Imagine you are the adventurer Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer and navigator. It is the year 1488, and you are sipping your wine and lounging on your sofa in your pyjamas, going through your stack of mail. You have a young family to support. You are considering your next move, on how to accumulate riches for your family and join the ranks of nobility.

There are so many options and yet too few that really excite you. You are stuck on how to move ahead. You look through your mail and find a flyer advertising the services of a coach, mentor, counsellor, therapist, teacher and trainer.

You take the flyer with you to a party in the evening, where you meet your friend who runs the newspaper business that publishes flyers like these. You ask her, what the heck is the difference between a coach, mentor, counsellor, therapist, teacher and a trainer?

Your friend asks, “What caught your attention in this flyer?”

You say, “The flyer says, How to go from stuck to unstuck? That caught my eye. I am considering my next voyage and figuring out how to accumulate riches for my family. I am not clear what I want to do. So this caught my eye.”

Your friend says,“Imagine you are stuck in a maze, and you can’t find your way out. Here is what these different professionals can do for you to help you find your way out.”

Teacher

You find someone who knows how mazes work. This person is a teacher. He explains to you how mazes are built, how they work and what are the different types of mazes. He teaches you the basic skills you need to understand mazes, like pattern recognition and tools to navigate them like a compass, maps, and stars.

A teacher offers you fundamental knowledge and information so that you figure your way out. You go from stuck to unstuck by trying out different things based on the knowledge and information you have been given by the teacher.

Trainer

You are stuck in the maze because you are not physically fit. You are winded and out of breath when you walk for a few hundred meters. Your hip flexors are so tight that when you attempt to climb over obstacles, you end up pulling a muscle. You are writhing in pain, and your lack of fitness is causing you to be stuck. You find someone who can teach you how to build your physical fitness.

This person is a trainer. This person will give you exercises and drills that are needed to build certain abilities and give a specific outcome. If you go through the exercises, activities and drills given by the trainers, you can develop the ability to climb 6 feet without pulling a muscle and run for 10 km without collapsing on the floor in pain. A trainer offers you a system or a method to deliver a specific outcome. You go from stuck to unstuck by using your newly enhanced fitness to navigate the maze.

Counsellor

You wandered into the maze and got stuck here because you were feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Now, being stuck is revving up that overwhelm and causing you to go into a downward spiral. You need to regain your emotional balance now if you want to walk out of the maze. You find someone who can listen to your immediate concerns in an unconditional, safe and supportive manner.

This person is a counsellor. This person will help you manage your emotions right now and offer strategies, advice, and techniques to help you regain your sense of balance. This will help you feel more calm and settled, and with a clear head now, you can figure out how to get out of the maze.

Therapist

This is not the first time you are stuck in this maze. You have wandered into this maze many, many times before, and you don’t understand how to keep finding yourself in this situation. There are some deeper underlying experiences, like trauma, neglect, and challenges, that have not been processed and acknowledged, which leads you into a cycle of getting stuck in this maze.

You find someone who can help you delve deeper into your experiences to understand the root causes. This person helps you to explore, navigate and process the deep and hidden emotional and psychological issues. This person processes and helps you resolve past traumas and challenges and works through your long-term mental health challenges. These could be chronic mental illnesses, too, that cause you to become stuck in this maze.

This person uses different techniques in a safe and supportive space to help you to heal, break old habit patterns, and build a strong psychological, emotional and mental foundation from which you can find your way out of the maze.

Mentor

You find someone who has been through the maze before and has made her way out. This person is a mentor. A mentor is an experienced person who has been through the same journey before. She shares her knowledge and gives you the benefit of their experience in terms of advice, what has worked, what has not worked.

A mentor offers you insights from their own experience, which helps you to navigate the maze effectively so that you can make your way out. You go from stuck to unstuck with the help of the mentor’s advice, insights and experience.

Coach

You don’t know where to start. You need a guide. This person is a coach.

A coach helps you to figure out and focus on where you want to go and how to get there. She does not give you the answers. She helps you to create your own map of the journey you’d like to take. She facilitates that process for you by reflective listening and asking questions that help you craft your own path.

In the process of coaching, you have transformational insights that help you to create your map, identify milestones and align your compass in the direction you want to proceed to walk out of the maze.

A coach will also be able to help you identify the other professionals you would need support from in this journey. Do you need a teacher, trainer, mentor, or therapist? The coach will be able to help you identify your needs, seek the right kind of support and tools, and walk the journey from being stuck to unstuck.

A coach’s role is to work with you and facilitate the process as you chart your own journey, create your map, set your compass, seek resources and support in the journey and reflect to ensure you can make course corrections as and when necessary. A coach also keeps you accountable and provides you with encouragement and motivation as you progress. Her focus is on removing roadblocks, resistance and obstacles that are in the way of you achieving your goals.

The coach will help you clear or circumvent anything that stands in the way of you being unstuck.

The Key Roles Of A Coach

Goal Setting

Bias Towards Action

Reflection and Review

Accountability

Identifies Support Needed

“Oh,” you remark, “so I don’t have to do it alone?”

Your friend says, “Of course not. You don’t have to do it alone. There is a wide range of support that is available for you.”

You say, “I don’t know where to start. So I think a coach is the best place to begin with.”

Your friend says, “Yes, once you figure out your goals and have an action plan, you can work with your coach to see what additional support is needed. Based on that, there are different roles, such as teacher, trainer, mentor, therapist, and counsellor, available.”

“Right ho! How do I start? Where can I find the coaches?”

Guide to Coaching

Here is your full guide to coaching. Get yourself a glass of wine (or coffee) and dive in.

Epilogue

We know what happened next. Columbus found an awesome coach! (It could have been me in a previous birth, or not!) He created a business plan. Columbus convinced the Catholic Monarchs Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II to sponsor the voyage on his third attempt. Columbus went on many voyages, made unexpected discoveries, met with disasters and pioneered the era of exploration of new lands.

Summary

So, if you are interested in personal and professional growth and seeking support, here are the professionals you can turn to.

Teacher

A teacher gives you information and knowledge that is useful in your personal and professional journey.

Trainer

A trainer provides you with specific skills that can be helpful in your growth as an individual and a professional. For example, negotiation skills, emotional intelligence skills, AI prompt engineering, Agile methodology, marketing skills, etc.

Counsellor

A counsellor can help you through an immediate personal or professional crisis by listening to you and helping you manage your emotions and stress related to your current situation.

Therapist

A therapist helps you to go deeper into the patterns of your personality and behaviour and plays a crucial role in helping you work through mental illness, chronic mental health challenges, trauma, and addictions that affect your personal and professional life.

Mentor

A mentor is focused on your professional growth. You can have a mentor in your career, be it in a corporate setting or if you are running your own business. A mentor is a person who is ahead of you in your journey. This person has been there and done that and is helping you by providing insights, advice, tips and support that enables you to reach your professional goals.

Coach

A coach helps you to reflect, set goals, remove resistance and barriers towards action, keep you accountable, and celebrate your wins. Coaching helps the individual to improve their well-being across different areas of their personal and professional lives. Coaching is not a replacement for mental health care but offers a great way to build skills to improve resilience and make progress in leaps and bounds towards your goals.

If you are looking to hire a coach, you can book a 45-minute free “no-obligation” discovery session. Siri will be able to answer any questions you have, and if we have time, go through a “Wheel of Life” assessment that will give you clarity on what areas of your life need focus right now.