• Home
• About Coaching ››
• Business Development
• Personal Coaching ››
• About Us ››
• Recommended Reading ››
• Contact Us

Sign up for a complimentary
phone consultation to learn
more about how working
with me as your life coach might be the solution.

A Selection of Karla’s Favorite & Recommended Books, CDs/DVDs & Authors

Books & CDs/DVDs

More Recommendations from our Coaching Community

Books & CDs/DVDs

Your opinion counts.....

Please email me to recommend books that have impacted you life and I will post them here.

Title	Author	Submitted by
A Return to Love	Marianne Williamson	Donise-Grass Valley CA
Big Book of Alcoholics Annonymous	Bill W	Debbie M-Auburn CA

Life Coaching: Defined and History

Life coaching is a practice with the aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals. Life coaches use multiple methods that will help clients with the process of setting and reaching goals. Coaching is not targeted at psychological illness, and coaches are not therapists nor consultants.

Life coaching has roots in executive coaching, which itself drew on techniques developed in management consulting and leadership training. Life coaching also draws inspiration from disciplines including sociology, psychology, positive adult development, career counseling, mentoring, and other types of counseling. The coach may apply mentoring, values assessment, behavior modification, behavior modeling, goal-setting, and other techniques in helping their clients.

Government bodies have not found it necessary to provide a regulatory standard for life coaching nor does any state body govern the education or training standard for the life coaching industry, the title of "coach" can be used by any service provider. Multiple coaching schools and training programs are available, allowing for many options (and sometimes causing confusion) when an individual decides to gain "certification" or a "credential" as they apply to the coaching industry. Multiple certificates and credential designations are available within the industry. [1]
Four standards and self-appointed accreditation bodies are internationally recognized: the International Coaching Council (ICC) , the International Coach Federation (ICF), the International Association of Coaching (IAC) and the European Coaching Institute (ECI). No independent supervisory board evaluates these programs, and they are all privately owned.

Some assert that life coaching is akin to psychotherapy without restrictions, oversight, or regulation. The State legislatures of Colorado after holding a hearing on such concerns, disagreed, asserting that coaching is unlike therapy because it does not focus on examining nor diagnosing the past. Instead coaching focuses on effecting change in a client's current and future behavior. Additionally, life coaching does not delve into diagnosing mental dysfunctions nor analyzing the past.

According to a survey of coaching clients, "sounding board" and "motivator" were the top roles selected for a coach. Clients are looking for a coach "to really listen to them and give honest feedback." The top three issues clients seek help on are time management, career, and business. [3]

Personal coaching

Personal Coaching is a relationship which is designed and defined in a relationship agreement between a client and a coach. It is based on the client's expressed interests, goals, and objectives.
Personal Coaching is a learning process. A Personal Coach may use inquiry, reflection, requests and discussion to help clients identify personal and/or business and/or relationship goals, develop strategies, relationships and action plans intended to achieve those goals. A coach provides a place for clients to be held accountable to themselves by monitoring the clients' progress towards implementation of their action plans. Together they evolve and modify the plan to best suit the client's needs and environmental relationships. A Personal Coach acts as a human mirror for clients by sharing an outside and unbiased perspective on what they are observing about their clients. A Personal Coach may teach specific insights and skills to empower the client toward their goals. Finally, a Personal Coach encourages the client to celebrate the achievement of milestones and goals.
Clients are responsible for their own achievements and success. The client takes action; and the coach may assist, but never leads or does more than the client. Therefore, a coach cannot and does not promise that a client will take any specific action or attain specific goals.
Personal Coaching is not counseling, therapy or consulting. These different skill sets and approaches to change may be adjunct skills and professions. The Personal Coach recognizes his/her limitations, and refers the client for other services as ethically required.

Business coaching

Business coaching is the practice of providing support and occasional advice to an individual or group in order to help them recognize ways in which they can improve the effectiveness of their business. It can be provided in a number of ways, including one-on-one tuition, group coaching sessions and large scale seminars. Business coaches are often called in when a business is perceived to be performing badly, however many businesses recognize the benefits of business coaching even when the organization is successful. Business coaches often specialize in different practice areas such as Executive Coaching, Corporate Coaching, and Leadership Coaching.
Business coaching is not the same as mentoring. Mentoring involves a developmental relationship between a more experienced "mentor" and a less experienced partner, and typically involves sharing of advice. A business coach can act as a mentor given that he or she has adequate expertise and experience however, mentoring is not a form of business coaching. A good business coach need not have specific business expertise and experience in the same field as the person receiving the coaching, in order to provide quality business coaching services.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia / Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching

“People with goals succeed because
they know where they are going. It’s as simple as that."
~Earl Nightingale

Procrastination is a type of behavior which is characterized by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite procrastination as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. [1]

