Your Top Tips for being a Happy and Healthy Coach | Welcome and General

As a coach it’s important to keep yourself happy and healthy. What do you do to look after your own mental health?

I take some time to learn new things ( I'm currently learning how to draw Zentangles) and book time into my diary to do a class at my gym ( I like the high intensity sessions as my mind has to stop whirring and focus on the next rep ;) 

I could not agree more, it is so important to look after ourselves as well as others. 

Small things make big differences for my mental health, having the sense that i am making a meaningful contribution to the experience of the people I coach is really important, both for those attending and for myself. 

A simple conversation at the end of my sessions to share what we are most proud of achieving works wonders for me. "What did you do for the first time today?", "How did that go?"

Practice what you preach - if you follow some of your own advice about rest, recovery, use of phones, sleep, nutrition....you'll probably not be doing too bad :)

Laptop off when I leave for coaching, phone off after setting off for home and advising my wife I am on my way. Neither go on till 9am the following morning. Every weekday I do some exercise, to a plan, to keep me physically on top of what is going on as weel as mentally

A few things are key to me:

• keep social media sociable  - i try to limit work based social media to certain times and generally only have phone notifications for messaging/calls.
• make sure i prioritise people time outside of coaching. Working with people all the time can absorb all of my brain space for communicating/organising, so i try to make sure i prioritise/maintain a few key relationships.
• Don't apply my coaching standards to everything i do.
• Dont loose sleep. Bad sleep can send me on a downward spiral that takes weeks to recover.

I totally agree with the sleep part of looking after well being. Being well rested means everything flows just a little easier 

Thank you for this topic. Interesting as our greatest service must be to ourselves first, yet the sense of being a coach is the opposite. 

Meditation. Taking time for personal rest is so important. I regularly, everyday meditate. Then everything just naturally falls into place. No need to think of what is best to rest. Simple.

On 06/02/19 9:49 AM, Liz Burkinshaw said:

As a coach it’s important to keep yourself happy and healthy. What do you do to look after your own mental health?

 

If anyone is interested in exploring the theme of this conversation more Liz is running UK Coaching's latest FREE Time2Learn webinar 'Coach Well-being: Taking Time for Yourself' this Friday (6 December) from 12-1pm. You can learn more about this interactive session and book your place here.

If you can't make it then UK Coaching Subscribers can listen to a recording of the 'Coach Well-being: Taking Time for Yourself' webinar.