Coaching or Mentoring – Informing or Advising

The difference between telling people what to do and advising

 The editing process of my book goes on and I find that in certain stories from my journey I’ve been inclined to patronise the reader. I may do this in the form of a message or even describing something in great detail presuming that the reader is unaware.

I Do it Because I Care

I have done this because I care about the reader and I also want to help them. I want to share my words of wisdom and motivate them to achieve their goals…but…I have to stop!

It’s All About Me

This is my autobiography, this is not a self help book or a business book it is just my story. To edit this or to ‘get round’ this situation I’m altering the wording so that it explains what I realised or what I learnt or what I have discovered. (It’s all about me!).

One of my messages that I quote is:

‘We all have time; it’s how we cultivate our time as to what we achieve.’

And this is how it ‘was’ written in the book but now I have changed it to:

‘I realised that it wasn’t just going to be about the time that I had available but more about how I cultivated my time as to what I could achieve.’

Hard or Soft

I’ve even stated to think whether or not I should change how I speak on the stage as an inspirational speaker. Should I be softer and let the audience work out the messages for themselves or ‘cut to the chase’ and just tell them the message as blatant as possible.

Who Do You Think You Are?

It comes down to coaching or mentoring. When people discover things themselves then they are more bought into the idea because they came up with it themselves (or they think they did) If people are told what to do then sometimes they repel.

“Who do you think you are, telling me how to run my life?”

Achieve Your Goals

I don’t want people to repel my book thinking that I’m trying to tell them what to do. I want them to read my journey and feel inspired and motivated to go fourth and fulfil the achievement of their own true life goals.

Sometimes it’s a fine balancing act and one that I’m working my way through as I edit my book.

What do you think? Do you like people to just tell you how it is and what you should do or would you like to work it out for yourself?