The holiday season is going full tilt.  Shopping.  Parties.  Baking.  Family.  Friends.  Thelist seems endless as the days tick away to the first of the year.  We wonder as we rush around are we making any progress . . . on anything!?  We get so enmeshed in what we are doing we seem to leave out even a moment or two to reflect on that special gift we were able to find for our 90 year old aunt and new beau in our life.  Passing the time with a friend we have not seen all year at the Christmas Party over the weekend.  OR the cookies that came out soooo fantastic this year. 

Yesterday, Sunday afternoon, I was decorating the tree by myself as the Patriots were playing, enough said.  I had just finished putting all the lights on and no more than had the first Christmas ornament on than my father knocked at the door.  He had just brought my mother back to the nursing home after Sunday dinner and wanted to stop by, say hi.  Well the Hi turned into the two of us trimming the tree and with the voices upstairs my husband abandoning the football game to join us in holiday cheer and the smell of evergreen.

Well what does this all have to do with progress.  Progress is known when one takes time to reflect on what one has done.  As you go about building that coaching business of yours.  Coaching four, five clients a week.  Preparing for that workshop coming up in six weeks.  Take this time of year to stop and reflect on how far your coaching has come.  Who you you have seen grow?  What new skills you found yourself using as the year progressed. 

Yes it has been a challenging year . . . for everyone.   For all the naysayers, there has been progress.  You and your coaching has moved forward, grown.  Take a few moments for yourself and write down your response to the following questions.

• What changes have you experienced in the past  year?  (ie.. change of job, a new role, change in residence etc.) 
  
• What was the highlight of your year? 
  
• What opportunities do you see before you?

Remember to feel your progress a look back to where you have been is the means to knowing whatever the year has brought you, there is progress. 

I wish you a Happy Holidays and A Wonderful Opportunity Filled New Year

It sits at the front of my mind as I write this next, what would you call this?  Thought share?  Helpful hints share?  Coaching tools share?  Business skills share?  Before I digress too much, it sits at the front of my mind, what is the theme of this blog?  What would be appropriate content? Heck, what does appropriate mean? 

I am of the belief whatever one attempts, anything, it has the best outcomes when done with a sense of purpose.  So what is the purpose of this blog . . .

The purpose of The Coaching Circle is to provide coaches, at all levels, and most specifically new coaches, an environment for refining coaching expertise. 

Is that the purpose of this blog?  To provide you with a place to share your thoughts toward refining your coaching expertise?  Yes that feels . . . balanced.

Coaching expertise . . . What would you say to coaching expertise being that balance between advising and listening?  There are times when in conversation with a client, I will say "What about this? What about that?" A coach is a partner and supporter of the client being all they can be.  Yet, there are times the client is looking for guidance.  Did that make sense?  While I know sharing the view of a situation from a different vantage point  may awaken perspectives that may not have been thought of, what is being shared is my perception and my judgment.   What makes me confident, comfortable it is for the client's best verse my "stuff?"  That's the balance to continually refine, advice that supports and grows with listening that builds self awareness.

So how did this begin?  Purpose for this blog in efforts to grow a theme and content.  Yes it feels balanced that the purpose of this blog, as of The Coaching Circle, is to provide assistance in refining one's coaching expertise.  So I will stop here, and let theme and content come when they are ready.