 |
.  |
|
|
Stash extra business cards everywhere. Consider your briefcase, purse, glove compartment, diaper bag, gym bag, backpack, etc. You never know when you’ll need one. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Human Potential |
|
|
Page 3 of 3
Mountain-ear Newspaper article – April 14, 2005
Life coach helps people change directions
Barbara Lawlor
Nederland
John McCracken has always had a knack for getting people to talk to
him. And he’s always been able to read between the words, what their
expression and body language are really saying to him. These
sensitivities have led him into a realm that he’s probably been
training towards for a long time—he has become a life coach.
Helping people decide what their goals are and then
assisting them in a game plan has been a long learning experience for
him.
It has taken John many years and many turns in the
road to reach this point in his life, and he is eager to help others
get unstuck, to find what it is they really want to do with the rest of
their lives. The Magnolia Road resident wants to expand on what he’s
always done naturally, to help others get where they want to be.
John’s dad worked for the YMCA, which led to a bunch of new neighborhoods and schools in John’s life.
“I lived in 13 different houses in a lot of
different places before I graduated from high school and I mixed with a
lot of different people. I went to Berkeley in the early 60s and to a
liberal arts college in Chicago, almost in the ghetto area, which was a
great experience for me. The summer after my freshman year I worked at
Cheley Colorado Camps outside of Estes Park which was a significant
transition from the Chicago area.”
In 1965 John was drafted into Navy flight training
school, but left due to physical problems. He earned a degree in
physical education from San Jose State University and d then hooked up
with the Berkeley Central YMCA in 1970. He became the physical
education director, the acting executive director, the fundraiser and
also cleaned toilets.
When he tired of doing it all, he went into the
solar heating business in Palo Alto, California, using his
fixing-everything training,
“I love trouble shooting, finding out what’s wrong
and then fixing it. It all fell together and I loved looking for
challenges of my choosing.”
In 1995, his body wearing out from the construction
part of the business, he and his wife Wally decided to move on. John’s
experience at Cheley Camps led him to Colorado and the couple
bought Annie’s Café and Bakery in the Nederland shopping center.
For almost five years they worked dawn to dusk,
baking, cooking, making coffee, waiting on customers and finally
realizing they couldn’t do it anymore. After they sold the business,
John worked for Eldora Mountain Resort as a lift technician. In 2002,
he decided he wanted to work with people again, the common thread in
most things he did.
“I made a lot of friends at the restaurant, and then
at an economics summit meeting, I talked to a person with the Senior
Core of Retired Executives branch of the Small Business Association who
led me to counseling people starting businesses, coaching them how to
begin. But I had heard about life coaching and wanted to get into that,
wanted to enhance the skills I had and get into the more personal part
of coaching.”
John attended Coaches Training Institute Classes in
Denver and is working on becoming certified, finding clients in
friends, relatives and general networking.
“When I meet someone I explain I am a life coach and
I help people who stuck to move on. I have them think of life as a
person who is in a whirlpool and can’t reach the life buoy right
outside the whirlpool. My job is to help them. For example, if a person
is laid off and decides his next job should one that gives him personal
satisfaction, my job is to help them find their passion and help them
find the job that would fit..”
There are many people in transition in their life,
losing jobs, spouses or unhappy in what they are doing. John says he’s
like an athletic coach, helping people use their skills to attain what
they want. He works with them towards a decided goal. Where therapists
work with people and their past problems to help them operate in the
world, the life coach works with the present person and helps them move
forward. “We don’t dwell on what the past is.”
John meets his clients wherever they feel most
comfortable, whether it is at Acoustic Coffeehouse or at one’s home or
office. In their meeting, they decided what the clients goals are, what
they want to accomplish.
For example, one of his clients was laid off from
his job and decided that he didn’t want to return to the same field. He
wanted to have a job that allowed more flexibility, so he could spend
more time outdoors. With John’s guidance he was able to figure out what
jobs would allow him to do what was important in his life.
One woman came to John after her children had left
the nest and she and her husband had to relearn their relationship with
each other.
“I am not here to tell anybody what to do,” says
John, “I am here to help them use their own skills to have the life
they want. I have always had this ability to read people, to see the
things they are not aware that they have. I have been guided to this by
experience and people tell me that I have this knack and should pursue
it. I believe in open communication, honesty and mutual respect for
one’s privacy and thoughts and keeping the session within their comfort
zone. ”
John offers a free sample session and an introductory packet to prospective clients.
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>
|
|
|
|
|
|
Consulting