For an individual, procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of personal productivity, the creation of crisis and the disapproval of others for not fulfilling one's responsibilities or commitments. These combined feelings can promote further procrastination. While it is normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological or physiological disorder.
Perfectionism: Traditionally, procrastination has been associated with perfectionism, a tendency to negatively evaluate outcomes and one's own performance, intense fear and avoidance of evaluation of one's abilities by others, heightened social self-consciousness and anxiety, recurrent low mood, and workaholism. Slaney (1996) found that adaptive perfectionists (when perfectionism is egosyntonic) were less likely to procrastinate than non-perfectionists, while maladaptive perfectionists (people who saw their perfectionism as a problem; i.e., when perfectionism is egodystonic) had high levels of procrastination (and also of anxiety).[4]

Types of procrastinating

Relaxed: View their responsibilities negatively and avoid them by directing energy into other tasks. It is common, for example, children to abandon schoolwork but not their social lives. Students often see projects as a whole rather than breaking them into smaller parts. This type of procrastination is a form of denial or cover-up; therefore, typically no help is being sought. Furthermore, they are also unable to defer gratification. The procrastinator avoids situations that would cause displeasure, indulging instead in more enjoyable activities. In Freudian terms, such procrastinators refuse to renounce the pleasure principle, instead sacrificing the reality principle. They may not appear to be worried about work and deadlines, but this is simply an evasion.[6]

Tense-afraid: Usually feels overwhelmed with pressure, unrealistic about time, uncertain about goals and many other negative feelings. Feeling that they lack the ability or focus to successfully complete their work, they tell themselves that they need to unwind and relax, that it's better to take it easy for the afternoon, for example, and start afresh in the morning. They usually have grandiose plans that aren't realistic. Their 'relaxing' is often temporary and ineffective, and leads to even more stress as time runs out, deadlines approach and the person feels increasingly guilty and apprehensive. This behavior becomes a cycle of failure and delay, as plans and goals are put off, penciled into the following day or week in the diary again and again. It can also have a debilitating effect on their personal lives and relationships. Since they are uncertain about their goals, they often feel awkward with people who appear confident and goal-oriented, which can lead to depression. Tense-afraid procrastinators often withdraw from social life, avoiding contact even with close friends.[6]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia / Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching

“Life coaching is a fairly new field in the last 30 years. Maybe, there are things you might be able to see some of the seeds of life coaching. But I would say as a profession, it is probably may be 25 years old. It might have seen its first year in the 1980s. It began more as like business consulting or executive training's in a corporate executive. "7 Habits of Highly Successful People" was one of the first books to focus on life coaching.”

Source: Robin Hoffman, the president of Heart Paper Scissors, a healing center that teaches people how to problem solve by using art.

“Change is the law of life,
and those who look only to the past or the present
are certain to miss the future.”
John F. Kennedy

Faith When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen:There will be something solid for you to stand upon, or, you will be taught how to fly. ~Author Unknown

Transformation Transformation is simply a shift of attention from what doesn’t have meaning, toward something that does. ~Maria Nemeth Miracles Miracles rest not so much upon healing power coming suddenly near us from afar but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that, for the moment, our eyes can see and our ears can hear what has been there around us always. ~Willa Cather-Death Comes For The Archbishop

Chaos Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos.  Before a brilliant person begins something great, they must look foolish to the crowd. ~I Ching Insanity Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. ~Rita Mae Brown-Rubyfruit Jungle

Power and Knowledge As a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing but does only and wholly what he must do. ~Ursula Le Guin-The Wizard of Earthsea

Active Laziness Active laziness…consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues.  Our lives seem to live us, possess their own bizarre momentum to carry us away. In the end we feel we have no control or choice over them. ~Sogyal Rinpoche

Inspirational Quotes

A drunken man who falls out of a cart, though he may suffer, does not die. His bones are the same as other people's; but he meets his accident in a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security. He is not conscious of riding in the cart;  neither is he conscious of falling out of it. Ideas of life, death, fear and the like cannot penetrate his breast;  and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existence. If such security is to be got from wine, how much more is to be got from God? - Chuang Tz

We are so anxious to achieve some particular end that we never pay attention to the psycho-physical means whereby that end is to be gained. So far as we are concerned, any old means is good enough. But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end. Aldous Huxley Humility does not mean believing oneself to be inferior, but to be freed from self-importance. It is a state of natural simplicity which is in harmony with our true nature and  allows us to taste the freshness of the present moment. Matthieu Ricar

An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride, and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too." The children thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied: "The one I feed."

