My clients are typically successful people who are not as happy as they would like to be. Many also want to take their success to an even higher level. Often they are very good at their jobs but still feel unfulfilled. Typically they have a plan for their careers but not for their lives.

Having a plan for your life means knowing your life means knowing and following your vision, mission, and values. It means being crystal clear about who you are, what you want, why, and how you will achieve it. Once you have your vision and mission, examine your values, beliefs, rules, self-talk, and environment and tweak them to make sure they are congruent with your vision and mission. These are the keys to living your life on purpose.

If you are satisfied with your life, read no further. This is for people who want the best possible life and are willing to examine their lives and make changes to be the best they can be.

What are life coaching and life makeover coaching?

A life coach is a mentor, personal advocate, and partner who focuses exclusively on your interests. A life coach listens well, helps you figure things out, and helps you become clear about your plan and strategies to achieve your goals. Athletes know a coach is vital to reaching their full potential. A life coach is like having a personal trainer for your life. Change can be easy, fast, and painless when you engineer it well. Life coaching focuses on a goal or a few goals. Life makeover coaching develops a comprehensive plan for your life.

What issues do life coaching and life makeover coaching address?

Life coaching can aggressively do a life makeover or address specific goals such as: improving health, enhancing relationships, making career decisions, quitting smoking, helping aging parents, preventing alcohol abuse, and personal growth. While therapy presumes there is something wrong with you and you need to be fixed, coaching presumes you are doing a lot of things well and want to do even better—to take your life and your career to a higher level.

Can you share some examples of life coaching?

Normally, confidentiality prevents sharing examples of coaching. The life makeover coaching for Let’s Live magazine, however, provides an exception as the stories were published in a 3.8 million circulation magazine.

Dr. Brickey's Life Makeover Coaching
was featured in six issues of Let's Live magazine.
Here is what the Let's Live women he coached had to say:

	Dear Mike, I just wanted to formally thank you for your extraordinarily helpful coaching. Last year was one of the most challenging years of my life. Your coaching made it one of the best years of my life. I surprised myself at how well I did on the fitness and weight loss programs. Wow, do I feel better about myself. I used to be a wallflower, hanging back, rarely initiating conversations. I just thought, "Who would be interested in some overweight lady?" Now I feel confident and interesting and... click here to see the whole letter
	Dear Mike, I am writing to thank you for the superb coaching you did with me and for helping me become master of my life and my emotions. I've come to believe that I can make my own breaks and things are getting better all the time. Talking my way to Hawaii is a good example. When things aren't working, I try another way. And as I am fond of saying, "Once I get Rocking, I'm Rolling" Our coaching helped me redefine who I am. Rather than often wondering if I fit in, I now feel like I can talk to anybody about... click here to see the whole letter
	Dear Mike, I want to thank you for your great coaching. Last year was a turning point in my life in many ways—and your coaching was a big part of the changes. First was taking charge of my health by getting in shape, eating better, and most of all becoming a non-smoker for life. I look back now and it is hard to believe that I wasn't taking better care of myself. The triathlon symbolized the triumph in the trifold areas—eating, exercise, and smoking. I was especially proud of keeping my personal goal of doing the triathlon when I was age 40... click here to see the whole letter

How is life coaching different from therapy?

Therapists focus on “fixing” what is wrong with you. A life coach can help you overcome bad habits. Their biggest focus, however, is on helping you define and achieve your dreams, to “be all that you can be.” Historically, psychologists and psychiatrists have focused on helping people who wanted to fix problems. Why shouldn’t their talents also help healthier people become even more successful and happier? With life coaching, you don’t have to be broken or sick to benefit from psychology’s rich knowledge of how to motivate and how to change behaviors and take your life and your career to a higher level.

Health insurance is limited to diagnosed mental health problems. Insurance companies keep information on your “diagnosis,” number of “treatment sessions,” and often more detailed information. Life coaching information is just between you and your life coach.

Can you do therapy?

Being a licensed psychologist I can also address traditional psychological issues such as anxiety, phobias, and depression. I do not, however, deal with insurance plans.

If you only have a hammer, every problem seems to need a hammer. It is important for coaches to have broad, eclectic backgrounds so they can guide you to using what will be most effective for you. Sometimes just the right story, metaphor, Neurolinguistic Programming technique, or paradox will achieve almost instant results. Sometimes tried and true cognitive behavioral or even classical conditioning techniques work best. Good coaches draw from a wide repertoire of clinical skills and research data.

