Baby steps
to betterment

>> Life coach helps the unfulfilled find a deeper meaning beyond a lousy job and miserable home

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Cheryl Stein

Age: 38

Occupation: Coach/Family business consultant

Bio: When this energized Hampstead gal and delightful mother of four isn’t counselling others on how best to run their family businesses, she’s busy working as both a life and business coach, helping people get their various acts together in the manner that works best for them. She’s educated out the wazoo with a list of credentials certain Mirror columnists might simply be too lazy to bother reciting here, so find out for yourself via her Web site, www.steincoaching.com.

What a life coach does: “Life coaching is great for people who aren’t sure what they want to do with the rest of their lives. You know, if you’re having some issues, not happy with your career, in a relationship that’s not working for you, this sort of stuff. So many people are stuck in their lives. You can be the greatest achiever on the planet, really wanting to follow your dreams, but finding there’s something stopping you from doing it. When you wake up in the morning feeling like you’re living this passionless life, that’s when you might be needing a life coach.”

Is the element most commonly stopping people from following their dreams something called reality? Like, the understanding that if they quit their shitty nowhere job or leave their abusive bitch wife that they might wind up in an even shittier job or never seeing their children again? “Look, even if you can’t make a total change like starting a completely different career, there are ways of adding value to your life so you at least can feel like your soul is being filled. There are always little things you can do to feed your soul that make the difficulties in life bearable.”

How Cheryl helps people overcome their meaningless existences, other than passing them copies of Final Exit to read? “The first thing I do is ask probing questions trying to get at the root of the problem—and most people already know the root of their problem. That’s the thing about coaching, it assumes the client knows what’s best for them. It’s not about me telling you what you should be doing. And it’s not like talking to one of your friends about it either. Because pretty well everyone you know, your friends, family, they have judgment about what you should be doing with your life, where what a coach does is take away the ‘should.’ And from there, we make changes by breaking things down into manageable baby steps in order for you to move forward.”

Where most of her business comes from: Word of mouth. “It’s astounding the variety of people who see me, all age-ranges, all socio-economic levels, it’s amazing.”

The number of clients she has currently collecting social assistance: “Okay, coaching is pricey, $150 an hour, so it’s not available to everyone who could benefit from it, that’s true.”

One great thing to know about Cheryl’s services should you be so discouraged about your life you can’t summon the strength to leave your house anymore: She does her work over the phone.

Last book read: Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Musical preferences: Led Zep, the Who, Playhouse

Words of wisdom: “Choose to live your life the way you want to live it.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net