The spirit of poetry came to me and said "You poor thing. You don't know how to listen. Listen to me. Listen." When I began to listen to poetry is when I began to listen to stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And what is most important for all of us, is to learn  to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself, in here, but which is also the soul of everyone else. The Native American poet Joy Harjo on PBS

The grudge you hold on to is like a hot coal that you intend to throw at someone, only you're the one who gets burned. Siddhartha Gautama Do not take lightly small good deeds, Believing they can hardly help. For drops of water, one by one, In time can fill a giant pot. -Patrul Rinpoche

Do you know what is really new? The latest is that breath that just came. That's  the newest thing in this whole universe. That is the newest thing. And you just  got it. And it left - and here comes a new one. And it just left. And here comes another one. I'm trying to point out the magic of that existence to you. Just the magic that's there. That's heaven. -Maharaji

When you sit in the full lotus position, your left foot is on your right thigh and your right foot is on your left thigh. When we cross our legs like this, even though we have a right leg and a left leg, they have become one. The position expresses  the oneness of duality: not two and not one. Our body and mind are not two and not one. If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one. - Shunryu Suzuki

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish. When the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a person who has forgotten words? That person is the one I would like to talk to. Chuang-Tzu

Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do.  The more we witness our emotional chain reactions  and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice. -Pema Chodron How many times have you tried to shield yourself by reading the newspaper, watching television, or just spacing out? That is the $64,000 question: how much have you  connected with yourself at all in your whole life? -Chogyam Trungpa

To our most bitter opponents we say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.  And whatever affects one directly affects all.  For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to  be.  And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. -Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Look. This is your world! You can't not look. There is no other world. This is your world; it is your feast. You inherited this; you inherited these eyeballs; you inherited this world of color. Look at the greatness of the whole thing. Look! Don't hesitate—look! Open your eyes. Don't blink and look, look—look further. -Chogyam Trungpa

There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems  in physics because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago. -J. Robert Oppenheimer All those who are unhappy in the world are so as a result of their desire for their own happiness. All those who are happy in the world are so as a result of their desire for the happiness of others. -Shantideva

Without the rigidity of concepts, the world becomes transparent and illuminated,  as though lit from within. With this understanding, the interconnectedness of all that lives becomes very clear. We see that nothing is stagnant and nothing is fully separate, that who we are, what we are, is intimately woven into the nature of life itself. Out of this sense of connection, love and compassion arise. -Sharon Salzberg

The search is what anyone would undertake if they were not sunk in the everydayness of their own lives. To become aware of the possibility of a search is to be on to something. Not to be on to something is to be in despair. -Walker Percy

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly. -Richard Bach

Children, old people, vagabonds laugh easily and heartily: they have nothing to lose and hope for little. In renunciation lies a delicious taste of simplicity and deep peace. -Matthieu Ricard Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only those who see take off their shoes. -Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Some Final quotes.....

I am an old man, and I’ve lived through many trials and tribulations,
most of which never really happened.

~  Mark Twain

---

The only joy in the world is to begin.

~Cesare Pavese

---

You don’t have to be good to start, but you have to start to be good!

~ Author unknown

---

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

~Marcel Proust

---

An enlightened life is a life you lead when you say “yes” to what has heart and meaning for you.

~ Maria Nemeth

---

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.

~ Paul Vale'ry

---

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

~ Marcus Aurelius

---

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.

~ Richard Bach

---

Consciousness is always open to many possibilities because it involves play. It is always an adventure.

~ Julian Jaynes

---

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

~ Edgar Allen Poe

---

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?

~ Satchel Paige

Every day is a good day.

~ Yun-Men

---

Every life has a measure of sorrow. Sometimes it is this that awakens us.

~ The Buddha

---

Things to do today: Exhale, inhale, exhale. Ahhhh.

~ The Buddha

---

You're only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn't lose  it.

~ Robin Williams

---

For fast acting relief, try slowing down.

~ Lily Tomlin

---

Comparisons are odious.

~ Popular Fourteenth Century Saying

If nobody around you measures up, it's time to check your yardstick.

~ Bill Lemley

---

A saint is a sinner that didn't give up.

~ Therese of Avila

You meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it.

~ Carl Jung

---

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

---

Human beings are afraid of dying. They are always running after something: money, honor, pleasure.
But if you had to die now, what would you want?

~ Taisen Deshimura

---

Life is glorious.  Almost no one experiences life.  We experience conditioned mind and think that's life.

~ Cheri Huber

---

Birth is not one act; it is a process. The aim of life is to be fully born, though its tragedy is that most of us die before we are thus born. To live is to be born every minute. Death occurs when birth stops.

~ Eric Fromm

---

What we call reality is an agreement people have arrived at to make life more livable.

~ Louise Nevelson

---

To the dull mind nature is leaden.
To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.

~ Emerson

---

Transformation is simply a shift of attention from what doesn’t have meaning, toward something that does.

~ Maria Nemeth

---

Your experience of an abundant life is the sum of your authentic choices minus the sum of your driven bahaviour.

~ Maria Nemeth

---

Knowledge is knowing as little as possible.

~ Charles Bukowski