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Article 42

Self-Coaching…How to SOLVE Personal and Workplace Issues

Ron Muchnick

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Self-coaching, using the SOLVE process is an exclusive, uniquely created five-step model that identifies a workable problem-solving system that will work in both your personal as well as your professional life. You will need to work through each step of the SOLVE process to successfully complete it. Self- Coaching identifies the ability that we, as individuals, have in finding and applying solutions to our life’s problems. It is not just a process of hope; it is a process of doing.

The SOLVE process moves you from becoming aware of the problem, to developing a plan to modify or eliminate it, and finally to the application of the plan, the doing part. This cannot be a haphazard process if it is to be successful. It is one thing to want life to change, for life to get better; it is quite another to make it happen. Self-coaching is not designed to promote one-time improvement. The SOLVE process is not based on luck, and its success is not a fluke. Solutions to the problems you are now facing are already there waiting to be discovered and be applied in the real world.

The process is as follows:

S tate the problem specifically
O bserve the problem resolved
L ist exceptions
V erify the plan
E xecute….Just Do It!

It is not that the SOLVE process will work on one problem and not another, on Tuesday and not Friday. Instead the SOLVE process works….period! You need to understand that solutions will not appear by themselves. No way! You and the work, effort, and energy you invest in developing them will be directly correlated to your success. You control the dividends from your investment. You have the power to make things happen. At this time you just do not know the process of how to get what you want to accomplish to happen. That is about to change. Forever! You are about to learn and most importantly understand the SOLVE process. Self-coaching is a process that can be life changing because when it becomes part of life it is a process that is then owned by its user. It is always available, and although energy, effort, and commitment are always needed, self-coaching remains ready to use for a lifetime.

Welcome to Self-Coaching

Personal coaches are an identified and accepted source in helping us attain a variety of life needs. Health and fitness coaches, nutritional coaches, home and personal fashion coaches, to mention just a few, all provide us with guidance, direction, and problem resolution. The reason for these people entering our lives is apparent. We don’t have the time, energy, or alternative sources available to help us mentor and monitor our progress in attaining the personal goals we set for ourselves. We are overwhelmed, overextended, and overwrought with problems both in our personal lives and at work, which restricts our ability to resolve existing issues before the next challenge is upon us. We are going 110-mph in a 45-mph speed zone and something has got to give. Self-coaching provides one way to catch our breath and clearly think about what needs to be done, create an action plan to accomplish it, and then put our plan into action.

Self-Coaching makes availabile an executive coaching process that allows YOU to be the coach. How in the world could this be accomplished? This is the journey you are about to begin and self-coaching using the SOLVE process will be your roadmap. Like any other trip you embark on to a place you have never been, it is natural for you to be somewhat anxious, nervous, excited, and hopeful as to how it will work out. The best way to deal with these feelings is to get started. So let us move forward and begin developing your self-coaching ability to resolve your personal issues… forever!

Self-coaching is a process that empowers individuals to be aware and understand the problems they face in a more productive way. You will not only be able to develop action plans, but most importantly, you will also be able to self-initiate your plans into action. From a personal standpoint, being a self-coached individual builds self-esteem, confidence, and competency in knowing that you are capable of solving your problems by self-coaching your way through them.

Self-coaching also gives us personal empowerment in knowing that we can rely on ourselves for the answers to our continual problems. Knowing that by working through the SOLVE process, by following this problem-solving system, we will be able to deal with the issue at hand. With so much going on in our daily lives, it becomes difficult to pull up the ability to consistently deal with our problems. Being able to do so, and knowing we have this ability, immediately reduces the personal anxiety, pressure, and stress that we feel on an ongoing consistent basis.

Individuals become empowered when they know how to go about resolving problems that previously just did not go away. Problems are no longer as scary and stressful since we feel confident and self-assured that we will be able to SOLVE the issues we face. This feeling of competency comes from knowing that there will always be a next problem or issue, and that by using the SOLVE process we will be able to meet the challenge and move on (deShazer, 1985).

On a Personal Note

I have spent a lengthy, thought provoking amount of time developing what is felt to be a creative, productive, easy-to-use model that develops solutions to personal and work-related problems. Self-coaching is a unique problem-solving process built on the foundation of being solution focused rather than problem focused. This process consists of developing an awareness of what it is that we want to resolve, creating plans to make it happen, and, finally, executing those plans that result in experiencing the solution.

Self-coaching identifies the assets, strengths, techniques, and skills we possess in overcoming problems, but somehow are overlooked when we become problem drenched. The goal of self-coaching is to have the SOLVE process become your personal problem resolution system that is always available to use at your discretion. You have the power and control to develop solutions for the problems you experience. Self-coaching allows you to promote successful change.

It is as if there is a pervasive national anxiety that has permeated our consciousness. This can be seen in the huge amounts of Xanax and Prozac that are being consumed and considered a normal aid to functioning in today’s hectic society. At times it seems the only thing to do is roll over and hope things just go away. It is this hopelessness and feeling of being paralyzed that self-coaching is designed to attack.

Overwhelming! We have become a society with too much to do and not enough time to do it. The ongoing stress and pressure of taking care of all the things and people in our lives that need caring for leaves very little time if any to take care of ourselves. Eventually there is a price that is paid. Some of the pressure cooker elements of today’s society include single-parented and blended families with all the associated issues that add to complicating life. In addition, economic pressures keep everyone in the family working outside the home and yet needing to be fresh to work within the home as well. This extensive constant pressure has to also negatively affect our primary partner relationships as well as our relationship with ourselves. Is it any wonder then that it becomes very difficult to consistently be a good problem solver in our own lives?

There is a limit to the number of problems that we can effectively solve in a given day. That is why we need HELP! We need to be able to rely on a process that will provide that help in empowering ourselves to be able to SOLVE the continuing problems we face. We need to rely on ourselves to move us along in life. We need to be able to self-coach ourselves in order to SOLVE our problems.

Concluding Thoughts

What an opportunity. Your self-potential has been given permission to be unleashed. Your creative juices, your ability to initiate, needs to be summoned. The personal challenge to become more productive has been issued. The ability to self-coach has moved from being a luxury to becoming a necessity. All successes count! What you do successfully in your personal life needs to be understood and transferred to your work environment and vice versa.

Self-coaching and the SOLVE process allow this to take place. The ability to see your successful self in the bigger picture needs to occur. It is being able to understand the process of personal success that broadens your ability to self-coach yourself through problem situations no matter how or where they develop.

The SOLVE process has helped identify that you have specific problems that need to be stated as such. By doing so, you are able to observe the problem resolved, which becomes the goal you want to attain (Gallwey, 1974). To help get started in achieving your identified objective you need to think about the times in your life when you have already lived the solution you are now seeking (Lipchick & deShazer, 1986). These are listed as exceptions. Using these exception experiences as a base, you then develop a specific plan to once again achieve success in your life. Once this plan has been established, you need to most importantly execute it, make it happen (Peters & Waterman, 1982).

This process has been developed into the SOLVE format of self-coaching. This makes it possible for you to understand how to always be able to SOLVE not only your existing problems but future personal and workplace problem issues as well. Once you know how to self-coach yourself through existing problem issues, you can never again not know. You now own the ability that self-empowers you to face your future life issues in a new more confident, self-assured way. You have done it. You are now able to self-coach!