Coaching Tip: I am a person who...

Originally Submitted on 4/20/99.

Introduction

*I am a person who...* changes the client's self-perception. This is far more powerful than just trying to change a behavior.

The Coaching Tip

Some coaches are great believers in affirmations, some are not. However, the use of the *I am a person who...* phrase is not exactly an affirmation. It is a way for a client to change self-perception, to see him/herself as a person who does certain things as a matter of course. This is very different from remaining the same person we
have always been and yet straining to change our behavior.

We know that shifts are more powerful and far-reaching than a mere decision to make a change. With a shift we become someone different, someone who lives differently. The *I am a person who...* both creates and affirms that shift.

I am a person who... works out every day... eats healthy food... sends out two resumes every day...

The phrase creates a mental set where the old, less desirable behaviors are, quite simply, things that the person just would not do. If the client decides to become a person who, for example, eats healthy food, then making a meal of soda, potato chips and a chocolate bar is just something s/he would not do.

*I am a person who...* is a phrase with which clients can be encouraged to totally change their self-perceptions, and so change themselves and their behaviors.

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About the Submitter

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