Is Coaching Right for Me? What Coaching Really Looks Like
If you've been asking, "Is coaching right for me?", you're probably not failing. Far from it. You are likely very successful but wondering why it feels so all consuming.
Many finance professionals are trusted experts in their area. High performing. Respected. They hit deadlines. They solve problems. They keep things moving.
And yet something feels off.
If you found this article, it may be time to consider whether life and leadership coaching is what you need right now. Not as a quick fix. But as structured time to think clearly, tell yourself the truth about what you want, and choose a more intentional way to work and live.
My Hawaii Wake-up Call: When I Realized I Couldn’t Disconnect
The trip looked perfect on paper.
A little over a week in Hawaii. Two islands. Sunshine. Ocean. Space.
I had hit all of the key deliverables and to-do’s before I left. I should have been able to switch off.
But I couldn’t.
Even when my body was on the beach, my mind was still at work - checking email to make sure nothing was on fire, thinking about open loops, anticipating what could be waiting when I got back.
No one was forcing me. But I felt compelled.
For a long time, I believed that being better at work required more of something. More effort. More hours. More discipline.
But on that trip, it became clear: more wasn’t the answer.
The real question wasn’t how to perform better. It was:
What needs to change so that work becomes part of my life… not my whole life?
I didn’t want to be someone who sacrificed the rest of her life to sustain high performance at work.
That question is where coaching begins for many high performers. Not because they’re failing, but because they’re no longer willing to live on default.
How You Know It’s Not Just the Season
Some seasons really are heavy. Quarter and year-end reporting cycles are real. Staffing constraints are real. Market shifts and new business initiatives are real.
But sometimes the problem isn’t the season. It’s the pattern underneath it.
Here are a few signs that show up often for ambitious professionals:
“After this quarter…” keeps moving. The finish line shifts, and relief never arrives.
You’re carrying more than you should. Not just tasks, but expectations and other people’s urgency.
You feel behind even when you deliver. Wins don’t get celebrated because your mind is already scanning for the next fire.
You can’t fully shut off. Even rest comes with lingering mental noise.
Success feels unclear. What used to motivate you doesn’t hit the same, but you keep chasing it anyway.
When those signs stack up, it’s rarely a capability issue.
It’s usually a clarity gap combined with work habits that no longer support the work and life you want.
That’s when many people begin wondering whether coaching might help.
What Most People Think Coaching Is
A lot of people avoid coaching because they picture something that won’t work for them.
They imagine generic advice. Or someone telling them what to do.
That’s not what good life and leadership coaching is, especially for ambitious professionals in demanding roles.
Coaching In A Nutshell
At its core, coaching is about helping you become the person you want to be and build the life you want to live.
It’s structured space to think clearly, define success in this season and align your thoughts, feelings, and actions with what matters most.
It’s not generic advice. It’s not someone fixing or directing you. It’s someone asking better questions and holding space while you decide how you want to move forward.
What Happens in a Coaching Session?
Most sessions focus on one of three things:
Creating awareness.
Identifying default patterns, blind spots, and inherited expectations that may no longer serve you.Facilitating shifts.
Challenging assumptions, expanding perspectives, and moving from being reactive to intentional.Building strategy.
Designing practical habits, systems and experiments that support your goals and vision of success - then evaluating and refining them based on real-life results.
Depending on what you need that session, we move between those.
Coaching isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about building the capacity to think, decide and do things differently over time.
Why Awareness Matters More Than Information
Most high achievers don’t need more information; they need sharper self-awareness.
Awareness helps you see the default patterns that quietly drive your behavior when pressure rises:
People-pleasing that looks like “being responsive.”
Perfectionism that looks like “high standards.”
Over-functioning that looks like “ownership.”
Underneath those patterns are familiar thoughts:
“If I don’t do it, it won’t get done right.”
“If I slow down, I’ll fall behind.”
“If I say no, they’ll think differently of me.”
Your brain is wired to seek comfort, avoid pain, and conserve energy. That wiring once kept us alive. Now, it often keeps us stuck in familiar habits, even when those habits no longer serve us.
So you keep saying yes. You avoid hard conversations. You wait for a slower week that never comes.
A coach helps you see those patterns without judgment.
And once you see them clearly, you can change them - deliberately.
When There’s Friction, There Are Only Two Options
When something in your life feels off, at work or otherwise, it’s usually caused by friction between what you want and how you’re currently operating.
And when that friction shows up, there are really only two options:
Change what it is that you want, or
Change who you’re being and what you’re doing to achieve what it is that you want.
Many ambitious professionals stay stuck because they won’t do either.
They keep chasing outcomes that no longer fit. Or don’t fit right now.
Or they keep striving for the same outcomes while holding onto the same old thoughts, habits and patterns.
Coaching helps you tell the truth about which one is happening.
Sometimes the right move is redefining success for this season.
Sometimes the right move is accepting what your ambition requires - and building the habits and systems to support it.
It’s not the friction itself that keeps the cycle going. It’s staying in it without deciding what needs to change.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “I don’t want to keep doing it like this,” that’s not weakness. That’s clarity.
And clarity is where change begins.
So, Is Coaching Right for You?
If work feels heavier than it should, that’s information.
If you keep making the “after this quarter” promise to yourself and breaking it, that’s information too.
You’re not broken or alone.
You may be unclear, overcommitted, or operating from defaults that no longer fit the work or life you want.
Life and leadership coaching makes sense when you’re ready to define success for this season and build ways of working that actually support it.
Not in theory. In practice.
If this resonates, the next step isn’t commitment. It’s conversation.
A focused consultation call is simply structured space to explore what’s creating pressure, what you want instead, and whether coaching would support you right now.
You don’t need certainty to start.
Just curiosity.
If you’re navigating a heavy reporting season right now, I’ve also written about how awareness and constraint matter more than a perfect plan during busy seasons in New Year Goal Setting for Busy Finance Professionals (When Q1 Is Busy Season).
And if you’re in the thick of it, you might find A Busy Season Survival Kit for Finance Professionals helpful as well, especially if you’re looking for practical ways to make your work feel steadier.
