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| Saturday, Jul 28 2007 5:00 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Jul 27 2007 1:41 PM
A serious talk with one of the children ended with him shaking his head and saying, “Maybe I need a life coach.”
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A life coach. What is a life coach? Assuming that life coaches have been around awhile, this may be one more trend that has slipped by undetected.
I am fond of coaches and the coaching fraternity. Almost every coach I’ve ever admired has done it selflessly, and when you divide the wages by the number of hours, $3 an hour would probably be rich.
Usually, coaches have specialities. Tennis coaches, basketball coaches and, at one time when I had dreams of starring in a Hollywood film, an acting coach whose name was Maria Gobetti.
I spent many moments sitting in the back of Maria’s class terrified that she was going to ask me to do what I was there to do — act. Please don’t call on me. I’m not handsome enough to be a leading man nor do I have enough character to be a character actor.
When I did get called on, and had to march to the front of the class, (her studio was located somewhere deep in Hollywood), I might as well have been out on my feet. All I could see were the white hot lights of the tunnel as I hurtled toward my inevitable acting death. Six months later, I was back on the street contributing to the future of Hollywood by buying movie tickets.
Although every good coach is a life coach of sorts, in that you learn about life especially in its less perfect moments, most are specialists. One teaches you how to listen, another how to dribble, and a third when to plant pumpkins that will be ready by Halloween. However, a life coach sounds as if he or she might be capable of offering more.
A life coach may be able to gently steer you through the rough passages that normally attend a life. This is like having a parent, but a parent that one would actually listen to rather than ignore well past one’s formative years.
A life coach might be versatile. Having trouble on a date deciding whether this is the right moment to kiss your date’s hand? Launch a discreet text message to your life coach. Perplexed on what to do when the officer discovers that the six-pack of beer on the floor of your car is not covered by your fake ID? Call your you-know-who.
Versatility is one of the strengths of a life coach. A basketball coach can teach you how to dribble with your left hand, but a life coach can not only provide the same instruction, but will tell you what it means in the context of the rest of your life.
A life coach is to a coaching specialist what the sand dunes at Carpinteria are to a single grain of sand. Both are compelling, but one has the weight of history behind it.
A life coach cannot be stumped. You might as well stump Google.
Although I was skeptical when the aforementioned child used the phrase “life coach,” now I see how much easier this could have been had I had a life coach along the way.
Given that a life coach would possess prescient powers, I could have saved a lot of money on acting lessons.
I could have saved money, but I would have never met Maria Gobetti, either.