@my-life-coach.co.uk
www.my-life-coach.co.uk
Skype: my-life-coach
tel:  +44 (0) 7806 779029

Connecting the dots

Saturday, November 22, 2008 13:25
Posted in category Uncategorized

 
A good friend of mine told me about a YouTube video a few weeks ago, which he claimed was “inspirational”. Especially if you are at a point where you are unsure as to whether you are doing the right thing with your career, business or any other area your life for that matter. It is a motivational speech by Steve Jobs from Apple. He sent me an email with the link to the video and I sat on it for several weeks.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I eventually watched this video last night and it had a profound impact on me. I wished I watched it earlier!

I wanted to share it with you. All you need to do is follow the link below to the YouTube site. It lasts for around fifteen minutes. Once you have watched it I would be keen to hear how you related what was said to your own situation.

My favourite section in this video is about connecting the dots. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”. It will all make sense when you watch the video.

Here is the link. Enjoy….

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JPL_NjBjUWE

In the meantime, if you are not an existing My Life Coach client and you would like to explore your career or life direction with me please book a complementary by following this link: http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/html/life_coaching_my_life_coach_no.html .

Also, if you would like to chat through any concerns or challenges via email feel free to drop me a note at darren@my-life-coach.co.uk .
Darren Cockburn
My Life Coach

P.S. If there is somebody that you know who could benefit from my services, I would appreciate it if you could forward my details to them. The high level of referrals I receive helps me keep my coaching rates affordable. Thank you.

darren@my-life-coach.co.uk
www.my-life-coach.co.uk
Skype: my-life-coach
tel: +44 (0) 7806 779029

Starting Your Own Coaching Practise

Saturday, November 15, 2008 15:52
Posted in category Uncategorized

Interested in starting your own coaching practise? If so, then read on…..

A growing number of my clients come to me for advice on starting a coaching business. I also have a lot of clients that have coaching qualifications and businesses, but little or no clients. This is very common. The first question I ask is:

“So you have made a decision to come to me for support with starting your coaching practice. What specifically do you want your coaching practice to do for you?”

They will then usually go on to talk about additional money, helping people…the usual stuff I would expect. I then ask:

“So you have made a decision to come to me for support with starting your coaching practice. What specifically do you want your coaching practice to do for you?”

Same question? Absolutely. Let’s get specific. If you want to start a coaching practice, what do you want from it?

To help you with this I have included some factors below for you to consider. However, don’t stop at this list. I am sure that there will be other things that are specific to you that you will also want to consider.

- How much money do you want to be able to extract from your business in six months, one year and three years from now?
- How many hours per week are you prepared to invest and when can you invest them?
- How much are you prepared to invest into your business financially?
- Where can you work on your business - will it be a home based business or are you prepared to travel?
- If you have a day job, will this impose any constraints?

Getting answers to these questions up front is critical. I work with so many people who launch straight into creating a coaching business without considering specifically what they want from it and what their constraints are. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that a high percentage of coaching businesses fail due to not considering these basics.

I always tell my clients that a good carpenter measures twice and cuts once. What I mean is that it helps you tremendously if you put some thought and planning into what you want out of your practice and what your constraints are before jumping in head first.

It is an expensive job creating a successful coaching practice. There are the obvious things like training, web site creation, advertising etc, but there is also the amount of time and energy you are going to need to invest. Don’t kid yourself. Every successful business needs a lot of hard work and some smart thinking. It makes sense to have clarity up front to provide you with some solid foundations.

Here are three actions that will help you clarify your thoughts:

1. Answer the five questions I have asked you above. Spend at least five minutes thinking hard about each question. Write the answers down and ask yourself to reflect on them over the next couple of days.

2. Think about what else you want from your coaching practise and write this down.

3. Two days later I would like you to revisit these questions. Review your answers and ask yourself whether you feel they are valid. Challenge yourself. For example, if you say that you are prepared to work ten hours per week on your business ask yourself when you will make the time.

Being honest with the answers to these questions is essential. If you have any concerns they need to be addressed and thought through at this early stage. You may find that it helps to bounce your ideas off a friend or family member. If you know somebody that knows the business then even better!

Remember to consider how other more important areas of your life may impose constraints. For example, when considering the amount of hours you have per week ensure that you considered everything else that you have going on.

In the meantime, if you are not an existing My Life Coach client and wish to book a complementary session to explore this with me you can do so at: http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/html/life_coaching_my_life_coach_no.html .

I help lots of people create successful practices. Some of them go on to leave their full time job to earn more money through their practice in less hours. You can read a related success story in the Coaching Academy’s Personal Success Magazine. The article can be downloaded here:

http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/ionlywanttocoachparttime.pdf

Also, if you would like to chat through any concerns or challenges via email feel free to drop me a note at darren@my-life-coach.co.uk . You can send me the results from your actions if you wish and I will provide you with some feedback.
Darren Cockburn
My Life Coach

P.S. If there is somebody that you know who could benefit from my services, I would appreciate it if you could forward my details to them. The high level of referrals I receive helps me keep my coaching rates affordable. Thank you.

darren@my-life-coach.co.uk
www.my-life-coach.co.uk
Skype: my-life-coach
tel: +44 (0)7806 779029

Apologies

Sunday, November 9, 2008 10:36
Posted in category Uncategorized

I am writing to apologise to my newsletter subscribers who registered for free eCourses. I received a surprisingly large amount of requests, which I am still working through. I expected a good demand for these eCourses, but nothing like the scale of emails I received over the last week. My system currently requires manual intervention so it created an unanticipated increase in workload!

