Call Yourself A Life Coach?

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I frequently get people come to me for life coaching because they have work life balance and stress management issues. When they tell me about the hours they work I nod sagely and maybe even throw a token chin stroke in for good measure to demonstrate my concern.

There really is no need to check e-mails out of work hours. There’s no rule of the universe that says if you don’t have a quick look before dinner and then again just before bed your life will become a meaningless sham, you will lose all your family and friends and end up drinking battery acid just for kicks. Not one that I know of anyway.

So why do I do it?

“Er, Mr Life Coach I think there’s a typo in there. You suggested that YOU do it!”

That’s right, it is with a heavy heart that I admit, I do indeed do it.

I was with a client talking about this a week or so ago and it started to dawn on me that I was doing exactly the same thing that I was advising him not to do. How hypocritical is that? We’re talking world-class, gold medal, peak performance hypocrisy of Biblical proportions here I think you’ll find.

I’m going to defend myself a tad and say that I am not at all stressed, in fact I am very chilled for 95% of the time and I often take an hour or even two off during the day to go to the gym or meditate, but is that really the point? If I cannot (or more accurately do not) delineate between what is work and what is not, then should I be offering advice to other people? That’s a rhetorical question by the way, I really don’t want a load of e-mails telling me to resign forthwith but not before I have submitted refunds to all the clients I have so obviously defrauded, thanks very much.

So from now on things are going to change. Firstly, when I am having a day off to spend with my wife like today, the pc goes off at 9.00am and doesn’t come back on before 6.00pm. No sneaking in to see that some Hungarian company is offering me a bulk consignment of Viagra at an all time low price and discover that I can now get a penis extension for $499. Hmm, maybe they should have sent the Viagra offer out a few days after the operation offer for full effect, but I digress.

So today is Black Friday and I’m not going to work for the next 9 hours. I’m going to chill with my wife, read a bit and then later on go to the sales and get so wound up by the lines and crowds that I’ll want to go on an axe-wielding rampage through Millennia. But I wont, because after all I’m a life coach and if I can control my desire to check my e-mails I’m sure I can control my desire to commit multiple homicides because I don’t like queuing.