Whether you know it or not, life coaches are on the rise. And we’ve become completely fascinated with how quickly their clients are seeing results.After working with a life coach, clients are coming out with better self-confidence, self-awareness, and the motivation to achieve what they want out of life. Understanding that everyone is different and may need to take different steps to get to where they want to be, there are still every day, simple things that we can work on. For that reason, we reached out to some of the best life coaches in the D.C. area to see how they do it. Life coaches Sara Oliveri, Jim Weinstein, Liz Strom, and Catherine Wood have provided us with ways to take your life to the next level. Their experience as coaches, psychotherapists, in-demand speakers, professors, business executives, workshop facilitators, and degree-collectors makes their award-winning coaching expertise something to pay attention to. Here are the 7 ways that these life coaches are recommending you upgrade your life: Enhance Your Core Values Begin orienting your life around your core values – your personal formula for thriving. Core values are important because they help us grow into the person we want to be. Let go of things that you find yourself focusing on that are meaningless or unhelpful to you (fear, embarrassment, jealousy, regret) and focus on things that will make you a better person. Self-care, love, honesty, adventure, friendship—positive core values! When we use our core values to make decisions, we are focusing on what is important to us. –Sara Oliveri and Liz Strom Exercise/ Healthy eating This one comes as no surprise as we’ve definitely heard how much of an impact regular exercise and healthy eating can have on your mental and physical health. Increased energy and mood, a lower risk of medical problems, and genuinely feeling more content and relaxed are just a few of the benefits. But increased happiness isn’t the only reason that life coaches are recommending healthy living. When you’re working out and eating right you tend to feel better about yourself, leading to more self-confidence. Self-confidence is key when you’re looking to upgrade your life! –Jim Weinstein Meditation/Breathing At one point or another, you’ve probably heard the phrase “take a deep breath and calm down”. You were most likely told this by someone who was trying to get you to calm down, relax. Not only can taking deep breaths calm you down, but it can help to reduce stress and anxiety by relaxing your nervous system. On top of relaxation and reduced anxiety, meditation can help let go of the negativity in your life. By letting go of the negative, you’re making room for improvement. –Jim Weinstein Be Social The next thing that Life Coaches are recommending is to enhance your social life. The advantage of belonging to a community is that there will always be people that are there to help you, offer you comfort, and give you friendship. The saying “strength in numbers” is entirely true when it comes to mental and emotional health. Feeling alone or rejected by others is associated with low self-esteem and depression. Surrounding yourself with friends and family helps improve mood, productivity, and studies show you may even live longer. -Jim Weinstein Be You Don’t compare yourself to others. We all walk our own paths for a reason, and not everyone’s path is as it seems. Living in a society that is constantly developing and influencing who we are, it is important to always be ourselves from the inside out. When we recognize who we are and what we want out of life our chances of experiencing a fulfilling and rewarding life are a lot higher. No one else can be you and that’s what makes you unique. –Liz Strom Know What You Need While we often find ourselves worrying about what others need and want from us, it’s also important that we take care of our own needs. Knowing what you need mentally, emotionally, and physically is critical to your stability and happiness. Ask yourself, “what do I need in this moment?” and then become the source of fulfilling your own needs instead of waiting around for someone to take care of your needs for you. If you’re feeling stressed out, overwhelmed, exhausted recognize that you may need to schedule some “you-time”. – Catherine Wood Always Do the Best You Can The last recommendation, and one of the most important ones, is to always do the best you can. Now, this doesn’t mean that everything you do must be perfect, but that you should at least try your hardest to go that extra mile. If we do things half-heartedly then we aren’t living up to our full potential. This leads to regret and low self-esteem as we become our own worst critic. Even if we fail, we shouldn’t be discouraged. We learn from our mistakes and can use that experience as a life lesson. –Liz Strom This article first appeared on Capitol Standard. |