Balance Counselling and Coaching Ltd

Balance Counselling and Coaching Ltd PUT YOUR LIFE IN BALANCE

By Kath Taylor

I had an award-winning career spanning over twenty years working in the logistics industry being recognised by the industry in the top 100 list several times and having the honour of winning leader of the year award in recognition of the work I did supporting, mentoring, coaching and developing individuals within the organisations I worked for.

Ihelp all my clients achieve sustainable and lasting results and my background as a senior executive at director level enables me to understand the motivations and challenges of working in large organisations, leading teams of people and delivering targets, dealing with conflicts and achieving work life balance.

I have been qualified as a coach since 2011 and a behavioural analyst in 2013 due to more and more employees presenting with personal/ mental health issues I decided to learn more and became a qualified counsellor in 2013.

I am an NLP master practitioner and trainer which when I started my training I hadn’t intended to become as I was originally doing the initial training out of a personal interest in how the mind works and why we do the things we do, I was that engrossed with what I learnt I didn’t want to stop and it has supported me in my own life both personally and on a business front as well as supported my client work.

In 2017 I decided I wanted to focus more on the areas of my career I found most fulfilling so set up my own business as a Counsellor and Coach supporting individuals and businesses.

On the coaching side I work with businesses and their employee’s at all levels from first line managers right up to executives, enabling them to become confident individuals who are able to manage and drive change programmes, improve / develop their management and leadership, influencing and engagement skills. I help them secure stakeholder support and build teams that deliver, gaining clarity on goals and setting strategic plans for the future.

I work with individuals on a variety of topics, including career advice, building better relationships, motivation, goal setting, health and fitness, spirituality to name a few. I help clients achieve success.

On the counselling side I work as an integrative counsellor, which means I am trained in multiple disciplines of counselling and flex my style to suit different individuals and situations. I work with many individuals and businesses dealing with issues ranging from, general stresses of life, work, relationships issues and breakdowns, bereavement, abuse, depression, anxiety amongst others. Below is a sample of the things my clients have said about me:

“Balance Counselling and coaching has provided an exceptional standard of service, I have found the sessions engaging, supportive and informative. Kathryn has an outstanding set of skill based on well researched knowledge and empathetic expertise. I will forever be grateful for the insight and understanding she provided to me in the sessions.”

“Kathryn is an incredible mentor who helps me to understand where I want to drive my career to. She also motivates me to achieve any goal that I have in mind but be kind to myself even if things don’t turn out how I like them. I am so grateful to have found her.”

“Kathryn is top! Throughout he many sessions I have had with her she’s enabled me to open up comfortably and naturally. This overall has allowed me to understand many things about myself and form the ability to control my emotional state in a calming way.”

NEW YEAR NEW START

Every year as the year ends and the new one approaches people sit down and start a list of resolutions (goals) they want to set themselves to achieve in the following 12 months and commit to changing the things in their life’s that they are no longer happy with or challenging themselves to start moving towards achieving their goals.

Unfortunately many people start with great motivation but by the second or third week of January they are already starting to flounder. Old habits set in, and lack of motivation takes over.

The reason for this is that the goals aren’t always thought through and quite often are a reaction to something that’s happened in your life or a desire for change. Not understanding, why you actually want to achieve something or what it adds to your life or what you lose from it are some of the reasons that we lose our way and don’t follow through on our goals.

Having clear plans that you can follow means you know how to achieve your aims and helps keep you on track as you know what each step on your route is, combine this with having plans to deal with obstacles on route means you stay on track and find ways to keep moving forward even when challenges arise.

Sharing your plans can also help keep you on track as once you have said it out loud and shared with other people it adds to your commitment to achieve the desired results.

I want to share with you some tips to helping you set goals and achieving them without loosing your motivation and commitment to them. These tips are relevant at any time you are setting yourself targets not just at the start of the year. 1Write down the things you want to change in your life or new challenges you want to set. This may seem obvious but its surprising that most targets are set with little thought been given to what the actually desired outcome is.

2Ask Yourself what does your goal mean to you? Look at each item on your list individually and ask yourself the following questions making a note of your answers. a. What would achieving your goal mean for you? b. What would it add to your life? c. Why is this important to you? d. What would achieving your goal mean for you? e. What are the downsides of achieving your goal? f. Are you happy to accept the negatives? g. Are you doing this for you or is it just something you think you should do?

3Do you really want to achieve the goal you have set? Based on your answers to point two evaluate whether the goal is something you really want to achieve and if the answer is no remove from your list.

4Review your list again and assign the priority you want to give each item and the timeframe you want to achieve them by.

5Take each item in priority order and ask yourself the following questions. a. How will I know I have achieved my goal? • What will I see? • What will I hear? • What will I feel? • What will I know? b. What would be the Final step I would take to arrive at my goal? c. What would be the step before that? d. Repeat point C until you get to what would be the first thing you need to do to start of on your journey to achieving your goal. N.B. If at any point you have multiple options for your next step then make a note of the options and repeat points C and D on them until you reach your final goal. This will give you options in your action plan in case you hit any blockers on your journey. Many journeys fail because we hit obstacles in our path and loose our commitment to carry on. Having options makes it easy to transfer paths.

6Now you have your action plan review your timeline and check it still fits with the actions you need to take, amend where necessary.

7Tell someone you trust of your goals as they will help hold you accountable.

8Take your first step and begin.

9Have the list of goals somewhere visible that you will see every day. 10Review your action plan weekly and adjust for any challenges or obstacles.

Don’t be afraid you alter your timeline, remember for most goals we set ourselves it’s achieving the outcome that’s important not the date we hit the last step.

Be kind to yourself – i.e., if your goal was to form a new habit don’t let missing a day or week stop you. Recognise the times you did achieve it and remind yourself you did it so you can do it again. Remind yourself of all your responses to the questions in tip 2 and refocus and start again.