The chief impulse for writing this book was impatience. I was rapidly tiring of people exclaiming, "You're a life coach? What on earth's that?" Their ignorance is excusable. Life coaching is a fairly recent phenomenon in the UK, although it has been around considerably longer in the USA. Beside the need to explain exactly what it is, I also have the desire to spread the word about its value and effectiveness. Once I had discovered this 'better mousetrap', I knew I could not expect people to beat a path to my door - I must wave the mousetrap aloft and shout about its glories. My impatience will turn to delight when the question I hear asked most often about life coaching is not 'What is it?' but 'So who's your coach?'. My own discovery of life coaching is an interesting example of what is now called 'synchronicity'. After several years of involvement in the field of self-development, mainly as a licensed trainer for Springboard, the international women's development programme, I became aware of a gap in the support available to people who took such development seriously and who wanted to continue exploring their potential in a regular, focused and motivating way. I actually wrote down my idea of what I thought was needed - I still have the scribbled notes. Unknown to me, what I had actually written was an accurate description of life coaching. Shortly afterwards, when giving a talk about Springboard, I met Chris Taylor who was to become a much valued mentor and friend. At one of our regular meetings, she gave me some information about Coach University and the light flashed on. So this was what I'd been visualising! I signed up for coach training that very same day. This book is just one person's experience and understanding of life coaching - mine. There are other coaches more skilled, more knowledge- able and more qualified to do this than I am. When I revealed these doubts to my friends, they all sighed in exasperation and said, "But they aren't writing this book - you are." If I use the term 'we' to convey opinions other than just my own, I would like you to remember the quote from Simone Weil: "Every sentence that begins with 'we' is a lie." My book will have done its job if it simply tells you enough about life coaching for you to want to know more. It will have succeeded if it encourages you to find yourself a coach and discover the life you really want to live. If it also inspires you to take on the coaching mindset in all your interactions with other human beings, that will be one more person transforming our world for the better.
