How Lifestyle Transformation Is An Achievable Goal For Academics

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The use of leadership coaches has become an acknowledged and widespread practice in corporations, non-profit organizations, even governments, and the reasons vary.

When individuals work with leadership or life coaches, they start to experience higher levels of effectiveness at work and at home, with improvements in both their task and relationship orientation. At the same time, organizations discover that they are more productive when they hire life coaches because they experience a higher return on investment.  

As a parallel, employing coaches in academic life or the use of any kind of systematic organizational development is basically uncharted inside the university world.  With the higher demand for notable change that universities are now facing, in economical and technological areas, there are good reasons to believe that things are about to change.  

While universities and colleges accept the fact that changes are enveloping them, individual staff, such as professors, and administrators should consider turning to a personal coach. Why? Because doing so can boost their advance both in their careers and their lives.

Coaching - It’s Not What You Think

Those who are unfamiliar with coaching tend to believe that coaching is a form of consulting, mentoring, or just advice-giving. At its core, coaching is a form of one-on-one analysis and examination in which the client is guided by the coaches. This process consists of closely listening and asking pertinent questions in ways that help the client identify and overcome obstacles and then come up with courses of action and implement them.  

A life coach focuses on supporting only the client’s agenda, starting wherever they are at that point. The right coach enters the engagement without stereotypes or some ideal sense of the right goals for their clients. In this way, the client is able to safely explore their authentic path, style, and career in a safe manner, finding a supportive environment in life coaching.

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Five Occasions Coaching Can Be Helpful In Your Academic Career

When compared to other kinds of organizational development interventions, such as training and team building, coaching is especially better suited for the highly competitive and individualistic nature of academia. The privacy of the coaching collaboration enables a safe haven for sharing hopes and concerns, successes and breakdowns, as well as possibilities and aspirations, without any judgment.

Let’s have a look at five situations in an academic career when hiring a coach might be beneficial to a scholar:

• You’re thinking about becoming an academic 

Obtaining your Ph.D. or some other terminal graduate degree is a considerable commitment, and academic life is not suitable for everyone. Hiring a life coach at the beginning of the academic journey can both save you from a probably costly and emotionally consuming decision and start with clear, precise, and realistic expectations, intentions, and aspirations.

• You’ve taken your first academic job 

Congratulations are in order if you’re a fresh assistant professor and you’re eager to begin on your teaching and research, but you may have already found out that the long road to tenure is paved with difficult decisions. And even though your dean, department head, and esteemed colleagues will provide you with much advice,  how can you maximize your possibilities of succeeding and still remain authentic to your original aspirations and intentions?  

Hiring a life coach at this stage in your career gives you a prudent method of analyzing your challenges and opportunities with a person who has only your interest at heart. 

• You’ve been promoted or received tenure (or denied promotion or tenure)  

The career path of a professor has three major phases, and each promotion can be a considerable life alteration.  The switch from assistant to associate professor is usually followed by tenure, and the point in career when you get tenure can be confusing.  

You start wondering if you should continue on the same trajectory or whether it's time to think about an administrative role. These are just a few of the questions that demand answers when receiving tenure, and a life coach plays a decisive role in finding those pertinent to your circumstances, helping to find your own answers.  

Denial of tenure is a difficult time, and many universities provide little or no support whatsoever.  But a life coach can guide you to be able to look at the event from a proper perspective and identify the path aligned with where you are now.  Denial of promotion to full professor position is another tough case, and the right coach can be especially helpful in analyzing perspective and figuring out the next steps.

• You’ve taken a new administrative post

Shifting from teaching to an administrative position can be quite demanding in your system, and even going up in the ranks from head of department to  dean position can be challenging as each new post is filled with different tasks from the one vacated.  

Administrative entries and promotions are convenient times to find a life coach to guide you through the challenges of a new posting and to prepare you for consecutive advancement by enhancing the skills and evolving in ways that are according to the new post and the next.

• You’re preparing to leave the university  

Maybe you’ve decided it’s about time to go to the next level, perhaps start a company, become a consultant, take a job in the private sector, or retire.  These progressions are excellent to ask good questions and follow a coach’s guidance to help you draw out the best in what comes next.

These five occasions are great ones to consider finding and using the expertise of a life coach.  The next part lays out a number of open-ended questions to guide you in the quest for your coach.

Finding Your Coach

So perhaps you find yourself in an academic transition when a coach might be useful to you. How do you find the right coach that would be aligned with your needs? 

The following questions will guide you through what to take into consideration when hiring a coach:

• What kind of training and qualifications does this person offer to their coaching?

• In what way does this person have academic experience and understand academic culture?

• How can this potential coach be curious about you, your obstacles, your opportunities and in what way do they appear to have a method or an answer?

• How comfortable do you feel with the potential coach, and how hard is it to share private information with him or her?

• Do you feel that this coach asks questions that engages your reflection and are both compelling and interesting to answer?

• Do you feel that the coach seems to listen to you and understand you through that listening?

While each academic has unique circumstances that lead them to hire a life coach, these are the most common occasions. 

