A life strategy coach is, in simplest terms, like a personal business consultant who helps you to define where you want to go, and then helps you design all the steps to get you there by reverse-engineering from the goal to where you are now.

Life strategy coaching coaching is conducted in Coaching Units, which consist of usually a week of continuous coaching via telephone session and email and instant messenger access to your coach.  Below is the most general possible overview; it will not capture anything of the typical coaching session.
 

A Sample Strategic Life Coaching Process

1. Relationship. We introduce ourselves and our biographies to establish rapport and understanding.

2. Setting Initial Goals and Learning Perceived Obstacles.  We don't waste any of your time -- much of this stage is taken care of during the free consultation, when we ask you about your goals, challenges, and what you think stands in the way.  Of course, much of what stands in your way is probably unknown to you, and those invisible hurdles will be made visible during later coaching.

After the free consultation, depending on what you want out of coaching, we may send you Chapter 1 of our Strategic Life Planning Process, entitled "Introduction to Coaching and Initial Vision."  There you will set out your vision for your life so that we can begin to get a sense of what matters to you and the relative priorities of your values.  Future chapters, synthesizing some of the best assessments and exercises on the market, include:

● Obstacles and Budget.  What stands in your way? We'll find out in order to design ways to get past the obstacles.  For career-changers and entrepreneurs in particular, the budgeting exercise, including an assessment of monthly "burn-rate" and overall "runway" (how long you could go without any income) can be very enlightening and get past many clients' less rational fears.

● Money, Security, and Things.  You are influenced by many people other than yourself -- many of them long gone.  In this section, we look at the forces that have shaped you, particularly as they relate to money, financial security, and possessions.  This chapter is of special interest to clients changing careers or trying to decide what sort of business to start.

● Doing and Doing Well.  Our examination of the forces that have shaped you continues, now moving into an anatomy of how you identify with what you do, or with over-achievement, and, critically, what skills you have enjoyed doing in the past.  Career-changers will complete exercises taken from our own experience as well as adapted from bestsellers like "What Color is Your Parachute?"

● The Creation of the Future Self.  Here we survey what the latest neuroscience (brain science) and the oldest of the ancient wisdom traditions have to say about setting and achieving goals, which is another way of saying creating your future self.  This is most clients' favorite part.

● Entrepreneurs Edition, Parts I and II.  These chapters are for our clients seeking to start or improve a small business.  They include a business plan outline that we coach clients through, as well as exercises adapted from Michael Gerber's wildly popular EMyth books.

3.  Goals and Outcomes Contract.  The strategic life coach introduces to you the concept of contracting for outcomes in the Goals and Outcomes Contract, and we use the draft for discussion:
   Ground rules
   Measurable Targets/Outcomes
   Timeframes
   Our respective expectations

4. Early on, we agree on the terms of the Goals and Outcome Contract

5. Dialogue.  We schedule regular coaching sessions at convenient times.

6. Action and Maintenance of Intention.  During every call, we jointly agree on a plan of action for the following week; that plan and the actions you take will be in alignment with your longer-term goals.  The most successful clients also keep in touch with themselves, their goals, and their intentions to change by keeping in touch with their coach -- through frequent email and instant messenger.  You so rarely focus on an intention to do a thing that you likely have little conception of just how easy it can be to create change in your life.  You'll see the power of that in coaching.  Things just start happening . . .

7. Milestones. We begin the follow-up on your objectives as described in "The Relationship and Pricing", below.
 

   Actions Taken
   What Got Done and What Didn’t
   What’s Next?

8. Action/Dialogue.  We’ll do additional behavioral, skills, and aptitude assessments as necessary; in business or executive coaching, the coach will learn your business in detail.
 

9. Performance.  Quarterly, we review milestones and achievement of objectives.
 

10. Celebration/Renewal.  At the end of the coaching contract, we shake hands (aloha but not goodbye) or renew our contract for another period and a new set of goals.
 

How Strategic Life Coaching Sessions Work

Prior to every success coaching session, your coach will prepare exhaustively by reviewing both his own notes and the responses you have given to past assignments. Because you and your coach are both professionals with many commitments and valuable time, sessions will begin and end promptly.

Before each session, your strategic life coach may ask you to e-mail your Weekly Progress report, which often serves as our our default agenda for the call.  You could also decide to change the agenda and choose other topics of conversation.  In either event, we will listen and contribute observations and questions with the goal of providing clarity and spurring you into action.  Coaching typically speeds up your progress by providing both more concentrated aim and greater awareness of choice.