Founder & CEO of Tiffany Cheung LLC, Global Business Coach, Author, Reiki Healer & Podcast Host.
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Here’s the thing: Our brains are wired to keep us safe and risk-free. When it comes to starting a new business venture, executing a launch or committing to a new project, our brains are likely the first to offer a list of reasons why it won’t work out or why we should stay where we are instead.
Self-coaching is a valuable tool I use and teach all my business coaching clients to familiarize themselves with while building their business. Self-coaching is the ability to coach yourself into believing a new thought, or further solidifying an existing thought, to become the version of yourself you desire to be.
As Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis, co-founders of a career improvement company, wrote for Harvard Business Review, “Self-coaching is the skill of asking questions to improve self-awareness and prompt positive action. ... Everyone can learn to coach themselves, regardless of experience or expertise.”
As a global business coach and CEO of a nearly seven-figure company, I wouldn’t have the business I have today without self-coaching and rewriting beliefs about money, marketing, sales, imposter syndrome and much more.
Self-coaching reveals your own thoughts and subconscious beliefs to you, especially when you aren’t seeing the results you desire. It is a way to take a magnifying glass into our deepest beliefs, uncovering ones we may not have even known we have.
Our results stem from our actions, and our actions are created by our beliefs, which is why self-coaching is so powerful: It reveals what’s happening at the root source.
Here is how to effectively self-coach yourself in four simple steps:
1. Create a new, intentional thought or repeat a belief you’ve been working on believing.
Here are some examples:
• My launch will hit my revenue goal of $50,000.
• My next client is ready to hire me today.
• My service is in demand.
• I am a powerful leader.
• I effortlessly attract financial abundance in my business.
Here’s a tip: It helps to focus on one thought at a time to keep the process as clear as possible.
2. Ask yourself: On a scale of 1 to 10, how deeply do you believe this thought to be true right now?
A score of 1 is “I don’t feel this at all!” and a score of 10 is “I feel it in my bones!”
If it’s not a 10/10, ask yourself why not.
Write your reasons down on paper or speak them out loud; trace the "why not" back to the root and be honest with yourself.
This specific step may bring up some hidden, subconscious beliefs that stop you from fully being in belief, such as “I don’t think this is possible for me” or “I am not worthy of this.”
Rewrite each thought that comes up.
If your micro-thought is, “I don't think this is possible for me,” ask yourself if this is actually true, factual and backed by sources. Is this true 100% of the time, without a shadow of a doubt? Is there evidence that it is not true?
Decide what you want to tell yourself and feel instead. Create as many new, intentional micro-thoughts as you’d like to help you believe the thought in step one.
3. Decide how this thought makes you feel.
The way your body’s sensations respond to your thoughts is extremely powerful and brings them to life. It isn’t enough to just repeat a new sentence over and over in your head; you have to feel the sensations of it within your body as well to truly solidify it.
Some examples of feelings might be grounded, empowered or confident. For example, if the feeling is confidence, ask yourself, “What sensations do I feel in my body when I am at my most confident?” or “What tells my body that I am having the experience of confidence?”
Spend two to three minutes with your eyes closed, deeply feeling this sensation and emotion. If it helps, envision the emotion traveling through your body, exploding like fireworks and spreading from your fingertips to your toes, until you are buzzing with this desired emotion.
If you need help pinpointing an emotion, utilize the Feelings Wheel by Dr. Gloria Willcox.
4. Uncover who you will be moving forward.
Connect with your spirit, the version of yourself underneath your roles, achievements or labels. Who is the version of you that believes these empowered thoughts and feelings? Who are you being?
Ask yourself these questions as that uplifted version of yourself:
• If I was feeling fully confident, what would be my next step?
• What would close the gap between me now versus the version of me who’s at a 10/10 with this thought?
• Where’s the closest evidence that this is not that far away from me?
This is the aligned action that takes place once you have created new, intentional beliefs.
Self-coaching is about connecting with who you desire to be and where you are now and closing the gap in between. You have the power to shift your reality by changing your beliefs and actions. This is an incredibly powerful practice for anybody looking to take their self-concept next level.
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