Photo by Sandip Karangiya  on Unsplash How does one differentiate between self-regulation and self-control? Self-management is often mistaken for self-control: a muscle of grit, willpower, and resistance. It’s where most people begin in coaching. Yet, perhaps, the focus is in the wrong place; Maybe what’s needed is not an inner dictator, but an inner democracy, the only force that makes change last. Real coaching works when one’s defences end; behavioural change does not ste

Photo by Evie S.  on Unsplash There comes a moment in every professional life that ruptures the familiar: the organisational restructuring. The stability of day-to-day life can be undone by a shift in leadership, a market tremor, or any disturbance of what is ‘known’. These changes can feel like a sudden demand for reinvention, re-establishing one’s place. Research challenges the corporate fantasy of coaching as mere performance enhancement. Coaching is not a tool for hitti

Photo by MAKSIM KRUTALEVICH  on Unsplash Coaching is talked about as if alchemic; a professional spell, a conversation here and a breakthrough there, and, magically, a new behaviour appears. Research, however, does not support this fantasy; it is not a glamourous or magical truth, but an uncomfortable one. Coaching works when it opens up the possibility of introspection; looking within and regulating differently. It is not about what is outwardly possible, but perhaps instead

Photo by Teena Lalawat  on Unsplash Midlife. A life stage so often overlooked, parred off as a cliché. It is mistaken for calm, the turbulence of youth long gone, the career solidified, the identity found. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. With midlife forms a quiet discomfort, the turning point for mental struggle, a rise in stress, the decline of one’s wellbeing, spikes in suicide risk, and no one asking ‘why?’. The comical idea of the ‘midlife crisis’ is but a cari