What is an Organizing Coach?

By Ariane Benefit

When I tell people that I'm an organizing coach, I often get a puzzled look. Then I get the questions. What is that? How can you possibly help someone get organized if you aren't in their home? Well, the truth is that coaching can be an extremely effective. And it's less expensive than getting organized with a hands-on organizer.

You can learn a lot from reading organizing books, but it's still not easy to figure out how what you learn actually applies to your life and situation. It's not easy to see yourself, your stuff and your life objectively. Coaching helps you see your life - and your stuff - in a whole new way. With a caring coach to guide you and ask the questions that help you make decisions, you can get the results you seek much faster than when left to chance. Working with an organizing coach helps you understand and prioritize your organizing needs, stay focused, learn new skills, and change the habits that caused disorganization.

What an Organizing Coach Does

An effective organizing coach is someone who helps you:

• Understand what is causing your situation
• Develop a compelling vision of how organizing will change your life
• Create a master plan, chunk out your organizing projects, and decide where to start
• Identify create solutions to your needs, and determine how to get the job done so it doesn't overwhelm you
• Get over procrastination and stay focused on your vision of a better life
• Release the negative self-talk that is holding you back
• Overcome obstacles one by one so you can simplify, organize and energize your life.

Your coach should be someone who is entirely on your side, won't judge you, and provides a fresh perspective to help you let go of mental, emotional and physical clutter. Using a process that is a combination of deep listening, questioning, guiding, sharing, teaching, problem-solving, celebrating & cheerleading, a good coach will help you stay focused on your vision, build confidence in your yourself, develop skills, and stay motivated to take action so you can achieve your vision.

A Good Coach:

• Listens - Deep listening allows you to get to the heart of the matter quickly
• Questions - Asking the right questions helps you honor your inner wisdom
• Shares - Sharing information and skills helps you feel empowered and confident
• Celebrates - Celebrating accomplishments energizes and propels you to move forward!

Why do People Seek Out an Organizing Coach? People seek coaching for a variety of reasons. You may have:

• Changed your life in a big way such as going back to school, changing careers, getting married, having a child, or moving
• An ongoing problem that has escalated to a level of pain you can no longer tolerate
• Experienced an unplanned life transition or event that has shaken up your life and caused chaos

Or you may just want to make your life easier, simpler, and better! Some of my coaching clients include people who have:

• Recently moved and are having difficulty getting unpacked and settled in. The chaos is draining them so badly that they just can't seem to make progress.
• Gotten married and need to merge their stuff but their spouse has a different style.
• Had a child or a second or third that has left them feeling overwhelmed.
• Kids with special needs they want to help organize.
• Paper clutter that was bad has gotten worse. They've different approaches but they just aren't working. They need a SIMPLE solution to conquering paper for once and for all!
• A job they hate or recently lost a job and want to discover their true passion and decide on a meaningful direction for their life.
• Trouble being on time. Their boss has told them that lateness and disorganization is affecting their performance and they won't get a raise or be considered for a promotion.
• A hard time letting go of things and now that they are getting older, the stuff is starting to suffocate them. Their habits of keeping things are so ingrained they get overwhelmed when they try to let go alone.

If your quality of life is going downhill because you have clutter that is distracting you, wasting your time and keeping you from doing the things you love, you need to make room for new and better opportunities. When you are ready to get it together and get organized so you can get what you want out of life, a coach can help you make your goals a reality. Whatever your situation, if you are ready for a change, and willing to take time out to take focused action to make your dreams a reality, coaching may be just what you need.

© 2006 Ariane Benefit

Get fresh ideas for simplifying life at http://www.arianebenefit.com. Ariane Benefit, M.S.Ed. is a Life Design Coach, speaker and author with over 25 years experience working with Fortune 500 businesses, non-profits, purpose-driven self-employed professionals and passionate individuals to uplevel their performance, heal chronic disorganization, clutter and overwhelm, and to design more function, flow and fulfillment into life and work. She has appeared on NPR and been quoted in Psychology Today, the Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, and more.

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