What is wellness self-coaching? It is a framework for identifying a change you’d like to make, strengthening your motivation, and steps to consider when you're ready to make that change. You can do this as a step-by-step process, or pick and choose the sections you find most helpful.
Explore
The wellness self-coaching exploration worksheet can give you a sense of your current self-care status and areas in which you’re interested in making a change.
- Complete the Wellness Self-Coaching Exploration Worksheet
- Once you have completed the worksheet, select a focus area by considering:
- In which 2-3 areas do you feel the most motivated to make a change?
- How would it impact your life to make a change in each of these areas?
- How ready are you to make a change in each of these areas?
- How confident are you that you can make a change in each of these areas?
- Based on these questions, which area is emerging as the most compelling area to focus on?
Experiment
Once you narrow down an area you want to focus on, you can experiment with ways to make movement toward your desired lifestyle changes.
Set a goal
Now that you’ve chosen an area of focus, you’re ready to design your goal. If helpful, some goal-designing resources include:
Visualize accomplishing your goal
Identify what’s needed to support your success. Consider:
- Are there barriers to overcome?
- What preparation may be helpful?
- What support systems or resources can you access?
- What additional information might be useful before you begin?
Explore your confidence
Make adjustments to raise your confidence in accomplishing your goal if helpful. Consider:
- How confident are you that you will accomplish your goal? Highly? Somewhat? Slightly?
- How did you determine that level of confidence?
- What might increase your confidence as you begin this experiment?
- What might support your ongoing confidence as you go?
Put it into motion
Once you have transformed your chosen area of focus into a well-defined goal, you’re ready to experiment. Check-in with yourself about your goal progress after one to two weeks.
Other helpful tips
- Create goals around what you will do, not what you will not do or think you should do.
- Determine if you’re ready and able to work on your goal with the time and resources you have.
- Think about the desired outcome of your goal and the impact it will have on your life.
Evolve
After your experience, think about ways to continue to evolve your wellness goals through reflection, refinement, and ongoing self-coaching.
Reflect
After you’ve given yourself time to work on your goal, and you’re ready to check in, reflect back on your experience.
Acknowledge what worked, what challenges you overcame, and what helped you along the way. Understanding what contributed to your success, as well as times you weren’t successful, provides valuable information for future experiments. While self-judgment might seem helpful, it can prevent you from crafting potential solutions. Check out the possible solutions to common self-coaching obstacles.
Possible Solutions to Common Obstacles
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Common Obstacles |
Possible Solutions |
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Felt too tired |
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Had a schedule conflict |
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Something else felt more important |
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Doubted ability to succeed |
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Didn’t have needed resources |
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Where to next?
You can apply the wellness self-coaching process to any goal, or practice the individual aspects you find most useful. If you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, consider periodic self-check-ins for your new habits. If you’re ready for a new experiment and need ideas, refer back to the wellness self-coaching exploration worksheet for inspiration.
FAQ about Self-Coaching
How long do I need to do self-coaching?
Successful coaching is based on strong motivation to make a change. For better or worse, motivation usually comes from not feeling ok about your present circumstances. As things get better for you, it may feel hard to stay motivated.
Stick with it as long as you find it useful. There are no rules about how long you should stick with it. If you feel like you want to make a change but aren’t able to self-coach, meet with a health coach.
If you’re happy with the changes you’ve made but just want to make sure you maintain new habits, consider a less formal weekly self-check-in where you look at your schedule, think about how you’re feeling, and how you might best care for yourself in the coming week.
I’ve tried to make changes in the past and always failed. Will this be different?
When you start thinking about your past and future choices around self-care, you’ll likely experience some self-judgment. You may have stories running through your brain about why you did or didn’t do something, what you should have done instead, and/or what you should do in the future. These stories may seem helpful, but they are often keeping you stuck, and unable to accomplish your goals.
One of the reasons that health coaches are so helpful is that they can listen to you with curiosity and non-judgment. See if you can offer yourself the benefit of this compassionate approach. Instead of focusing on the should/could/would stories around your situation, stick to the facts, and question your assumptions.
Do I really need to fill out the worksheet?
No, but you will likely find that the self-coaching process is more useful to you if you do. Studies have shown that writing by hand engages the brain in a different way than either typing or thinking alone. But there are no rules here. You can try it for yourself and see what happens, or use whatever method you know will work best for you.