If you find yourself in any of these situations and you are interested in boosting your academic career, don’t hesitate to contact me to discover the next step in reaching your personal and professional goals.

Or, get to know me better (and take the first steps towards achieving your goals) by learning how to stop procrastinating through self-coaching. Use the form below to get access to my tips for reclaiming your time!

Reasons to Follow Your Meal Plan During The Day [How To Avoid Cheat Meals At Night]

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You can make your life easier by planning what you're eating ahead of time.

While meal planning can be considered another thing to add to your long “to-do list,” this is one task that should be a priority. 

Don’t be scared to plan meals for an entire week. 

Make your protocol, or meal plan, as flexible as you want because it’s for you. Take the negativity towards meal plans and turn it into adaptability. A meal plan doesn’t mean only eating salads for lunch every day. Meet yourself where you are in your eating.

Few people like eating the same thing every single day, therefore planning is important in order to help you save time, money, and make healthy choices. 

Don’t give up just because you’re out of ideas. Decide you can figure this out.

Here are 10 reasons why you should begin planning your meals a week in advance:

1. It will improve your nutrition

By planning ahead, your goal is to have nutritionally balanced meals during the week. In the process of planning it's important to make sure that each of your office lunches has a balance.

Also, by planning your daily meals, you'll be able to control your personal nutrition needs. So for instance, if you want to go for a lower sodium diet or to try to eat whole grains and veggies, you can plan ahead, too. 

2. It will help you make healthier choices

Each time you have to come up with something to eat last minute, you'll end up going to the cafeteria. That makes it easier to exceed your daily intake. Also, keep in mind that shopping when hungry will only make you end up with  junk food into your cart. 

3. It will encourage you to choose high-quality foods

Homemade lunches are almost always rich in nutrients and filled with fewer calories, salt, and fat than usual takeout or semi-prep options at your grocery store. Opting to cook your own recipes and use healthier ingredients for a whole week will allow you to make better food choices, such as opting for local meats and organic produce. 

4. You’ll save money in the long-run

Deciding upon a meal plan keeps your forgotten ingredients in the fridge from going bad. You can create your plans using whatever you have in your cupboards or in the freezer.

You can also begin by writing your grocery lists based on your meal plans. Thus, you’ll go to the grocery store with a set goal rather than on a whim. This habit will help you avoid coming out of the store with a bunch of various unhealthy food items, most of which you might not even eat. 

Additionally, a well-organized meal plan will save you money by keeping you from ordering pricey last-minute or cheap low-quality take out food.

5. It will save you valuable time

Set from the start, grocery lists will help you not to wander around the grocery store aimlessly, and weekly meal plans will save you from thinking about what to eat every day.

Being an academic keeps you quite busy during the workweek, so make sure you allocate some time during the weekend to prepare most of your meals. Consider oats and frozen berries with greek yogurt in mason jars as breakfasts for on-the-go. And, already prepared quinoa or pasta salads with green veggies and beans can become an office lunch for multiple days. 

Also, consider cooking one or two larger dinners during the weekend in order for you to have something homecooked for when you arrive home tired and don’t have the energy to cook. Portion and split proper servings for you or your family for quick dinners. Soups, chili, meatballs or marinated chicken breasts are great choices for freezing. You can simply defrost and reheat while you add a quick salad or veggie slices - and you’ll end up having a delicious homemade meal almost instantly. 

6. It will decrease daily stress

The daily “what will I eat for lunch or make for dinner” thought that occupies our minds adds to our stress but can be easily prevented by simply creating a clear meal plan. When in doubt, reuse old meal plans and grocery lists to help you organize things faster and reduce prep time. Within a two-week seasonal meal plan, there will surely be enough variety for your family.

7. Deciding upon menu planning helps you avoid unnecessary waste

When you’ve set your meal plan for dinner, any leftover food can be eaten the next day at work for lunch. It’s a pity to get something from the grocery store on impulse and have to throw it out just days later. Planning ahead is the secret to buying and preparing only what you can eat.

8. Menu planning helps you prepare better meals

When you gather dinner ideas at the beginning of the week or on the weekends, you have plenty of time to be creative and come up with delicious foods. Also, you have enough time to organize a complete menu that includes side dishes, salads, and desserts. Your precise menu plan will help you concentrate on improving cooking skills.

9. Meal planning encourages variety

Menu planning prevents you from serving the same meals again and again. You can research for meal ideas online, turn to your loved ones for family recipes, or try to diversify one of your favorite dishes with new ingredients.

10. A meal plan helps you to think in advance 

When you sit down and really think about the week’s meals, you can organize your time and household in advance and remember your favorite foods as well as the things you don’t like.

Planning ahead can turn your kitchen in a more organized place, and your healthy, home-cooked food will be available both at work and at home.

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Conclusion

Try to plan in advance, to organize your meals for several days at a time, including side dishes. Make research part of your meal planning as it will help you come up with new ideas. Also, try to always stick to your list when you go shopping at the grocery store. 

The whole point of this is to not start from zero every day and that's where my guidance comes in handy - I want to help you to follow your protocol. You deserve to overcome your self-sabotages so you can get back to your meaningful work.