The best coaching session is one where the coach and the client work together to learn and grow through a creative block. Your coach has already stated her commitment to working with you, by giving you an appointment with her. What you give back to her, to the session and ultimately to yourself describes your full participation in the coaching process and eventual achievement of some of your artistic goals.

To help you with your part of this process I will discuss ten ways to maximize your coaching sessions:

1) Participation/Presence: It’s very important that you ‘be’ in your session. It’s important that you remove all distractions and focus on what your coach is saying and what she suggests that you do or not do. For example, have you ever had a friend listen to you, but when you ask her a question about what you just said, you discover that she can’t give you an answer? Well, that’s a simple example of your friend not ‘being present’. She heard you talking, but she doesn’t remember what you talked about, well enough to answer your question. She wasn’t being ‘present’ while you were talking to her. Since you will be doing the majority of your coaching work in between sessions, it’s very important that you be as “present” as you can be during your appointments. If you experience a problem in this area, remember that you can always email your coach for help. I don’t expect my clients to know how to be ‘present’ in their first few sessions, but I expect them to grow in this area, as they continue their coaching sessions.

2) It’s important that you listen to your coach, yourself and your goals. Being present implies that you are listening to all that is going on during your session. It is easier to listen when you are talking on the phone with your coach, but that doesn’t excuse you email clients from listening either. Read and reread your emails until both the recommendations, examples and information makes sense to you. Write down your questions and concerns as you reread your emails. Write down what you understand as well. Remember that if you ask just one question or summarize just a few new ideas, your understanding of the information will continue to increase over time.

3) When you begin coaching, you are choosing to examine some area of your life. In this case, you will be looking more closely at your creative production and the business surrounding your creative production. If looking closely at your life, is uncomfortable for you, then I would suggest starting to journal about that discomfort, before you start regular coaching sessions. It’s important to be open to change, even at a very low level, for your sessions to positively impact your life. When you have finished your initial journaling about self-examination, try working with a coach again and see how you progress.

4) As you progress through your coaching, you may notice some changes happening. You may feel a bit more tired, after a session. Or you may want to change the subject for awhile and relax after your first coaching discussion. This is part of the stretching that you will continue to do throughout the coaching process. For example, if you are just becoming aware of your procrastination habit when it comes to planning and meeting deadlines, then the next time you set a deadline, you might begin to feel a bit uneasy or nervous as you mark the deadline in your calendar. You might begin to worry that maybe you set too early a deadline for a certain project. When you feel these kinds of feelings and doubts, remember that this is a good sign for you. Building up your awareness of the actions you take before you start to procrastinate will give you more power to change this habit later on.

5) Since you are working with a creative coach, it stands to reason, that you will be creating at some point in between your sessions. You are acknowledging your willingness to create better and smarter, than before you started working with a coach. You are acknowledging that your current productive process isn’t meeting your artistic goals. It is very important that you become more willing to create in between your coaching sessions. To create consistently is one of the ultimate goals of creativity coaching. This doesn’t mean that you must make these changes overnight. It does mean that you must be willing to examine and possibly change your current creative schedule, as well as continue to use those actions that do help your creativity production. Self-examination shouldn’t be limited to just examining the difficult parts of your creative production, it should also include identifying those habits that are supporting your creative productivity.

6) In order to accomplish this type of change, you must be able to trust yourself and your coach. You must believe that she is capable of helping you through your creative block and that you can change too. If you are relying on your coach to make these changes for you, then you are not in a teachable nor trusting position. It is important that you trust yourself to want to change and that you work with your coach to encourage those changes to happen. If you could make these changes on your own, then you wouldn’t need to work with a coach right? So, as you trust yourself to hire a good coach, so trust yourself to learn from and interact with your coach, so that you can reach and even surpass your current artistic goals.

7) When coaching becomes difficult, as it sometimes does, it’s important to remember to persevere. Sometimes that type of change you are looking for, may take a while to become visible. You may not the recognize the subtle changes involved. You can always ask your coach for reassurance inn this area, if you are having trouble believing that you are making progress here. I ask my clients to write a weekly ‘credit list’, that shows what my client has done in business and creative ways to contribute to her art. I also make sure to encourage her as I read or listen to her lists. I do my best to add a few more items, as part of developing her awareness of her positive work. Identifying these items, goes a long way toward battling discouragement, and renewing the client’s perspective during this growing time.

During your sessions you may be experiencing some discouragement, frustration or irritation as you learn new habits. It is important to keep these feelings in perspective as much as possible. It is important to keep committing yourself to succeed, even when your emotions, thoughts or circumstances tell you otherwise. Remember that you’ve already taken your first successful step by signing up for an initial set of sessions with your coach. In addition, you’ve shown up and followed her recommendations. Every time that you’ve said yes to a new idea or create something the least bit different than your last product, you have succeeded. Keep your eye on the process, rather than the results. You will have plenty of time, in to focus on your results, once you have completed your coaching sessions.

9) As you continue to discover your successes, remember to help cement that learning by using affirmations throughout your creative process. Using “I” statements that state the changes that you want to make in the future, as already occuring, in the present. For example, “I am developing concise summaries for my book proposals.” You are placing yourself in the future, already completing the action in the present,that you have want to complete in the future. Learning to write and say affirmations during your creative process is a dynamic skill. You can always adjust, practice and develop new affirmations to fit each unique situation.

10) Finally, make sure that you have fun during your coaching sessions. Make sure that you relax in the midst of all of this change and upheaval around your creativity. Your sessions don’t always have to be so serious. Some weeks you and your coach can celebrate all of the ‘credits’ on your list, giving you a week to celebrate your good work by journaling only about that topic. You can write about one success or more each week, after you have worked through a specific trouble spot. Experiment with different ways to make your coaching process more fun. This will steer you and your coach away from the possibility of burnout during such intense working and growing times.

May your coaching sessions be consistently successful!!

 

Tags: Articles - Creativity Coaching //