I was on a Zoom call with a newsletter reader a few months back.

We were chewing the fat about careers, coaching and life when he asked me this:

“As a coach, how do you handle the responsibility of potentially affecting people’s life decisions?”

It’s a good question.

It brought to mind a back-n-forth I’d had with a coach of my own a few years ago. We were chatting away about work, my writing and my newsletter when he casually dropped this humdinger of a line into the conversation:

“Tom, we’ll get those daily emails of yours down to weekly”

When he said this, I could feel every cell in my body pushing back. Something I genuinely cared about was now under threat from someone who thought they knew what mattered to me more than I did. But whether I wrote daily or weekly wasn’t his decision to make.

I think this is why I coach the way I do.

I don't want to pretend I know better than my coachees. I want to help them uncover what they already know so they become crystal clear on what matters to them and what they want to do next.

So back to the question and how do I handle the responsibility of potentially affecting people’s life decisions?

By handing that responsibility back to the only person it ever belonged to in the first place.

I remember the “Father of Motivation” Wayne Dyer talking about something similar with his first book, Your Erroneous Zones. Sales were drier than a rice cake in the Sahara Desert and Wayne’s publisher had all but written the book off.

But Wayne wasn’t about to let someone else make his mind up for him.

When he reflected on this later, Wayne wrote:

I had an inner conviction about what I intended to do. I knew that I could not simply stand by and allow all of my dreams to be wiped away because others, who were more experienced, felt that they knew better.

Of course, the rest is history and Your Erroneous Zones went on to become one of the bestselling books of all time.

Needless to say, the world isn’t short of people who think they know best, who hand out advice like confetti and who get a kick out of telling other folk what to do or not to do.

Coaching isn’t immune either.

But if you grab yourself a cup of tea, plonk yourself down for a Zoom call and see my cheery face smiling back at you, don’t expect me to tell you what your next move should or shouldn’t be. Instead, I’ll help you make up your OWN mind.

It's the same with my Career Clarity Coaching Calls.

If you have questions about your career and you’d like to find the answers, this is exactly what these short, sharp calls are for.

I have some slots open in July.

If you’d like to book a call:

https://calendly.com/followingfulfilment/career-clarity-coaching-call

To fulfilment,

Tom