Unleash Your Potential #31 - Mental Health and Celebration
- Douglas McCall
- Jul 26, 2024
- 3 min read
Douglas: Welcome to the Unleash Your Potential Blog, what question can I answer for you today?
PurposePursuer: What steps can I take to improve my mental health?
Douglas: I appreciate the opportunity to address this question. It may seem that the work of a coach is similar to or related to the work of a mental health professional. While there are some areas where our comments might overlap, I am not a therapist of any sort. There are lots of very smart people in this world who have the training and background to help you address issues of mental health. I am not one of them. I can offer you some tips that have worked for me, but those tips have come from the time I have spent working with a therapist on my challenges. I would suggest that if you have concerns about issues of mental health you seek out people specifically trained to walk with you in times of mental crisis.
From my perspective, the work of a therapist and a coach differ primarily in direction. A therapist is trained to help you examine, understand, and heal the wounds of your past so that you can move into a healthy future. A coach takes you where you are and helps you harness your strengths and weaknesses to plan for a better future. I think that if you are looking to improve your mental health, the best step I can suggest to you is to seek out a mental health professional to help you on your journey.
On a separate note (and because I like to write about 700 words in my daily blog and we are only about halfway there), I wanted to take a moment to celebrate a small win. In several of my entries, I have talked about the importance of recognizing the wins along the way. On June 26, I set out on this journey of 100 blog entries and in a few days I will officially be 1/3 of the way through this path.
I also wanted to acknowledge that in some of the literature, there is a thought that it takes 30 days of repetition to form a habit. I have also read that there isn’t a magic number of days to form a habit, but it is just the repetition of the task until you stop having to think about it. I am not sure if I have attained the automaticity of writing every day, but I am, taking a few moments to acknowledge my 30 days of writing. I have harnessed the power of AI to generate questions and I have answered one question every single day for the past 30. The questions have sometimes been a little duplicative, but rather than ask for another question, I have tried to find a new angle from which to approach the question. Sometimes in coaching, multiple clients will have similar problems. That doesn’t mean you just say, “Read my blog, I answered that the other day.” You have to answer the question in the context of the person in front of you. I hope that those of you reading my blog are finding some value in the answers I am providing. I encourage you to comment on the blogs and if you have other questions, please send me a note.
Finally, I am announcing a new offering from Identity Evolution Coaching. In the next week or two, I will be going back to some of the previous questions, expanding the answers, and releasing my thoughts in the form of a weekly podcast. As with the blog, I will also be answering listener-submitted questions as well. When I first started the blog, some of the early feedback was that some people who follow my work might connect easier if the material were in audio format. I have years of experience in public speaking, so I have decided to harness that strength. I plan to release an episode every Tuesday. I am still working on where I will host the podcast, but keep a look out for the Identity Evolution Coaching Podcast with Dr. Douglas McCall.
I hope my answer sheds some light on your question. If you want to dig into this concept further, I encourage you to reach out and set up a conversation. In the meantime, check back tomorrow for the next question in the Unleash Your Potential Series!
Be Well!
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