Change - it's not just for now, but for life

Being fed up with or dis-engaged from your work is not uncommon.  You put up with it for so long and keep telling yourself that it may get better; if I can just get through this particular project; or if that person could just get off my back it would all be different; or when I've moved flat/sorted out my relationship/gone on that trip I can get to grips with the issues at work but right now I can't deal with it all...Very often it's at the apex of these issues that people somehow snap and get in touch with me to try to make some real change in their lives.  

That's great and I'm happy to take on the complete bundle of issues that may come attached with the "work problems"  But I also see that it can be all too easy for coaching clients to have a flurry of activity, make all sorts of promises to themselves that "this time things really are going to be different..." and then allow good intentions for the future to be overtaken by the incumberances of the present.  

Coaching in other areas of life such as sport is there to effect change at a very deep level of behaviour: if the athlete is moving in such a way that hinders them from achieveing the most from their sporting performance, the coach can identify that and work with them to get them to think and behave differently. The coach can be objective, informed about the problems and the possibilties, they understand the context of the opportunities and take the long view of what their clients can realistically achieve.  But it's no good if that change for good happens only once on the field/track/ski slope or wherever and is then overlooked and forgotten: it has to happen every time.  

So it is with career coaching - whatever changes are identified as necessary in order to get the very best from yourself in your work and your life have to become habitual and natural.  They have to be repeated and repeated until they become cellular and unconscious. And as adults with deep seated patterns of behaviour and ways of seeing ourselves and our place in the world of work and the hierarchy of life, that can be so hard to actually achieve.  

Just as sports coaches don't just nip in on the afternoon of the match or the competition to fiddle around and then leave. They're there for the long term to make change for good really last, to make sure that the good habits and changes are repeated time and time again and that they're put into effect when it comes to the long term sports performance of the individual. 

That's why coaching for the long view can be so much more effective than a bit of short term tittivating around the edges which will inevitably not become a part of "muscle memory" but will be forgotten all too quickly and then followed by a sense of disappointment and frustration about letting the bad habits happen all over again.  

Keep at it.   You needn't be unhappy at work.  You don't need to wait for everything else in life to magically fall in to place, you can make things (yourself) different. ...you just have to make a commitment to yourself.  And a good coach will be there for the long run to help you to get there.