What are levels of change?

I think Robert Dilts’ six levels of change is brilliant. Let me give an example. When Candy Lightner’s daughter was killed by a drunk driver, she decided her daughter’s death had to have a purpose. So she founded MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

The new purpose was a change at a spiritual level—a purpose beyond her own life. At an identity level, she redefined herself from mom to movement leader. At a beliefs level she had to develop beliefs that it was possible to make a difference and that she could be the catalyst. At the capabilities level she might have debated whether she really had the leadership and speaking skills to do it. At the behavior level she learned how to write press releases, talk to the media, and develop an organization. At the environmental level she learned how to have the audience prompt her to tell her story with great power and emotion.

Change can start at any level and reverberate to other levels. In Ms. Lightner’s case it began at the spiritual level. The best coaches sense what level will be most productive and help you focus on making changes or starting changes at that level.

Being an authority on living well into your hundreds, does your life coaching focus on longevity?

Some of my clients focus on health and longevity issues and some do not. My coaching builds in attitudes, beliefs, and coping skills—the ABCs—that support longevity because you need longevity to fulfill your purpose and goals. Longevity, however, is merely a means to achieving your goals. If you don’t have a purpose and goals, there isn’t much point to living longer. Thus, coaching focuses on being clear about your purpose and goals, and how to achieve them—and those goals need to be a lot more than just living longer.

Life Coaching styles

Different life coaches have different styles, the most important being how directive they are. You want to choose a life coach whose style fits your style.

• Directive life coaches (like Dr. Phil) readily share their perspective on what is needed and how to achieve it. They fit well with people who like to get to the point and be as efficient as possible. (I fit this style.)
  
  
• Nondirective life coaches supportively help you discover for yourself what you want and what you want to do. They are especially helpful with people who kind of know what they want and need to do but need someone to help them put it in words and to encourage them.
  
  
• Of course many life coaches’ styles are a combination of these styles.

• Be clear about what you need. If you need technical skills, for example if you were developing an Internet business, you want a coach who has top-notched technical skills. A track record of success is one of the best indicators for technical skills. If you want to focus on personal and career growth, you want a coach who has extensive clinical skills and knows the research literature. Psychologist credentials are usually a good indicator of in-depth research knowledge and clinical skills.
  
  
• Make sure your styles match. If you are not sure of the coach’s style, ask.
  
  
• You need to feel a good sense of rapport. You should feel comfortable and a sense that you could talk about anything and it would be handled respectfully, competently, and with complete discretion and confidentiality. It’s not unusual for a life coach to know you better than anyone else in the world, other than yourself.
  
  
• After several sessions you should ask yourself: Is the life coaching helping me achieve my goals?
  

How long does life coaching last?

I have a ten session Life Makeover Program that is very efficient at coming up with a comprehensive life plan. Some people have a single issue and end coaching when they have achieved their goal. Many people stay with coaching for several years or longer, often having just one session a month. They found something that really works and they stick with it. Some have me on a retainer.

Life coaching for everyday heroes

When Luke Skywalker was perplexed, he went to Obe-Wan Kenobi. When King Arthur needed advice, he went to Merlin. When Pinnochio got in trouble, Jiminy Cricket provided guidance. We have personal trainers who charge $50 an hour or more to teach us how to lift dumbbells. There are specialists to teach you any sport or skill. But who is there to help everyday heroes determine how to better deal with stress, change, job problems, and other life issues. Where can an everyday hero find an Obe-Wan Kenobi?

These heroes found someone who cared about them and focused on his best interests. They found a person who saw the big picture and knew a lot about life, who knew what was needed. They had a mentor. A specialty coach, e.g., a business coach, a career coach, or a sales coach typically focuses on his or her specialty. A life coach needs big picture expertise in how to help a person define, design, and achieve their ideal life. That's where years of study and clinical experience make a big difference.

I think I am interested, what do I do?

If you are interested in the Life Makeover Program go to the Life Makeover Program web page.
If you are interested in Life Coaching, give me a call at 614-237-4556 and we can take a look at what you want and whether I can help you achieve your goal.