I pulled this out recently for a client and thought it was worth sharing again. I wrote this in 2010, to capture my goals in coaching. A lot still resonates. As I grow more masterful in coaching, I expect these goals will become more deep and nuanced but the core commitment will remain the same.

"My role as a coach is to support you - I am a tool for you to use as you would like.

I am a sounding board, a confidant, a creative thinker, a champion, and a challenger.

I am your partner with whom you dare to name your goals out loud.... and what makes them scary...and what makes them exciting…and what gets in your way of accomplishing them.

Once the challenges are named, we brainstorm different ways of handling them. We try on different ideas for size; we laugh about them, question them, and then choose a few. We're playing.

Then you step back into your day-to-day life and practice these new ways.

You will feel the results immediately and you'll be inspired to continue.

Like learning to ride a bike, the skills you learn you don't ever forget. They become part of your new repertoire for being in the world.

Then you move onto the next challenge and repeat the process.

With each new skill, each new way of thinking, YOU RISE.

You create success, ease and opportunities, and you get better at serving the world. You are now giving of yourself in the way your life needs most. You are now living out your truest purpose.

That is the goal of coaching.

I am not here to be your mother, your wife, to be a task-master, or to criticize you. I don't nag or remind you of your next steps. You are in control.

But if you hide away from me, you can't use me. Like taking a road trip together, I am no use to you if you leave me stranded on the side of the road.

I am your partner, truly.”

--Ana Sanjuan, 2010