Coaching thy self!

The biggest takeaway of my coaching journey was the realization of the relationship between me and my inner self. Self-coaching as a tool has helped me re-initiate that relationship with myself.

We often use the idiom “tip of the iceberg” in an organizational context which means the small part of a larger, hidden problem or a situation. But mostly never get to the bottom of our issues – “we don’t know what we don’t know until we do”.  Coaching is a process where one can find those hidden answers, potentials, and beliefs. I now listen carefully to my inner self and use powerful questioning techniques and almost, coach myself with anything I am struggling with.

Listen deeply: Are we comfortable with ourselves? Do we trust ourselves? There is always some amount of self-doubt lingering in our minds always and this for most times, hinders or comes in our way of a situation or a task at hand.

For example: When I was told to write a blog, the first question that popped in my head was “will I be able to find a topic for a blog? Can I make it interesting? Will it be good enough?” With all these questions in my head, I kept pushing this task. One final day, I self-coached myself on this topic. I asked myself – “why am I running away from this?” I had a dialogue with myself, without any assumptions and bias. When I dug deeper, I realized I do not trust myself doing anything “new”.

I needed feedback from someone from my circle for anything I did for the first time and I then could take it forward, being more confident. So, I wrote the first blog, a draft version, shared it with a couple of my friends, sought their feedback before moving ahead with my first blog.

Evoke awareness: 95% of the time we work from our subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is a pre-programmed machine that has been programmed as per previous experiences, our environment, and the people that we surround ourselves with. Do you ever see yourself reacting in the same way to similar situations each time? Do you see yourself probably making the same mistakes repeatedly? The reason is your subconscious. The conscious mind is the one that differentiates us, humans to make creative decisions, and not set a pattern for ourselves.

Until coaching happened, I never realized this. In a lot of my coaching discussions with my peers, I had a pattern – a pattern to my reactions. But coaching helped me isolate issues. Powerful questioning to myself helped me make better-learned decisions. It sometimes also changed some deep-rooted belief systems in me. Without our knowledge, we are operating from these deep-rooted belief systems. Some may be right, but some needs updating. So now I am constantly aware of my actions; I do not react anymore. I pause, evoke awareness within me, question myself, and then move forward.

Listen and talk to your inner self, and never be harsh on yourself.

Author name: Akhila Manjunath

Title of the blog: Coaching thy self.

About the Author: An Engineer turned HR professional who truly believes that people and their mindset are all it takes to make an individual, organization, and society successful. With a total of 8 years of experience out of which 6 years have been in the HR field. I have predominantly been a business partner and currently work for an AI startup, Noodle.ai.

Program attended with CTT: ICF Coach Certification Program level 1

Reason for taking this program: Something that I really want to at a professional level is to enable change at an organizational and an individual level and coaching I had heard had a huge impact on a lot of professionals in various organizations. So, I wanted to give this a try and see if what I heard was true.

What worked for you: The entire process of coaching – has made me a better person, personally and professionally.

What benefits you got – I became a better conversationalist, better listener, better colleague, and a better friend. I understood that the solutions to a lot of our problems is within us and if we were able to ask ourselves, we have all the answers.