Life Skills Coaching
The Project of Life
Do you find that while you are happily living out your life, you have uncertainties; questions you can’t quite find the answer to. Perhaps it’s to do with your work, or your relationship, or even yourself. If you’re young and just starting out in life after completing your studies then you have many choices to make regarding your career, relationship, money, passions, and travel, just to name a few. If you’ve been out there in the world for a while then you may be wondering what you’re doing, where you’re going, or even who you are? What is your purpose in life?
The “Project of Life” is a 7-part programme that has been designed to inspire, navigate and mentor you through these thoughts, feelings and uncertainties. You will gain a greater understanding of who you are, why you think and behave the way you do, and how to change these where they are not serving you or are holding you back. You will gain confidence in yourself and will happily and peacefully step out on your path in life.
The structure of the project allows Jon to acknowledge the uniqueness of every individual on the planet, thus providing flexibility to adapt the sessions to custom fit his clients’ specific needs.
The programme design integrates the concept of the spheres of influence in your life, where the overriding and ultimate outcome is the centre sphere: where all aspects of your life are brought into balance.
Your success in business or sport, and in life, comes by having it “All in Balance”.
Jon O’Hanlon is accredited and listed on the International Coaches Register
I am an Individual – but Who Am I Really?
Whilst this modern society of ours has taught us many things, provided amazing technology, information, and communication it has also ensured that we have lost two skills. The first of these is the ability to think for ourselves, and of ourselves. To ask the questions: “Why” and “Who am I really” and “Why do I exist”, “Why am I here”.
People no longer exist as individuals, they no longer know what they want and why they want it. They live their lives according to what society, peers and the media have to say – because it’s the latest fashion, because my friends have it, because society would approve or, society has determined that this is the way things should be and the way I should behave.
And because people no longer think for themselves, they no longer know who they are!
Do you have difficulty answering that catch phrase, “Who am I, really?” Perhaps this is because you have difficulty juggling the various spheres of your life, and feel that you never feel totally satisfied with any of them, whether it be your relationship, your career, your family or friends, or your health.
(centre)sphere, aims to help you get a better grasp on all facets of your life ensuring that they are All in Balance.
Through finding this balance you will be on a path toward reaching your full potential, in the home or work place, or simply your full potential as an individual.
Sportsmen and women – Am I an Athlete?
You might be confused or uncertain as to whether you should call yourself an athlete or not.
Here’s the surprise – yes, you are an athlete, for two reasons:
Firstly, if you think about the Olympics, arguably the pinnacle of achievement for sportsmen and women, every single person who participates there, from those doing clay pigeon shooting to snowboarding to bowls to track and field events, everyone carries the title of being an Olympic athlete.
But perhaps you aren’t quite at Olympic level yet.
Well, the second reason is the approach that (centre)sphere has towards you and your level of participation, or non-participation, in sport or exercise as described below – the key being to ensure that it is All in Balance.
For any athlete, what is critical to their performance, and their happiness, is that the amount of time and effort dedicated to the pursuance of their particular sport is also balanced with the rest of their Life. Too often this balance is overlooked or ignored and unhappiness and non-productive behaviour can occur.
There are 4 levels of participation in sport:
- Professional paid athletes: It is well known that athletes participating at this level have an array of professionals on their support team to assist them: coach, nutritionist, dietician, psychologist, motivation coach plus more. By using his vast experience in individual, team and endurance sports Jon is able to contribute significantly to the athlete’s performance by bringing all of these together and ensuring that they are All in Balance. Not only is it crucial to ensure that all facets of the sports sphere of your life are in balance, but that the spheres of your life outside of sport are in check as well. It is only through this balance that productivity and success can prevail.
- Serious, dedicated amateurs: These are athletes who spend a great deal of their time trying to get to the top, win, be the best, get super fit or achieve great feats of endurance. These athletes will have full time jobs alongside their dedication to sport.
- The casual participant: This athlete enjoys sport and/or exercise, and may well be competitive but really does it for fun and often, and often predominantly, for the social interaction as well.
- Non-participants: Hmmm, well actually at this level we have the group who don’t participate, but they would like to; they don’t because of variations on the theme of “fear” – fear of failure, fear of ridicule, fear of not winning, fear of not being the best or good enough.
(centre)sphere provides coaching to all 4 groups – to all athletes. If you participate in any form of exercise whatsoever that takes you out of the category of being totally sedentary, then as far as (centre)sphere is concerned, you are an athlete.
If, however, you regard yourself to be more in the category of a totally sedentary person, and would like to change this, then please consider the coaching for Individuals as a first step.
You might be confused or uncertain as to whether you should call yourself an athlete or not.
Here’s the surprise – yes, you are an athlete, for two reasons:
Firstly, if you think about the Olympics, arguably the pinnacle of achievement for sportsmen and women, every single person who participates there, from those doing clay pigeon shooting to snowboarding to bowls to track and field events, everyone carries the title of being an Olympic athlete.
But perhaps you aren’t quite at Olympic level yet.