You can register for my newsletter by visiting www.my-life-coach.co.uk .

The reason for the apology is that there may be a delay between registering for the eCourse and receiving the first few emails in some cases. I am working through the backlog and you have my personal guarantee that you will get the eCourse you requested. However, there may be a short delay.

If you haven’t requested an eCourse yet feel free to respond to the original email. I have included a copy below.

Thank you to all of you that registered for the eCourses. It is good to know that you want them and I know that you will find them beneficial. I will have a very special related offer for you in the New Year.

I will be back in touch soon with more useful personal development and business development content….
Darren Cockburn - My Life Coach
 
P.S. Remember that if you are not an existing My Life Coach client you are welcome to a complementary session. Follow the link below to secure your session:
 
http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/html/life_coaching_my_life_coach_no.html

Reduce your worrying through being “in the moment”

Saturday, November 1, 2008 21:26
Posted in category Uncategorized

How much time do you spend thinking about the past or the future? For most people this represents a significant amount of their time.

What is the impact of this? You miss out on what is happening NOW and life is just a series of NOW moments isn’t it?

I have personally benefited greatly from making efforts to be in the moment and not to stop getting hung up on what is behind or ahead of me. I have also integrated this into the coaching I provide my clients. The clients that benefit most from this new way of thinking often worry a lot about what is coming up or dwell on bad stuff that has happened to them.

One of my clients spent so much of his time worrying about what might happen to him in the future he failed to concentrate on the present. He struggled to enjoy the stuff he should be enjoying and focus where he needed to focus. For example, he worried a lot about what might happen to his relationship with his partner if he didn’t invest more time into it. He worried about what might happen if he didn’t adjust his diet. The result, he worried instead of investing the time and the problems got worse!

Anyway, to cut a long story short we worked together to get him focused on NOW - the present moment. This stopped him from worrying and he witnessed massive improvements in just about every area of his life. His work, his relationships, his leisure activities, his health etc.

If you are curious to learn more about this and how you could benefit please email me at darren@my-life-coach.co.uk.

If you want a great book to read on the subject then I recommend “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Echart Tolle. It is available from all good book stores. If you want a stack of free MP3s and videos on the subject you can visit the iTunes directory, search for “Oprah Winfrey” and enter her “Sprit Channel”. They are a great resource and work well in parallel with reading the book.

 

Darren Cockburn - My Life Coach

P.S. Remember that if you are not an existing My Life Coach client you are welcome to a complementary session. Follow the link below to secure your session:
 
http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/html/life_coaching_my_life_coach_no.html

Free eCourses Available

Saturday, November 1, 2008 21:02
Posted in category Uncategorized

MY LIFE COACH BLOG OFFER
CLAIM YOUR COMPLEMENTARY ECOURSE

 

I am launching a collection of eCourses covering a range of popular personal development areas.
 
These eCourses will be delivered in bite size easy to digest chunks via email. They are a great way of learning about a personal development area with the opportunity for you to coach yourself through some real challenges you face. Each eCourse contains useful techniques and links to some great free resources.
 
As a valued blog reader I would like to to offer you a complementary eCourse of your choice. I have included the list of eCourses below.  

To claim your complementary eCourse simply email darren@my-life-coach.co.uk the eCourse code

I will then send you instructions so that you can get started.
 
Please return this email promptly if you would like to take advantage of this offer stating the course reference number.
 
Here is the list of eCourses. Each bulleted item represents one eCourse.
 
My Relationships
 
-  Find my ideal partner (R1)
-  Deal with my relationship conflicts (R2)
-  Learn how to confront somebody effectively (R3)
 
My Priorities & Goals
 
-  Get my priorities in order (G1)
-  Set and Plan my goals (G3)
-  Manage my time (G4)
-  Create my Life Plan (G6)
-  Make my important decisions (G7) 
 
My Career
 
-  Prepare for my interview (C2)
-  Start my part time business (C3)
-  Negotiate my salary (C5)
-  Create and manage my network (C6)
-  Start my Coaching business (C7)
-  Stand out and attract clients (C8)
 
My Mind
 
-  Manage my stress levels (M1)
-  Optimise my attitude (M2)
-  Understand my fears (M4)
-  Break free from my bad experiences (M5)
-  Change my behaviours (M6)
 

To claim your complementary eCourse simply email darren@my-life-coach.co.uk the eCourse code

 
I look forward to hearing from you
 
Darren Cockburn - My Life Coach
 
P.S. Remember that if you are not an existing My Life Coach client you are welcome to a complementary session. Follow the link below to secure your session:
 
http://www.my-life-coach.co.uk/html/life_coaching_my_life_coach_no.html