In The News:
Wendy Mackowski

Clients say . . .

"Wendy has been an excellent coach. Not only has she helped me to focus on my professional goals, but also she has led me to formulate my vision and purpose in life."
Jackie

more testimonials

Wendy Mackowski is interviewed in the article in the Hockessin Community News July 7, 2005

Hockessin Community News

Into the direction of one's dreams

Local "life coaches" are working with clients to steer them on the road to a brighter future, personally and professionally

By Reid Champagne Staff Writer

In overcoming life's transitional periods – the fabled mid-life crisis – sometimes it's the gremlins you know rather than the gremlins you don't that are key to weathering that crisis and moving on to success.

"Gremlins are those mostly self imposed obstacles, our inner critics, that can thwart our efforts toward self-improvement," says Wendy Mackowski, founder of Inner North Coaching. "But once we can identify those gremlins – give them a name – we can observe how they are influencing our thought processes, and then make a choice whether we should be paying attention to them or ignoring them."

The art and science of life coaching is about learning how to sort through the sometimes overwhelming choices we are presented with in life, and them equipping ourselves with the tools to make the good choices and avoid making the bad ones. Life coaches, such as Mackowski, do not tell clients which choices are good or bad, but "coach" clients into learning to see for themselves which are which.

Joe White, founder of Orange County, California City's Get Life Coaching (www.getlifecoaching.com), has another perhaps more clinical name for gremlins: belief systems. "All beliefs are just patterns formed in the brain," says White, whose earlier addiction to cocaine and alcohol first brought him to the self-improvement tapes of Anthony Robbins. "And those patterns or beliefs can prevent people from achieving what they want." White took the fundamentals of those Robbins tapes and adapted them to a personal vision of his own, and through a variety of techniques, including Neuro Lingusitic Programming (NLP), White helps clients look for the structure that is common for all belief systems. "I help my clients identify the emotions and behaviors that form the patterns of their thinking," says White, "and then coach them to attaching themselves to a vision that is greater than themselves."

If all this sounds a lot like the old Norman Vincent Peale "Power of Positive Thinking" model that made its debut back in the 1950's, you're not far off. In fact, when Mackowski began seeking her own personal life coaching, she read Peale as well as a wealth of other literature on the subject.

"I support clients in their efforts to determine what is important in their lives, and then create a future vision free of the obstacles that would prevent them from achieving that vision." Mackowski views those obstacles – the gremlins – as a gap between the present and that future vision, and through a variety of exercises helps clients "mine out" the values within the clients' belief system that will help them visualize what is important to them in their lives, and then develop an increasingly concrete and specific visualization of what they want their future to look like. All this doesn't happen overnight, however. "It generally can take three to six months to begin making sustained progress," says Mackowski.

Rather than gremlins or belief systems, Jessi LaCosta, president of BlueRio Coaching, prefers a concept she calls "personal branding." "Personal branding is the link others think of us in terms of the expectations we want to deliver," says LaCosta. Many of LaCosta's clients are small business people looking to expand their businesses to the next level. "I help my clients merge their best personal values with the values they want to project for their business and make both those sets of values transparent to one another," says LaCosta.

In other words, teaching clients not only how to add that "personal touch" to their business, but more importantly to add the touch that is most reflective of who they are as people. LaCosta says finding out who you truly are as a person can be an intimidating experience for some, and LaCosta offers in her coaching methods what she likes to call a "safe goals.

The growing trend in life coaching that has emerged over the last few years (Google "life coach" and you'll get almost 13 million hits) is the result of us living longer, but also with more alternatives than ever before. "We've never had choices before like we do now," says Mackowski. "And that amount of choice can be very confusing."

Debra Exner of Exner and Associates believes the life coach, while similar to that of a sports or athletic coach, differs in one important aspect. "The sports coach and the life coach are both engaged is pursuing peak performance," Exner explains, "but the sports coach is also an expert imparting that expertise to the athletes he is coaching. A life coach does not approach a client from the point of view of an expert, but rather by listening to clients and learning from them what is working and not working in their lives."

Call it Co-Active Coaching. Life coaching is not merely for those individuals caught in a crisis. In fact, many of the coaches interviewed here say their clients are not unhappy, but are looking to optimize get to the next level," says Exner. "These people are already self-starters with a strong sense of focus and structure. They're looking for that objective eye to confirm that they are on target and making progress toward that next level of success."

For the self-employed it is about finding that balance between the business and personal life, seeking that integration between life and work. "Some are looking for help in developing a structure for working out of their own home, or to separate their time in order to be able to think and plan strategically" says Exner. For the individual in "transition," the mid-lifer so to speak, the issue is one of overcoming the fear produced by so many choices.

"Clients come to me confused about the future of their careers, retirement, the empty nest," says Mackowski. "My role is to help them clarify their own values and preferences, and to create a future vision without all the self-imposed obstacles." Like the ancient philosopher said, "Know thyself," giving rise to the speculation that Socrates was the world's first "life coach."


			Site Map \| Privacy \| Contact Us \| Client Services 1-949-542-7909