Well, the second reason is the approach that (centre)sphere has towards you and your level of participation, or non-participation, in sport or exercise as described below – the key being to ensure that it is All in Balance.
For any athlete, what is critical to their performance, and their happiness, is that the amount of time and effort dedicated to the pursuance of their particular sport is also Balanced with the rest of their Life. Too often this balance is overlooked or ignored and unhappiness and non-productive behaviour can occur.
There are 4 levels of participation in sport:
- Professional paid athletes: It is well known that athletes participating at this level have an array of professionals on their support team to assist them: coach, nutritionist, dietician, psychologist, motivation coach plus more. By using his vast experience in individual, team and endurance sports Jon is able to contribute significantly to the athlete’s performance by bringing all of these together and ensuring that they are All in Balance. Not only is it crucial to ensure that all facets of the sports sphere of your life are in balance, but that the spheres of your life outside of sport are in check as well. It is only through this balance that productivity and success can prevail.
- Serious, dedicated amateurs: These are athletes who spend a great deal of their time trying to get to the top, win, be the best, get super fit or achieve great feats of endurance. These athletes will have full time jobs alongside their dedication to sport.
- The casual participant: This athlete enjoys sport and/or exercise, and may well be competitive but really does it for fun and often, and often predominantly, for the social interaction as well.
- Non-participants: Hmmm, well actually at this level we have the group who don’t participate, but they would like to; they don’t because of variations on the theme of “fear” – fear of failure, fear of ridicule, fear of not winning, fear of not being the best or good enough.
(centre)sphere provides coaching to all 4 groups – to all athletes. If you participate in any form of exercise whatsoever that takes you out of the category of being totally sedentary, then as far as (centre)sphere is concerned, you are an athlete.
If, however, you regard yourself to be more in the category of a totally sedentary person, and would like to change this, then please consider the coaching for Individuals as a first step.
I am offering a special programme of life skills coaching for this teen to thirties group.
The programme will be in 2 Modules of 8 and 7 Sessions respectively:
The Fundamental Module&The Life Skills Module
The Fundamental Module will be a 6 part programme offered in 6 coaching sessions over a period of 12 weeks, one session every 2 weeks.
The Life Skills Module is also a 6 part programme but offered in 7 coaching sessions over a period of 14 weeks, one session every 2 weeks.
From teens to twenties, and even into the early thirties, and I have heard some call it their “quarter life crisis”.
In the main there are three groups of activities, or paths, that youngsters follow after leaving high school. One group, and there are a lot of them, have been leading a life of little to no responsibility. It is not unusual for those students who have progressed from high school to university , college or another form of tertiary learning institution, to talk about their student years of fun and parties, some very active in sport, many in drinking, and unfortunately some getting into drugs as well.
Another cross section of the youth will have postponed doing further studies to take “a gap year”. Others still may have gone straight into the pursuit of a sports career or business, as an entrepreneur, unskilled labourer, or family business with the aim to earn money.
Let’s call the above three groups of activities as phase 2, with phase 1 being the school years. To all these groups of youngsters phase 2 will come to an end, naturally, and the next phase always arrives, some day – phase 3, now what?
As the years progress this question starts to become quite alarming and more often than not the answers become – continue studying, do an honours or masters degree or another course; now that my gap year(s) is or are over now I’ll start studying for a degree or diploma; continue with more of the same work, my comfort zone.
But, phase 3 also comes to an end and it is no longer really possible to avoid the fact that it is now time to take on some form of responsibility and become a young adult. Now this is really scary! They have received zero training in young adulthood, there are precious few good examples and mentors out there, generally by this time parents and other adults and voices of authority have accepted the fact that you have moved on and out of home and will do it on your own. Do I follow a career, money, environmentalism, travel some more, get engaged and married, follow my partner, start my own business, find work, get my own flat … the questions and uncertainties start to appear to be endless. And with no easy answers offering themselves up, and most often no-one to help you find these answers it is no wonder that this group of early adults call this period of their life a crisis.
Again, Jon has a particular affinity towards the youth and sees this period of their lives as a dilemma rather than a crisis. Jon gently and peacefully guides these young adults through a process of sorting through the apparent mess and unblocking the path forward.
The Workplace – Is my work/career my life?
This programme looks specifically at executives and employees in the workplace and focusses on every aspect that comes to bear no matter the specific circumstances or environment of a particular workplace or industry.
All our lives we have been steered toward our career, throughout school, tertiary education and from our families and friends.
Doing a nine-to-fiver, day in and day out leaves little time to focus on much else. Isn’t it then imperative to achieve in the work place, get that well deserved promotion, climb the corporate ladder?
Believe it or not, no matter how much you focus your life on your work, the other spheres of your life greatly influence your success and just as importantly, your happiness in the work place. The Project of Life recognises not only the complex facets of your work life and your achievements in your career, but also the spheres of your life outside of work. (centre)sphere aims to find balance in your life by acknowledging and managing all these spheres of life. Through this balance, you will find yourself on the path to better finding success and happiness in your career.